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Chad Deal, MD
Chad Deal, MD, a Double Board-Certified and Fellowship-trained Cosmetic Surgeon of Chattanooga welcomes you to our practice that serves North Georgia, East Tennessee and the North Alabama areas. Chad Deal, MD and Carey Nease, MD of Southern Surgical Arts are committed to surgical excellence with an artistic approach ensures that you will achieve the beauty you deserve. This passion for delivering extraordinary service along with years of skill and training in the field of cosmetic surgery is what sets Dr. Nease and Dr. Deal apart from plastic surgeons. We invite you to discover the reason that you'll find the Art of Beauty at Southern Surgical Arts.
- Chad Deal, MD - Gives FREE Consultations!
Southern Surgical Arts will strive to deliver skilled surgical care, excellent customer service & the latest laser technology in a relaxing environment with attention and focus on exceeding patient expectations, enhancing our patient's appearance and improving self-esteem.
Southern Surgical Arts
Dr. Deal is a fellowship-trained Double-Board Certified Cosmetic Surgeon of Chattanooga. His practice at Southern Surgical Arts is 100% committed, focused, dedicated to cosmetic surgery serving the North Georgia, East Tennessee and North Alabama areas.
Dr. Deal specializes in artistic cosmetic surgery and natural enhancements with minimal downtime and minimal scarring using the latest technology available.
State-of-the-Art-Surgery Center
Southern Surgical Arts is the most Advanced Cosmetic Surgery Center in North Georgia and the Chattanooga area. We offer two convenient locations in Calhoun and Chattanooga serving the North Georgia, East Tennessee and North Alabama areas
Our beautiful, AAAHC-accredited, state-of-the-art-surgery center and highly specialized staff offer you the privacy, comfort and expertise you deserve. You will feel confident in Dr. Deal's artistic approach to beautiful, natural enhancements and Southern Surgical Arts' latest laser technology.
Our goal is that you will feel compelled to call for a complimentary consultation at Southern Surgical Arts with Chad Deal, MD so that you can explore your aesthetic goals with an exceptionally skilled & artistic cosmetic surgeon focused on giving you the compassionate care you deserve so that you can discover the Art of Beauty.
Dr. Deal is a fellowship-trained Double-Board Certified Cosmetic Surgeons. His practice at Southern Surgical Arts is 100% committed, focused, dedicated to cosmetic surgery.
Cosmetic Surgery Expert
During Dr. Deal's cosmetic surgery fellowship, he performed more than 850 major cosmetic surgical procedures in his training year alone. Since then, he has devoted his practice around the latest laser technology to bring the patients a practice dedicated to experience and excellence. He was recently selected as a finalist in the Best of the Best Award competition in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Dr. Deal specializes in artistic cosmetic surgery and natural enhancements with minimal downtime and minimal scarring using the latest technology available in the following procedures: Breast Augmentation, Breast Lift & Reductions, Brazilian Butt Lift, SmartLipo, Liposculpture & Laser Body Sculpting, Tummy Tucks and Mommy Makeovers. We also serve the male population by providing male breast reduction (Gynecomastia) and male Liposuction.
Patient Testimonials
After my great experience with Dr. Chad Deal I would definitely recommend him to anyone! He is the most caring and understanding doctor I have EVER met. I was extremely worried about my surgery but he had explained everything to me and did not just rush into things which made me feel a lot more relaxed. Every question I had was answered and in such a way I could fully understand what was going on. I am beyond thankful for his hospitality and great personality. Every time I came in for a check up appointment and spoke with him he always put a smile on my face and I looked forward to every appointment!!-Dr. Chad Deal is a fantastic doc, Sara N.
Top Benefits
- Southern Surgical Arts, featuring Triple-Board Certified Cosmetic Surgeon Carey Nease, MD, and Double Board-Certified Cosmetic Surgeon Chad Deal, MD, offer an artistic approach and advanced laser technology to help you achieve the look you deserve.
- Quick recovery and minimal scarring from most procedures due to the latest technology, training and in anesthesia in a fully accredited (AAAHC)surgery center.
- Award-winning Board Certified and fellowship-trained Cosmetic Surgeons. Dr. Nease and Dr. Deal have been selected as Best of the Best Cosmetic Surgeon in Chattanooga and North West Georgia.
- Compassionate, personalized and confidential care from the staff at Southern Surgical Arts, including licensed nurses and aestheticians.
- A beautiful setting that is relaxing, pampering and rejuvenating with a focus on exceeding expectations.
Some of our most asked about procedures: Liposuction Surgery (Lipoplasty), Vaginal Rejuvenation, Tummy Tuck (Abdominoplasty), Breast Augmentation (Natural), Brazilian Butt Lift
Areas Served: Chattanooga, Calhoun, Dalton, Cleveland, Cartersville, Rome, Atlanta, Huntsville, Ft. Payne, Knoxville


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Sonnet Echo Express SE II TB2 PCIe BK
Sonnet Echo Express SE II TB2 PCIe BK, Desktop, 2 Slots, Thunderbolt 2 Expansion Chassis for up to 2x PCIe Cards, 2 Thunderbolt-Connections with Daisy Chain Support for up to 6 Devices per Port, Temperature-Controlled Fan, Energy Saver Mode, Aluminium Housing, 80 W Power Supply, incl. Thunderbolt Cable, Dimensions: 165 x 279 x 117 mm, Weight: 1.7 kg - Attention - no Compatibility to Avid HDX Systems! Colour: black
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Offers include 24% Greek VAT and are valid as long as stocks last. Shipping costs to Greece are 20 EUR, free shipping on orders above 298 EUR. Please click here for international Shipping rates. We do not accept liability for typographical errors or inaccurate information of any kind. *RRP = manufacturer's / distributor's recommended retail price in Germany


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Paul Hare, AIA
Hare Architecture
Paul Hare is committed to providing clients with innovative design solutions using traditional and unconventional construction methods and an ongoing commitment to researching sustainable technologies and methods. His design philosophy is simple: provide flexible, energy efficient plans to meet the client's desires and find a balance between quality construction and the surrounding environment.
Essential to a successful project is to educate the Client on the overall building process with emphasis on each phase (Design Development, Construction Documents and Construction) and how they impact each other. This collaboration between the Architect and Client provides an excellent foundation for meeting client goals and budgets.
Passive solar design, site orientation, alternative construction materials, energy efficient, natural day lighting, and inside–out designs are common terms used during the Design Development of any project. Paul's designs have focused on the flexibility of a home to meet the current 'stage of life' of clients: house grows as the family grows or sized to meet 'empty nesters' or 'assistant living' clients. Other design criteria have been to utilize Insulated Concrete Forms for exterior walls, sprayed roof insulation, passive solar design methods and full basements.
Paul received his Bachelor of Environmental Design from Texas A & M University in 1995. He's a registered Architect in the state of Texas and a current member of the American Institute of Architects.
Designed by Paul Hare, AIA: ICF Earth Sheltered Home, ICF One Story Home, Modern ICF Ranch House, Two-Story ICF with Separate Master


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Take to the skies and see the world from a whole new perspective in one of these charming high flyers. Know that you can reach the stars so matter how far they seem, whilst still staying warm and cuddly at all times.
Both delightfully soft on skin and with a fantastic bright and colorful design, our wonderful range of blankets offer a great place to wrap up warm and snuggle down with your favorite character. What makes this blanket extra special is that we also personalise with a name, so that the little one in your life can have something to call their very own that was designed especially for them.
There are many beautiful personalisation options for this collection, including your baby's initials, name or your choice of wording in addition to many beautiful fabric and colour options and a world of different characters to create something that is truly one of a kind. Once you have ordered this blanket a member of Gigi Brooks' Customer Services will contact you to discuss the design options with you personally.
Mini & Basic Blanket contains only one airplane and is limited to 8 characters for personalisation.
Pictured in Crib Size with Baby Blue Minki (Front) and White Minki (Reverse) with Fringe Border in White Minki.
This is a Bespoke item. Please refer to Gigi Brooks' policy on Bespoke pieces or contact Gigi Brooks' Customer Services if you require further information or if you would like to discuss your design needs before placing your order.


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Join the 'Bethanechol' group to help and get support from people like you.
Bethanechol Support Group
Our support group for Bethanechol has 15 questions and 9 members. Updated 15 Jul 2016.
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MONDAY, Jan. 23, 2017 – Improved catheter safety measures in hospitals significantly reduce bloodstream infections and health care costs, a new study indicates. "Safety interventions are a win-win ...
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A raspy drawl, which was meant to be words, escaped from my lips. My figure was glued to the spot, which left me standing, gaping at this… this thing that resembled Zachary. The hair, the figure, the skin tone-- it all screamed Zac.
His eyes, however told a different story. They blazed the same colour of scarlet as fresh blood. His lips were drawn back in a murderous grin, exposing his teeth. They were wicked sharp, like a thousand tiny needles; ready to puncture my flesh.
Then, I realised. This could not be my Zachary. It couldn't be. I had never heard of a ghost being possessed before. No, that monstrous thing that stood in front of me then was not my Zac. It was a fear demon.
The thought seemed to help my body unwind, unfreeze, and let my brain start to think properly again. I shook my head a little, and crossed my arms nonchalantly over my chest. Just a fear demon, I told myself. Overcome that fear.
"Waiting, you say? For me?" I asked it in a sarcastic tone. "I'm afraid if you mean to ask me out on a date, I cannot. Daddy said not till I'm 18." I flashed the demon a swaggering smile.
The demon pulled his brows into a furrow, looking at me in disgust. "I have no intention of dating you, Beatrix."
"Really? Well then, what is it that you want?"
The taunting smile returned to the thing's face. "Well, I'd like a lot of things, but there isn't really anything I want--" I shivered, the demon imitated Zac's voice exactly. "Besides you."
"I thought you said that you had no intention of dating me?"
"I don't. I just want your body."
"Um, no thanks, I'd rather keep that to myself. I don't like creeps touching me."
The demon clenched its fists. It was apparently getting fed up with my comebacks. He snapped his fingers, and the lights above us flickered out. I had never been scared of the dark, but my heart picked up, beating like crazy. The only luminosity left in the room was the demons blazing red eyes.
And many other pairs behind him, and around me.
I surveyed my dark surroundings slowly, counting backwards from a hundred to calm myself down. I think I made to about eighty nine when I felt an icy grip on both of my wrists. The chill seemed to spread down my whole arm.
"Look around, young Beatrix. What do you see?"
My eyes had finally started to adapt to the darkness of the basement. The faces behind the many pairs of red eyes started to become visible. Each one was young, none of the, older then 20. They were also pale was moonlight, and all grimacing at me blankly with their sharp teeth.
"They're all kids." I commented blankly. I continued to look at each face of the possessed kids and with each pair of red eyes I grew more and more saddened. "You ruined their lives."
"No, I didn't. I perfected their after lives. They didn't have anything to do with them anyways."
I looked straight into the red haze of the demon's eyes. How I wished that I could kill this stupid, ignorant little beast. But, it had me in a way that I could not fix. I could not attack the body of Zac, even if it really wasn't his body. I couldn't stand the though of hurting him.
"Well, you can't have my body. I'm not dead, and even if I was, you wouldn't dare."
"You're correct," it said and raised one eyebrow at me. "You're not dead. Yet."
A chill ran—more like sprinted down my back and through my body. "You wouldn't."
The monster smirked. "Try me." He hissed and tightened his grip around my wrists. He then looked to his side. "And just to show you how serious I really am…" I followed his gaze, and my knees got weak.
"Margo!"" she was being held by two expressionless kids. Her shoulders and limbs were limp and her head lulled towards the floor. She may have been a ghost, but somehow these people had captured her. "What have you done to her?!"
The demon seized my chin between two icy fingers, forcing me to look him in the eyes. "All in time, my sweet Beatrix." He said it sweetly, with acid in the background.
The basement around me began to blur. Blackness mixed with red of glowing eyes and the white of pale faces. I willed myself to stay conscious, but my will wasn't apparently strong enough. I sunk into the darkness of the basement, not knowing what would happen to me.


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Welcome to the Centre for Excellence in Immigrant and Intercultural Advancement.
The Centre provides leadership in the integration and advancement of immigrants into Canadian society through English language learning, career advancement, intercultural awareness, and global citizenship. The foundation for success has been built and the motivation to innovate is stronger than ever.
Every year, the Centre at Bow Valley College successfully introduces over 3700 learners to language and workplace skills training programs. From this extensive work, we have conducted research, developed curricula and delivered training to assist practitioners, employers, and learners within our community and around the globe. We are a leader in the development of award-winning programs and learning resources that assist in the delivery of workplace, language, and intercultural competency training.
The Centre is a national leader in social innovation. We support immigrants in achieving their aspirations, we celebrate the advantage of diversity, and we maximize immigrant contributions to Canada's social and economic vibrancy.
What's New
Become a Centre member. Participate in professional learning and expand your network. Membership is free and the benefits are many.
The ESL Literacy Readers page has a new look. Our collection of forty theme-based readers are available in both print and audio book format.
- The Centre for Excellence in Immigrant and Intercultural Advancement embodies the values and strategic vision of Bow Valley College. From the Centre, we develop and share expertise widely to advance language skills and intercultural understanding and leverage the strengths of both diverse communities and workplacesSharon CarryBow Valley College, President Emerita


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Your lists :
Kylie Gregor
Kylie Gregor is considered a highly skilled educational curriculum design professional. As the Teacher Leader of the English Department at Rich Central High School, Kylie Gregor helps other teachers design and implement effective curriculums that increase retention of critical ideas and subjects. Kylie Gregor has many years of curriculum design experience, and relies on that experience to provide teachers with a powerful educational tool.


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Viper: Recovery
I woke up and saw Ashley, sitting on the bed looking over me.
"Sky! I think Viper's waking up!", Ashley called, sounding excited. As Sky came over, she said,"Hey, you finally waking up, huh?"
Then Sky said, "Vipe, I called Criss, Kacey, and Alice. Those were the only people I could get a hold of. They'll be here as soon as they can. If your can here me, nod your head."
I then tried to sit up, except I felt the pain come back in a surge, though now it wasn't nearly as bad as before, I cringed involuntarily and Ash put her hand on my chest and pushed me back down, gently.
"You should rest", Ashley said with a smile, "You've lost a lot of blood and you need your rest". Then she stared into my eyes, and I felt a... I don't know what I felt, it was like when I was with Keesa, but slightly different still- and then she shook her head and looked away. She smiled again and said, "All you had to do was nod your head." I took her hand and held it briefly, it was very warm, but I could still sense fear and pain, but it was far off, and seemed to have occurred a while ago, then I put her hand back down and then I lay down with my hands under my head.
"Hmm, I heard, "What?" Keesa got up slowly and in that moment, I was so relieved that she was okay, but then again she was very strong, and it didn't surprise me too much. Skylar ran to her, but Ashley stayed and then I just smiled at her.
. . . .
Later that evening, I got up, but I was still weak(being half-zodiac, I recovered fairly quickly). I tried not to think about the dream I had, and the encounter with Vladimire, but I my mind slowly drifted back to it. I thought about the powers that the warrior had used, and then my own, and then what I did back on the path, where I shot a tree trunk at him. I slowly tried to test my powers, there was a water bottle on the desk and I extended my hand toward it, and then concentrated- it floated off the table. Next, I made it float towards me, by creating a very specific gravitational field, in my hand that corresponded directly with the field in the bottle, and this time, it shot into my hand. Okay... that was a recap of what I could already do... I took a drink from the bottle and then set it back down on the desk, but I took the cap and held it in my hand. Now, let's try to push it, this time I tried to utilize the reverse-gravity that I had used earlier, and I sent the cap flying towards the wall, but I pulled it back, I didn't want to disturb the rest of the people, and then tried again, and again. It appears that by tinkering with the gravity in all objects (most were too small to be felt, but I could sense them all) I could create two forces, a pull and a repel. The importance of this, was that now everything could be done in two ways, to levitate the bottle, I could either pull it up, or push it up from below, by making a repulsion between in and the desk, but generally, creating a repulsion required more effort.
I practiced for a while, but then I got tired, and put the cap back on the bottle, and then, I calmed myself down, and slowly fell back to sleep. The last thing I saw was Keesa sleeping on the other bed...
. . . .
Geez, there was a lot of commotion and I woke up again, but this time it looked like Keesa had come round. She slowly got to her feet, and Ashley helped her over to me, but I saw a look come to Keesa's eyes for just a flash, it was annoyance, and perhaps jealousy? When she got to me, I embraced her, and said,"You don't look too good," I said with a small grin. As I held her, I told her how scared I was for here, and how happy that I was that she was okay. She responded the same way, and eventually, she fell asleep in my arms, and I too, slowly but surely, eventually fell asleep for this night...


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Isobel: SkippingMature
When I woke up, it was still dark.
I glanced through bleary eyes to my alarm clock which told me it was a little after 5.00am and I groaned; there was no way I'd be able to get to sleep now. The birds had begun their morning song outside and I lifted the corner of my curtain up to glimpse a magnificent shade of blue in the sky as the sun slowly dissipated the last of the darkness and brought a whole new day forwards.
Frustrated at being woken up so early, I threw back the duvet and stomped to the bathroom. Everyone else was still asleep so I could spend as long as I liked in the shower. As I allowed the warm water to rush across my skin, I remembered the reason I had woken up in the first place. It all flooded back to me, the nightmare I had had during the night.
It was about Chrissy. She was still missing to us and we were all trying to find her. I had wandered into an abandoned warehouse building to find her body sprawled out across the floor. I had tried to scream, to warn the others that there was a killer loose, but my mouth had been stitched up. Black thread stuck out of my skin, my lips mumbled against the cotton pathetically. Chrissy's head, stuck at an impossible angle, cracked towards me, her eyes were wide and frozen in fear. She mouthed the words help me, before disappearing completely. And I was stuck in the warehouse, with sewn lips and the sound of footsteps nearing closer and closer.
That had been the point that I had woken up, but now that I remembered it, I had to peek round the shower curtain to check the bathroom door was still locked and there wasn't a madman stood with an axe. I ignored the frantic beating of my heart, and the ice cold fear and told myself that Chrissy was fine. Tom had made sure of that.
After the shower, I took my time getting dressed. I decided to opt for a pair of light blue slim-leg jeans topped off with a darker blue vest top. By the time I had done my makeup, a touch of foundation and some eyeliner, and brushed my hair, it was still only half past six in the morning. I didn't need to be at school for another two and a half hours.
'Isobel? What are you doing up so early?' my mother appeared in the doorway, wrapped in her dressing gown, complete with bed hair.
'I dunno,' I shrugged. 'I woke early.'
'Oh dear, why don't you ring Chrissy? See if she's okay?'
'That's a good idea actually,' I made my way over to the main phone and punched in Chrissy's number. She should be up by now.
'Hello?' her voice came out small and distant on the phone.
'Hey Chrissy, it's Isobel. I was just ringing to see if you're okay?'
'I'm okay. Tom's here with me now, he's been really supportive. Thanks for ringing Iz.'
'It's okay. I was so worried about you. I'm so glad everything was sorted. Tell Tom I'm grateful and that he's a hero.'
'I will. Hey Isobel, me and Tom aren't gonna be in school today. We're going down the beach cos it's sunny and we just wanted a break away. Why don't you and Elijah come along? Invite Rhea too - we can make a day of it.'
'I can't skip, I have too many lessons today.'
'Oh come on, we've practically broken up anyway. Ring Elijah and Rhea and let me know.'
Whilst I had skipped Photography with Elijah once before, I had never skipped an entire day. It did sound incredibly tempting though...
'Okay. I'll ring you after I've asked them. See you later!'
Ten minutes later and both Elijah and Rhea had agreed to skip. It turns out they had more free periods than actual lessons today and they didn't need much persuading. We had all arranged to meet Tom and Chrissy at the train station at nine o clock. I grabbed my bag, repacked with a towel, money, sunglasses and an extra change of clothes, and waved goodbye to mum as normal, ignoring any guilt I felt. We all deserved the day off anyway.
I headed as normal down the road, as if I were going to school, but instead of turning left, I turned right and set off for meeting the others.
Elijah met me a little way down, and greeted me with a kiss and a hug. We spotted Rhea coming out of her house and arrived at the train station half an hour later.
'Hey guys!' Chrissy grinned, giving us all a big hug. 'This is gonna be awesome.'
Honestly, I was just so happy to see Chrissy smiling after everything she had been through that I didn't care that I was skipping school, I was just going to focus on having an amazing day.


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Seven hundred years ago, disaster forced humanity to abandon Earth. Life on the colony ship New Edinburgh is all sixteen-year-old Lilliane has ever known. One week ago, Lilliane woke up on a life-pod to learn that the New Edinburgh has been destroyed and her former life is gone. Her destination? Earth itself. Because it's time to rebuild.
The Burned Bridges Protocol
Abigail Borders
Fifteen years ago, in the middle of the night, Jamie Carpenter's mother went up to the dark lighthouse on the cliffs above their small Maine town. She never came back.
Jamie has spent his whole life trying to forget her. But when his little brother Danny goes missing, Jamie has to face the facts: there is another world beyond the lighthouse–the world his mother came from.
The Six Days
Anna Carolyn McCormally


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|Publication number
|Publication type
|Application number
|Publication date
|Nov 9, 2004
|Filing date
|Jan 24, 2002
|Priority date
|Jan 24, 2002
|Fee status
|Also published as
|Publication number
|Shibin Jiang, Christine P. Spiegelberg
|Original Assignee
|Np Photonics, Inc.
|Export Citation
|BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan
|Patent Citations (15), Non-Patent Citations (3), Referenced by (13), Classifications (17), Legal Events (4)
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to fiber lasers and more specifically to a high power single-mode low-cost fiber laser formed from erbium and ytterbium co-doped phosphate-glass.
2. Description of the Related Art
Rare-earth doped glass fiber lasers were first proposed in the 1960s and have received considerable attention in the 1980s for potential applications in optical communication (Michel J. F. Digonnet, "Rare-Earth Doped Fiber Lasers and Amplifiers," Marcel Dekker, New York 2001). For laser emission to occur, the active fiber is placed inside a resonant cavity. The optical feedback can be provided simply by the reflectivity of the end facets, by mirrors, by distributed feedback Bragg (DFB) gratings, or by distributed Bragg reflectors (DBR), or by constructing a ring cavity structure. Laser emission occurs when the total gain overcomes the losses in the cavity. Hence, a minimum gain has to be achieved to reach the laser threshold condition.
Fiber lasers have many characteristics, among them are mode structure (transverse and longitudinal) and output power. The type of fiber, single-mode or multi-mode, which is used as the active material, dictates the transverse mode. The longitudinal mode spacing is determined by the length of the fiber cavity, the longer the fiber the narrower the mode spacing. Therefore, long resonator cavities have numerous longitudinal modes within the width of the gain spectrum. A wavelength selective reflector such as a Bragg grating can reduce the number of modes. Single mode (single wavelength) performance can be achieved using an ultra-short cavity of less than about 5 cm together with a wavelength selective reflector. Output power is dictated by the total gain, which is generally proportional to the length of the fiber. Thus, output power must typically be traded off against single-mode performance.
The most common fiber laser product is a high power multi-mode laser. Standard Erbium-doped Silica lasers require a cavity length of several meters to produce sufficient output power due to low doping concentrations. A. Claesson et al. "Novel Er:Yb:phosphate glass fiber laser pumped by a 946 nm Nd:YAG laser," Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, 2001 has demonstrated a similarly high power multi-mode laser with a 22 cm Erbium-doped phosphate glass fiber. Claesson's phosphate fiber has more gain per centimeter than does standard silica due to elevated doping concentrations.
Another class of products is a single-mode laser. For many optical applications such as wavelength division multiplexing (WDM), high power (>10 mW) single mode lasers are in demand. To deploy these lasers in volume in the burgeoning metro markets the lasers must be inexpensive.
Semiconductor lasers are the most prevalent in this class and by themselves are relatively inexpensive. However, a booster amplifier is required to produce output powers greater than 10 mW. The inclusion of the booster amplifier makes semiconductor lasers quite expensive and bulky.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,237,576, DiGiovanni et al. describes single mode fiber lasers of 5 cm or less using fluorine-phosphorous-doped matched index cladding, a germania-alumina-doped outer core and an alumina-erbium-doped inner core. The optical properties of this glass composition limit output power to 50 μW at a pump power of 24 mW and exhibit a slope efficiency of only 0.25%. DiGiovanni's laser would also require a booster amplifier to reach output powers in excess of 10 mW.
Southampton has demonstrated single mode performance in 1.5 cm phosphosilicate fiber lasers co-doped with Er:Yb and fabricated by the combination of MCVD (Modified Chemical Vapor Deposition) and solution doping processes (W. H. Loh et al. Journal of Lightwave Technology, Vol. 16, No.1, pp. 114-118 January 1998). Loh reports output power levels of 10-40 mW with a slope efficiency of approximately 25% at a single wavelength and a saturated output power level of about 60 mW. The output power attainable over an entire band such as the C-band and the saturated output power will be limited by the doping levels of Erbium, hence gain of the fiber that can be supported the phosphosilicate glass host. Doping levels of Er:Yb in phosphosilicate glass have been reported of 0.06:1.8 and 0.16:1.4 weight percent Er:Yb. (G. Vienne et al., "Fabrication and Characterization of Yb3+:Er3+ Phosphosilicate Fibers for Lasers" Journal of Lightwave Technology, Vol. 16, No. 11, November 1998, pp. 1990-2001) Phosphosilicate glass will not support appreciably higher doping concentrations because the ions will cluster and cause quenching.
Existing single-mode fiber lasers may exhibit a problem with "self-pulsation". To avoid self-pulsation, it is necessary to keep the Er3+ concentration low enough to reduce ion-pair quenching, which in turn reduces gain and output power. See J. R. Kringlebotn et al. "Highly-efficient, low-noise grating-feedback Er3+:Yb3+ codoped fibre laser" Electronics Letters Jun. 9, 1994, Vol. 30, No. 12. pp. 972-973; Francois Sanchez et al. "Effects of ion pairs on the dynamics or erbium-doped fiber lasers" Physical Review A, Vol. 48, No. 3, September 1993, pp. 2220-2229; J. L. Zyskind et al. "Transmission at 2.5 Gbit/s over 654 km using an Erbium-Doped Fibre Grating Laser Source" Electronics Letters Jun. 10, 1993, Vol. 29, No. 12, pp. 1105-1106; and Guillaume Vienne et al. "Fabrication and Characterization of Yb3+:Er3+ Phosphosilicate Fibers for Lasers".
Northstar Photonics has demonstrated high power, single mode performance in planar waveguides fabricated by ion exchange techniques in Er doped phosphate glasses (PCT Publication WO 00/52791 by M. P. Bendett entitled "Rare-Earth Doped Phosphate Glass Lasers and Associated Methods"). 2.2. cm long waveguide lasers formed in Yb/Er co-doped phosphate glass showed 168 mW of output power of single frequency with TE polarization with no mode hopping for 611 mW of launched pump power at 979 nm, corresponding to a 26% slope efficiency at that particular wavelength. The fabrication of planar waveguide lasers by ion-exchange technology requires expensive photolithography manufacturing techniques. Furthermore, the total doping concentration is constrained since the glass is doped by substitution of Yb and Er for Na, and the total doping concentration cannot exceed 10 wt %.
Deployment of an all-optical network into the metro market will require compact low-cost continuous single-mode lasers that can deliver greater than 10 mW of output power over the C-band and preferably greater than 50 mW.
In view of the above problems, the present invention provides a compact low-cost single-mode fiber laser with output power in excess of 50 mW over the C-band (1530 nm-1565 nm).
This is accomplished by co-doping a phosphate glass fiber with high concentrations of erbium and ytterbium (Er:Yb). The phosphate glass supports the high doping concentrations without self-pulsation that are required to provide sufficient gain per centimeter and the slope efficiencies needed to achieve high power in the ultra short cavity lengths necessary to support single-mode lasers. The use of fiber drawing technologies provides a low cost solution. Absorptive mode coupling facilitates multi-mode clad pumping of the ultra-short fiber, which further reduces the cost deploying fiber lasers in the burgeoning metro markets.
More specifically, the fiber is drawn from a phosphate glass preform that is doped with 0.5-5.0 wt. % erbium ions and 0.5-15.0 wt. % (single-mode core pumped) or 5-30 wt. % ytterbium ions (multi-mode clad pumped) to form a highly doped core surrounded by a phosphate cladding. At least one wavelength-selective reflector such as a grating partially defines an optical resonant cavity of 5 cm or less that encompasses the fiber and provides the feedback necessary to sustain lasing. A source of pump radiation illuminates the fiber to excite erbium and ytterbium ions and provide gain. The ultra-short cavity produces a mode spacing that is comparable to the wavelength-selective reflector's line width so that the erbium lases at a single longitudinal mode. The high gain per centimeter produces slope efficiencies of at least 30% and modeled output powers in excess of 50 mW over the C-band.
These and other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments, taken together with the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a schematic energy level diagram of the Yb3+/Eb3+ co-doped system in a phosphate glass host;
FIG. 2 is a graph depicting energy transfer efficiency from Yb3+ ionic energy levels to Er3+ ionic energy levels under different pumping powers for different doping concentrations of Yb2O3 and Er2O3 in a phosphate glass host;
FIG. 3 is a graph showing the absorption and emission cross sections for the 4I15/2<>4I13/2 transition band;
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the manufacture an Er:Yb co-doped phosphate glass preform and fiber;
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing schematically the stages of manufacture for producing the single mode doped phosphate glass perform and fibers;
FIG. 6 is an embodiment of a single-mode fiber laser in accordance with the present invention;
FIGS. 7a and 7 b are illustrations of a cavity's mode spacing and reflector's line width required to produce single-mode (longitudinal) performance;
FIG. 8 is another embodiment of a single-mode fiber laser in accordance with the present invention;
FIG. 9 is a plot of the gain profile for erbium;
FIG. 10 is a plot of the predicted output power of the single-mode pumped fiber laser at 1565 nm with 240 mw single-mode pump;
FIG. 11 is a plot of the predicted absorption efficiency using a geometric optics model and a wave equation model in accordance with the present invention; and
FIG. 12 is another embodiment of the fiber laser formed with a rectangular core for providing single-mode single-polarization fiber laser.
Table 1 is a table of erbium and ytterbium co-doped phosphate glass compositions for a single-mode core pumped fiber laser;
Table 2 is a table of erbium and ytterbium co-doped phosphate glass compositions for a multi-mode clad pumped fiber laser;
Table 3 is a table of glass transition and softening temperatures of core and cladding glasses; and
Table 4 is a table of refractive indices of core and cladding glasses.
The present invention provides a single-mode fiber laser with demonstrated output power levels in excess of 10 mW over the C-band. The fiber is drawn from a phosphate glass preform that is doped with 0.5-5.0 weight percent erbium ions and 0.5-15.0 weight percent (single-mode core pumped) or 5-30 weight percent ytterbium ions (multi-mode clad pumped) to form a highly doped core surrounded by a phosphate cladding. The Er:Yb co-doped phosphate glass fiber laser provides single-mode (single wavelength) performance with high power at low cost.
Er:Yb Co-Doped Phosphate Glass
To achieve high output power levels the glass host must support very high Er doping concentrations to realize the necessary gain, support very high Yb doping concentrations to efficiently absorb pump light in an ultra-short cavity, transfer energy efficiently from the absorbed ytterbium to the erbium and raise the saturated output power level. Compared to either silica or phosphosilicate, a phosphate glass host improves the solubility to erbium and ytterbium ions thereby allowing higher dopant levels without raising the upconversion rate and increases the phonon energy thereby reducing the lifetime of ions in the upper energy state 4I11/2 which has the effect of improving energy transfer efficiency. Higher erbium concentrations raise the saturated output power levels and higher ytterbium concentrations increase the absorption per unit length.
The Er:Yb doped phosphate fiber is placed in a resonant cavity that provides the feedback necessary to sustain laser operation. Pumping of the Er:Yb doped phosphate glass populates the erbium metastable state creating a population inversion. Spontaneous emission catalyzes the stimulated emission of the erbium ions in the metastable state. In general, laser emission occurs when the total gain produced by stimulated emission overcomes the losses in the cavity. The gain profile of erbium and the geometry of the resonant cavity create preferential feedback so that laser emission only occurs at one or more discrete wavelengths. An ultra-short cavity together with a wavelength selective grating limits laser emission to a single wavelength.
More specifically, the process of amplifying signals in the cavity to produce laser emission is explained in reference to energy levels shown in FIG. 1 with the Er3+ ionic energy states 10 being shown on the right hand side. Typically, pump light excites electrons from the ground state 4I15/2 to an upper energy state such as 4I11/2. Higher erbium doping levels allows more absorption of the pump light and ultimately higher gain and higher output power levels. Once electrons are excited to the 4I11/2 state, relaxation occurs through phonon processes in which the electrons relax to the 4I13/2 state, giving up energy as phonons to the glass host material. The state 4I13/2 is a metastable state, which normally does not readily emit a photon and decay to the ground state (i.e., the 4I15/2 state).
Co-doping with ytterbium enhances population inversion from the erbium 4I13/2 metastable state. More specifically, the enhancement process is explained in reference to energy levels shown in FIG. 1 with the Yb3+ ionic energy states 12 being shown on the left hand side. The Yb3+ excited states 2F5/2 are pumped from the Yb3+ 2F7/2 ground state with the same pump wavelength that is used to excite upward transitions from the erbium ground state 4I15/2. Energy levels of the excited ytterbium 2F5/2 state coincide with energy levels of the erbium 4I11/2 state permitting energy transfer (i.e. electron transfer) from the pumped ytterbium 2F5/2 state to the erbium I 11/2 state. Thus, pumping ytterbium ionic energy states provides a mechanism for populating the metastable erbium 4I13/2 state, permitting even higher levels of population inversion and more stimulated emission than with erbium doping alone.
Ytterbium ions exhibit not only a large absorption cross-section but also a broad absorption band between 900 and 1100 nm. Furthermore, the large spectral overlap between Yb3+ emission (2F7/2-2F5/2) and Er3+ absorption (4I15/2-4I13/2) result in an efficient resonant energy transfer from the Yb3+ 2F5/2 state to the Er3+ 4I13/2 state. The energy transfer mechanism in an Yb3+/Er3+ co-doped system is similar to that for cooperative upconversion processes in an Er3+ doped system. However, interactions are between Yb3+ (donor) and Er3+ (acceptor) ions instead of between two excited Er3+ ions.
Thus, the present invention utilizes Er:Yb co-doped phosphate glass fibers doped at concentrations orders of magnitude higher than what is available in silica fibers, higher than what is available in phosphosilicate fibers, and, in the case of multi-mode clad-pumping described below, higher than even Northstar's phosphate waveguides (WO 00/52791), which are constrained to a maximum dopant level of 10 wt. %. Cooperative upconversion effects in phosphate glass at high levels of erbium doping concentration are significantly smaller than in silica glass.
The phosphate glass host provides for very efficient energy transfer. As can be seen from FIG. 2, a graph 14 depicting energy transfer efficiency from Yb3+ ions to Er3+ ions, that the energy transfer efficiency is greater than 91% for the co-doping concentrations shown. FIG. 2 shows that 6 weight % Yb2O3 and 2 weight % Er2O3 produce measured lifetimes for the ytterbium 2F5/2 state of about 180 μs with a transfer efficiency to the erbium 4I13/2 state of 92%. Compared to silicate and phosphosilicate glasses, the large phonon energy in the phosphate host increases the transition probability for 4I11/2-4I13/2 relaxation which prevents the back energy transfer from Er3+ to Yb3+.
Glass Design & Characterization
The multi-component laser glass contains a network former (P2O5 phosphate), one or more glass network modifiers MO (alkaline-earth oxides and transition metal oxides such as BaO, CaO, MgO, Sro, ZnO, PbO and mixtures thereof) and one or more glass network intermediators L2O3 (Y2O3, La2O3, Al2O3, B2O3 and mixtures thereof). The modifier modifies the phosphate's glass network, thereby reducing its melting temperature and creating additional dopant sites. The intermediator bridges some of the bonds in the network thereby increasing the network's strength and chemical durability without raising the melting temperature appreciably. The multi-component glasses of interest thus have a much lower softening temperature than silica (SiO2), which greatly simplifies processing. The modified network provides many more sites for hosting high concentrations of rare-earth dopants such as Er and Yb without clustering problems.
In general, the network former is 30 to 80 weight percent, the modifier can be at least 5% and typically 15% by weight and the intermediator can be at least 2% and typically 10% by weight of the multi-component glass. The fiber core is then doped with high concentrations of rare-earth dopants such as erbium or co-doped with, for example, erbium and ytterbium. The cladding layer(s) are typically undoped. Doping levels are 0.5-5.0 wt. % erbium ions and 0.5-15.0 wt. % (single-mode core-pumped) or 5-30 wt. % ytterbium ions (multi-mode clad-pumped). Typical values are 0.5-3.0 wt. % erbium and 2-15 wt % ytterbium (single-mode) or 10-10 wt. % ytterbium (multi-mode) The glass composition may or may not include an additional glass network modifier R2O selected from the alkaline metal oxides such as K2O, Na2O, Li2O, and Rb2O. Initial experiments have demonstrated that this class of phosphate glass supports continuous single-mode lasing without self-pulsation at high doping concentrations.
Numerous glass compositions were characterized for thermal properties (crystallization, expansion coefficient, transition and softening temperatures, core-to-clad similarity), chemical durability, ability to host high Er:Yb doping concentrations without quenching, spectroscopic properties (maximum emission cross-section at 1.5 microns), linewidth (maximum breadth at 1.5 microns) and refractive index to determine a range of wt. % for each ingredient that are acceptable. Characterization provided the following results:
When configured for single-mode core-pumping, the doped phosphate glass fiber contains the following ingredients by weight percentages: P2O5 from 30 to 80 percent, Yb2O3 from 0.5 to 15 percent, Er2O3 from 0.5 to 5 percent, where the sum of the weight percentages of Yb2O3 and Er2O3 is 2.5 wt. % or greater, L2O3from 5 to 30 percent, MO from 5 to 30 percent, MO is selected from the alkaline earth oxide group consisting of BaO, BeO, MgO, SrO, CaO, ZnO, PbO and mixtures thereof, and L2O3 is selected from the transition metal oxide group consisting of Al2O3, B2O3, Y2O3, La2O3, and mixtures thereof.
When configured for multi-mode clad-pumping, the doped phosphate glass fiber contains the following ingredients by weight percentages: P2O5 from 30 to 80 percent, Er2O3 from 0.5 to 5 percent, Yb2O3 from 5 to 30 percent, where the sum of the weight percentages of Yb2O3 and Er2O3 is 10.0 wt. % or greater, L2O3 from 5 to 30 percent, MO from 5 to 30 percent, where MO is selected from the alkaline earth oxide group consisting of BaO, BeO, MgO, SrO, CaO, ZnO, PbO and mixtures thereof, and L2O3 is selected from the transition metal oxide group consisting of Al2O3, B2O3, Y2O3, La2O3, and mixtures thereof.
In one preferred embodiment, a fiber for multi-mode clad-pumping comprises a cladding that includes
62.89% by weight P2O5,
6.10% by weight Al2O3,
22.10% by weight BaO,
6.87% by weight La2O3,
1.47% by weight B2O3, and
0.57% by weight MgO and
a core that includes
55.22% by weight P2O5,
5.36% by weight Al2O3,
22.5% by weight BaO,
1.01% by weight ZnO,
2.70% by weight Er2O3, and
13.48% by weight Yb2O3.
The following disclosure describes in more detail the characterization of phosphate glasses suitable for utilization as core or cladding glasses in the phosphate glass fibers of the present invention.
Tables 1 and 2 list glass compositions in mole % of phosphate glasses designed, fabricated and characterized for single-mode core-pumped and multi-mode clad-pumped fiber lasers, respectively.
Glass compositions for SM core-pumped
Er2O3 + Yb2O3 + La2O3
*where 25.5 CaO indicates CaO has been substituted for the BaO additive and 25.5 MgO indicates MgO has been substituted for the BaO additive.
Glass compositions for MM clad-pumped
Er2O3 + Yb2O3 + La2O3
*where 24.62 CaO indicates CaO has been substituted for the BaO additive and 24.62 MgO indicates MgO has been substituted for the BaO additive.
Compounds with less than 10 ppm of iron or copper were used as the starting chemicals for glass preparation. The mixed chemicals were melted in an electric furnace using a quartz crucible at 1250� C. The liquid was then held at this temperature for thirty minutes. After fusing, the glass liquid was transferred to a platinum crucible, and the temperature was increased to 1350� C. Nitrogen gas was purged through the liquid to remove hydroxyl ions (OH−1). The liquid was cast into an aluminum mold. A variety of samples from these specimens were prepared for the measurements. The refractive index of glass was measured with a prism coupler (e.g., a Metricon Model 2010) at 632.8 nm and 1550 nm. optically polished glass samples with a size of 2 cm�2 cm�0.5 cm were used in the measurements of the absorption spectrum. The thermal expansion coefficient, glass transition temperature, and softening temperature of each sample were measured on a dilatometer. The absorption spectra were recorded on a spectrophotometer (e.g., a Cary 5G).
Emission spectra were measured on samples with a thickness of 0.4 mm to reduce reabsorption. The emission spectrum measurement at 1.5 μm was carried out using a 980 nm diode as a pumping source. Absolute emission cross section were calculated using the McCumber theory. According to the McCumber theory, the absorption and emission cross sections are related by equation (1) if the time required to establish a thermal distribution within each manifold is short compared with the lifetime of that manifold.
where σa and σe are the absorption and stimulated emission cross section, respectively, υ is the photon frequency, ε is the net free energy required to excite one Er3+ ion from the 4I15/2-4I13/2 state at temperature T, h is the Planck constant, and k is the Boltzman constant. The absorption cross section was determined from the absorption coefficient. The peak absorption cross section for a 63 P2O5.8.5 Al2O3.3 (Er2O3+La2O3).9.5 BaO.16 LiO (mole %) glass is 0.75�10−20 cm2/ion at 1.5335 μm. The peak stimulated emission cross section is calculated to be 0.82�10−20 cm2/ion at 1.5335 μm. The absorption and fluorescence spectra in the phosphate glass bulk exhibit wide linewidths for 4I13/2-4I15/2 transition of erbium ions (48.63 nm). The absorption and fluorescence spectra, 28 and 30 respectively, of erbium doped phosphate glass bulk are illustrated in FIG. 3.
Next, undoped glasses (no erbium or ytterbium ions) were fabricated as cladding glasses. In order to insure a low stress and birefringence in the fiber, similar thermal characteristics between the core glass and the cladding glass are required. To form waveguides in the core glass with good confinement, a slightly lower refractive index of the cladding glass is also required. Cladding glasses were developed with differences in thermal expansion coefficients between the cladding glasses and the core glass of less than 3% in the temperature range from 80� C. to 400� C. In addition, glass transition temperatures and softening temperatures of these cladding glasses are also very close to that of the core glass (see Table 3 below). The 10% difference in thermal expansion coefficient between the core glass and the cladding glass is acceptable for fiber fabrication without serious stress in the fiber. Small differences in thermal expansion coefficient, glass transition temperature, and softening temperature between the core and cladding glasses ensure high quality of the fiber.
Glass transition and softening temperatures of core
and cladding glasses
Glass type
Glass transition temperature (Tg)
Softening temperature (Tf)
A good refractive index match with the core glass is another key parameter for the cladding glass besides the thermal behavior match. The refractive index of the cladding and core glasses is listed in the Table 4 (see below). The refractive index at 1.55 μm of cladding glass is 0.48% to 1.14% lower than the core glass P25, which results in numerical apertures from 0.149 to 0.230. With such values of numerical aperture, erbium doped optical fibers with a mode profile perfectly matched with standard telecommunication fiber can be fabricated.
Refractive index of core and cladding glasses
Refractive index
Glass type
632.8 nm
980 nm
1300 nm
1550 nm
Finally, an ytterbium-doped glass composition of 63 P2O5.8.5 Al2O3.3 (Er2O3+La2O3+Yb2O3).9.5 BaO.16 Li2O (mole %), chosen based upon modeling and the spectral characterization results of the non-ytterbium doped glasses, was melted at 1350� C. in a platinum crucible using high purity starting chemicals. This glass composition contains 3.5 weight % erbium. The refractive index of this glass composition was measured with a prism coupler at 632.8 nm, 1300 nm and 1550 nm. The absorption and emission cross sections were determined to be 0.75�10−20 cm2 and 0.82�10−20 cm2 at 1534 nm, respectively. The thermal expansion coefficient, glass transition temperature, and softening temperature of the ytterbium-doped core glass were measured to be 8.7�10−6� C.−1, 439� C., and 480� C., respectively. The cladding glass was designed to match the thermal performance of the ytterbium-doped core glass to ensure low stress in the fiber. The difference in thermal properties between the ytterbium-doped core glass and the designed cladding glass is less than 3%.
Manufacture of Er:Yb Phosphate Glass Preform and Fiber
The high doping concentrations possible, the low cooperative upconversion rate, the high transfer efficiencies, and the high saturated output power levels make doped phosphate glass ideal for high power single-mode lasers. To achieve a low cost solution, fiber is superior to waveguides. A single preform can be drawn and diced into fibers for thousands of devices whereas a similar glass ingot provides only a few waveguides. Fiber manufacturing includes first the manufacture of the glass preform and second the drawing of the fiber from the preform.
FIGS. 4 and 5 illustrate the steps of a rod-in-tube technique used to produce the glass perform and single mode phosphate glass fibers. A phosphate glass ingot (not shown in FIG. 5) containing dopants is formed in step 52. Once the ingot is formed, the ingot is cored to produce in step 54 a first core glass rod 56. The barrel of the first core glass rod 56 is polished in step 58. In step 60, a cladding glass tube 62 (i.e. a tube without erbium or ytterbium dopants) is drilled to have an inside diameter within 0.1 mm of the outside diameter of the first core glass rod. Both the inside and outside surfaces of the cladding glass tube are polished. In step 64, the first core glass rod 56 is placed inside the first cladding glass tube 62, and the assembly is drawn to form a second core glass rod 66 step 65). The second core glass rod 66 is placed, in step 68, inside a second cladding glass tube 70, and the assembly 72 is drawn into a single mode fiber 74 (step 75). Fiber drawings were performed in an argon gas atmosphere to reduce absorption of water from air exposure, which causes fluorescence quenching of Er3+ ions. The fiber drawing was performed at 765� C. No plastic coating was applied to the fiber.
Single-Mode Fiber Laser with Er:Yb Co-Doped Phosphate Fiber
FIG. 6 is an embodiment of a single-mode fiber laser 100 in which the active gain media comprises an Er:Yb co-doped phosphate glass fiber 102. The resonant cavity 104 is formed between a Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) 106 on a polarization maintaining (PM) fiber 108, which is optically coupled to one end of the active fiber 102, and a second FBG 110 at the other end of active fiber 102. FBG 106 provides single polarization output of the fiber laser. FBG 110 may be replaced with a dielectric mirror. As shown in FIGS. 7a and 7 b, the ultra-short cavity (<5 cm) produces a mode spacing 130 that is comparable to the FBG's line width 132 so that the erbium lases at a single longitudinal mode 134. Either the wavelength selective FEG 108 or the active fiber can be temperature controlled to spectrally overlap a certain cavity mode with the maximum of the cavity reflector.
FBG 106 shown in FIG. 6 exhibits a high transmission at the pump wavelength to input couple a pump signal 116 and a high reflection coefficient (40-95%) at the lasing wavelength to both sustain lasing and output couple the single-mode signal 112. FBG 110 exhibits a high reflectance (>99.8%) at the signal-wavelength. Alternately, a dielectric mirror, either external or realized by direct coating of the fiber end facet can be used. A PM WDM 114 is coupled to the free end of PM fiber 108 to bring the pump signal 116 into the cavity and to output the single-mode signal 112 to a silica telecom fiber (not shown) through a PM Isolator (optional) to suppress any back reflection.
FIG. 8 is another embodiment of a single-mode fiber laser 150 that eliminates the WDM 114 by input coupling the pump signal 152 and output coupling the single-mode output signal 154 at opposite ends of the Er:Yb co-doped phosphate glass fiber 156. The resonant cavity 158 is formed between a Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) 160 at the input side of active fiber 156 and a wavelength selective FBG 162 on a polarization maintaining (PM) fiber 164, which is optically coupled to the output side of active fiber 156. FBG 160 may be replaced with a broadband dielectric mirror. A pump signal 152 is input coupled through reflector 160, which exhibits high transmission at the pump wavelength and a high reflection coefficient (>99.8%) at the signal-wavelength. FBG 162 exhibits a high reflection coefficient (40-95%) at the lasing wavelength to both sustain lasing and output couple the single-mode signal 154 and a very high reflection coefficient at the pump wavelength. A PM Isolator (optional) may be coupled to the free end of PM fiber 164 to suppress any back reflection.
Single-Mode Core and Multi-Mode Clad Pumping
To pump the laser, pump radiation at or near 980 nm must be coupled into the fiber and absorbed in the fiber core. The conventional approach is to align a single-mode pump laser with the fiber core and couple the pump radiation directly into the core. The advantage of this approach is that substantially all of the pump light is coupled into the core. In the present invention, the higher ytterbium concentrations translate directly to higher absorption per unit length, hence higher output powers in the short cavity lengths required for single-mode lasers. The gain profile 170 for erbium is shown in FIG. 9. Within the C band of 1530-1565 nm, the peak in the gain curve occurs at about 1535 nm and the minimum gain is at the far tail of 1565 nm. FIG. 10 plots the output power 180 for different lengths of gain fiber with a single-mode output at the wavelength of 1565 nm where the optical gain is the smallest. Using a 240 mW single-mode pump, the output power exceeds 50 mW in the worst case. In other words, 50 mW over the full C band is achievable. The drawback to single-mode core pumping is the cost of the pump laser and the cost associated with the precision active alignment required to couple the pump radiation into a few micron core.
More recently, pump schemes have been proposed for coupling pump radiation from a multi-mode pump laser into the cladding surrounding the core in a silica fiber. Based on a geometric optical model in which the incident pump field is represented as an ensemble of rays of varying position and incident angle over the cladding entrance, those ray trajectories that cross or overlap the core as they propagate down the fiber correspond to rays that are absorbed, whereas those rays that avoid overlapping the core upon propagation are assumed to suffer no absorption: The overlapping rays are associated with the low order wave optical modes of the fiber with intersect the core, and the non-overlapping rays are associated with higher order modes that are localized in the cladding and intersect the core negligibly. The fraction of the pump power that can be absorbed by the core is then approximated as the ratio of those rays that cross or overlap the core to the total number of rays. To fully absorb the available pump power in the relatively lightly doped core, the fiber must be quite long, on the order of several meters. See Anping Liu, Kenichi Ueda, "The absorption characteristics of circular, offset, and rectangular double-clad fibers" Optics Communications 132 (1996) pp. 511-518, and D. Kouznetsov, J. Moloney and E. Wright "Efficiency of pump absorption in double-clad fiber amplifiers. I. Fiber with circular symmetry" Journal Optical Society of America, Vol. 18, No. 6, June 2001, pp. 743-749. To increase the absorption efficiency, the fiber is configured (bending, D-shaped fiber, skew core) so as to perturb or scramble the rays trajectories along the fiber so that a higher fraction of the initial rays now overlap the core. See V. Doya, O. Legrand, and F. Mortessagne "Optimized absorption in a chaotic double-clad fiber amplifier" Optics Letters, Vol. 26, No. 12, June 2001, pp. 872-874. Again these techniques are only effective in long fibers of several meters.
Based on the geometric model accepted in the industry and on the known techniques for coupling the higher order modes into the core, which require long fiber lengths, it would not appear that the higher doping concentrations provided by the present invention would alone be sufficient to absorb multi-mode pump radiation to produce a high power single-mode laser. However, simulations based on wave optical modeling and confirmed by empirical data show that the higher order wave modes associated with the non-overlapping rays are in fact coupled into the core. Because the tails of the higher order modes overlap the core, the core absorption tends to perturb or mix the fiber modes converting high order modes into lower order modes that are then rapidly absorbed by the core. In conventional lightly doped silica fiber, this "absorptive mode coupling" effect is small and negligible if the silica fiber incorporates bending, D-shaped fiber or skew core. Conversely, in the highly doped phosphate glass fiber of the present invention absorptive mode coupling is a significant second order effect, second only to the direct absorption of the lower order modes.
As shown in FIG. 11, the absorption efficiency 190 (plotted against the product of the core absorption and the fiber length (αL)) using the geometric model ramps up approximately linearly with αL and then saturates. The linear ramp corresponds to the absorption of the lower order modes. Saturation occurs because the geometric model predicts no absorption of the non-overlapping higher order modes. The knee in the curve is at approximately αL=20. According to the wave equation model, which takes into account the absorptive mode coupling effect, the absorption efficiency 192 ramps up linearly as before but instead of saturating continues to increase albeit at a more gradual slope. The larger the absorption coefficient α (higher doping concentrations), the greater the slope. As a result, the absorption efficiency of a short fiber can be approximately doubled. The total absorption is still less than for a long optimized silica fiber or for single-mode core pumping but sufficient for a practical high power single-mode laser. In reference to FIG. 11, similar output power levels can be achieved by optimizing the size and shape of the inner cladding with multi-mode pumps on the order of 750 mW to 1.5 W.
FIG. 12 is another embodiment of a fiber laser 252 formed with a rectangular core 251 for providing a single-mode single-polarization fiber laser. The pump signal 252 and the single-mode output signal 254 are coupled at opposite ends of the Er:Yb co-doped phosphate glass fiber 256. The resonant cavity 258 is formed between a Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) 260 at the input side of active fiber 256 and a second FBG 262 264, which is optically coupled to the output side of active fiber 256. One of the FBGs may be replaced with a dielectric mirror. A pump signal 252 is input coupled through FBG 260, which exhibits high transmission at the pump wavelength and a high reflection coefficient (>99.8%) at the signal-wavelength. FBG 262 exhibits a high reflection coefficient (40-95%) at the lasing wavelength to both sustain lasing and output couple the single-mode signal 254 and a very high reflection coefficient at the pump wavelength. The rectangular core 251 creates a preferential gain for one polarization, thus producing a single polarized output. A PM Isolator (optional) may be coupled to the free end of PM fiber 264 to suppress any back reflection.
While several illustrative embodiments of the invention have been shown and described, numerous variations and alternate embodiments will occur to those skilled in the art. Such variations and alternate embodiments are contemplated, and can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.
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|Multi-wavelength pump method for improving performance of erbium-based lasers
|Sep 26, 2007
|Dec 13, 2011
|The Arizona Board Of Regents On Behalf Of The University Of Arizona
|Phosphate glass based optical device and method
|Nov 12, 2010
|Feb 26, 2013
|The University Of Electro-Communications
|Optical nanofiber resonator
|Apr 29, 2011
|Jul 8, 2014
|Fujikura Ltd.
|Ytterbium-doped optical fiber
|Jan 26, 2015
|Feb 28, 2017
|Advalue Photonics, Inc.
|Rare-earth doped gain fibers
|Dec 20, 2016
|May 2, 2017
|Advalue Photonics, Inc.
|Rare-earth doped gain fibers
|May 30, 2003
|Dec 2, 2004
|Np Photonics, Inc., A Corporation Of Delaware
|High-power narrow-linewidth single-frequency laser
|Jun 8, 2007
|Dec 27, 2007
|Shori Ramesh K
|Multi-wavelength pump method for improving performance of erbium-based lasers
|Sep 26, 2007
|Jun 5, 2008
|The Az. Brd. Of Regents On Behalf Of The U. Of Az.
|Phosphate glass based optical device and method
|Apr 29, 2011
|Aug 25, 2011
|Fujikura Ltd.
|Ytterbium-doped optical fiber
|Nov 12, 2010
|May 17, 2012
|The University Of Electro-Communications
|Optical nanofiber resonator
|U.S. Classification
|372/6, 372/92, 372/99, 385/37, 372/102
|International Classification
|Cooperative Classification
|European Classification
|Jan 24, 2002
Owner name: NP PHOTONICS, INC., ARIZONA
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:JIANG, SHIBIN;SPIEGELBERG, CHRISTINE P.;REEL/FRAME:012543/0116;SIGNING DATES FROM 20020122 TO 20020123
|Apr 14, 2008
|Fee payment
Year of fee payment: 4
|May 7, 2012
|Fee payment
Year of fee payment: 8
|Apr 19, 2016
|Fee payment
Year of fee payment: 12


text:
Twenty-five years ago Bob Battaglia, co-founder of Novato's One Legal court document filing service, pioneered filing by fax in California. Now, he has launched a legal technology incubator as part of his continuing efforts to drag the legal system into the 21st century.
The incubator — a kind of think tank — is designed to develop new and innovative tools.
"Our software engineers and developers will work with law students and young entrepreneurs who have ideas but don't know how to turn them into products," Battaglia said as he sat in front of a whiteboard at One Legal's corporate office on Redwood Boulevard on Friday. The lab was launched this week.
One Legal, founded in 1990 as Fax and File Legal Services Inc., employs 145 people, mostly in California. The company has 5,000 active accounts, including "just about every major U.S. law firm — Morrison & Foerster; Sedgwick; Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati," Battaglia said. About 80 percent of the business is filing court documents and 20 percent is process serving, Battaglia said.
"There was a hack-a-thon at the LegalTech Startup Weekend ... in downtown San Francisco," said Noah Aron, One Legal's general manager, who is in charge of the incubator. "The participants had 48 hours to come up with a prototype.
"The winners were rewarded with one month at our incubator, OneLegal Labs, working with our software engineers and our developers." The incubator office is on Mission Street in San Francisco.
Startup Weekend
The first digital tool produced by the incubator might be an interactive guide for tenants facing eviction, named CloudL. This was the idea developed by the winning team, according to Aron. The tool would provide a list of resources for the tenants and steps to take depending on their individual situations, Aron said. After the month is up, One Legal's alpha geeks will continue innovating on their own.
The LegalTech Startup Weekend was itself an innovation, the first legal technology conference in a series of events known as Startup Weekend. Startup Weekends are events focused on developing ideas for new products and technologies. The fact that it has taken so long to have such a conference gives an idea of the glacial pace of change in the field.
"Historically, law firms and the courts have been relatively slow and cautious in their adoption of new technologies," said Rohit Talwar, chief executive of Fast Future Research. Talwar recently led a study on the future of legal technology for the International Legal Technology Association.
"The vast majority of documents are still filed physically," Battaglia said. In many cases, he said, a law firm will email the information to One Legal, which then assembles it into a properly formatted hard copy legal document and walks it to the court.
"That's why many of our offices are next to the courthouse," he said.
Systems vary
It would be far more efficient for the law firm to simply email, or e-file, the documents directly with the court. This is just one example of the kind of inefficiencies the incubator is seeking to address.
"The federal court system had the funds to standardize their platform. It is mandatory to file federal court documents electronically," said Robert DeFilippis, One Legal's president and chief operating officer.
"The budgets at the state level have not been there. You have a disparate group of courts with different systems, some electronic, some not," DeFilippis said.
The process serving part of the legal industry also could use some innovation, DeFilippis said.
"We're thinking about using drones," Battaglia quipped. Growing serious again, he said, "Driving around knocking on doors is inefficient and dangerous. One way to get around that is to leverage social media."
Posting a message to someone's LinkedIn account or emailing them can be a faster, safer way to serve a document, though it has its own problems. "Email isn't always reliable, so someone could say they didn't get it, or that they didn't see it," Aron said.
"We have used LinkedIn and text messaging" to serve documents, backing it up with conventional methods, DeFilippis said. "If you look at it from the consumer perspective, would you rather have someone knocking on your door at home?" Battaglia said. "Most people would rather be served discreetly via social media."
The road to innovation hasn't always been smooth for the firm. In December 2013, One Legal won a contract to act as an electronic filing service provider for San Francisco Superior Court. In order for mandatory e-filing to be implemented, as opposed to voluntary e-filing, it is necessary for the court to have more than one provider.
However, the court issued a press release at the end of January saying the new vendor was "not ready to e-file in San Francisco," and hence e-filing would continue to be voluntary.
"We told them how long it would take to develop the product once we had the contract. We never got the information we needed to do so. They did not answer our phone calls or emails (seeking the information)," Battaglia said.
He said, "We're working with them now and getting the information we need."
Meanwhile, the incubator may be launching at just the right time.
"The legal industry is changing with the times. More and more courts are looking at the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of e-filing. Firms are dismantling their paper files and cataloging case files online," One Legal blogger Broke Greene said on the company's blog.
The slow pace of technology adoption "is beginning to change," Talwar said. "A combination of client demands, security concerns, cost pressures and a growing understanding of the strategic potential of information technology is encouraging many law firms to be more adventurous.
"Some are positively embracing technology in their quest to differentiate themselves," the futurist said. "Technology can create new products and services, enhance the support provided to lawyers and serve client needs globally in a consistent manner."


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Have you ever purchased from PartSelect.com before?
Thank you for helping make our site better.
Below is a list of all parts for the Whirlpool Dishwasher DP1040XTXB1 - Portable. To find the repair part you need, you can browse the list below or you can narrow your choices by searching for a part by name or description.
This heating element is designed to monitor and control the heat of the water that enters the dishwasher. It is located at the bottom of the dishwasher. If your dishwasher is not d...
This product contains both the door gasket and the door strike. The function of the door gasket on your dishwasher is to provide a seal between the tub and the door. The door strike serves as a mechanical actuator for door switch operation and provides door tension for a proper seal. If you notice that your refrigerator is leaking, the door will not latch properly, or it is not cleaning dishes properly, you may need to replace the door gasket. This repair is as simple as removing the old gasket from the channel on the edge of the dishwasher tub, and replacing it with the new one. This product is made of black rubber.
The rack track stop on your dishwasher is designed to stop the dish rack at the appropriate place when opening and closing the rack. If your dishwasher is not cleaning your dishes ...
The rinse aid cap (sometimes referred to as the dispenser cap), covers the rinse aid dispenser on the dishwasher door. If your dishwasher will not dispense detergent, or it is leaking detergent, there could be an issue with the rinse aid cap. Check the cap and its gasket for any damage or melting. If the cap has melted or it is not sealing the dispenser properly, the part should be replaced right away. This rinse aid cap comes with the gasket, so you should discard the existing gasket and rinse aid cap at the same time. The repair is relatively straightforward, and requires no tools.
This chopper assembly, or dishwasher drain food chopper, chops food particles into small pieces to prevent the dishwasher pump from clogging. If your dishwasher is making grinding,...
The rubber washer is a part which is specific to dishwashers and should not be substituted by a similar part. It works with the heating element to seal the receptacle opening where the heating element is attached. The rubber washer is used to prevent water leaking from your dishwasher during its cycle. Before making any repairs to your dishwasher make sure that you disconnect the power by finding the breaker for the dishwasher, and turning it off. The tools you will need to complete this repair include an adjustable wrench, and a 1/4 inch nut driver. This specific rubber washer is sold individually.
This seal is located between the spray arm and the water feed tube.
The pump ejects the water from the unit.
This part releases the detergent and rinse aid into the dishwasher.
This part acts as as safety mechanism that keeps the dryer from overheating. Once the dryer temperature reaches a certain point, this part will shut down power to the heating element.
Also known as a wash arm seal.
The faucet adapter for your portable dishwasher or washing machine attaches to the faucet and allows you to connect the machine to the tap. Before you install the faucet adapter on your taps, be sure that it fits the coupler on your dishwasher or washer. As per the factory, this is used for faucets with inside or outside threads. For female connection (outside) just remove the washers. This adapter is approximately 1 inch in length, and slightly less than one inch in diameter. This adapter comes with two different thicknesses of rubber washer. You will not need to use both so be sure to determine which thickness works best for your tap before installing it.
This part helps to keep your door quiet when it opens and closes.
Sold individually.
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The PartSelect logo is a Registered Trademark of Atlantic Laundry Centres, Ltd.
Copyright © 1999-2017 , Eldis Group Partnership. All rights reserved.


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It only takes a minute to get started. Fill out our simple sign up form and login to the website.
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Located someone who looks interesting? Send them a word or two or just a wink and let it develop from there. With a little luck you'll be on your way to uncover your suitable match.
You won't regret it


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We Fight Poverty with Local Foods. Training. Jobs. Entrepreneurship.
Thank you to Weitz Family Foundation for your generous gift of $300,000 to kickoff Phase 2 fundraising!
Our new gap is $1.5MM for Phase 2 to support youth, seniors, and food focused entrepreneurs by adding the cafe for food distribution and workforce training, the incubator for food business back office and creative support, the kids' kitchen for hands-on nutrition education and STEAM activities, and the rooftop garden for small scale intensive food production and renewable energy training.
Need to rent a commercial kitchen?Complete the survey.
Click to Meet Emily, a cook and aspiring chef.
"Women do all of the jobs here," chimed 10 year old Emily when she met Robin, our construction manager, and learned that Robin makes sure the kitchen is finished on time. "We have to come here as soon as it opens," she gasped. Emily loves to cook. She already has a list of recipes as long as her arm. She sees the kitchen as her pathway to becoming a chef. We stand with Emily and others like her who dare to work hard and achieve dreams. You make dreams come true!
Phase 2: Community Cafe, Business Incubator/Co-working Space, Kids' Kitchen, and Rooftop Garden
$1.8 million*
Phase 1 Food Hub Services & Tools Gap: $224,949
The Food Hub is based on a system of interdependent activities including commercial kitchens, community café, cold/dry storage, and food systems focused incubator rooted in proven models that deliver positive outcomes in job training, workforce readiness, food waste reduction, healthy food access, income generation and business development.
This project addresses the needs of the most vulnerable community residents:
1. Create living wage earning opportunities;
2. Support lifelong learning and self-sufficiency;
3. Connect people and resources to an improved integrated and resilient food system.
Target Audience: Unemployed and underemployed lower income residents, TANF recipients, re-entry workers, returning veterans, opportunity youth
1. Job readiness skills
2. Food production, preparation and service skills
3. Career pathway coaching
4. Entrepreneurial guidance, support and incubation
5. Employment guidance and support
1. Transformation of a food system through a multi-level, multi-sector strategy
2. Creation of a closed loop food system for sustainable economic development
3. Advancement of green jobs as an economic engine within an inner city community
4. Improved access to healthy food
5. Provide non-traditional education and training
6. Sustainable replicable model for communities
Total Investment All Phases: $3.7 million*
Expected return over 5 years: Based on surveys and market research – Nearly $3 million in wages and benefits; over 6 tons diverted waste; 2 tons vermicompost; 10% renewable energy; 5 new businesses, over 10 new jobs, 75 trainees; increased food security; better access to affordable local foods; improved nutrition education, self-sufficiency and economic resilience. Generate 90% of income needed to operate the facility.
Join our Supporters
Anonymous, Nancy Mammel, Mammel Foundation, USDA AMS Local Foods Promotion Program, Dan & Shirley Neary (Friends of No More Empty Pots and Supporters of the Food Hub), Donna Polk, Lucy & Doug Wilson, Peter Kiewit Foundation,Immanuel Vision Foundation, Carlynn Hartman-Kurtz Memorial Fund, Weitz Family Foundation, United Way of the Midlands, Omaha Restaurant Association, Armonia Fund, Wells Fargo, Anthony & Sara DeMars Cerasoli, 2016 Omaha Gives Donors, The Sherwood Foundation, Annette & Paul Smith, First National Bank, Richard Brooke Foundation.
Renderings by Slate Architecture


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Blessings All Around
Wednesday, August 17, 2011Filed under: entertaining, Filed under: friends, Filed under: nashville, Filed under: organization
More fun blessings going on...tonight I am hosting the ladies at my house for bunco! I haven't had the girls over for entertaining fun in quite some time so I am taking advantage and getting uber excited about a fun and relaxing night--ready to roll those dice and hopefully win some $$.
Next week, I have my first small group meeting/dinner as a provisional member with Junior League Nashville. Some of my friends have participated in JLN and I am so happy to now be joining and putting more time and energy into volunteerism and helping support our community...and hopefully meeting some fabulous women in the process, too!
It's Wednesday, meaning the work week is 1/2 way over...ahhh thank heavens! This weekend, Meg and I are taking a little roadtrip to Memphis to visit with The Fields Family! I cannot wait to get my hands on Little Baby P and spend some quality time with Cami--it's going to be fun fun fun!
Like I said, lots of little blessings... hope you all have a fantastic day!! ;)
- 11 Comments
you are a busy girl! Yay for pulling out all your registry gifts for entertaining tonight! Have fun!ReplyDelete
Congrats to your newly engaged friends! So exciting! :) You are one busy bee. That's for sure.ReplyDelete
Yay! Looking forward to it too!ReplyDelete
which is better? book club or bunco?? i'm already in a book club but should i start a bunco ground?!ReplyDelete
...also, did you see i was in tennessee last weekend at norris lake? haha
You are a busy girl, but what fun you are having in between! Bunco makes me think of my sister...she used to host those type parties in her neighborhood! :) Have a lovley time!ReplyDelete
Liesl :)
I love how you stay so busy! I wish I could but I would burn.out.quick!ReplyDelete
Good stuff! Have fun at bunco tonight!ReplyDelete
I love Bunco Nights! So fun! Good luck and give us some good recipes tomorrow! :)ReplyDelete
So fun! I love a great bunco party! You will enjoy Junior League so much!! I'm a provisional in my area, too, and think it is such a way to give back! :)ReplyDelete
You will love League! I met (and continue to meet)so many great friends and it's so much fun. I am actually in a bunco group with some of my JL friends! Have a great bunco party!ReplyDelete
Good things indeed! I've been hearing buzz about how fun Bunco nights are. I know nothing about them...enlighten us?! Oh, and I really appreciated your last post. It's true, we MUST let those naysayers roll off our backs or we will quickly become blogging wrecks! Oh, and btw, I LOVE blogs that occasionally write about the "real life" part of life - not just all the rosey goodness. Makes us all feel like we're not the only ones... Happy Thursday to you!ReplyDelete


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- Doctors
- Alberta
- Calgary
- Orthodontists
- Dr. Greg Barnett
You may also like
Dr. R. Chana
Ratings for Dr. Greg Barnett
Dr. Barnett and the staff were friendly yet professional throughout my treatment with braces. All procedures and options were explained to me along the way, and I am very happy with the results. It's rare to visit a professional office and have every member of the team treat you with respect and consideration, so a huge thank you to Dr. Barnett and his staff.
I've had a great experience with dr Barnett. I just got my top braces off and im getting the bottoms off soon and I'm so happy with the results. It turned out even better than i expected. The staff is great. Two years involving jaw appliances and braces was definitely worth it.
My first adult experience with braces and it was a fantastic and quick transition. Dr. Barnett and his team were always punctual and considerate to my work schedule, even for impromptu adjustments to my invisilign trays and questions they went the extra mile. I would highly recommend any one who has TMJ issues or a smile they want to work on to see his office. My best experience from their front line staff, to their hygenists and Dr. Barnett.
My daughter has just had her braces removed after two years. The results are amazing. We are so happy she was able to be treated by Dr Barnett and his team. They have always made us feel welcome and really do work hard to make sure all patients feel comfortable. from start to finish we have been informed and advised on her treatment. We would highly recommend Dr Barnett and his team. Our daughter leaves his care with an amazing smile that has already had a profound affect on her confidence!!! These guys rock and if you're in need of orthodontic work, this team should be your first choice!!
Dr.Barnett and the team are great to work with. My daughter is always excited for her appointments and the staff knows how to really make her comfortable during her time in the office. Dr. Barnett is extremely knowledgeable and very friendly. He explained everything to us every step of the way and was always extremely courteous and polite. He is easy to talk to and treats my daughter like one of his own. Great guy, great team!
5 stars to Dr Barnett and his staff for service and professionalism. All staff are friendly and helpful and my children never dreaded an appointment even when they knew there was more work coming up. I have never seen Dr Barnett having a bad day after several years of visits with our two kids.
Saw Dr. Barnett for a 2nd opinion for my two daughters. Treatment was similar to what another orthodontist had told us, but both my kids liked Dr. Barnett (and the other staff we interacted with) better. Fun vibe, Dr. Barnett was friendly and very informative. I think I understood things better the way he explained them, and the prices were less than the other place too, so it was an easy choice to stay at this office.
My experience mirrors that of the other posters. Great orthodontist, great staff and very accomodating to those that work by offering early morning appointments. I started my adult braces with him and he was very knowledgable and helpful answering any questions I had. I sadly moved away so had to find a new ortho in Ontario but his staff bent over backwards to find me some options to call and promptly sent my file to the new ortho within a few days. Great experience at Dr. Barnett's office all around!
Absolutely the best! I went to 2 other orthodontists before going with Dr.Barnett and am happy I did. I have to say my teeth are a royal pain and there has been other specialists involved because of it. Dr.Barnett always answers all my questions, responds to emails quickly, listens to his patients and the staff are fantastic. Megan at the front top notch and Janet in the back, AWESOME!!! They gave me a bday card on my bday just because I was coming in to get my wires changed! Love the contests they run and the great attitude that they have in the office! I hope to be done soon because braces suck but will miss visits with them when I am done! Best orthodontist ever! Go see Dr. Barnett if you need them.
We LOVE Dr. Greg Barnett and all of his staff. From the moment you walk in you always get a super friendly welcome. Dr. Barnett has ALWAYS been on time whenever we've had an appointment. The office is bright and FUN. His staff are especially nice and make you feel very relaxed. Also really, really like the BUCKS you get as my daughter donates those to someone who really needs them. And, and the contests that they run from time to time are nice too. We actually WON something!!!
Dr. Greg Barnett's Credentials
Facility Affiliations
Accepting New Patients
- University Of Alberta Faculty Of Dentistry (Grad. 2007)
- University Of Toronto Faculty Of Dentistry (Grad. 2002)
- Queen's University at Kingston (Grad. 1998)
Other Specialties
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Publications & Research
Insurance accepted by this Doctor
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Relevant offers
When the toilet was invented it was one of the most innovative creations of the century, writes Frana Cardno in Southern Focus.
OPINION: When I have read about early London, the sewage was being tipped out on to the streets and today this would give us a feeling of revulsion.
Even in my lifetime the toilet has changed dramatically. When I first moved onto a farm in mid-Canterbury we had the outhouse down the path and ours was actually quite flash, with a little seat as well as a large one. Being just a little girl I thought that was pretty special. There were also a po in the cabinet by the bed. My dad's job was to discreetly empty these buckets at night - Yuck! When we first had a flush toilet in our house I was quite frightened of it.
As I have travelled throughout Asia, the toilet experience is quite different and daunting and I guess they would have a similar experience visiting here. While I was in China as a guest at the World Heritage Conference I had a room with three toilets. They had so many gadgets on them I was not game enough to press the buttons. I had a beautiful lake view out of my window and at night time it was lit up by lanterns. However, being in local government, I did wonder where the waste went.
While there, I had the opposite experience to the luxury toilets in my hotel room - a hole in the ground with low brush fences and no water.
I must admit I did not enjoy that experience.
There is also the name issue. For example, in America, it is considered rude to ask for a toilet; you must say bathroom instead. My children instructed me on this.
Now we have high standards for waste disposal and this comes at a huge cost - one the government does not assist with any more. In the past, there were water and sewerage scheme subsidies, but those have now been cut. This makes it extremely difficult to keep up with the changing standards for these schemes for our small communities, who do not have a ratepayer base big enough to cover the costs.
Southland District Council has 18 sewerage schemes, serving populations from less than 30 to more than 2000. We spend more than $1.5 million a year operating and maintaining these schemes and we intend to spend $38 million over the next 10 years on improvements.
Resource consents require us to monitor pollutants that can harm the environment, as well as provide Environment Southland with other information and reports; such as the flow to a plant or a report on the performance. If data gets missed or is supplied late this is seen by Environment Southland as a non-compliance. Minor ones, but they are still recorded as non-compliances and this is the reason why a number of our schemes were deemed to be non-compliant. We supply thousands of data items to Environment Southland as part of our monitoring.
Sewerage schemes are a great asset to any community, as they protect both the community's public health and the environment, and we are confident they are performing better than the Environment Southland report suggests. However, where we know we have issues with compliance we have specific projects in the Long Term Plan to address these.
And as an aside, our total effluent is equivalent to 3000 cows. So we are very minor on the Southland scale of things.
On another issue, we have a busy year ahead with Local Government Commission hearings on our representation review, annual plans and reports, the proposed district plan, local body elections and much more.
Local government, like everything else, is always changing.
We will be considering and debating many topics, and one of those will be amalgamation. I believe we have to take this seriously and so does the council.
The question is what would work the best for Southlanders. It could be one unitary rural council and one unitary urban council - not that we don't work well with the city council, it is just that we have different priorities and issues. The way the local government legislation is written, and with our rural population, means that one authority for Southland would have a council strongly weighted to representatives from Invercargill. This could significantly dilute important rural issues.
Our large roading network and many small communities already makes us the largest authority in size in New Zealand and it is important not to lose the local in local government.
» Frana Cardno is the Southland District mayor.
- The Southland Times
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