Optical nonlinearity measurement of 4-(N-methyl, N-hydroxyethl)amino, 4'-nitroazobenzene using a transmittance technique with a phase object (T-PO) with top-hat beams at 600-nm wavelength

The transmittance technique with a phase object(T-PO),for measuring optical nonlinear coefficients is proposed with a top-hat beam.The sensitivity of the T-PO with a top-hat beam is a factor of 4 greater than that with a Gaussian beam.The validity of this method is verified by measuring the nonlinearity of a well-characterized liquid,CS 2 at 532-nm wavelength.The ease of use of this method has been proved by measuring a new compound 4-(N-methyl,N-hydroxyethyl)amino,4’-nitroazobenzene(ANAB) at 600-nm wavelength,indicating that this method can be extended to the measurement of optical nonlinearities in a wide-band spectrum.     

Instantaneous electron beam emittance measurement system based on the optical transition radiation principle

One kind of instantaneous electron beam emittance measurement system based on the optical transition radiation principle and double imaging optical method has been set up. It is mainly adopted in the test for the intense electron-beam produced by a linear induction accelerator. The system features two characteristics. The first one concerns the system synchronization signal triggered by the following edge of the main output waveform from a Blumlein switch. The synchronous precision of about 1 ns between the electron beam and the image capture time can be reached in this way so that the electron beam emittance at the desired time point can be obtained. The other advantage of the system is the ability to obtain the beam spot and beam divergence in one measurement so that the calculated result is the true beam emittance at that time, which can explain the electron beam condition. It provides to be a powerful beam diagnostic method for a 2.5 kA, 18.5 MeV, 90 ns （FWHM） electron beam pulse produced by Dragon I. The ability of the instantaneous measurement is about 3 ns and it can measure the beam emittance at any time point during one beam pulse. A series of beam emittances have been obtained for Dragon I. The typical beam spot is 9.0 mm （FWHM） in diameter and the corresponding beam divergence is about 10.5 mrad.     

Optimal beam diameter for lateral optical forces on microspheres at a water-air interface

Optical tweezers with a low numerical aperture microscope objective is used to manipulate the microspheres at the water-air interface. In this letter, we determine the optimal optical trap for the lateral manipulation of microspheres at a water-air interface. The experimental results show that the trapping force is influenced by the expansion of the trapping beam at the back aperture of the objective. The optimal filling ratio of 0.65 is suggested for lateral optical manipulation at the water-air interface. The lateral trapping forces at the water-air interface are theoretically investigated with the ray-optics model. The numerical results show that the lateral trapping forces can be changed by shrinking the diameter of the trapping laser beam. The numerical results are in accordance with the experimental results.     

Study on silicon micro-resonators by using a novel optical excitation and detection apparatus

A novel optical excitation and detection apparatus was used to investigate the characteristics of silicon micro-resonators, which was activated into vibration by a laser beam irradiation. The beam diameter of the excitation light was less than 10 μm. The vibration amplitude of the resonator was detected by the interferometer with high resolution of 0.1 nm and measurement repeatability of less than 3 nm. The resonant frequency of the micro-resonator was obtained to be 8.75 kHz with full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of 0.18 kHz. It is shown that the method is useful and reliable for measuring micro-displacement and micro-vibration of minute objects with nanometer accuracy.     

High-power high-brightness 2-μm continuous wave laser with a double-end diffusion-bonded Tm, Ho：YVO4 crystal

This letter demonstrates an efficient high-power high-brightness 2-μm continuous-wave （CW） laser with double-end, diffusion-bonded Tm, Ho：YVO4 crystal cooled with liquid N2. The reduction in thermal stress in the composite Tm, Ho：YVO4 rod enabled the laser to achieve a laser output power of 23.4 W at 2.05 μm, which is 1.37 times higher than that of the non-composite Tm, Ho：YVO4 rod. The corresponding slope efficiency is 37.3% and the optical optical conversion efficiency is 35.4%. The beam quality M2 factor is about 1.85 at 20 W output level with circularly symmetric beam spot.     

Fresnel incoherent correlation hologram—— a review （Invited Paper）

Holographic imaging offers a reliable and fast method to capture the complete three-dimensional （3D） information of the scene from a single perspective. We review our recently proposed single-channel optical system for generating digital Fresnel holograms of 3D real-existing objects illuminated by incoherent light. In this motionless holographic technique, light is reflected, or emitted from a 3D object, propagates through a spatial light modulator （SLM）, and is recorded by a digital camera. The SLM is used as a beamsplitter of the single-channel incoherent interferometer, such that each spherical beam originated from each object point is split into two spherical beams with two different curve radii. Incoherent sum of the entire interferences between all the couples of spherical beams creates the Fresnel hologram of the observed 3D object. When this hologram is reconstructed in the computer, the 3D properties of the object are revealed.     

Spectral Shaping in Rapid Scanning Optical Delay Line of Optical Coherence Tomography

A small spatial optical filter is put into the rapid-scanning optical delay line (RSOD) to shape the spectrum of the reference beam in optical coherence tomography (OCT). The experimental results show that the longitudinal resolution can be improved by a factor of 81% with this method, while at the same time, the signal-to-noise ratio of the OCT system is not much affected. This method can be used in OCT systems that use RSOD as the reference arm with a light source of superluminescent diodes, femtosecond lasers and crystal fibre as well.     

Deceleration of a continuous-wave （CW） molecular beam with a single quasi-CW semi-Gaussian laser beam

We propose a promising scheme to decelerate a CW molecular beam by using a red-detuned quasi-cw semi-Gaussian laser beam （SGB）. We study the dynamical process of the deceleration for a CW deuterated ammonia （ND3） molecular beam by Monte-Carlo simulation method. Our study shows that we can obtain a ND3 molecular beam with a relative average kinetic energy loss of about 10% and a relative output molecular number of more than 90% by using a single quasi-cw SGB with a power of 1.5kW and a maximum optical well depth of 7.33mK.     

Propagation of light in （2＋1）-dimensional nonlinear optical media with spatially inhomogeneous nonlinearities

The （2＋1）-dimensional nonlinear SchrSdinger （NLS） equation with spatially inhomogeneous nonlinearities is investigated, which describes propagation of light in （2＋1）-dimensional nonlinear optical media with inhomogeneous nonlinearities. New types of optical modes and nonlinear effects in optical media are presented numerically. The results reveal that the regular split of beam can be obtained in （2＋1）-dimensional nonlinear optical media with inhomogeneous nonlinearities, by adjusting the guiding parameter. Furthermore, the stability of beam regular split is discussed numerically, and the results reveal that the beam regular split is stable to the finite initial perturbations.     

Optimized guided mode resonant structure as thermooptic sensor and liquid crystal tunable filter

Applicability of guided mode resonant structures to tunable optical filtering and sensing is demonstrated using nematic liquid crystals. As a sensor, a minimum refractive index detectivity of 10^-5 is demonstrated while as a tunable filter, tunability range of few tens of nanometers with 2-nm bandwidth is presented. The optimum design is achieved by maximizing the evanescent field region in the analyte which maximizes the overlap integral. The device can be operated in reflection or transmission modes at normal incidence. It can also be operated at a single wavelength by measuring the angular profile of the light beam.     

Study on silicon micro-resonators by using a novel optical excitation and detection apparatus

A novel optical excitation and detection apparatus was used to investigate the characteristics of silicon micro-resonators, which was activated into vibration by a laser beam irradiation. The beam diameter of the excitation light was less than 10 μm. The vibration amplitude of the resonator was detected by the interferometer with high resolution of 0.1 nm and measurement repeatability of less than 3 nm. The resonant frequency of the micro-resonator was obtained to be 8.75 kHz with full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of 0.18 kHz. It is shown that the method is useful and reliable for measuring micro-displacement and micro-vibration of minute objects with nanometer accuracy.     

Splitting the surface wave in metal/dielectric nanostructures

We investigate a modified surface wave splitter with a double-layer structure, which consists of symmetrical metallic grating and an asymmetrical dielectric, using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation method. The metal/dielectric interface structure at this two-side aperture can support bound waves of different wavelengths, thus guiding waves in opposite directions. The covered dielectric films play an important role in the enhancement and confinement of the diffraction wave by the waveguide modes. The simulation result shows that the optical intensities of the guided surface wave at wavelengths of 760-nm and 1000-nm are about 100 times and 4～5 times those of the weaker side, respectively, which means that the surface wave is split by the proposed device.     

Solvent-vapour treatment induced performance enhancement of amplified spontaneous emission based on poly[2-methoxy-5-（2＇-ethyl-hexyloxy）-l, 4-phenylene vinylene]

In this work, performance enhancements of amplified spontaneous emission （ASE） from poly[2-methoxy-5-（2＇- ethyl-hexyloxy）-l,4-phenylene vinylene] （MEH-PPV） have been achieved via solvent vapour treatment. Correlations between the morphology of the film and the optical performance of polymer-based ASE are investigated. The active layers are characterised by atomic force microscopy and optical absorption. The results show that the solvent-vapour treatment can induce the MEH-PPV self-organisation into an ordered structure with a smooth surface, leading to enhanced optical gain. Thus the solvent-vapour treatment is a good method for improving the optical properties of the MEH-PPV.     

Static recording characteristics of new type super-resolution near-field structure

A novel super-resolution near-field optical structure (super-RENS) with bismuth (Bi) mask layer is proposed in this paper. Static optical recording tests with and without super-RENS are carried out using a 650-nm semiconductor laser at recording powers of 14 and 7 mW with pulse duration of 100 ns. The recording marks are observed by high-resolution optical microscopy with a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera. The results show that the Bi mask layer can also concentrate energy into the center of a laser beam at low laser power similar to the traditional Sb mask layer. The results above are further confirmed by another Ar~+ laser system. The third-order nonlinear response induced by the plasma oscillation at the Bi/SiN interface during laser irradiation can be used to explain the phenomenon. The calculation results are basically consistent with our experimental results.     

Instantaneous electron beam emittance measurement system based on the optical transition radiation principle

One kind of instantaneous electron beam emittance measurement system based on the optical transition radiation principle and double imaging optical method has been set up. It is mainly adopted in the test for the intense electron-beam produced by a linear induction accelerator. The system features two characteristics. The first one concerns the system synchronization signal triggered by the following edge of the main output waveform from a Blumlein switch. The synchronous precision of about 1 ns between the electron beam and the image capture time can be reached in this way so that the electron beam emittance at the desired time point can be obtained. The other advantage of the system is the ability to obtain the beam spot and beam divergence in one measurement so that the calculated result is the true beam emittance at that time, which can explain the electron beam condition. It provides to be a powerful beam diagnostic method for a 2.5 kA, 18.5 MeV, 90 ns (FWHM) electron beam pulse produced by Dragon I. The ability of the instantaneous measurement is about 3 ns and it can measure the beam emittance at any time point during one beam pulse. A series of beam emittances have been obtained for Dragon I. The typical beam spot is 9.0 mm (FWHM) in diameter and the corresponding beam divergence is about 10.5 mrad.     

Nonlinear optical properties of [（CH3）4N]Au（dmit）2 using Z-scan technique

The third-order optical nonlinearities of [（CH3）4N]Au（dmit）2 （dmit = 4,5-dithiolate-1,3-dithiole-2-thione） at 532 nm and 1064 nm are investigated using the Z-scan technique with pulses of picoseconds duration. The Z-scan spectra reveal a strong nonlinear absorption （reverse saturable absorption） and a negative nonlinear refraction at 532 nm. No nonlinear absorption is observed at 1064 nm. The molecular second-order hyperpolarizability γ for the [（CH3）4N]Au（dmit）2 molecule at 532nm is estimated to be as high as （2.1 ±0.1） × 10^-31 esu, which is nearly three times larger than that at 1064 nm. The mechanism responsible for the difference between the results is analysed. Nonlinear transmission measurements suggest that this material has potential applications in optical limiting.     

Monte Carlo simulation of photon migration path in turbid media

A new method of Monte Carlo simulation is developed to simulate the photon migration path in a scattering medium after an ultrashort-pulse laser beam comes into the medium.The most probable trajectory of photons at an instant can be obtained with this method.How the photon migration paths are affected by the optical parameters of the scattering medium is analyzed.It is also concluded that the absorption coefficient has no effect on the most probable trajectory of photons.     

Modal Characterization of a Planar Waveguide in Bismuth Borate Crystal

We report on the fabrication and modal property studies of planar waveguide structure in x-cut bismuth borate biaxial crystal formed by He ion implantation with triple energies. The prism coupling method is used to measure the effective refractive indices of this waveguide. We reconstruct the refractive index distribution of this waveguide by the reflectivity calculation method. Our results indicate that a broadened optical barrier is produced by the multiple He ion implantations. The so-called tunneling effect of the non-stationary mode in this type of barrier waveguide is presented by the well-known finite difference beam propagation method.     

Angular Distribution of the 12C（6He, 7Li）nB Reaction

Angular distribution of the 12C（6He, 7Li）llB transfer reaction is measured with a secondary 6He beam of 36.4 MeV for the first time. The experimental angular distribution is well reproduced by the distorted-wave Born approxima- tion （DWBA） calculation. The success of the present experiment shows that it is feasible to measure one-nucleon transfer reaction on a light nucleus target with the secondary beam facility of the 1-11-13 tandem accelerator at China Institute of Atomic Energy （CIAE）, Beijing.     

Optical switching based on the manipulation of microparticles in a colloidal liquid using strong scattering force

This paper demonstrates the realization of an optical switch by optically manipulating a large number of polystyrene spheres contained in a capillary.The strong scattering force exerted on polystyrene spheres with a large diameter of 4.3 μm is employed to realize the switching operation.A transparent window is opened for the signal light when the polystyrene spheres originally located at the beam centre are driven out of the beam region by the strong scattering force induced by the control light.The switching dynamics under different incident powers is investigated and compared with that observed in the optical switch based on the formation of optical matter.It is found that a large extinction ratio of ～ 30 dB and fast switching-on and switching-off times can be achieved in this type of switch.