Efficient coupling of hybrid optical waveguide with a sharp bend structure for high integration

A hybrid optical waveguide with a \(90^{\circ }\) sharp bend comprising a dielectric straight waveguide, a tapered dielectric strip waveguide, and a microscale metal gap waveguide is proposed, modeled, fabricated, and characterized with the aim of improving the efficiency of light coupling between the dielectric and plasmonic waveguides. The simulation result using the full-vector finite-difference time domain shows a total transmissivity of about 63 % at a wavelength of 1,550 nm. A set of hybrid optical waveguide with a \(90^{\circ }\) bend is fabricated via the two-step photolithography and a metal lift-off process. From the measured result for the characteristics of the fabricated hybrid optical waveguide, the transmission loss was estimated to be about 17 dB, which is in stark contrast with the simulation value. Nevertheless, such a novel coupling scheme may be of potential use in high-density photonic integration applications.     

Ultra compact hybrid plasmonic–photonic coupler: configuration of metal–silica–silicon

In this work, a novel and practical configuration as a hybrid plasmonic–photonic coupler based on silicon (Si) nanofibers, silica waveguides and metal nanoparticles is examined and investigated. All of utilized waveguides, fibers and nanoparticles are embedded in an \(\hbox {Mg}_{2}\hbox {F}\) crystal host. Integrated plasmonic–photonic coupler provides significant transmission efficiency during guiding and propagating of light. Utilizing enhanced plasmonic waveguides helps to reduce the inherent losses such as scattering into the far-field and absorption of optical power inside the employed components, especially in nanoparticles. The transmission loss component under transverse electric excitation (TE) for the superstructure has been calculated as approximately \(\gamma _{T}=3\,\hbox {dB}/675\)  nm. Also, we investigate the coupling efficiency at overlapping regions between Si nanofibers and silica ( \(\hbox {SiO}_{2})\) waveguides which is referred to near-field interactions. Transmitted power ratio and the group velocity of the propagated light are computed and depicted for the proposed coupler.     

Generation of vacuum ultraviolet radiation by intracavity high-harmonic generation toward state detection of single trapped ions

Vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) radiation around 159 nm is obtained toward direct excitation of a single trapped \(^{115}\hbox {In}^{+}\) ion. An efficient fluoride-based VUV output coupler is employed for intracavity high-harmonic generation of a Ti:S oscillator. Using this coupler, where we measured its reflectance to be about 90 %, an average power reaching 6.4  \(\upmu\) W is coupled out from a modest fundamental power of 650 mW. When a single comb component out of 1.9  \(\times\)  10 \(^{5}\) teeth is resonant to the atomic transition, 100s of fluorescence photons per second will be detectable under a realistic condition.     

Approximate analysis of planar photonic bandgap waveguides: a simple semi-analytical method

A semi-analytical approximate method, Vopt, is applied to a planar photonic bandgap (PBG) waveguide and a coupler configuration. The variational process of the Vopt method presents simple effective index analysis of the complex two dimensional (2-D) structures. The Vopt method expresses the refractive index profile of the 2-D structure as two 1-D refractive index profiles and obtains the optimized indices for the two structures iteratively. The Vopt method separates the planar PBG waveguide into an effective multilayer waveguide confining optical field in the lateral direction and a 1-D Bragg reflector that gives characteristic reflection/transmission spectra. The results obtained by the Vopt method show good agreement with the numerical results of the finite difference time domain analysis. The present analysis is helpful in understanding the optical properties of such complex waveguides and can be used as starting approximation for optimizing the structures for various applications.     

Polymeric N-stage serial-cascaded four-port optical router with scalable 3N channel wavelengths for wideband signal routing application

Device architecture and design scheme of a universal \(N\) -stage cascaded polymer four-port optical router with scalable 3 \(N\) channel wavelengths are proposed. Basic cross-coupling two-microring resonator routing element based on polymer materials is optimized for single-mode transmission, low optical loss and phase-match between microring waveguide and channel waveguide. Then, a one-stage four-port optical router is constructed using four-group basic routing elements, which has 12 possible I/O routing paths and 3 channel wavelengths. The insertion losses of each channel wavelength along every routing path are within the range of 0.04–0.63 dB, the maximum crosstalk between the on-port along each routing path and other off-ports is less than \(-39\)  dB, and the device footprint size is \(\sim \) 0.13 mm \(^{2}\) . Compared with the previously reported four-port silicon optical routers, this device possesses similar ring radius ( \(\sim \) 10  \(\upmu \) m) and device size ( \(<\) 1 mm \(^{2})\) . Aiming at wideband signal routing applications, we then construct a universal \(N\) -stage cascaded polymer four-port optical router possessing scalable 3 \(N\) channel wavelengths. The proposed routing structure has potential application in photonic networks-on-chip, because of low insertion loss, low crosstalk, small footprint size, and scalable wideband 3 \(N\) routing wavelengths.     

Extremely large bandwidth and ultralow-dispersion slow light in photonic crystal waveguides with magnetically controllability

A line-defect waveguide within a two-dimensional magnetic-fluid-based photonic crystal with 45^o-rotated square lattice is presented to have excellent slow light properties. The bandwidth centered at $ \lambda_{0} $  = 1,550 nm of our designed W1 waveguide is around 66 nm, which is very large than that of the conventional W1 waveguide as well as the corresponding optimized structures based on photonic crystal with triangular lattice. The obtained group velocity dispersion $ \beta_{2} $ within the bandwidth is ultralow and varies from ?1,191 $ a/(2\pi c^{2} ) $ to 855 $ a/(2\pi c^{2} ) $ (a and c are the period of the lattice and the light speed in vacuum, respectively). Simultaneously, the normalized delay-bandwidth product is relatively large and almost invariant with magnetic field strength. It is indicated that using magnetic fluid as one of the constitutive materials of the photonic crystal structures can enable the magnetically fine tunability of the slow light in online mode. The concept and results of this work may give a guideline for studying and realizing tunable slow light based on the external-stimulus-responsive materials.     

Simulations of nanograting-assisted light coupling in GaN planar waveguide

The numerical simulations of nanogratings integrated with gallium nitride (GaN) planar waveguides as well as the experimental in-coupling results are presented. A simulation tool based on the eigenmode expansion method and advanced boundary conditions provided a rigorous model of 400-nm-period grating couplers. A full-vectorial Maxwell solver allowed performing a number of simulations with varying grating parameters, where coupling efficiency, reflection and transmission characteristics of device were calculated. Gratings with different etch depths and arbitrary shapes were simulated using a staircase approximation, with an optimized number of steps per single slope. For the first time, an impact of dry etch processing on GaN coupler efficiency was evaluated, due to the inclusion of the sloped sidewalls, with regard to the technological constrains. Finally, the experimental results in the visible spectrum region (?? = 633 nm), for 400-nm-deep gratings etched in GaN waveguide, were presented together with theoretical data for binary and trapezoidal profiles of a grating, for different optical mode profiles ( ${{\rm TE}_{0}\div {\rm TE}_{3}\,{\rm modes}}$ ).     

High resolution photolithography with sub-wavelength grating

Large area linear and crossed grating structures on steel surfaces are obtained by UV-femtosecond-laser ablation at 248 nm. High resolution on large areas is secured using a beam delivery system based on a two-grating interferometer. Thus, deterministic gratings with periods down to 330 nm and modulation depths of more than 100 nm are fabricated on tool steel and stainless steel. Areas of up to $5\,\mathrm{mm}\times 13\, $ mm can be processed without stitching errors.     

Optical properties of ZnO nanocrystals embedded in PMMA

We report in this work the preparation of thin films of ZnO nanocrystals synthesized and dispersed in polymethylmethacrylate using a easy route and deposited in class substrate by spin coating technique. Their structural and optical properties were investigated by X-ray, absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopy. The XRD patterns exhibit sharp peaks at $2\uptheta $ corresponding to the hexagonal (wurtzite) phase diffraction planes. The optically characterization, exhibit a wide absorption band in the range of the study and a large emission band with three peaks at 481.5, 531.09 and at 671.28 nm.The crystallites radius (R) was estimated by applying the effective mass approximation model and was about 1.8 nm. From measurements of second order susceptibilities using harmonic generation technique at $\lambda = 1,064\,\text{ nm }$ in picoseconds regime we deduced $\lambda _\mathrm{eff}^{<2>}$ equal to $5.95\times 10^{-10}$  m/V. Obtained $\lambda _\mathrm{eff}^{<2>}$ was four order of magnitude larger compared with ZnO bulk material (2.5 pm/V).     

Investigation of conductivity of adhesive layer including indium tin oxide particles for multi-junction solar cells

We report connection conductivity ( \(C_{\rm c}\) ) of adhesive which including \(\hbox {In}_2\hbox {O}_3\) – \(\hbox {SnO}_2\) (ITO) particles developed for fabrication of stacked-type-multi-junction solar cells. The commercial 20- \(\upmu \) m sized ITO particles were heated in vacuum at temperature ranging from 800 to 1,300  \(^{\circ }{\rm C}\) for 10 min to increase \(C_{\rm c}\) . 6.2 wt% ITO particles were dispersed in commercial Cemedine adhesive gel to form 100 samples structured with n-type Si/adhesive/n-type Si (n-Si sample) and p-type Si/adhesive/p-type Si (p-Si sample). Current density as a function of voltage (J–V) characteristics gave \(C_{\rm c}\) . It ranged from 4.3 to 1.0 S/cm \(^2\) for the n-Si sample with 800 \(^{\circ }{\rm C}\) heat-treated ITO particles. Its standard deviation was 0.59 S/cm \(^2\) . On the other hand, it ranged from 2.0 to 0.6 S/cm \(^2\) for the p-Si sample with 800  \(^{\circ }{\rm C}\) heat-treated ITO particles. Its standard deviation was 0.22 S/cm \(^2\) . The distribution of \(C_{\rm c}\) mainly resulted from contact efficiency of ITO particles to substrate. We theoretically estimated that present \(C_{\rm c}\) achieved a low loss of the power conversion efficiency ( \(E_{\rm ff}\) ) lower than 0.3 % in the application of fabrication of multi-junction solar cell with an intrinsic \(E_{\rm ff}\) of 30 % and an open circuit voltage above 1.9 V.     

Large core, multimode, chalcogenide glass fibre coupler by side-polishing

A novel method for obtaining a multimode optical coupler in chalcogenide glass fibre is described. The fibres used had a large $\text{ Ge }_{17}\text{ As }_{18}\text{ Se }_{65}$ Ge 17 As 18 Se 65 core comprising about 74 % of the total cross-sectional area with an optical cladding of $\text{ Ge }_{17}\text{ As }_{18}\text{ Se }_{62}\text{ S }_{3}$ Ge 17 As 18 Se 62 S 3 . A single arc-shaped U-groove was formed in each of two silicate glass blocks. A length of fibre was embedded into each groove and glued in place. The centre of each fibre length was subsequently side-polished. Finally two such embedded fibres were glued together in close contact to form the coupler, whilst monitoring the coupling ratio at the output.     

All-carbon detector with buried graphite pillars in CVD diamond

A diamond detector of 3D architecture without any metallization is developed for spectroscopy of ionizing radiation and single particles detection. The carbon electrode system was fabricated using a femtosecond infrared laser ( $\lambda $ = 1,030 nm) to induce graphitization on the surface and inside 4.0  $\times $  4.0  $\times $  0.4 mm $^{3}$ single-crystal chemical vapor deposition diamond slab, resulting in an array of 84 buried graphite pillars of 30  $\upmu $ m diameter formed orthogonally to the surface and connected by surface graphite strips. Sensitivity to ionizing radiation with $^{90}$ Sr $\upbeta $ -source has been measured for the 3D detector and high charge collection efficiency is demonstrated.     

A DFG-based cavity ring-down spectrometer for trace gas sensing in the mid-infrared

Continuing studies into an all-diode laser-based 3.3 μm difference frequency generation cavity ring-down spectroscopy system are presented. Light from a 1,560 nm diode laser, amplified by an erbium-doped fibre amplifier, was mixed with 1,064 nm diode laser radiation in a bulk periodically poled lithium niobate crystal to generate 16 μW of mid-IR light at 3,346 nm with a conversion efficiency of $0.05\,\%\,{\text{W}}^{-1}\,{\text{cm}}^{-1}$ . This radiation was coupled into a 77 cm long linear cavity with average mirror reflectivities of 0.9996, and a measured baseline ring-down time of $6.07\pm 0.03\,\upmu{\rm s}$ . The potential of such a spectrometer was illustrated by investigating the $P(3)$ transition in the fundamental $\nu_{3}(F_{2})$ band of ${\text{CH}}_4$ both in a 7.5 ppmv calibrated mixture of ${\text{CH}}_4$ in air and in breath samples from methane and non-methane producers under conditions where the minimum detectable absorption coefficient ( $\alpha_{\rm min}$ ) was $2.8 \times 10^{-8}\,{\rm cm}^{-1}$ over 6 s using a ring-down time acquisition rate of 20 Hz. Allan variance measurements indicated an optimum $\alpha_{\rm min}$ of $2.9\times 10^{-9}\,{\rm cm}^{-1}$ over 44 s.     

Calculation of effective index for different dielectric waveguides structures made of PVCi/PMATRIFE polymers at telecom-wavelength \lambda =1.55\,\upmu m

In this paper, a number of polymeric waveguide structures have been analyzed by using two distinct techniques which are: effective index method (EIM) and numerical simulation based on finite difference method (FDM). The main aim of this investigation is the calculation of effective indexes (EI) of the following structures: rib, ridge and buried channel waveguides at telecom wavelength $\lambda =1.55\,\upmu \hbox {m}$ for different dimensions of waveguide cores varying from 1.5–4  $\upmu \hbox {m}$ . Moreover, other optical propagation characteristics such as: confinement factor, normalized and propagation constant have been studied in TE polarisation. Otherwise the effect of the structure parameters and dimensions on the dispersion characteristics has been investigated. On the other hand, the optical field distribution has been computed using commercial software named OlympIOs. The polymers applied in the design of waveguide structures are the PVCi (n = 1,562 $\lambda = {1.55}\,\upmu $ m) used as core layer and the PMATRIFE (n = 1,409 $\lambda = 1.55\,\upmu $ m) used as substrate or cladding layer. The results obtained using EIM and simulation based on FDM show that effective index and field confinement factor of TE fundamental mode increase monotonously with the increasing dimension of core. The obtained results are in good agreement with published data based on other numerical methods.     

Resonant cavity enhanced quantum ring photodetector at 20\,\upmu m wavelength

In this paper, in order to enhance the performance characteristics of photodetector, an InAs/GaAs quantum ring infrared photodetector (QRIP) with resonant cavity structure is proposed. For this purpose, distributed bragg reflectors (DBR) in the bottom of structure are used to reflect the transmitted beam back into the active region. For further confinement of light in the active region, a gold layer is added to structure as top reflector and the performance of structures is compared with and without top reflector. Numerical simulation results show that using resonant cavity structure can improve quantum efficiency and responsivity of photodetector. Furthermore, the specific detectivity of device can increase about one order of magnitude using resonant cavity structure. Results show specific detectivity, $\hbox {D}^{*}$ , about $\sim $ 10 $^{11}\,(\hbox {cm}\,\hbox {Hz}^{1/2}\hbox {/W})$ for conventional QRIP and $\sim $ 10 $^{12}\,(\hbox {cm}\,\hbox {Hz}^{1/2}\hbox {/W})$ for conventional QRIP embedded in resonant cavity. As a result of enhancement in detectivity, the operation temperature of detector can be increased up to about 150 K.     

Abnormal ripple patterns with enhanced regularity and continuity in a bulk metallic glass induced by femtosecond laser irradiation

Two types of abnormal ripple patterns: classical ripples (C-ripples) with continuous ridges and unclassical ripples (U-ripples) with regular micropores were investigated in a Zr-based bulk metallic glass (Zr-BMG) after femtosecond laser beam irradiation. U-ripples with a period of $\sim $ 1,600 nm and the orientation nearly parallel to the polarization of laser beam were observed to form gradually on the top of C-ripples with the effective pulse number. Micropores created by the superposition of C-ripples and U-ripples had an average diameter of $\sim $ 750 nm nearly equal to the period of C-ripples ( $\sim $ 720 nm) and ran along parallel lines in the grooves of U-ripples. Both U-ripples and C-ripples in Zr-BMG showed significant microstructural differences comparing with those in a conventional Zr-based alloy with the same composition and processing conditions, including much more regular and continuous ridges. The results indicate that the amorphous structure in Zr-BMG plays a key role in the uniform morphology of laser-induced structures.     

Laser nanoablation of graphite

Experimental data on laser ablation of highly oriented pyrolitic graphite by nanosecond pulsed UV ( $\lambda =193$  nm) and green ( $\lambda =532$  nm) lasers are presented. It was found that below graphite vaporization threshold $\approx $ 1 J/cm $^{2}$ , the nanoablation regime can be realized with material removal rates as low as 10 $^{-3}$  nm/pulse. The difference between physical (vaporization) and physical–chemical (heating + oxidation) ablation regimes is discussed. Special attention is paid to the influence of laser fluence and pulse number on ablation kinetics. Possibility of laser-induced graphite surface nanostructuring has been demonstrated. Combination of tightly focused laser beam and sharp tip of scanning probe microscope was applied to improve material nanoablation.     

Simulation and optimization of reflection optical module design for single LED

Illuminance uniformity and illuminating efficiency are always the key problems of light emitting diode (LED) lighting system design. Based on the new design of the reflection optical module, illuminance uniformity and illuminating efficiency are investigated simultaneously in this paper. At the first stage, a reflector with various profile designs is installed to improve the uniformity and efficiency of irradiances collected through the receiver. Using the macro commands, an effective process is presented through the optimal design of the reflector geometries, and the merit function is used as the optical quality objective to find the optimal design value of $K2$ K 2 and $R2$ R 2 parameters of the reflector. At the second stage, based on the optimal design result, the displacement between LED source and reflector is further adjusted automatically by the macro commands too. The results from the ray tracing simulation indicate that the optimal design can be achieved through the compromise of Illuminance uniformity and illuminating efficiency. Finally, we obtain the merit function value of $1.81$ 1.81 with $K2=-1.09, R2=1.11\,\hbox {mm}$ K 2 = - 1.09 , R 2 = 1.11 mm , and the source position $Z1= 1.68\,\hbox {mm}$ Z 1 = 1.68 mm . The results shown in this paper could be beneficial for machine vision systems which are heavily demanded in the light source applications for the uniform and efficient illuminance.     

Phase sensitivity of light dynamics in PT-symmetric couplers

We study the sensitivity of light dynamics to the internal phase of propagating pulses in the two types of $\mathcal {PT}$ -symmetric models. The first is a waveguide array with an embedded pair of waveguides with gain and loss, called $\mathcal {PT}$ -coupler, and the second is a planar coupler which models a chain of $\mathcal {PT}$ -symmetric couplers. For the first model we investigate the soliton scattering on the mode localized on the coupler, while for second model we study the collision of two breathers. For both models we find that the light dynamics is sensitive to the internal phases of the interacting pulses. Particularly, the $\mathcal {PT}$ -symmetry breaking can take place or not, depending on the internal phases of two signals having identical other parameters.     

Improving anti-reflectivity and laser damage threshold of \hbox {SiO}_{2}/\hbox {ZrO}_{2} thin films by laser shock peening at 1064 nm

In this study, anti-reflection (AR) \(\hbox {SiO}_{2}/ \hbox {ZrO}_{2}\) thin films with 3-layers were designed and fabricated by the essential Macleod software and physical vapor deposition, respectively. In order to improve the optical and physical properties of the prepared samples, laser shock peening (LSP) technique was applied. For this purpose, an Argon Fluoride Excimer laser \((\lambda =193 \,\text {nm})\) with 110 and 240 mJ energies and 1 Hz frequency at different pulses was used. The effect of LSP method in improving transmissions and laser damage thresholds of the prepared samples was proved by using UV–Vis–IR spectroscopy in the wavelength range of 400–1200 nm and international standard ISO11254 at 1064 nm. In addition, scanning electron microscopy was used to check the effect of applying LSP.