Near-field scanning optical microscopy studies of thin film surfaces and interfaces

In this article, the results of the modeling of topography related artifacts appearing in near-field scanning optical microscopy measurements are presented. The results obtained for near-field scanning optical microscope operation in reflection mode with off-axis far field detector position are compared with experimental results. It is shown that the chosen numerical method - Finite Difference in Time Domain method (FDTD) - can be used for efficient modeling of main topography related artifact. It is also seen that the far field detector position can have large influence on the resulting reflection mode optical images.     

平面光波导结构的FDTD分析

将各向异性理想匹配层(APML)吸收边界条件用于平面光波导结构的时域有限差分法(FDTD)分析中,导出了APML媒质中适用于角域和边缘的通用差分方程,并对平行介质带定向耦合器进行了数值模拟和验证,所得数值解与解析解非常一致.该方法可用于任意复杂结构的平面光波导的计算机辅助设计与分析.     

Local order in light emitting porous silicon studied by XEOL and TEY

The local structure of porous silicon has been studied exciting its optical luminescence by X-rays (XEOL). The photoluminescence yield and the total electron yield (TEY), recorded simultaneously as a function of the X-ray energy at the Si K edge, give rise to the extended X-ray absorption fine structures (EXAFS). Analysis of EXAFS data confirms that the optical luminescence of porous Si originates from the nanocrystalline cores and shows that XEOL–EXAFS and TEY–EXAFS are sensitive to different Si local environment. It can be assumed that XEOL–EXAFS is related only to the light emitting sites while TEY–EXAFS is sampling both luminescent and non-luminescent Si sites.     

Radiation-induced nonlinear optical response of quartz fibers

The intensity of radiation-induced luminescence and transient optical losses in KU-1 (Russia) and K-3 (Japan) quartz glass optical tibers irradiated in a fast pulsed fission reactor (a pulse duration of 80 μs and a neutron flux up to 7 × 10¹⁶ cm^–2 s^–2) has been measured in the visible range. The intensity of the fast luminescence component nonlinearly depends on the neutron flux. The luminescence intensity and the transient optical losses depend on the probe light intensity. Suppression of radiation-induced luminescence is observed at wavelengths that are longer or shorter than the probe light wavelength. Light probing leads to an increase in transient optical losses and a more rapid recovery of transparency. A model of two photon fluxes is proposed to analyze the relationship of the effects of suppression of radiation-induced luminescence and the increase in optical losses upon light probing. The effect of suppression of radiation-induced luminescence can be used to control the optical properties of fibers in radiation fields.     

Luminescent properties of Tb~(3+)-doped poly(methyl methacrylate) fiber

Lanthanide-doped polymers are very attractive, since they can be used for luminescent optical fiber fabrications.This Letter presents the terbium-ions-doped poly(methyl methacrylate) fiber fabrication and spectroscopic characterization. The measured excited state(5D4) lifetime of 0.741 ms confirms that a used organometallic can be used to obtain an intense luminescence in a polymeric fiber. The luminescence spectrum shape modification versus the fiber length is also investigated.     

Mueller matrices in fluorescence scattering

A reappraisal of the 1929 analysis of luminescence by Soleillet reveals the form of the Mueller matrix for fluorescence scattering whose parameters are directly defined in terms of the now-familiar fluorescence anisotropy parameter. If the scattering analyte is optically active, it is further shown how fluorescence detected circular dichroism and circularly polarized luminescence can be recovered, simultaneously and free of artifacts.     

BOR-FDTD analysis of nonlinear Fiber Bragg grating and distributed Bragg resonator

Recently, nonlinear materials have attracted a great deal of attention because of their importance in designing new devices to meet a need range of optical systems. An intense investigation of the possibility of using these materials for all optical ultrafast applications is achieved by allowing their dielectric characteristics to be varied in such a way that a periodic perturbation of their refractive index along the length of the waveguide will be formed. The Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method, on the other hand, has been proven to be one of the most powerful numerical techniques that are usefully applied to a wide range of optical devices. In this paper, a FDTD technique, developed for nonlinear structures, is used to analyze a nonlinear waveguide and periodic nonlinear structures that exhibit attractive properties that make them suitable for novel devices with wavelength tunable characteristics. More specifically, the Bodies of Revolution (BOR) FDTD numerical simulation method will be used to model the fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) and the direct integration method will be employed to include the effect of Self Phase Modulation (SPM) in this model. The combination of these techniques will result in a model that is used to analyze two different types of periodic nonlinear structure, FBG and Distributed Bragg Resonator (DBR). The nonlinear effect provides the designer an added degree of design flexibility for devices with wavelength tunable characteristics, for example, in the design of tunable filters, WDM systems and optical sensors.     

色散金属光学特性分析通用时域有限差分方法

结合数字信号处理中的半解析递归卷积(SARC)算法,提出一种用于金属光学特性分析的改进半解析递归时域有限差分方法(SARC FDTD)。该方法保持了SARC算法的绝对稳定性和高精度、低内存等优点,又利用梯形近似使FDTD递推公式更加简洁,计算效率进一步提高,对于各种常用金属色散模型,均只需给出模型的极点和对应的系数,即可运用该算法的程序进行计算,具有较好的通用性。最后,通过金属的高阶Lorentz,Drude-Lorentz和Drude-CP三种常用色散模型对算法进行了验证。     

非晶碳化硅材料与光学微腔的制备与发光

利用等离子体化学气相沉积技术在100℃的衬底温度下,制备了具有不同组分比的系列非晶碳化硅薄膜。结合傅里叶变换红外光谱与喇曼光谱对所制备的薄膜微结构进行了表征与分析,同时,对具有不同组分比的非晶碳化硅薄膜室温光致发光性质进行了系统的研究。结果表明在Ar⁺离子激光和Xe灯紫外光的激发下,不同组分的样品显示出不同的光致发光特性,并对样品的发光特性与其微结构的联系进行了讨论。在此基础上,用碳化硅薄膜设计和制备了全固体光学微腔,研究了微腔对碳化硅发光行为的调制作用。     

侧墙倾斜的水平半导体/空气分布布喇格反射器的设计

时域有限差分(FDTD)法计算表明,在常规的水平半导体/空气分布布喇格反射器(DBR)设计中为了得到高反射率,DBR中侧墙与衬底垂直非常重要。对于GaN基材料DBR侧墙如果有3°的倾斜,反射率将下降到30%左右,然而在实验上很难得到侧墙与衬底垂直的GaN基DBR结构。考虑到侧墙倾斜问题我们提出了新的DBR设计方法,采用这种方法即使DBR侧墙有较大的倾斜也可以得到高的反射率。设计的关键是在侧墙倾斜的情况下保持每个DBR周期光程差与垂直情况下一致,根据光的干涉原理我们给出了详细的解释。     

Mie scattering calculation by FDTD employing a modified Debye model for Gold material

The parameters calculation for the modified Debye model in the electromagnetic finite difference time domain (FDTD) method is discussed. Validation for the selected parameters is done comparing the FDTD results with the Mie analytical solutions of a gold nanometer sphere under an optical plane wave incidence. Good agreement with an average relative error 6.7% has been demonstrated as to total electrical field amplitudes on the surface of the gold sphere. It indicates FDTD could be adopted in the optical region for a material even with a negative real relative permittivity particularly as metals.     

一种用于细胞操作的单光纤光镊研究

采用一种抛物线形光纤针作为基本器件,设计制作了单光纤光镊系统.用时域有限差分（Finite Difference Time Domain,FDTD）的方法仿真了抛物线型光纤探针的出射场,并在稳态场下通过对麦克斯韦应力张量积分求出不同介质球半径和折射率情况下,介质球受到的横向和纵向光作用力.实验中此单光纤光镊系统实现了对水中酵母细胞的空间捕获,并且结合两个抛物线形光纤针实现了酵母细胞在两个光势阱中的转移交接.这种单光纤光镊系统结构简单、紧凑,操纵灵活,便于调整.可以适应更多的生物细胞和生物分子的光微操作需求.     

近场光学虚拟光探针的数值分析

虚拟光探针是基于近场光学隐失场干涉原理产生的一种非实体探针，可以应用于近场光学超高密度存储、纳米光刻、近场光学成像、光谱探测、纳米样品的近场光学操作等领域。本研究采用三维时间域有限差分（FDTD）方法对近场光学虚拟光探针的光场分布特性进行了数值模拟计算和比较，分析了孔的形状、大小及偏振态等因素对虚拟光探针光场分布的影响，研究结果表明虚拟光探针的通光效率较普通的纳米孔径光纤探针提高10^2-10^4倍；其光场分布的中间峰的半峰全宽（即虚拟光探针的尺寸）在一定距离范围内基本保持不变，从而可以解决近场光学系统中纳米间距控制的难题，避免光学头与介质的磁撞。优化虚拟光探针的设计参量能有效的抑制虚拟光探针中的旁瓣。文章还给出了应用虚拟探针实现高密度光存储的原理方案。     

Near-IR Luminescent Rare Earth Ion–Sensitizer Complexes

Rare earth ions, with relatively long luminescence lifetimes, have significant advantages for application in fields as varied as diagnostics and optical amplification. In diagnostics the long luminescence lifetimes allow for extremely sensitive time-gated detection, where the difference in temporal behavior of scatter and background fluorescence and the long-lived rare earth luminescence is utilized. In optical amplification the long excited-state lifetime makes it easier to obtain population inversion, a requirement for effective stimulated emission. Unfortunately the absorption cross section of rare earth ion transitions is extremely low. However, via sensitized excitation by means of a suitable organic molecule, efficient excitation is obtained. It is shown that excitation in the visible part of the spectrum can be used to excite rare earth ions which luminesce in the near-IR, such as ytterbium, neodymium, and erbium, via a fluorescein-derivative as sensitizer. The advantages of this approach are manifold. Low-cost light sources are available for the visible part of the spectrum, and interferences from the matrix (scatter, absorption) are minimal. Detection in the near-IR is almost interference-free. For optical amplification the wavelength regions around 1300 and 1550 nm, which can be covered with the neodymium and erbium complexes, respectively, are the most important for applications in optical telecommunication.     

Synthesis, surface morphology, and optical and structural properties of CdS and ZnS nanoparticles

Synthesis of CdS and ZnS nanoparticles in reverse micelles and organic solvents has been carried out. Particles with a hexagonal structure 2–5 nm in size are formed during synthesis. Maintaining the reaction mixture at room temperature leads to the formation of nanoparticles with a cubic structure 100–150 nm in size. The changes in the optical properties of CdS and ZnS nanoparticles, depending on the synthesis method and conditions and on the precursors used, have been investigated. The luminescence characteristics of local surface defects of nanoparticles depend weakly on nanoparticle sizes. The dependence of the fluorescence and phosphorescence intensity of nanoparticle surface defects on the polarity of surrounding solution is demonstrated; thus, these particles can be used as polarity indicators.     

电子俘获材料SrS:Eu,Sm,Er的光谱特性和光存储特性

提出一种Er3+改进的电子俘获光存储材料SrS∶Eu0.002,Sm0.002,Erx,其中,0≤x≤0.006。通过水热反应,研究了不同退火温度对荧光粉晶相形成的影响,以及不同含量的Er3+对荧光粉的发光性质以及光存储特性的影响。结果表明,Er3+的引入导致荧光增强及光存储特性提高。当Er3+的摩尔分数x=0.003时,荧光强度、光激励发光强度及光存储量出现最大值,分别为不含Er3+时的1.9倍、2倍和3.5倍。同时,Er3+的掺入不改变样品的晶体结构和衰减特性。     

On the potential for molecular imaging with Cerenkov luminescence

Recent observation of optical luminescence due to beta decay from suitable radiotracers has led to the possible development of new preclinical optical imaging methods. The generation of photons that can be detected using instrumentation optimized for bioluminescence imaging has been putatively associated with the Cerenkov effect. We describe the simultaneous utilization of fluorescence reporters to convert Cerenkov luminescence to longer wavelengths for better tissue penetration and also for modulating the luminescence spectrum for potential molecular imaging strategies.     

Four-channel optical demultiplexer based on hexagonal photonic crystal ring resonators

In this paper, photonic crystal ring resonators with hexagonal lattice structure are used to design a four-channel optical demultiplexer. The structure size, the average transfer coefficient, the quality factor, and the channel spacing are equal to 424.5 µm², 95.8%, 1943, and 2 nm, respectively. The average crosstalk is also computed to be ?18.11 dB. In this study, the plane wave expansion (PWE) and finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) methods are used, respectively, to characterize the photonic bandgap and to investigate the optical behavior of the structure. The proposed design can be used in dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) systems.     

Deep levels of nitrogen vacancy complexes in graphite-like boron nitride

This paper presents the results of a theoretical study of deep nitrogen vacancy levels and of small clusters of nitrogen di-and trivacancies, including the nearest neighbor defects in one layer of graphite-like boron nitride, made using the model-pseudopotential and supercell methods. The calculated spectra and oscillator strengths were used to interpret the local bands of optical absorption, luminescence, and photoconductivity in pyrolytic boron nitride before and after irradiation by fast neutrons, protons, and carbon ions (50–150 keV). The shallow activation levels of thermally stimulated luminescence and conductivity existing before and arising after irradiation were identified.     

Influence of hot-carrier luminescence from avalanche photodiodes on time-correlated photon detection

We present the results of our time-resolved measurements of hot-carrier luminescence from passively quenched Geiger-mode avalanche photodiodes. In time-correlated photon-counting (TCPC) experiments, hot-carrier luminescence interferes overwhelmingly with the coincidence spectrum, which results in artifacts. This potential problem should be taken into account in setting up TCPC experiments.