Abstract: Provided is a device for detecting airborne particulate matter in aerosols, comprising: an air sampler to collect a sample of airborne particles suspended in air; an optical sensor; a controller; a fluidic apparatus to, under the control of the controller: capture, from the air sampler, and resuspend in a liquid medium, at least part of the airborne particles of the sample; and deliver the resuspended airborne particles to the optical sensor, which is configured to detect airborne particulate matter in the delivered airborne particles. Also provided is a method adapted to use the device of the invention, and to a computer program product adapted to implement the method of the invention.

Abstract: This invention encompasses generating electromagnetic solitary waves in two-transverse spatial dimensions. These wave beams propagate without diffraction and are equivalent to the normal modes of propagation of a nonlinear system governed by second order optical nonlinearities. The wave beams can be generated using optical techniques and will impact a wide variety of geometries and operating conditions whenever second order nonlinear optical processes are implemented for harmonic and parametric optical conversion. A preferred embodiment covers the generation of solitary waves from nonlinear materials such as KTiOPO.sub.4 (KTP) crystals. Other types of nonlinear optical device crystals can also be used such as KH.sub.2 PO.sub.4 (KDP), (NH.sub.2).sub.2 CO(Urea), LiNbO.sub.3, KNbO.sub.3, and the borate crystals BaB.sub.2 O.sub.4 (BBO) and LiB.sub.3 O.sub.7 (LBO).