Collimation method using fourier imaging and moire techniques

Two techniques are proposed for beam collimation with the Talbot interferometer. One is called the mismatch method in which two gratings with slightly different periods are used. In the other method (called the grating shift method), one of two gratings of the same period is shifted in its plane in the direction perpendicular to the grating lines.     

Automated collimation testing in Lau interferometry using phase shifting technique

We demonstrate an automated procedure for detection of collimation position of an incoherent beam in Lau interferometry using phase shifting technique. The experimental arrangement consists of a Lau-based interferometer in which light from a source grating illuminates a set of two coarse gratings separated by self-imaging distance. Phase shifting procedure is incorporated by translating the detector grating, corresponding to different positions of the collimating lens. The phase map is plotted corresponding to each position. The slope of the phase map is indicative of the collimation position of the optical beam. The technique is fully automatic and provides good accuracy and high precision.     

Collimation testing using a circular Dammann grating

A novel technique for collimation testing with a circular Dammann grating is proposed. When the beam under test is incident on a one-order circular Dammann grating with limited aperture, double-humped radial rings will be generated at the back focal plane of a focusing lens. If the beam is collimated, the separation between the two rings will reach its minimal, otherwise the two rings will be apart from each other. Therefore, the degree of collimation of the tested beam can be estimated from the separation. The principle and experimental results of the method are presented. Owing to the simplicity and low cost of the method, it is a promising method for quickly checking the collimation of a laser beam.     

Zemax软件在取样光栅对设计中的应用

 光束取样光栅(BSG)是一种重要的用于光束取样诊断的衍射光学元件。以2块取样光栅代替单块光栅作为初始光学结构,运用Zemax光学设计软件采用分步优化的方法设计了具有消像差功能的光栅对结构,此方法比采用Matlab语言编程计算的方法消像差更快捷、更灵活,同时可以验证程序计算结果的正确性。设计结果显示：再现的会聚光经2块光栅衍射后在像平面上点列图中的均方根半径仅为0.506μm,单块取样光栅的均方根半径则为7.284μm,说明2块光栅能够做到像差互相矫正,其像质明显好于单块取样光栅。另外,设计出的双光栅光学系统,可进行远场光斑质量检测,为激光束性能的在线诊断提供了行之有效的技术支持。     

A novel raster-scanning method to fabricate ultra-fine cross-gratings for the generation of electron beam moiré fringe patterns

The resolution of the electron beam moiré method depends on the line frequency of the grating. Recently, more and more effort has been devoted to increase the frequency, and a novel method for producing high-resolution electron beam gratings is presented in this work. Cross-gratings with a frequency up to 14,832 lines/mm (67 nm pitch) were successfully fabricated using a common scanning electron microscope without a dedicated pattern generation system. The quality of the grating was high enough to produce high-quality moiré fringe patterns. In this method, the ultra-fine cross-grating can be fabricated only through one-directional scanning on the resist, which can improve the grating quality and significantly reduces the fabrication time. The number of control parameters for grating fabrication could be reduced to two compared to the six parameters required by conventional methods, which facilitates the use of the electron beam moiré method. The frequency of the fabricated grating is linearly proportional to the exposure magnification. Thus, the frequency of the grating can be accurately predetermined, and the null field can be easily obtained in the electron beam moiré method. The quality of the fabricated gratings was illustrated by the obtained micrographs and moiré fringe patterns. The full-field local strain near an induced crack was studied to verify the application potential of this method.     

Unified design of wavelength-independent deep-etched fused-silica gratings

We present a unified design of wavelength-independent deep-etched fused-silica gratings as polarizing beam splitters and polarization-independent two-port beam splitters by using the simplified modal method. By defining unified grating parameters as the ratio of incident wavelength to grating period and the ratio of groove depth to grating period, unified grating structures are found to be approximately wavelength-independent, which is based on the modal view of the accumulated phase difference of two excited propagating grating modes. Diffraction efficiencies given by the rigorous coupled-wave analysis (RCWA) verified this unified design at the wavelength of 1064 nm. It should be noted that this unified design of wavelength-independent gratings is an analytic result, which is impossible to be derived with the well-known numerical RCWA. Modal method is powerful and presents a clear physical picture for us to obtain this unified design. Therefore, this unified design can be used as a general guideline for designing deep-etched fused-silica gratings as beam splitters for practical applications from ultraviolet to near infrared.     

Dynamic studies of holographic gratings in dye-doped liquid-crystal films

The dynamic behavior of a holographic grating induced in a homeotropically aligned dye-doped liquid-crystal film is investigated. In the presence of an applied dc voltage, photoexcited azo dyes induce a photorefractive grating and then diffuse and are adsorbed onto cell substrates. The reorientation of liquid crystals as a result of adsorbed dyes leads to a phase grating that is phase shifted 90 degrees from the photorefractive grating. Competition of these two gratings induces two-beam coupling of the writing beams, initially transferring energy from beam 1 to beam 2 and then, after a pause, from beam 2 to beam 1.     

The design of a polarizing beam splitter made from a dielectric rectangular-groove grating

It has been reported that a polarizing beam splitter based on a rectangular-groove grating (a grating polarizing beam splitter) can be easily designed for specific applications using the modal method. In this paper, the eigenvalue equation of the modal method is transformed to a new form. Using this new form of the eigenvalue equation, it is shown that the design of a grating polarizing beam splitter can be independent of the incident wavelength. The period and the groove depth can be designed using values normalized to the incident wavelength, which apply to a range of wavelengths as long as the effects of dispersion can be neglected. Numerical simulations of fused silica gratings are presented and analyzed. It is concluded that the preferable choice for the grating period is 0.8–0.9 times the incident wavelength.     

Beam splitting, combining, and cross coupling through multiple superimposed volume-index gratings

We investigate the diffraction properties of multiple-superimposed index gratings from a vector synthetic viewpoint using coupled wave analysis with Bragg and non-Bragg readout. The vector synthetic gratings consist of two volume-index gratings with different grating wave vectors, which can be obtained in photorefractive materials, in optical fibers or in Bragg cells with two driving acoustic waves. This structure can realize beam splitting, beam combining, and beam cross coupling, etc. Analytic expressions for the diffraction efficiency as well as the amplitude of the waves involved are obtained. The results are presented and discussed.     

Phase gratings to couple several input beams into one output beam

Phase gratings with certain continuous grating profiles are shown to be excellent devices for beam coupling, that means to couple N input beams into a single output beam. These gratings are also known as N-to-one-interconnection gratings. We prove in this paper that if the relative phases of the incoming beams are chosen properly coupling efficiencies over 90% are achieved. Only thin phase-only gratings are considered. The input angles of the incoming waves may be freely chosen. The effects of noise in phases and in grating profiles are also numerically calculated and discussed.     

Fabrication of freestanding nanoscale gratings on silicon-on-insulator wafer

We report a bottom-up process for the fabrication of freestanding nanoscale gratings on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer. Freestanding membrane devices suffer deflection due to the residual stress of the buried oxide layer of SOI wafer. The deflection will affect the device shape and result in the fracture problem for devices fabricated on thin silicon membrane. The bottom-up process is developed to overcome the fabrication issue for thin silicon membrane gratings. The silicon handle layer is removed through back wafer etching of silicon, where the buried oxide layer acts as an etch stop layer. The grating structures are then defined on thin silicon device layer by electron beam lithography and generated by fast atom beam etching. The grating structures are finally released in vapor HF to form the freestanding nanoscale gratings. The freestanding linear/circular gratings, 1,500-nm period grating with the grating width of 200- and 850-nm period grating with the grating width of 100 nm, are successfully achieved on 260-nm silicon device layer.     

Millimeter wave beams diffracted from reflecting gratings

According to the angular-spectrum method, a radiation beam of an antenna horn in the Fresnal region is decomposed into the plane waves with the fast Fourier transform algorithm and the waves diffracted from a reflection grating are superposed as a diffracted beam. Compared with the reflected beam from the same size mirror, the radiation half width of the diffracted beam from a grating is narrower and its lateral shape is shift. These performances have been experimentally verified at Ka-band by: (1). The relative diffraction efficiencies in the first order with two triangular gratings which is put along propagating direction of a beam produced by a conical lens-horn. (2). H-plane lateral width with power—3dB lapsed of the focus beam from a grating and a mirror in a grating spectrometer for millimeter waves (25–100 GHz).     

Peculiarities of spontaneous grating generation in light-sensitive waveguide layers during holographic grating formation

The generation of spontaneous (noise) gratings during the simultaneous formation of a holographic grating in thin (on the order of the cutoff thickness of the TE₀ waveguide mode) AgCl-Ag films by two laser beams with λ = 532 nm and polarization vectors that make an angle of 45° with the plane of incidence have been studied. The electron microscopy images and diffraction patterns have revealed a significant difference of the spontaneous-grating structure from the structure obtained under irradiation by one laser beam. The spontaneous gratings have a significant spread in the directions of their wave vector, and the diffraction pattern (recorded using a probe beam with λ = 337 nm) has the form of a bundle of diverging arcs that intersect at one point. This difference is caused by self-diffraction from the holographic grating, which is responsible for the main diffraction peaks with odd orders, the growth of spontaneous gratings because of the interference of the beams diffracted by the holographic grating with the waveguide TE₀ modes scattered in the film, and silver transport to the interference minima. The diffraction patterns are quantitatively analyzed and the period of the new (formed under two-beam irradiation) spontaneous gratings is calculated. The calculation results are in good agreement with the experimental data.     

1700 线/mm镀金光栅的拼接理论和实验研究

提出了一个能够实时地监控拼接光栅状态的方案；理论上论证了氦氖光不能用来实时监控1740线衍射光栅的光栅拼接实验；提出了一种选择监控光波长的方法，使得拼接光栅的各种误差对于主光束和监控光的影响是一致的，并且通过实验进行了验证. 关键词： 拼接光栅 刻线密度误差 实时监控 光栅对压缩池     

Soret effect in forced Rayleigh scattering

In forced Rayleigh scattering of mixtures or suspensions the temperature gratings generate, by the Soret effect, concentration gratings that may be very important since they produce both a phase and an amplitude grating superimposed on the principal one. The experimental evidence of their influence was given by Thyagarajan and Lallemand using a mixture of carbondisulfide and ethanol. In this paper we study the temporal behaviour of the concentration grating versus the sample properties and its effect on the detected diffracted beam. Explicit expressions are given for the output intensity taking into account both the generated amplitude and phase gratings.     

非线性变周期全息光栅的制作

叙述一种用发散光束来的制作变周期光栅的方法,简单的系统保证了两束形成全息干涉的光强相等这一点对获得高反衬结构的光栅图形是重要的。在显影过程中用He-Ne激光作为衍射效率的在位监控。     

Digital holographic microscopy characterization of superdirective beam by metamaterial

Digital holographic microscopy (DHM) has been successfully applied for the first time to characterize the radiative out-of-plane emission properties of a superdirective device. Complementarily to near-field microscopy, DHM allows us to reconstruct the beam in the far-field region. The angular dispersion of the light beam radiated from a grating composed of air and anti-air metamaterial has been determined, and the proposed technique has highlighted a collimation degree higher than 0.04°, as already evaluated in a previous work. Further considerations on the retrieved phase map of the beam in the acquisition plane are presented.     

Multistate polarization addressing using a single beam in an azo polymer film

Peculiar light-matter interactions can break the rule that a single beam polarization can address only two states in an optical memory device. Multistate storage of a single beam polarization is achieved using self-induced surface diffraction gratings in a photoactive polymer material. The grating orientation follows the incident light beam's polarization direction. The permanent self-induced surface relief grating can be read out in real time using the same laser beam.     

Imaging of flames and cold flows in air by diffraction from a laser-induced grating

Nonresonant laser-induced gratings are created in gases employing the second-harmonic output of a Nd: YAG laser in a degenerate four-wave mixing beam geometry. The diffraction efficiency of the gratings has been investigated as a function of laser intensity and gas pressure. Single-shot images of a helium flow in ambient air illustrate that diffraction of light from a laser-induced grating has the potential for remote, two-dimensional diagnostics of gas mixing processes. In addition, this coherent technique is used to image a sooty flame.     

Simultaneous diffraction of two finite waves at non-uniform dynamic volume reflection gratings

Based on the two-dimensional coupled-wave theory, the simultaneous diffraction of two finite waves with non-constant amplitude distribution at a finite non-uniform dynamic volume reflection grating is described. A coupled differential equation is derived and solved numerically with the aid of a two-dimensional Runge-Kutta method. The results for the chosen example of a planar volume reflection grating both for pure phase and absorption gratings show the dependence of the fidelity and diffraction efficiency on the normalized parameter grating strength, on the phase shift with respect to the interference pattern of the read-out waves and on the absorption modulation. In contrast to the transmission grating, a high fidelity of the enhanced beam can be achieved for reflection gratings. The numerical results are compared with the solution of the one-dimensional theory.