Investigation of refractive index modifications in CW CO2 laser written planar optical waveguides

This paper presents the measurement of the refractive index profile of buried channel waveguides fabricated by a CW CO₂ direct writing technique. A reflectance method is used to assess the refractive index distribution n(x,y) in these structures as it is a key parameter determining the propagation properties of guided wave devices. Beam propagation method (BMP) is used with experimentally determined cross-sectional data and refractive index profile to model the waveguides. The spatial resolution is 1.3 μm and, 5.10⁻⁴ for the refractive index.     

结合计算层析与光学相干层析测量折射率分布

通过将计算层析技术与光学相干层析技术相结合,测量散射介质非均匀折射率分布。该方法测量散射样品折射率分布时,通过光学相干层析技术测量散射样品折射率分布在多个方向上的投影,采用计算层析技术实现对样品折射率分布的层析重建,克服了传统折射率光学测量方法如单纯的基于光学相干层析原理的焦点追迹法和光程匹配法,不能测量散射介质非均匀折射率分布的缺点。采用该方法在实验中对梯度折射率棒的径向相对折射率分布进行层析重建,取得了较好的实验结果。     

Impact of the sublinear photoconductivity law on the interpretation of holographic results in BaTiO3

Thick holographic refractive index gratings are written in nominally pure and in iron doped BaTiO₃ crystals. The phase shift between refractive index grating and light pattern is studied as a function of an externally applied electric field by a direct phase shift measuring technique. The choice of the method is suggested by a theoretical analysis which allows for the effect of a nonlinear relation between photoconductivity and light intensity on the holographic writing process.     

Characteristics of paraxial propagation of a super Lorentz—Gauss SLG01 mode in uniaxial crystal orthogonal to the optical axis

Analytical propagation expression of a super Lorentz-Gauss（SLG） 01 mode in uniaxial crystal orthogonal to the optical axis is derived.The SLG 01 mode propagating in uniaxial crystal orthogonal to the optical axis mainly depends on the ratio of the extraordinary refractive index to the ordinary refractive index.The SLG 01 mode propagating in uniaxial crystals becomes an astigmatic beam.The beam spot of the SLG 01 mode in the uniaxial crystal is elongated in the x-or y-direction,which is determined by the ratio of the extraordinary refractive index to the ordinary refractive index.With the increase of the deviation of the ratio of the extraordinary refractive index to the ordinary refractive index from unity,the elongation of the beam spot also augments.In different observation planes,the phase distribution of an SLG 01 mode in the uniaxial crystal takes on different shapes.With the variation of the ratio of the extraordinary refractive index to the ordinary refractive index,the phase distribution is elongated in one transversal direction and is contracted in the other perpendicular direction.This research is beneficial to the practical applications of an SLG mode.     

System for measuring optical admittance of a thin film stack

A new method based on the polarization interferometer structure has been applied to measure the optical admittance, the refractive index and thickness of a thin film. The structure is a vibration insensitive optical system. There is one Twyman-Green interferometer part to induce a phase difference and one Fizeau interferometer part to induce the interference in the system. The intensities coming from four different polarizers were measured at the same time to prevent mechanical vibration influence. Using the polarization interferometer, the optical admittance, the refractive index and thickness of a single layer of Ta₂O₅ thin film has been measured. The measurement results were compared with the results obtained by ellipsometer. The results meet reasonable values in both refractive index and thickness.     

Surface plasmon resonance interferometer for bio- and chemical-sensors

An interferometric method for the detection of the phase shifts of reflected light under Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) conditions due to refractive index changes is proposed and experimentally realized. The sensitivity threshold of the method to a refractive index variation Δn is estimated to be 4×10⁻⁸. The proposed SPR-interferometer provides spatial phase resolution and thus enables to take into account the peculiarities of refractive index distribution over the surface of an SPR-supporting film. It can be successfully applied in bio- and chemical-sensor systems.     

Optical parameters of epitaxial GaN thin film on Si substrate from the reflection spectrum

A method has been proposed for determining the optical properties of a thin film layer on absorbing substrates. The film optical parameters such as thickness, refractive index, absorption coefficient, extinction coefficient and the optical energy gap of an absorbing film are retrieved from the interference fringes of the reflection spectrum at normal incidence. The envelopes of the maxima of the spectrum E_M and of the minima E_m are introduced in analytical forms to find the reflectance amplitudes at the interfaces and approximate values of the thin film refractive index. Then, the interference orders and film thickness are calculated to get accurate values of the needed optical parameters. There are no complex fitting procedures or assumed theoretical refractive index dispersion relations. The method is applied to calculate the optical properties of an epitaxial gallium nitride thin film on a silicon (1 1 1) substrate. Good agreement between our results and the published data are obtained.     

The effects of pressure and hydrogenic donor impurity on the linear and nonlinear optical properties of a GaAs/GaAlAs nanowire superlattice

The combined effects of hydrostatic pressure, presence and absence of hydrogenic donor impurity are investigated on the linear and nonlinear optical absorption coefficients and refractive index changes of a GaAs/Ga_1−xAl_xAs nanowire superlattice. The wave functions and corresponding eigenvalues are calculated using finite difference method in the framework of effective mass approximation. Analytical expressions for the linear and third order nonlinear optical absorption coefficients and refractive index changes are obtained by means of compact-density matrix formalism. The linear and third order nonlinear absorption coefficient and refractive index changes are presented as a function of photon energy for different values of hydrostatic pressure, incident photon intensity and relaxation time in the presence and absence of hydrogenic donor impurity. It is found that the linear and third order nonlinear absorption coefficients, refractive index changes and resonance energy are quite sensitive to the presence of impurity and applied hydrostatic pressure. Moreover, the saturation in optical spectrum and relaxation time can be adjusted by increasing pressure in presence of impurity whereas the effect of hydrostatic pressure is negligible in the case of absence of hydrogenic impurity.     

Modal attenuation in metal-clad graded-index slab optical waveguides

The paper presents the influence of refractive profile shape on the distribution of modal attenuation in planar metal-clad optical waveguide structures. A calculation method has been presented in which we applied the Snyder–Love expression on modal attenuation coefficients and matrix method 4 × 4 for the analysis of planar waveguides. The obtained results are almost identical with the exact results for refractive profiles: the parabolic, exponential, Gaussian and linear ones. It has been demonstrated that the applied calculation method can be used in waveguides of any profiles of the refractive index.     

Determination of the refractive index profile of polymer optical fiber preform by the transverse ray tracing method

In graded-index polymer optical fiber (GI-POF), the refractive index profile is an important parameter in defining its bandwidth. However, direct determination of the refractive index profile of GI-POF is difficult due to its extreme thinness. In this study, the refractive index distribution of the GI-POF is indirectly determined by measuring the refractive index distribution of the GI-POF perform by applying the transverse ray tracing method to a simplified measurement system that we developed.In this system, a parallel tabular ray is irradiated transversely to a GI-POF preform. The transverse ray from the preform is then projected on a screen, and its digital image is processed to calculate the refractive index distribution. The calculation is based on a transverse ray simulation, a computer program that we developed in which the refractive index distribution of the preform is determined by comparing the displacement of the transverse ray projected on the screen with the actual measurement.The accuracy of this new measurement method is validated by comparing the refractive index distribution of a GI-POF preform with the refractive index distribution measured by the conventional method using an interferometer. We find that the refractive index distribution measured by this novel method agrees well with that measured by the conventional method.     

Ultrafast beam-deflection method and its application for measuring the transient refractive index of materials

We represent an ultrafast beam-deflection method as a simple and powerful tool for the time-resolved measurement of induced changes of the refractive index in the order of n=10^–5. The method is applied for measuring the changes of components of the refractive index parallel and perpendicular to the pump-pulse polarization on a femtosecond time scale. Fused silica and CS₂ are used as samples for demonstrating our method.     

Determination of refractive indices of liquids by Fresnel diffraction

We demonstrate an easy, reliable, applicable, and sensitive method to measure refractive index of liquids by using Fresnel diffraction. In this method a cylindrical glass rod, in general, or an optical fiber in special case, is immersed into a liquid. Physical parameters of the rod, like radius and refractive index, should be well known. Then, the normalized intensity distribution on the Fresnel diffraction pattern of a plane wave diffracted from the immersed fiber is measured. Thereafter, refractive index of the liquid is evolved by the least-square method. This method applied to determine the refractive index of four liquids; pure water, 2-propanol (isopropanol), acetone and methanol. Index of refraction of each one has been acquired for four visible wavelengths. A theoretical approach and experimental results is presented.     

Retrieval of spheroidal particle size distribution using the approximate method in spectral extinction technique

Retrieval of spheroidal particle size distribution using an approximate method in spectral extinction technique is proposed. The combined approximate method, which is the combination of Mie method and generalized eikonal approximation (GEA) method, is used as an alternative to the rigorous solutions to calculate the averaging extinction efficiency of spheroid. Based on the averaging extinction efficiency, the accuracy and limitations of the retrieval are then investigated. Moreover, the validity range and effect of the refractive index are also examined. The Johnson's S_B function in this paper is used as a versatile function to fit the commonly used particle size distribution functions in the dependent model. Simulations and experimental results show that the combined approximate method can be successfully applied to retrieval of spheroidal particle size distribution. In certain constraint conditions, the retrieval results demonstrate the high reliability and stability of the method. By using the combined approximate method, the complexity and computation time of the retrieval are significantly reduced, which is more suitable for quick and easy measurement. The method can also be used as a replacement when the rigorous solutions suffer computationally intractable difficulties.     

全场彩虹技术测量喷雾浓度及粒径分布

喷雾颗粒的浓度、粒径等多参数的同时测量是研究喷雾的关键. 对应用全场彩虹技术测量双组分液滴的浓度及粒径分布进行了研究. 基于改进的Nussenzweig理论,对液滴折射率和粒径分布采用无分布函数算法进行最优化求解, 然后通过折射率与浓度的关系反推液滴浓度.用模拟全场彩虹信号对该算法进行了验证, 该算法可准确反演具有单峰分布、双峰分布粒径特征的液滴群的折射率与粒径分布. 并对体积分数从0%到100%的乙醇溶液喷雾进行了实验测量, 结果表明,所测得折射率与理论值符合,粒径分布稳定.该技术在喷雾浓度测量方面具有广阔的应用前景. 关键词： 全场彩虹技术 折射率 粒径 组分     

Investigation of refractive index profile and mode field distribution of optical fibers using digital holographic phase shifting interferometric method

In this paper a digital holographic phase shifting interferometric method is used to characterize the graded index (GR-IN) optical fibers. Off-axis digital holographic Mach–Zehnder like arrangement in aid of phase shifting tool is applied. Numerical reconstruction of phase shifted holograms is applied to calculate the optical phase difference distribution in the image plane, and then the optical phase differences across GR-IN fibers are extracted considering image enhancement and noise reduction steps. Also, a simple algorithm is presented to modify the position of the extracted optical phase differences across the fibers to be perpendicular to x-axis, so that it becomes easy to calculate the mean optical phase differences along the fiber. The mean optical phase differences in combination with multilayer model are applied to calculate the refractive index profiles across GR-IN optical fibers. An analytical model is presented to predict the mode distribution associated with the effective indices and the propagation coefficient of the parabolic refractive index profile GR-IN fiber.     

Optical constants of thin oxide films on titanium

Thin oxide films on titanium formed by heating were studied by the ellipsometric method. To obtain the complex refractive index and film thicknesses, the ellipsometric measurements were performed by means of the immersing method: each sample was measured first in air and then in a liquid of known refractive index (in our case CCl₄). The optical constants and the oxide film thickness were computed by means of a computer from two pairs of ellipsometric values. To state the optical constants of clean titanium surface the graphic-computational method was proposed and applied. The measurements were carried out at two wavelengths on oxide films grown in air and dry oxygen by thermal oxidation at temperatures from 150 to 700 °C. It has been shown that when increasing the film thickness the refractive index of the film decreases, whereas the absorption coefficient is independent on the film thickness. Optical constants of oxide films growing in dry oxygen are smaller than those growing in air.     

The DRESOR method for radiative heat transfer in a one-dimensional medium with variable refractive index

This paper extends the DRESOR (Distribution of Ratios of Energy Scattered by the medium Or Reflected by the boundary surface) method to radiative transfer in a variable refractive index medium. In this method, the intensity is obtained from the source term along the curved integration paths determined only by the variable refractive index, and the DRESOR values are calculated by the Monte Carlo method in which the propagation of the energy bundles are affected by Snell's law. With given temperatures on the black boundaries of a one-dimensional medium, the temperature distribution inside the medium with a variable scattering property is calculated under the condition of radiative equilibrium. It is shown that the DRESOR method has a good accuracy in the cases studied. For an isotropic-scattering medium with the same optical thickness, the scattering albedo has no effect on the temperature distribution, which can be obtained from the general equations and can be seen as an extension of what exists for a constant refractive index; however, the different refractive index causes obvious changes in the temperatures inside the medium. The effect of anisotropic scattering on the temperature distribution cannot be ignored, although it is still weaker than the effect caused by variation in the refractive index.     

Ag-Na离子交换玻璃波导的折射率分布研究

用Ag-Na离子交换技术制备了玻璃平面波导.通过棱镜耦合技术测量了波导的模折射率,用反WKB方法拟合得到了平面波导的折射率分布为高斯分布.发现Ag-Na离子交换的扩散系数与交换时间有关,并且随着交换时间的增加而减小.使用随离子浓度变化的扩散系数求解扩散方程得到了玻璃内部Ag离子浓度分布,并通过SEM谱证实了求解的正确性;使用一次多项式模拟的方法求解折射率变化与Ag离子浓度变化之间的关系,得到了平面波导的折射率分布.与反WKB法只能获得多模离子交换平面波导的折射率分布相比,这种方法可以得到任意扩散时间下折射率变化与Ag离子浓度,可以获得单模平面波导的折射率分布.     

Calculation of optical constant of amorphous germanium arsenoselenide wedge-shaped thin films from their shrunk transmittance and reflectance spectra

The optical transmittance spectrum is influenced by inhomogeneities in germanium arsenoselenide thin films. The non-uniformity of thickness, found under the present deposition conditions, gives rise to a clear shrinking of the interference fringes of the transmittance spectrum at normal incidence. Inaccuracies and even serious errors occur if the refractive index and film thickness are calculated from such a shrunken transmittance spectrum, under the unrealistic assumption that the film is uniform. The analytical expressions proposed by Swanepoel [J. Phys. E. Sci. Instrum. 17 (1984) 896] enabled derivation of the refractive index and film thickness of a wedge-shaped thin film from its shrunk transmittance spectrum. This method was applied in this study making it possible to derive the refractive index and average thickness to an accuracy better than 1%. Dispersion of the refractive index is discussed in terms of the single-oscillator Wemple–DiDomenico model [Phys. Rev. B 3 (1971) 1338]. The absorption coefficient and, thus the extinction coefficient, can be calculated from transmittance and reflectance spectra in the strong absorption region. The optical energy gap is derived from Tauc's extrapolation [Amorphous and Liquid Semiconductor (Plenum Press, New York, 1974)]. The relationship between the optical gap and chemical composition in the Ge _x As_{30– x} Se₇₀ (with 0 ≤ x ≤ 30) amorphous system is discussed in terms of the chemical bond approach and cohesive energy.     

Experimental observation and numerical simulation of guided modes in Nd:YLiF4 channel waveguides produced by carbon ion implantation

We report on, to our knowledge the first time, the channel waveguide formation in Nd:YLiF₄ laser crystal produced by 6 MeV carbon ion implantation. The guided modes are observed by using an end‐face arrangement. We construct the two‐dimensional (2D) refractive index profile of the channel waveguide cross section, which is based on the related planar waveguide index distribution as well as the rectangular shape of the waveguide cross sections. The modal intensity distribution is numerically calculated by using the beam propagation method according to the reconstructed index profile, which shows a reasonable agreement with the experimental result. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)