Giant optical activity and circular dichroism in the terahertz region based on bi-layer Y-shaped chiral metamaterial

We present a bi-layer Y-shaped chiral metamaterial (CMM) that can realize a giant optical activity and circular dichroism (CD) effect to the incident linear polarization wave in the terahertz (THz) region. Numerical simulation results exhibit that the pronounced CD effect with a great difference between the transmission coefficients for the circularly polarized waves can be obtained at 5.06 THz, meanwhile the 90°-polarization rotation can be observed at 5.2 THz when a y-polarized wave is incident to this CMM propagating along the −z-axis. The mechanism of the optical activity and giant CD effect is illustrated by simulated surface current distributions. Further, the influences of the structural parameters of the proposed CMM to the optical activity and CD effect have been investigated numerically.     

Effect of focusing geometry on the continuous optical discharge properties

We studied the effect of the laser beam focusing geometry on the continuous optical discharge (COD) properties. We used a full two-dimensional radiative gas-dynamic model for the COD, maintained by a vertical CO₂ laser beam in free air atmosphere, in the Earth's gravitational field. The model takes into account all of the factors that are of importance in laser-sustained plasma processes, and uses realistic quasi optics to describe the laser radiation propagation. Results are presented for the optical discharge parameters as functions of applied laser power and degree (f-number) to which the laser beam is focused.     

Influence of size effect and sputtering conditions on the crystallinity and optical properties of ZnO thin films

The effects of the thickness variation, substrate type and annealing on the crystallinity parameters, luminescent and optical properties of the zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films were reported. The thin films were deposited on the glass and the amorphous quartz substrates by the standard RF-magnetron sputtering method using ZnO targets in the argon atmosphere. It has been found that the films deposited on the glass substrate manifest a clear size effect. Both the structural and the optical parameters show clearly minima on their thickness dependences. It has been shown that annealing of the comparatively thick ZnO films leads to increase of the crystallite sizes that are followed by a considerable rise of the cathodoluminescence intensity. The corresponding model of the crystallite growth is proposed.     

Sub-diffraction-Limit Imaging in Optical Hyperlens

Sub-diffraction-limit imaging in the optical hyperlens based on cylindrical metamaterials is studied. Some parameters of hyperlens, such as the dispersive relation and the divergence angle of imaging, are numerically analysed with the ray trajectory method and effective medium theory. The dependence of imaging properties on dielectric constant is discussed. As a result, a 0° divergence angle is obtained for the best imaging effect. This work will be helpful for the design, structure fabrication and resolution improvement of the optical hyperlens.     

Photonic Band Gap Properties of Three-Dimensional SiO2 Photonic Crystals

Three-dimensional SiO2 photonic crystals （PhCs） are fabricated on quartz substrates by the vertical deposition method. Scanning electron microscopy measurement reveals that the samples exhibit an ordered close-packed arrangement of SiO2 spheres. It is found that the position of the [111] photonie band gap （PBG） shifts to a long wavelength （red shift） with increasing sphere size. Gap broadening effects are observed due to the presence of defects in the samples. Moreover, the optical properties of the PBG are very sensitive to the annealing temperature. Our results indicate that the optical properties of the PBG can be easily tuned in the visible region by appropriate experimental parameters, which will be useful for practical applications of PhC optical devices.     

Modeling and design of an optimized patterned electrode liquid crystal microlens array with dielectric slab

To eliminate the occurrence of disclination lines in the hole patterned electrode liquid crystal microlens array (LC MLA), inserting an ultrathin dielectric slab was proved to be an effective method. The thickness of the dielectric slab played an important role in effecting the optical performance of the liquid crystal microlens array device, including the dynamic focal range, focus diameter and symmetry of phase profile. In this paper, we studied the effect of dielectric slab thickness on the optical performance of the liquid crystal microlens array by numerical simulation. It is indicated that the optical performance of the device could be improved by reducing the dielectric slab thickness, assuming that the dielectric slab thickness was larger than the threshold thickness. The dependence of the threshold thickness on some key parameters was investigated and the associated effect on the optical performance by changing these key parameters was also studied. In the end, the approaches to enhance the optical performance, namely the dynamic focal range of the liquid crystal microlens array was proposed and proved to be in effect by numerical simulation results.     

磁控溅射法制备的高反Ag_5In_5Te_(47)Sb_(33)相变薄膜的光谱性质及短波长静态记录性能

研究了磁控溅射制备的Ａｇ５Ｉｎ５Ｔｅ４７Ｓｂ３３相变薄膜的光谱及短波长静态记录性能。研究结果表明，晶态薄膜反射率较高，并在６００～９００ｎｍ波长范围内，晶态与非晶态的反射率和折射率相差很大。在ＣＤ－Ｅ系统的工作波长７８０ｎｍ处，晶态反射率高达５０％，光学常数为５．３４－１．０ｉ；非晶态反射率为２３％，光学常数为２．５－１．０３ｉ。从这一角度讲，Ａｇ５Ｉｎ５Ｔｅ４７Ｓｂ３３相变薄膜适于做ＣＤ－Ｅ系统的记录介质。另外，采用波长为５１４．４ｎｍ的短波长光学静态记录测试仪对Ａｇ５Ｉｎ５Ｔｅ４７Ｓｂ３３薄膜的记录性能进行了测试，结果表明，这种薄膜短波长记录性能较好，它在较低功率和短脉宽的激光束作用下就可得到较高的反射率对比度。     

Influence of deposition parameters on the structural and optical properties of CdS thin films obtained by micro-controlled SILAR deposition

Polycrystalline CdS films were obtained by a micro-controlled SILAR deposition technique, using aqueous solutions of cadmium acetate and thiourea as precursors. The structural and optical properties of the films were found to be influenced by various deposition parameters such as number of immersion cycles, concentration of the precursors and temperature of the solutions. Contrary to the observations made by some researchers, we found that the thickness of the films increased continuously with number of immersion cycles and also with concentration of the precursor solutions. We also found that the films covered the substrates uniformly, without any voids, unlike the films obtained by others. Effect of deposition parameters on thickness, substrate coverage, grain size, chemical composition, optical band gap and other properties of the films is discussed in detail.     

Superfluid properties of a Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical lattice confined in a cavity

We study the effect of a one dimensional optical lattice in a cavity field with quantum properties on the superfluid dynamics of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). In the cavity the influence of atomic backaction and the external driving pump become important and modify the optical potential. Due to the coupling between the condensate wavefunction and the cavity modes, the cavity light field develops a band structure. This study reveals that the pump and the cavity emerges as a new handle to control the superfluid properties of the BEC.     

Effect of indium incorporation on the optical properties of spray pyrolyzed Cd0.22Zn0.78S thin films

In this study, effect of indium incorporation on the optical properties is investigated for the spray pyrolyzed onto glass substrates at 275°C substrate temperature undoped and indium doped Cd_0.22Zn_0.78S thin films. The average optical transmittance of all the films was over 77% in the wavelength range between 450 and 800 nm. The optical band gap energies of the thin films have been investigated by the measurement of the optical absorbance as a function of wavelength. The optical absorption studies reveal that the transitions are direct band gaps of 3.02 and 3.05 eV for undoped and doped indium Cd_0.22Zn_0.78S thin films, respectively. The Urbach tail parameter and optical constants such as refractive index, extinction coefficient, and dielectric constants were calculated for these films. The dispersion parameters such as single-oscillator energy and dispersive energy were discussed in terms oft he single-oscillator Wemple—DiDomenico model.     

First-principles study of structural, elastic, electronic, and optical properties of hexagonal BiAlO3

The structural parameters, elastic, electronic, and optical properties of hexagonal BiAlO₃ were investigated by the density functional theory. The calculated structural parameters are in good agreement with previous calculation and experimental data. The structural stability of BiAlO₃ has been confirmed by calculation of the elastic constants. The energy band structure, density of states, and Mulliken charge populations were obtained. BiAlO₃ presents an indirect band gap of 3.28 eV. Furthermore, the optical properties were calculated and analyzed. It is shown that BiAlO₃ is a promising dielectric material.     

Complex-enhanced chaotic signals with time-delay signature suppression based on vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers subject to chaotic optical injection

A chaotic system is constructed on the basis of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), where a slave VCSEL subject to chaotic optical injection (COI) from a master VCSEL with the external feedback. The complex degree (CD) and time-delay signature (TDS) of chaotic signals generated by this chaotic system are investigated numerically via permutation entropy (PE) and self-correlation function (SF) methods, respectively. The results show that, compared with master VCSEL subject to optical feedback, complex-enhanced chaotic signals with TDS suppression can be achieved for S-VCSEL subject to COI. Meanwhile, the influences of several controllable parameters on the evolution maps of CD of chaotic signals are carefully considered. It is shown that the CD of chaotic signals for S-VCSEL is always higher than that for M-VCSEL due to the CIO effect. The TDS of chaotic signals can be significantly suppressed by choosing the reasonable parameters in this system. Furthermore, TDS suppression and high CD chaos can be obtained simultaneously in the specific parameter ranges. The results confirm that this chaotic system may effectively improve the security of a chaos-based communication scheme.     

Analysis of codeposited Gd2O3/SiO2 composite thin films by phase modulated spectroscopic ellipsometric technique

Tailoring of the refractive index of optical thin films has been a very fascinating as well as challenging topic for developing new generation optical coatings. In the present work a novel Gd₂O₃/SiO₂ composite system has been experimented and probed for its superior optical properties through phase modulated spectroscopic ellipsometry, spectrophotometry and atomic force microscopy. The optical parameters of the composite films have been evaluated using Tauc-Lorentz (TL) formulations. In order to derive the growth dependent refractive index profiles, each sample film has been modeled as an appropriate multilayer structure where each sub-layer was treated with the above TL parameterizations. All codeposited films demonstrated superiority with respect to the band gap and morphological measurements. At lower silica mixing compositions such as in 10-20% level, the composite films depicted superior spectral refractive index profile, band gap as well as the morphology. This aspect highlighted the fact that microstructural densifications in composite films can override the chemical compositions while deciding the refractive index and optical properties in such thin films.     

Structural and optical properties of thermally evaporated 2-(2,3-dihydro-1,5-dimethyl-3-oxo-2-phenyl-1H-pyrazol-4-ylimino)-2-(4-nitrophenyl)acetonitrile thin films

The structural and optical properties of as-deposited and γ-rays irradiated 2-(2,3-dihydro-1,5dimethyl-3-oxo-2-phenyl-1H-pyrazol-4-ylimino)-2-(4-nitrophenyl)acetonitrile (DOPNA) thin films have been reported. The structural properties of as-deposited and γ-rays irradiated DOPNA thin films are characterized by Fourier transformation infrared, X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscope techniques. The transmittance, T(λ), and reflectance, R(λ), are measured at the normal incidence of light by a double beam spectrophotometer in the wavelength range 200-2200 nm. The refractive and absorption indices have been calculated. The dispersion parameters such as dispersion energy, oscillator energy and dielectric constant at high frequency are evaluated. The data of the absorption coefficient are analyzed in order to determine the type of inter-band electronic transitions and the optical band gap of the films. Other optical absorption parameters, namely, the extinction molar coefficient, oscillator strength and the electric dipole strength, are also calculated.     

Systematic considerations for the patterning of photonic crystal devices by electron beam lithography

Photonic crystal devices with feature sizes of a few hundred nanometers are often fabricated by electron beam lithography. The proximity effect, stitching error and resist profiles have significant influence on the pattern quality, and therefore determine the optical properties of the devices. In this paper, detailed analyses and simple solutions to these problems are presented. The proximity effect is corrected by the introduction of a compensating dose. The influence of the stitching error is alleviated by replacing the original access waveguides with taper-added waveguides, and the taper parameters are also discussed to get the optimal choice. It is demonstrated experimentally that patterns exposed with different doses have almost the same edge-profiles in the resist for the same development time, and that optimized etching conditions can improve the wall angle of the holes in the substrate remarkably.     

Substrate-target distance dependence of structural and optical properties in case of Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 films obtained by pulsed laser deposition

The paper presents the influence of pulsed laser deposition (PLD) parameters on the structural and optical properties of PZT thin films grown on platinum substrate. X-ray diffraction (XRD), spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) are used to determine the thin film properties. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) are employed to get additional information. By changing the distance between target and substrate, different crystalline orientations of PZT are obtained. The thin film thickness and its roughness, as well as the refractive index are also influenced by the chosen distance.     

Deposition and characterization of transparent and conductive sprayed ZnO:B thin films

Highly transparent and conductive Boron doped zinc oxide (ZnO:B) thin films were deposited using chemical spray pyrolysis (CSP) technique on glass substrate. The effect of variation of boron doping concentration in reducing solution on film properties was investigated. Low angle X-ray analysis showed that the films were polycrystalline fitting well with a hexagonal wurtzite structure and have preferred orientation in [002] direction. The films with resistivity 2.54×10⁻³ Ω-cm and optical transmittance >90% were obtained at optimized boron doping concentration. The optical band gap of ZnO:B films was found ∼3.27 eV from the optical transmittance spectra for the as-deposited films. Due to their excellent optical and electrical properties, ZnO:B films are promising contender for their potential use as transparent window layer and electrodes in solar cells.     

Optimization of process parameters of titanium dioxide films by response surfaces methodology

An efficient approach for determination of the optimum process parameters for titanium dioxide coatings by using second-order response surface model is presented and investigated experimentally. Thin films were prepared by electron-beam evaporation associated with ion-beam assisted deposition by using different control factors, including starting materials, working pressure, substrate temperature, deposition rate and annealing temperature. The factorial design of the experiment was established to meet the equipment conditions and to avoid affecting the results. The main effect between various factors and interactions are independent. The significant level of both the main effects and the interaction are observed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) approach. Based on the statistical analysis, the results have provided much valuable information on the relationship between various control factors and thin film properties. Besides the optimum optical constants and surface roughness of TiO₂ thin films were obtained in the range of each parameter level. The factorial prediction model for preparation parameters of thin film was also established.     

Laser field effect on the nonlinear optical properties of a square quantum well under the applied electric field

In this paper the effect of the laser field on the nonlinear optical properties of a square quantum well under the applied electric field is investigated theoretically. The calculations are performed in saturation limit using the density matrix formalism and the effective mass approach. Our results show that the laser field considerably effects the confining potential of the quantum well and thus the nonlinear optical properties.     

Density functional study of optical properties of beryllium chalcogenides compounds in nickel arsenide B8 structure

The structural, electronic and optical properties of beryllium chalcogenides BeS, BeSe and BeTe using the full-potential linear augmented plane wave (FP-LAPW) method are investigated. The exchange-correlation energy within the local density approximation (LDA) and the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) are described. The Engel-Vosko (EVGGA) formalism is applied for electronic and optical properties. The structural parameters of our model and the transition pressure from zinc-blende (B3) to the NiAs (B8) phase are confirmed. It is found that these compounds have indirect band gaps except for BeTe in NiAs (B8) phase. The results of reflectivity, refractive index and optical dielectric functions of Be compounds are investigated. An agreement is found between our results and those of other theoretical calculations and the experimental data.