Collimation testing using axial intensity

We proposed a new method of measuring the degree of collimation of laser beam using axial intensity information near paraxial focus. Preceding methods for collimation testing are mainly either based on self-imaging or interferometric techniques. The new method is to employ the diffraction behavior of noncollimated wave in circular aperture diaphragm. The principle of the proposed method and experiment results are presented. Due to simplicity of the method and its low cost, it is a promising method for checking the collimation of laser beam.     

Design of a circular Dammann grating

A novel circular Dammann grating is proposed to generate uniform-intensity impulse rings corresponding to different diffraction orders in the far field. The intensities of the rings are determined by the coefficients of the circular sine series decomposition of the grating function. The definition of diffraction efficiency and uniformity for this novel device are described. Numerical solutions of binary phase circular Dammann gratings are presented. A binary phase three-order circular Dammann grating of pi phase depth is fabricated by an e-beam direct writing technique and is experimentally demonstrated.     

Stable all-fiber photonic temporal differentiator using a long-period fiber grating interferometer

A novel configuration of all-fiber photonic temporal differentiator optimized for tens-of-gigahertz processing bandwidth is suggested and experimentally demonstrated. This device covers the gap in terms of processing bandwidth between the two previously-demonstrated all-fiber designs, namely the fiber Bragg grating-based differentiator (<20 GHz) and that based on a uniform long-period fiber grating (>100-200 GHz).     

Collimation testing using wedge plate lateral shearing interferometry and Fourier fringe analysis

For checking the collimation of an optical beam Fourier fringe analysis has been incorporated into the wedge plate interferometric setup. Typical interferograms corresponding to ‘in-focus’, ‘at-focus’ and ‘out-of-focus’ positions of an optical beam have been recorded. As per the testing procedure, FFT of the recorded interferometer is computed digitally, and necessary processing for direct determination of phase is undertaken. Finally, the phase data is unwrapped and plotted as a function of pixel position along the direction perpendicular to the shear. The slope of the phase provides the information regarding collimation position of the collimator. As the collimation position is detected by the direct measurement of the phase over the whole area of the interferogram, high accuracy, reliability and precision are achieved.     

Polymeric arrayed waveguide grating using imprint method incorporating a flexible PDMS stamp

A polymeric arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) has been proposed and demonstrated by employing the nanoimprint method. A flexible PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) stamp with the device patterns engraved was developed from a rigid master mold made of quartz glass, featuring uniform precision contact with and easy separation from polymer films. The device was fabricated by replicating the pattern on the stamp in a core polymer layer, with no etching process involved. For our device, the number of the output channels is eight and the center wavelength of each output channel is positioned from 1543.7 nm to 1548.3 nm with the spacing of 0.8 nm. The achieved channel crosstalk was about 10 dB and the 3 dB bandwidth approximately 0.8 nm.     

Phase-shifting interferometry with four interferograms using linear polarization modulation and a Ronchi grating displaced by only a small unknown amount

A method to reduce the number of captures needed in phase-shifting interferometry is proposed on the basis of grating interferometry and modulation of linear polarization. The case of four interferograms is considered. A common-path interferometer is used with two windows in the object plane and a Ronchi grating as the pupil, thus forming several replicated images of each window over the image plane. The replicated images, under proper matching conditions, superpose in such a way so that they produce interference patterns. Orders 0 and +1 and −1 and 0 form useful patterns to extract the optical phase differences associated to the windows. A phase of π is introduced between these orders using linear polarizing filters placed in the windows and also in the replicated windows, so two π-shifted patterns can be captured in one shot. An unknown translation is then applied to the grating in order to produce another shift in the each pattern. A second and final shot captures these last patterns. The actual grating displacement and the phase shift can be determined according to the method proposed by Kreis before applying proper phase-shifting techniques to finally calculate the phase difference distribution between windows. Related simulations and experimental results are given.     

Development of Bragg grating sensors at CEFET-PR

A report of activities in the development of fibre optic Bragg grating (FOBG) sensors at “Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica do Paraná (CEFET-PR)” is given. Numerical simulation, experimental development, calibration procedures and application results are used to study FOBG sensors in mechanical, electrical and biomedical engineering.     

Broadband filter using cladding profile linearly tapered long-period waveguide grating

A method to increase the bandwidth of long-period waveguide gratings (LPWGs) is proposed using linearly tapered cladding profile and large coupling constant. Compared to conventional uniform LPWG, the simulated 20-dB bandwidth of the designed chirped LPWG is enlarged by 14 times, from 0.9 nm to 12.8 nm. Besides, a chirped LPWG with the new structure is also fabricated, and bandwidth broadening effect is observed.     

Outcoupling surface plasmons into propagation modes using a subwavelength dielectric grating for device applications

Coupling of surface plasmon polaritons to radiation modes by use of a one-dimensional subwavelength dielectric grating on a thin metal slab is discussed. The surface plasmon waves obtained in Kretschmann configuration are resonant outcoupled to radiation modes by using a subwavelength dielectric grating. A peak outcoupling efficiency is predicted to be 74.57% with rigorous coupled-wave analysis. In addition, potential applications of these results in the design and improvement of various optoelectronic devices, such as polarizers, wavelength filters and biochemical sensors are discussed.     

Fabrication of grating structures by simultaneous multi-spot fs laser writing

Two-photon polymerisation is an established technique for the fabrication of three-dimensional microstructures. To date structures have mostly been developed using single beam serial writing. A novel approach to simultaneous multi-spot two-photon polymerisation, that uses a SiO₂ on glass Fraunhofer diffractive optical element to generate an array of beamlets, is described. A Ti:sapphire laser, with wavelength 790 nm, 80 MHz repetition rate, 100 fs pulse duration and an average power of 25 mW, was used to initiate two-photon polymerisation. The DOE, in combination with a high power microscope objective, efficiently transforms the laser beam into a linear array of four spots of equal intensity. The fabrication of a periodic transmission grating, using parallel processing with these four spots, is shown. The grating was written in a Zr-loaded resin prepared on a glass substrate using dip coating deposition of a Zr/PMMA hybrid prepared by the sol-gel method. The operation of the diffractive element and the performance of the diffraction grating are also discussed.     

基于瑞利-索墨菲积分的大角度激光分束器设计

针对目前激光分束器只能产生小发散角的问题,基于严格的非傍轴近似的衍射积分公式,提出了一种大发散角分束器的设计方法.先对目标光场分布进行坐标和光强修整,再利用改进的GerchbergSaxton迭代算法得到所需分束器的相位分布.分别采用本文设计方法和原有方法设计了发散全角为40°×40°的5×5分束器,仿真和实验结果表明:原有方法设计得到的5×5子光束存在着显著的枕形畸变,并且光强分布不均匀.而本文方法设计得到的子光束呈均匀等间隔排列,并且强度分布更为均匀.     

All optical self signal processing using chalcogenide nonlinear fiber Bragg grating

In this study, we simulate numerically quasi pulse propagation in a uniform nonlinear fiber Bragg grating (FBG) made of chalcogenide glasses. Because of bistability and nonlinearity behavior of FBG, the shapes of output pulse vary abruptly and strongly according to the input peak intensity. We take Gaussian pulse as input and produce saw-tooth wave and square wave in the output by suitable input amplitude and FBG length also we could reach pulse chopping and pulse compression. These all optical signal processing achieved for a few length, i.e. 6.6 mm and few intensity, i.e. 35 W/m² because of high nonlinearity of chalcogenide glasses.     

Analytical study of disturbing diffraction orders in in-line computer generated holograms for aspheric testing

The effect of spurious diffraction orders due to an in-line diffractive compensator for the measurement of aspheric surfaces is analytically studied. The use of a filtering aperture to isolate the measurement diffraction order from the stray orders introduces additional spurious fields that must be analyzed for a correct evaluation of surface defects. In this work the influence of the additional diffraction orders is studied and an analytical expression for the disturbing field on the detector is obtained.     

Demonstration of an all-optical switching operation using an optical fiber grating coupler

An optical fiber grating coupler (FGC) is a fused optical fiber coupler with a tapered region in which refractive index-modulated gratings are written. In the FGC, the light with specific wavelength satisfying the Bragg condition of the grating can be dropped to one output port and other lights are transmitted to another output port when lights with various wavelengths are launched into the input port. The FGC can operate as an all-optical switch by controlling the Bragg wavelength of the grating using a third order nonlinear optical effect caused by a control light that are launched with a signal light. In this paper, an all-optical switching operation due to a third order nonlinear optical effect in an FGC is first demonstrated for a signal light with 1.55 μm-wavelength to be changed from one port of the FGC to another one by the 720 W peak of a control light from a Nd:YAG laser with 1.06 μm-wavelength. The switching efficiency obtained was 7%. It was clarified that a longer pulse length of the control light compared to the grating length is required to obtain a large Bragg wavelength shift for the switching. It was also clarified that the Bragg wavelength shift is caused by a third order nonlinear effect and a photothermal effect. A contribution of the photothermal effect was estimated. We also estimated the switching efficiency for pump power in the FGC switch.     

Design, simulation and characterisation of integrated optics for a microfabricated flow cytometer

Flow cytometry is widely used for analyzing micro-particles such as cells and bacteria. Microfabricated flow cytometers promise reduced instrument size and cost with increased robustness and have application in medicine, life sciences and environmental metrology. Further miniaturisation and robustness can be achieved if integrated optics are used instead of traditional free space optics. We present designs simulation and experimental characterisation of integrated optics for a microfabricated cytometer made from SU-8 resin on a glass substrate. The optics constructed from combinations of optical fibres (positioned with microgrooves), waveguides, and microlenses enable analysis of scattered light and fluorescence from particles positioned near the centre of a microchannel using one dimensional sheath flow. Four different methods for directing the incident light onto the particles are examined and the optimum design discussed.     

Sensitivity enhancement of surface plasmon resonance sensor using continuous film metallic gratings

A surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor based on continuous film metallic gratings is numerically investigated for enhance sensitivity. The results calculated by rigorous coupled-wave analysis (RCWA) present that interplays between localized surface plasmons and surface plasmons polaritons contribute to sensitivity enhancement. The sensitivity enhancement factor (SEF), which represents the influence of metallic grating, increased as the grating period decreased. In addition, several reflection dips can be achieved as the period of metallic grating increased. By double-dips method, the sensitivity SPR sensor based on continuous film grating-based is improved into 153.23°/RIU, which is more sensitive than conventional thin film-based SPR sensor in the same condition. The SPR sensor based on continuous film metallic gratings exhibits good linearity.     

多层衍射光学元件成像特性的研究

讨论了多层衍射光学元件的光学成像性质.给出了优化设计多层衍射光学元件最大光栅厚度的方法,分析了构成多层结构的每块单层衍射元件的衍射效率对整体衍射效率的贡献作用.在0.436～0.656 μm的可见光波段,多层衍射光学元件最低衍射效率可达到98%以上,克服了单层衍射元件偏离设计波长后衍射效率显著下降的缺点,改善了宽波段衍射效率.将多层衍射光学元件应用在折、衍射混合光学系统中能够明显提高系统的成像质量,同时使得光学系统体积减小,重量减轻,并且在某些系统中可以避免使用昂贵的特殊材料,从而可以降低光学系统的成本价格.     

Aberration athermal design for infrared search and trace optical system

To satisfy environment requirement of infrared search and trace optical system, an infrared diffractive/refractive hybrid optical system in 3.7–4.8 μm with 11.42° of field of view for passive athermalization is presented. The system is consisted of three lenses, including two aspheric surfaces and a diffraction surface, which has only two materials Ge and Si. The optical system has compact structure, small volume and light weight. The image quality of the system approaches the diffraction limit in the temperature range −80 °C to 160 °C. It is compatible with staring focal plane array which has a format of 320 × 240 and the pixel pitch of 30 μm. The system need not move the compensated lens repeatedly to obtain the best images from −80 °C to 160 °C and enhances the performance of target tracking and recognition.     

Wedge plate interferometry: a new dual field configuration for collimation testing

A method of deriving a dual field fringe pattern from a single wedge plate for collimation testing is presented. The proposed technique uses a wedge plate and a 90° prism retroreflector to form two interference fields. With the two sets of fringes, the technique provides twofold increase in sensitivity and has its own reference.     

Replication technology for optical microsystems

Replication technology is playing an increasingly important role in the production of optical microsystems and micro-optical elements. Hot embossing, injection moulding and UV-embossing all can produce high-quality optical elements in very cost-effective processes. New sol–gel materials allow the combination of replication with lithography to leave selected areas material-free for sawing and bonding. The development of wafer-scale replication technology using UV-curable sol–gel and polymer materials enables refractive and diffractive micro-optical elements as well as micro-mechanical alignment features to be replicated directly onto glass substrates or onto semiconductor device wafers. Grating nanostructures with linewidths less than 100 nm have been replicated into polymer and sol–gel materials for the cost-effective fabrication of large area subwavelength structures for applications such as polarisers and buried grating security features.