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Water-based coherent detection of broadband terahertz (THz) wave has been recently proposed with superior performances, which can alleviate the limited detection bandwidth and high probe laser energy requirement in the solid- and air-based detection schemes, respectively. Here, we demonstrate that the water-based detection method can be extended to the aqueous salt solutions and the sensitivity can be significantly enhanced. The THz coherent detection signal intensity scales linearly with the third-order nonlinear susceptibilityχ⁽³⁾or quadratically with the linear refractive indexη₀of the aqueous salt solutions, while the incoherent detection signal intensity scales quadratically withχ⁽³⁾or quartically withη₀, proving the underlying mechanism is the four-wave mixing. Both the coherent and incoherent detection signal intensities appear positive correlation with the solution concentration. These results imply that the liquid-based THz detection scheme could provide a new technique to measureχ⁽³⁾and further investigate the physicochemical properties in the THz band for various liquids.

Microscopic algae are tougher than you might think. Some can even survive the extreme cold. In this article, we describe one of the coolest algae of all, the Antarctic green alga called Chlamydomonas sp. UWO241. This one-celled super-organism lives deep in the frigid waters of a remote and permanently ice-covered lake in Antarctica. How does this little alga thrive in such a barren and unwelcoming place? Well, dive into this article to learn how studying the genome of UWO241 is helping scientists better understand this amazingly hardy alga.

Observed chemical species in the Venusian mesosphere show local-time variabilities. SO₂at the cloud top exhibits two local maxima over local time, H₂O at the cloud top is uniformly distributed, and CO in the upper atmosphere shows a statistical difference between the two terminators. In this study, we investigated these local-time variabilities using a three-dimensional (3D) general circulation model (GCM) in combination with a two-dimensional (2D) chemical transport model (CTM). Our simulation results agree with the observed local-time patterns of SO₂, H₂O, and CO. The two-maximum pattern of SO₂at the cloud top is caused by the superposition of the semidiurnal thermal tide and the retrograde superrotating zonal (RSZ) flow. SO₂above 85 km shows a large day–night difference resulting from both photochemistry and the subsolar-to-antisolar (SS-AS) circulation. The transition from the RSZ flows to SS-AS circulation can explain the CO difference between two terminators and the displacement of the CO local-time maximum with respect to the antisolar point. H₂O is long-lived and exhibits very uniform distribution over space. We also present the local-time variations of HCl, ClO, OCS, and SO simulated by our model and compare to the sparse observations of these species. This study highlights the importance of multidimensional CTMsmore »for understanding the interaction between chemistry and dynamics in the Venusian mesosphere.

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