Quantifying metarefraction with confocal lenslet arrays

METATOYs can change the direction of light in ways that appear to, but do not actually, contravene the laws of wave optics. This direction change applies only to part of the transmitted light beam; the remainder gets re-directed differently. For a specific example, namely confocal pairs of rectangular lenslet arrays with no dead area between lenslets, we calculate here the fractions of power of a uniform-intensity light beam incident from a specific (but arbitrary) direction that get re-directed in different ways, and we derive an equation describing this redirection. This will facilitate assessment of the suitability of METATOYs for applications such as solar concentration. Finally, we discuss similarities between the multiple refraction of light at the lenslet arrays and multiple refraction and reflection of cold atoms at a barrier in the presence of the light fields.     

Standard and non-standard metarefraction with confocal lenslet arrays

A recent paper demonstrated that two lenslet arrays with focal lengths f₁ and f₂, separated by f₁+f₂, change the direction of transmitted light rays approximately like the interface between isotropic media with refractive indices n₁ and n₂, where n₁/n₂=-f₁/f₂ [J. Courtial, New J. Phys. 10 (2008) 083033]. This is true if light passes through corresponding lenslets, that is lenslets that share an optical axis. Light can also pass through different combinations of non-corresponding lenslets. Such light can be either absorbed or allowed to form “ghost images”; either way, it leads to a limitation of the field of view of confocal lenslet arrays. This paper describes, qualitatively and quantitatively, a number of such field-of-view limitations.     

Experimental demonstration of a light-ray-direction-flipping METATOY based on confocal lenticular arrays

We show, theoretically and experimentally, that a sheet formed by two confocal lenticular arrays can flip one component of the local light-ray direction. Ray-optically, such a sheet is equivalent to a Dove-prism sheet, an example of a METATOY (metamaterial for rays), a structure that changes the direction of transmitted light rays in a way that cannot be performed perfectly wave-optically.     

Three-dimensional integral imaging with electronically synthesized lenslet arrays

We propose to use electronically synthesized lenslet arrays in three-dimensional integral imaging, which will permit control of lenslet positions and characteristics in real time. We can then potentially achieve improvements in the quality of reconstructured three-dimensional images by adopting a moving-lenslet-array technique with no mechanical movement of optical components. We present preliminary experiments to show the feasibility of our approach with an off-the-shelf liquid-crystal display.     

Microlens arrays for confocal microscopy

A new; high resolution measuring system based on confocal microscopy has been developed for the evaluation of microlens arrays; in particular for applications in confocal microscopy itself. Lenslet arrays for parallel scanning and processing in confocal microscopy were designed as phase-matched Fresnel lenslets and fabricated by direct laser writing. Replica arrays were produced by ultraviolet embossing and hot embossing techniques. Fabricated arrays with a numerical aperture of 0.28 exhibited near diffraction limited performance and a focal length standard deviation of 120 nm in a nominal value of 250 μm. The technique developed represents a convenient and powerful technique for the characterization of lenslet arrays in general.     

All-angle broadband negative refraction of metal waveguide arrays in the visible range: theoretical analysis and numerical demonstration

In this Letter, we introduce a simple metal waveguide array for realizing all-angle wide frequency bandwidth negative refraction from the visible to infrared frequencies. Theoretical analysis from the rigorous coupled-wave theory reveals that the negative coupling constant resulting from the anomalous coupling of guided surface plasmon polariton modes contributes to the negative refraction. The analytical results are confirmed by finite-difference time-domain numerical simulations. Our result provides an alternative way to construct robust all-angle negative refractive materials operating in a wide range of frequency from the near-infrared to the visible range.     

Discrete negative refraction in photonic crystal waveguide arrays

We report a systematic analysis of anomalous refractive effects at interfaces between two photonic crystal waveguide arrays. Discrete negative refraction can be easily predicted from the sign of the coupling coefficient between adjacent waveguides, regardless of handedness of propagation.     

Experimental demonstration of complementarity with single photons

We demonstrate the principle of complementarity in quantum mechanics in a single-photon interference experiment. Single photons are provided by isolated, optically pumped nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond, which can be easily addressed by confocal microscopy. In order to observe the particle-like behavior of photons, we perform an elementary Welcher-Weg measurement, detecting photons behind a beam splitter. In contrast, if we dispense with this Welcher-Weg information, we observe interference fringes with a visibility of about 96%, revealing the wave nature of the photon. Received: 29 August 2002 / Revised version: 12 December 2002 / Published online: 26 February 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax +49-89/2180-5032, E-mail: Harald.Weinfurter@physik.uni-muenchen.de     

Multiband diffraction and refraction control in binary arrays of periodically curved waveguides

The possibility of controlling discrete diffraction and refraction in a multiband waveguide array by periodic waveguide bending is theoretically demonstrated. Resonance effects, leading to the enhancement or inhibition of discrete diffraction, are found and related to the quantum analog of field-induced n-photon resonances in semiconductor superlattices. A very distinct behavior for light refraction is found for odd or even resonances. In particular, for even resonances, the two-band behavior of the straight binary array is quenched, resulting in the inhibition of double refraction.     

Experimental demonstration of improved neoclassical transport with quasihelical symmetry

Differences in the electron particle and thermal transport are reported between plasmas produced in a quasihelically symmetric (QHS) magnetic field and a configuration with the symmetry broken. The thermal diffusivity is reduced in the QHS configuration, resulting in higher electron temperatures than in the nonsymmetric configuration for a fixed power input. The density profile in QHS plasmas is centrally peaked, and in the nonsymmetric configuration the core density profile is hollow. The hollow profile is due to neoclassical thermodiffusion, which is reduced in the QHS configuration.     

Experimental demonstration of coherent state estimation with minimal disturbance

We investigate the optimal trade-off between information gained about an unknown coherent state and the state disturbance caused by the measurement process. We propose several optical schemes that can enable this task, and we implement one of them, a scheme that relies on only linear optics and homodyne detection. Experimentally we reach near optimal performance, limited only by detection inefficiencies. In addition, we show that such a scheme can be used to enhance the transmission fidelity of a class of noisy channels.     

A novel technique for wireless optical communications with lenslet array processor

A novel communication technique is proposed, which utilizes a set ofmutually distinguishable optical pat terns instead of convergent facula to transmit information. Then the capacity is increased by exploiting the optical spatial bandwidth resources. At last, we experimentally demonstrate the proposed communication technique based on four 8 × 8 spatial pattern signals by using lenslet array processor.     

Experimental demonstration of RSOA-based WDM PON with PPM-encoded downstream signals

Pulse position modulation(PPM) is introduced downstream of the reflective semiconductor optical amplifier (RSOA)-based single-fiber full-duplex bidirectional wavelength division multiplex passive optical network(WDM PON) to suppress the interference brought by the remodulation effect in the RSOA, Rayleigh backscattering,and reflection of the connection devices.In addition,because of the powerefficient characteristic of the PPM-encoded signals,the power budget shows clear improvement.As the experimental tests indicate,with～6 dB extinction ratio(ER) in the downstream signal,the receiving sensitivity of the PPM-encoded channel is～2.6 and～3 dB higher than that of the NRZ(Non-return to zero)-encoded channel in the downlink and uplink,respectively.     

Experimental demonstration of plasmonic racetrack resonators with a trench structure

We fabricated and investigated a plasmonic racetrack resonator with a trench structure. Trench channel plasmon polaritons excited by end-fire coupling at a wavelength of 633 nm are observed in the fabricated racetrack resonator. The racetrack resonator also worked as a plasmonic racetrack resonator. The experimental and simulation results of the electric field distributions are in good agreement.     

Experimental demonstration of free-space optical vortex transmutation with polygonal lenses

Vortex transmutation was predicted to take place when vortices interact with systems possessing discrete rotational symmetries of finite order [Phys. Rev. Lett.95, 123901 (2005)]. Here we report what is believed to be the first experimental demonstration of vortex transmutation. We show that in free space, by simply inserting polygonal lenses into the optical path, the central vorticity of a coaxially incident optical vortex can be changed following the modular transmutation rule. We generate the wavefront at the exit face of the lenses with computer generated holograms and measure the output vorticity using the interference patterns at the focal plane. The results agree well with theoretical predictions.     

Experimental demonstration of the induction synchrotron

We report an experimental demonstration of the induction synchrotron, the concept of which has been proposed as a future accelerator for the second generation of neutrino factory or hadron collider. The induction synchrotron supports a superbunch and a superbunch permits more charge to be accelerated while observing the constraints of the transverse space-charge limit. By using a newly developed induction acceleration system instead of radio-wave acceleration devices, a single proton bunch injected from the 500 MeV booster ring and captured by the barrier bucket created by the induction step voltages was accelerated to 6 GeV in the KEK proton synchrotron.     

匀速直线运动的实验演示

介绍了用落球法演示匀速直线运动的方法、原理。     

Experimental demonstration of quantum source coding

We report an experimental demonstration of Schumacher's quantum noiseless coding theorem. Our experiment employs a sequence of single photons, each of which represents three qubits in terms of eight spatial and polarization modes. We initially prepare each photon in one of a set of eight nonorthogonal code word states corresponding to the value of a block of three binary letters. We use quantum coding to compress this quantum data into a two-qubit quantum channel and then uncompress the two-qubit channel to restore the original data with a fidelity approaching the theoretical limit.