Large deflection angle fan-out element based on dislocated grating array

We study the possibility of designing and fabricating a fan-out element based on a computer-generated hologram (CGH) which is capable of providing a large deflection angle without using excessively small CGH cells. The recent development of CGHs using dislocated grating arrays was employed to design the fan-out element. Experimental results show that a deflection angle of 41° was achieved using a CGH cell size of 10 μm×10 μm and an operating optical wavelength of 0.98 μm. Further experimental results and theoretical analysis are also presented in order to investigate the characteristics of this type of fan-out element.     

Determination of optical properties of aluminium including electron reradiation in the Lorentz-Drude model

The effect of electron reradiation was included in the Lorentz-Drude (LD) model and by applying the least-squares fitting method the values of the characteristic parameters (ω_p, Г, τ) of electrons in aluminium were determined. The values of these parameters allowed the determination of optical properties of aluminium for light of wavelengths λ[43.5 nm, 200 μm]. By including the reradiation of electrons the precision of the LD model has been increased in the infra-red region of wavelengths λ[1 μm, 200 μm]. In addition, the reradiation of electrons gives the square frequency dependence for damping frequency [Г′(ω) = Г +τω²], enabling the suitable application of the LD model in the broad range of wavelengths λ[43.5 nm, 200 μm]. It was estimated that the short wave limit at which the LD model can be used for aluminium occurs at about λ_min = 43.5 nm.     

衍射型长程大型非球面轮廓测量仪

分析了基于衍射准直技术的f-θ系统的特点，在此基础上提出了一种新型长程面形仪用以实现对大型非球面光学表面，特别是同步辐射中掠入射光学元件的高精度轮廓测量。成功地研制了样机，目前新型长程面形仪样机的纵向扫描范围可达370mm，分辨率优于0．25μrad，单点稳定性小于0．7μrad/200s，全程测量精度可达1．14μrad，全长扫描的重复精度为0．09μrad。样机测试结果表明，新型长程面形仪轮廓测量方案能够胜任对第三代及后继同步辐射光源中各种非球面光学元件的轮廓测量任务。     

Photo-operated two-photon absorption effects in the GeSe2–Ga2S3–PbI2 glasses

The possibility to operate the two-photon absorption (TPA) of newly synthesized GeSe₂–Ga₂S₃–PbI₂ glasses using the CO laser beam (λ=5.5 μm) as a photoinducing one has been demonstrated. As the fundamental laser beam we have used the illumination of 10.6 μm passively modulated 0.5 ns CO₂ laser with a rate repetition of about 10 Hz. We have established that the maximal photoinduced TPA is observed for the 8% doped samples (up to 14 cm/GW), which is achieved at a pump CO laser pump power density equal to about 0.6 GW/cm². The undoped PbI₂ samples show the TPA maximum at a pump power density of about 0.2 cm/GW. The minimal TPA values were observed for the samples with 5% of PbI₂. The obtained results show that these materials can be used as effective optically operated optical limiters.     

Determination of magnetic axes distribution in epitaxial Fe (0 0 1) micrometric squares by magneto optical technique

In-plane magneto optical hysteresis loops have been used to determine the magnetic axes distribution of crystalline Fe (0 0 1) micrometric squares of different sizes (2.5–10 μm) and separations (0.2 and 0.6 μm). The angular dependence of the magnetization at remanence shows the interplay between the anisotropy of the unpatterned Fe thin film and the anisotropies induced by the patterning process. A rich variety of behaviors are found when the arrays of squares are rotated with regard to the Fe main crystalline directions.     

Temperature dependence of luminescence time-resolved spectra from quartz

Pulsed optical stimulation of luminescence has been used to study the thermal dependence of luminescence lifetimes in quartz over the temperature range 20–200°C. Time-resolved spectra for lifetime analysis were recorded from samples of quartz over a dynamic range of 64 μs following stimulation of luminescence by pulsed 525 nm green light emitting diodes (LEDs) using an 11 μs pulse and 12% duty cycle. It has been demonstrated that an increase in measurement temperature generally leads to a decrease in lifetimes from about 30 μs at 20°C to about 7 μs at 200°C. The form of the decrease is influenced by the initial optical or thermal pre-treatment of samples.     

Theoretical calculations of a square multilayer Bragg–Fresnel lens by quantum theory

A theoretical method based on the quantum scattering theory is presented to evaluate the performances of a two-dimensional (2-D) focusing square multilayer Bragg–Fresnel lens. The numerical application results of the square multilayer Bragg–Fresnel lens working at 0.7 nm wavelength (W/Si 25 periods with a double layer thickness of 5.38 nm, the size of the diffraction pattern is about 291×291 μm, the size of the center square in the diffraction pattern is 21.4×21.4 μm, and the size of the smallest square in the diffraction pattern is 0.39×0.39 μm) are given. Our theoretical results are compared with the experimental results of the linear Bragg–Fresnel lens reported by other researchers; an analysis and a discussion are carried out regarding the advantages of an optical system based on the 2-D focusing square multilayer Bragg–Fresnel lens, in contrast to a Kirkpatrick–Baez optical system on the basis of a two-linear Bragg–Fresnel lens.     

Development of a 4–15 μm infrared GaAs hyperspectral QWIP imager

In the on-going evolution of GaAs quantum well infrared photodetectors (QWIPs) we have developed a four band, 640 × 512, 23 μm × 23 μm pixel array which we have subsequently integrated with a linear variable etalon (LVE) filter providing over 200 spectral bands across the 4–15.4 μm wavelength region. This effort was a collaboration between NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) sponsored by the Earth Science Technology Office of NASA. The QWIP array was fabricated by graded molecular beam epitaxial (MBE) growth that was specifically tailored to yield four distinct bands (FWHM): Band 1; 4.5–5.7 μm, Band 2; 8.5–10 μm, Band 3; 10–12 μm and Band 4; 13.3–14.8 μm. Each band occupies a swath that comprises 128 × 640 elements. The addition of the LVE (which is placed directly over the array) further divides the four “broad” bands into 209 separate spectral bands ranging in width from 0.02 μm at 5 μm to 0.05 μm at 15 μm. The detector is cooled by a mechanical cryocooler to 46 K. The camera system is a fully reflective, f/4.2, 3-mirror system with a 21° × 25° field of view. The project goals were: (1) develop the 4 band GaAs QWIP array; (2) develop the LVE and; (3) implement a mechanical cryocooler. This paper will describe the efforts and results of this undertaking with emphasis on the overall system characteristics.     

Multiple quantum well structures and high-power lasers of gaas- algaas grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE)1

GaAs/AlGaAs GRIN-SCH type multiple quantum well lasers with four wells of 11 nm GaAs, grown in an MOVPE chimney reactor, exhibit an output power as high as 110 mW/facet (CW, 30°C; 5 μm stripe) and 1.3 W/facet (pulsed, 30°C; 53 μm stripe) until catastrophic optical damage occurs. 2000 hours life tests conducted at 60°C and 15 mW CW show no noticeable degradation for the 5 μm stripe laser with a reflective coating on both facets. Raman spectroscopy on similar multiple quantum well structures with 65 GaAs wells is used to ascertain that the wells have minimum residual aluminum- content.     

Scattering by inhomogeneous particles: microwave analog experiments and comparison to effective medium theories

It is common practice to use effective medium theories (EMT) to estimate average, “effective” optical constants of inhomogeneous materials. A variety of EMTs were developed for different internal structures of the medium and for a variety of shapes, size distributions and physical properties of the inhomogeneities. The most popular EMTs (Maxwell Garnett, Bruggeman, Looyenga, etc.) consider inhomogeneities that are much smaller than the wavelength. The so-called extended EMTs were developed to find effective optical constants in the case of inhomogeneities comparable and slightly larger than the wavelength. This paper compares angular distribution and wavelength dependence of intensity and polarization of scattered light obtained from calculations using the most popular EMTs and extended EMTs with the results of microwave analog measurements at the microwave facilities of the University of Florida. We simulated the light scattering by organic grains with silicate inclusions of size parameter x=0.075 (≈0.01 μm), 0.60 (≈0.1 μm), and 1.24 (≈0.2 μm). The conclusion is that for inclusions of a small size and for a small volume fraction of them in the mixture all EMTs yield similar results and show reasonable agreement with experimental results. The accuracy is better for the angular dependencies of the intensity and of the polarization of the scattered light than for their wavelength dependencies. For inhomogeneities comparable and larger than the wavelength extended EMTs work better but for smaller inclusions non-extended EMTs show more accurate results. Large volume fractions of the inclusions in the mixture (>10%) essentially reduce the accuracy of the results obtained with EMTs. Based on our study we do not recommend to use EMTs in the back-scattering domain and at the scattering angles 30°<θ<70°.     

Measurements of light scattering by a characterized random rough surface

Measurements are presented of the angular distribution of four wavelengths of light scattered by a one-dimensional random rough surface, whose probability density function is Gaussian with a standard deviation σ=1.22±0.02 μm and whose lateral correlation function is also Gaussian with 1/e width τ=3.17±0.07 μm. The wavelengths used are 0.63, 1.15, 3.39 and 10.6 μm. The surface is used in two forms: coated with gold and as an almost lossless dielectric. The results are compared to those predicted by a double scattering form of the Kirchhoff formulation. Agreement is good at small angles of incidence but less good at larger angles of incidence.     

High-sensitivity, fiber-optic, flexural disk hydrophone with reduced acceleration response

A hydrophone consisting of a hollow cylinder whose flexible, circular end plates are bonded to pairs of pat, spiral wound coils of optical fiber is described. When the end plate/disk is deformed due to a pressure difference, the outer and inner fiber coils experience opposite strains resulting in a “push—pull” optical path length difference which is detected in an all-fiber Michelson interferometer. The close proximity of the interferometric fiber coils, separated by the thin thermally conducting end plate, rejects thermal gradient-induced signals. The addition of a second identical end plate and fiber coil pair at the opposite end of the cylinder will double the acoustic sensitivity while canceling acceleration induced signals. The calculated and measured optical strain of a single simply supported plate, single-coil sensor (8.0 cm diameter, 3.0 mm thickness) using static pressure, acoustic pressure, and acceleration are in good agreement and yield a sensitivity of 0.21 rad/Pa (ΔΦ/ΦΔP = -301 dB re I μPa-1) below its resonance frequency of 3 kHz. The calculated and measured strain for a dual clamped disk (4.5 cm diameter, 1.0 mm thickness) acceleration-canceling sensor with four 8-m coils are in good agreement also and yield a sensitivity of 1.0 rad/Pa (ΔΦ/ΦpΔP = -291 dB re 1 μPa^-1) below the disk resonance frequency of 4.5 kHz. These are the highest fiber-optic, omnidirectional hydrophone sensitivities reported to date.     

Two-wavelength speckle interferometry on rough surfaces using a mode hopping diode laser

Two measurements performed on rough surfaced objects are described in this paper. The first sample is a mechanical component with a rather difficult accessible surface to be measured. A two-wavelength krypton laser interferometer with an effective wavelength of 36.47 μm has been used. The second example is a convex surface of a ground lens. Here a mode hopping diode laser interferometer with an effective wavelength of 2·020 mm has been used.     

Megawatt peak power 8–13 μm CdSe optical parametric generator pumped at 2.8 μm

Infrared pulses, continuously tunable in the 8–13 μm range, and with up to 1 MW peak power, have been achieved using single-stage frequency conversion in a CdSe travelling-wave optical parametric generator, pumped by 100 ps pulses from an actively mode-locked, Q-switched and cavity dumped 2.8 μm Cr,Er:YSGG laser. The external quantum conversion efficiency reached 10%.     

Design and fabrication of compact 3-dB coupler in silicon-on-insulator

A novel compact 3-dB coupler is proposed and fabricated in silicon-on-insulator. The new coupler provides large output waveguide spacing of 125.0 μm with short device length of 867.0 μm and large cross-section of 6.0 × 4.0 μm. The device length can be remained essentially unchanged even when the output spacing is further enlarged to realize the complex applications in photonic integrated circuits. The fabricated device exhibits excess loss of 6.3 dB and low imbalance of 0.26 dB.     

Growth and laser properties of Nd:Ca4YO(BO3)3 crystal

Nd:Ca₄YO(BO₃)₃ (Nd:YCOB) crystal was grown by the Czochralski method, and its structure was measured by using a four circle X-ray diffractometer. The transparent spectrum from 200 to 2600 nm was measured at room temperature. The fluorescence spectrum near 1.06 μm showed that the main emission wavelength of Nd:YCOB crystal was centered at 1060.8 nm. Laser output at 1.06 μm has been demonstrated when it was pumped by a Ti:sapphire laser at the wavelength of 794 nm, the highest output power was 68 mW under pumping power of 311 mW, the pumping threshold was 163 mW and slope efficiency was 46.9%. The self-frequency doubled green light has been observed when it was pumped by a Ti:sapphire or a laser diode (LD). A 14.5 mm Nd:YCOB crystal sample cut at (θ, φ)=(90°, 33°) was used for type I second-frequency generation (SHG) of the 1.06 μm laser pulse. The SHG conversion efficiency was 22%.     

Extension of longwavelength IR photovoltaic detector operation to near room-temperatures

Practical realization of near room temperature (230–300 K) longwavelength (5–12 μm) photovoltaic detectors is reported. The devices are epitaxial n⁺ip photodiodes operated at ambient temperature or with a simple, two-stage thermoelectric cooling. The performance of the photodiodes has been improved by the use optimized composition and doping profile structures. The tunnel currents were minimized by interfacing the n⁺ and p-type layers with a thin (0.5 μm) lightly doped i-region. The quantum efficiency has been increased by the use of backside reflector. Further improvement of performance was achieved by the use of monolithic optical immersion. Large area devices with useful performance were obtained by the use of small close-spaced elements connected in series. The near room temperature photovoltaic detectors are of particular significance for very low and very high frequency applications.     

Crystal growth and characterisation of new organic nonlinear optical materials: 6-cyano and 6-nitro-2,2-dimethyl-3,4-epoxychroman

Two chiral organic nonlinear optical materials, (3S,4S)-(−)-6-cyano-2,2-dimethyl-3,4-epoxychroman (1) and (3R,4R)-(+)-6-nitro-2,2-dimethyl-3,4-epoxychroman (2), have been grown into single crystals of cm³-size. Although both compounds crystallise in the orthorhombic P2₁2₁2₁ space group, they are not isomorphous and their crystal packings are quite different. Angle tuned type II phase-matched second harmonic generation between 0.8 and 1.064 μm has been evidenced, with effective nonlinear coefficients d_eff of 1 and 5 pm/V at 0.96 μm for 1 and 2, respectively. These values are in agreement with those estimated in the oriented gas model approximation using EFISH first order hyperpolarisability values (β₀=2.6 and 4.0×10⁻³⁰ esu for 1 and 2, respectively).     

Imaging biological specimens with the confocal scanning laser microscope/macroscope

A new confocal scanning laser microscope/macroscope (cslm/M) has recently been developed. It combines in one instrument the high resolution capability of a confocal scanning beam microscope for imaging small specimens, with good resolution confocal imaging of macroscopic specimens. Some of its main features include: (a) 0.25 μm lateral resolution in the microscope mode and 5 μm lateral resolution in the macroscope mode; (b) a field of view that can vary from 25 μm × 25 μm to 75,000 μm × 75,000 μm; (c) capability for acquiring large data sets from 512 × 512 pixels to 2048 × 2048 pixels; (d) 0.5 μm depth resolution in the microscope mode and 200 μm depth resolution in the macroscope mode.

In this work the cslm/M was used to image whole biological specimens (> 5 m diameter), including insects which are ideal specimens for the macroscope. Specimens require no preparation, unlike scanning electron microscope (SEM) specimens which require a conductive coating. The specimens described in this paper are too large to be imaged in their entirety by a scanning beam laser microscope, however they can be imaged by slower scanning stage microscopes. In the macroscope mode the cslm/M was used to acquire a large number (e.g. 20–40) of confocal image slices which were then used to reconstruct a three-dimensional image of the specimen. High resolution images were collected by the cslm/M by switching to the microscope mode where high numerical aperture (NA) objectives were used to image a small area of interest. Reflected-light and fluorescence images of plant and insect specimens are presented which demonstrate the morphological details obtained in various imaging modes. A process for three-dimensional visualization of the data is described and images are shown.     

Single-mode rib polymer waveguides and electro-optic polymer waveguide switches

Mode-matching and effective index methods are used to analyze single-mode operation of optical rib polymer waveguides. Their single-mode waveguiding conditions are determined. Single-mode rib waveguides fabricated from guest–host polyetherketone are presented. The estimated propagation loss of straight rib-waveguides is 0.7 dB/cm at 1.55 μm. Furthermore, by using the mode field-transfer matrix method, 2×2 and 4×4 polymer Mach–Zehnder interference switch operating at 1.55 μm wavelength has been designed based on optical multi-mode interference.