Optical transmission enhancement by a sub-wavelength film lens

A new sub-wavelength metallic film lens configuration is proposed, which is embedded in a thin ideal metal film, and its near field optical properties are investigated by finite-difference time-domain (FDTD)method. It is found that the optical transmission is greatly enhanced, and the spot size can be reduced by the sub-wavelength metallic film lens in comparison with the bare aperture. This kind of lens is expected to have practical applications in the very small aperture laser (VSAL), a promising nanosource for near-field optical storage and lithography.     

Fano resonance sensing based on coupled sub-wavelength dielectric grating and periodic photonic crystal

Based on the diffraction effect of sub-wavelength dielectric grating and the optical property of periodic photonic crystal, a hybrid structure of sub-wavelength grating all-dielectric multilayer thin film containing periodic photonic crystal is proposed. The transmission property of the structure is simulated by finite element method (FEM). The result shows that the discrete state generated by the sub-wavelength waveguide grating will be coupled with the continuous state generated by the photonic crystal cavity and the Fano resonance can be formed. The Fano resonance sensing model based on structural parameters and resonance wavelength are established, the influence of structural parameters on the Fano resonance spectral curve is quantitatively analyzed by numerical simulations, and the dynamic detection of the refractive index of samples is realized. The above structure can realize the optical refractive index sensing with high figure of merit (FOM) value and provide an effective theoretical reference for the formation of Fano resonance in the all-dielectric hybrid structure.     

Flat acoustic lens by acoustic grating with curled slits

We design a flat sub-wavelength lens that can focus acoustic wave. We analytically study the transmission through an acoustic grating with curled slits, which can serve as a material with tunable impedance and refractive index for acoustic waves. The effective parameters rely on the geometry of the slits and are independent of frequency. A flat acoustic focusing lens by such acoustic grating with gradient effective refractive index is designed. The focusing effect is clearly observed in simulations and well predicted by the theory. We demonstrate that despite the large impedance mismatch between the acoustic lens and the matrix, the intensity at the focal point is still high due to Fabry–Perot resonance.     

TE0导模干涉刻写周期可调亚波长光栅理论研究

通过棱镜耦合激发非对称金属包覆介质波导结构中的TE₀导波模式, 利用两束TE₀模的干涉从理论上实现了周期可调的亚波长光栅刻写. 分析了TE₀模式的色散关系, 刻写亚波长光栅的周期与激发光源、棱镜折射率、光刻胶薄膜厚度及折射率之间的关系. 用有限元方法数值模拟了金属薄膜、光刻胶薄膜和空气多层结构中TE₀导模的干涉场分布. 研究发现, 激发光源波长越短, TE₀ 模干涉刻写的亚波长光栅周期越小; 光刻胶越厚, 刻写的亚波长光栅周期越小; 高折射率光刻胶有利于更小周期亚波长光栅的刻写. 相较于表面等离子体干涉光刻, 基于TE₀ 模的干涉可在厚光刻胶条件下通过改变激发光源、棱镜折射率、光刻胶材料折射率、特别是光刻胶薄膜的厚度等多种方式实现对亚波长光栅周期的有效调控.     

金孔阵列电介质与金电介质孔阵列的强透射特性

采用时域有限差分（FDTD）法研究了金膜厚度、电介质折射率及其厚度对金孔阵列电介质与金电介质孔阵列两种结构强透射特性的影响。研究发现这两种结构都具有较好的强透射特性,这表明光与金膜表面自由电子的电荷密度波耦合成表面等离子激元（SPP）,对增强透射起到了关键作用。金膜厚度是影响强透射特性的主要因素,其衰减长度为35 nm;而与金膜相邻的电介质膜厚度对强透射特性影响极小。电介质折射率大小对强透射特性影响明显,折射率为1.8时能够获得较好的强透射特性。     

阶梯型纳米孔径的近场光学局域增强特性研究

提出一种高分辨力与高通光效率兼备的阶梯型纳米孔径设计方法 ,孔径的尺寸从膜层的入射表面向出射表面呈阶梯型逐渐减小 ,直到在膜层的出射表面形成一个亚波长的小孔。采用三维时域有限差分 (FDTD)方法对方形阶梯型纳米孔径及三角形阶梯型纳米孔径进行了数值模拟计算。结果表明 ,由于近场光学很强的局域场增强效应 ,其通光效率与输出光强极大值在具有相同近场光斑尺寸情况下 ,较普通的非阶梯型纳米孔径提高了两个数量级 ,甚至更高 ,有效地提高了输出光功率。采用四台阶三角形阶梯型纳米孔径 ,当光斑半峰全宽为 97nm× 74nm时 ,出射光强极大值达到 10 4 9.76 ,较入射光增强了 10 0 0倍 ,而通光效率大于 1,达到 1.6 7。这种阶梯型纳米孔径可以直接作为纳米孔径激光器的出射孔径提高其输出光功率 ,也可以作为独立的光学屏对入射光进行整形得到具有高输出功率的亚波长尺度光源 ,在纳米尺度光学成像、光谱探测、数据存储、光刻、光学操作等近场光学应用领域具有潜在的应用前景。     

Enhanced and confined light transmission through a funnel-type aperture with a sub-wavelength outlet

Enhanced transmission through sub-wavelength hole arrays and a single sub-wavelength aperture with periodic corrugations surrounded have been investigated extensively. We report the similar phenomenon through a funnel-type aperture with a sub-wavelength outlet in a thick silver film, which was obtained numerically by using finite-difference time-domain method. Properties of the transmission spectrum can be modulated by geometric parameters of the funnel-type aperture. With periodic grooves or dielectric gratings on the output surface of the structure, beaming light emission can be obtained.     

基于光学异常透射现象的光纤传感器的设计与研究

基于光学异常透射现象的光纤传感器,因其具有高度的近场增强效应和介电环境的高度敏感性等优点,在化学、生物医学等领域有广泛的应用前景。但是由于在光纤端面加工周期纳米结构需要复杂的工艺或者昂贵的微加工仪器,限制了基于光学异常透射现象的光纤传感器的发展。针对这一问题,提出了模板转移法在光纤端面加工金属周期纳米结构,并搭建实验系统对应用该方法制作的光纤传感器的传感特性及其物理机理进行了研究。实验结果表明,模板转移法能够很好地完成在光纤端面加工高质量的周期金属纳米结构。应用该方法制作的光纤传感器具有很好的传感特性,传感器的最高灵敏度达到594.45 nm·RIU-1,品质因数值达到33.12。     

Metal grating on a substrate nanostructure for sensor applications

Extraordinary optical transmission via periodic array of sub-wavelength slits in a metal layer on a dielectric substrate is revisited for sensing applications. Numerical case studies using an in-house software tool showed two peaks of enhanced transmission, one being very sensitive to the ambient index and another to the substrate index. Based on this, we designed and realized an optical sensor with sensitivity of the order of 400 nm/RIU.     

High-optical-throughput individual nanoscale aperture in a multilayered metallic film

The optical transmission of an individual subwavelength aperture in a multilayered metal film is shown to be enhanced compared with that of a homogeneous metal film. The enhancement effect is due to the light coupling to surface plasmon excitation facilitated by a film periodicity. The sensitivity of the transmission to the dielectric filling of the aperture is also shown. The latter effect can be used to switch and control the transmittance. Devices based on enhanced transmission through nanosized apertures can find applications in high-density optical and magneto-optical data storage, high-resolution microscopy, and photolithography, where nanoscale light sources with high-optical-power throughput are required, as well as in sensor applications.     

A desktop X‐ray monochromator for synchrotron radiation based on refraction in mosaic prism lenses

Focusing planar refractive mosaic lenses based on triangular prism microstructures have been used as an alternative approach for wide‐bandpass monochromatization of high‐energy X‐rays. The strong energy dependence of the refractive index of the lens material leads to an analogous energy dependence of the focal length of the lens. The refractive mosaic lens, in comparison with the refractive lens of continuous parabolic profile, is characterized by a higher aperture because of reduced passive material. In combination with a well defined pinhole aperture in the focal plane, the transmittance of photons of an appropriate energy can be relatively high and photons of deviating energy can be efficiently suppressed. The photon energy can be tuned by translating the pinhole along the optical axis, and the bandwidth changed by selecting appropriate pinhole aperture and beam stop. This method of monochromatization was realised at the ANKA FLUO beamline using a mosaic lens together with a 20 µm pinhole and beam stop. An energy resolution of 2.0% at 16 keV has been achieved.     

Optically tunable plasmonic color filters

We fabricated sub-wavelength patterned gold plasmonic nanostructures on a quartz substrate through the focused ion beam (FIB) technique. The perforated gold film demonstrated optical transmission peaks in the visible range, which therefore can be used as a plasmonic color filter. Furthermore, by integrating a layer of photoresponsive liquid crystals (LCs) with the gold nanostructure to form a hybrid system, we observed a red-shift of transmission peak wavelength. More importantly, the peak intensity can be further enhanced more than 10% in transmittance due to the refractive index match of the media on both sides of it. By optically pumping the hybrid system using a UV light, nematic−isotropic phase transition of the LCs was achieved, thus changing the effective refractive index experienced by the impinging light. Due to the refractive index change, the transmission peak intensity was modulated accordingly. As a result, an optically tunable plasmonic color filter was achieved. This kind of color filters could be potentially applied to many applications, such as complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors, liquid crystal display devices, light emitting diodes, etc.     

六角形孔径平面微透镜阵列的制作及基本特性研究

采用光刻离子交换工艺制作了六角形孔径平面微透镜阵列.离子交换后的变折射率区域有微小重叠,填充系数可达95%以上.对制作的六角形孔径平面微透镜进行了折射率分布、数值孔径和像差等光学特性测试,得到的六角形孔径平面微透镜阵列光学性能均匀,成像质量较好的结果.该透镜阵列的研制成功为制作高质量高填充系数透镜阵列及模拟生物复眼光学系统奠定了基础.     

二氧化硅亚波长纳米微结构的增透特性

对亚波长纳米微结构-非紧密堆积多晶胶体晶体光学薄膜的增透特性进行了研究。采用浸渍-提拉法在玻璃表面组装了亚波长纳米微结构,并利用等效介质理论分析其光学性质,理论和实验符合。研究表明实验制备的纳米微结构具有优异的增透性质,通过控制组装条件可以控制膜层厚度实现高增透效率从可见光到近红外的有效调谐,且微结构在玻璃基底上的等效折射率接近1.22,透射率最大能提高约7%,达到99.8%的增透效果。     

Influence of slit width on the electromagnetic transmission of a periodic metallic grating

The light transmittance of a periodic metallic grating with varied slit widths has been investigated. The transmission peaks move to the shorter wavelength direction with an increase in the width of slits while keeping the other parameters unchanged. It was demonstrated that the slit width affects the spectral transmittance of the metal grating significantly. It was also found that the effective refractive index and cavity modes in slits are responsible for this phenomenon. Cavity modes play an important role in extraordinary transmission of the sub-wavelength aperture grating. When a complete resonant mode forms in the slits, a high transmission will appear. A wider slit results in a smaller efficient refractive index and thus affects the cavity mode in the slits. These two elements cause the transmission peaks to move to the shorter wavelength direction with widening of slits. The results obtained here may provide a useful guide to design metallic slit grating devices.     

An exact theory of imaging with a parabolic continuously refractive X-ray lens

A theory is developed of image formation with an X-ray lens that consists of a large number of elements. Each element has a biconcave parabolic profile and weakly refracts an X-ray beam. Since such a lens can have a relatively large length comparable to the focal length, the thin-lens approximation is inapplicable. An exact expression for the propagator of a continuously refractive lens is derived that describes the transfer of radiation through a refractive parabolic medium. We calculate the image propagator that describes the focusing of a parallel beam and the image transfer (the focusing of a microobject), as well as the Fourier transform of the transmission function for a microobject with a lens, is calculated. The effective aperture of an X-ray lens is completely determined by the absorption of radiation and does not depend on its geometrical cross-sectional sizes. If we write the complex refractive index as n=1? δ+iβ, then the beam diameter at the focus is approximately a factor of 0.8β/δ smaller than the diameter of the effective aperture, with the index depending only slightly on the wavelength. A continuously refractive lens has no aberrations in the sense that all of the rays that passed through the lens aperture are focused at a single point. The lens can focus radiation inside it and has the properties of a waveguide; i.e., it can reconstruct the beam structure for some lengths to within the absorption-caused distortions. Nonuniform X-ray absorption in the lens leads to the interesting visualization effect of transparent microobjects when their image is focused. In this case, the phase shift gradient produced by the microobject is imaged. We discuss the properties of the Fourier transform pertaining to the absorption of radiation in the lens.     

Tightly focusing of spirally polarized Quadratic Bessel Gaussian beam through a dielectric interface

Based on vector diffraction theory, the tight focusing properties of spirally polarized axisymmetric Bessel-modulated Gaussian beam through a dielectric interface on high numerical aperture (NA) are investigated theoretically. The optical intensity distribution in the focal region of high NA objective lens is investigated in detail by numerical calculations. The results show that the focal shift induced in the focal region is by mismatch of refractive indices across the dielectric interface. It is also found that the optical intensity in focal region of spirally polarized Quadratic Bessel Gaussian (QBG) beam can be altered considerably by changing spiral parameter C that indicates the polarization spiral degree of the incident beam.     

Sub-wavelength diffraction-free imaging with low-loss metal-dielectric multilayers

We demonstrate numerically the diffraction-free propagation of sub-wavelength sized optical beams through simple elements built of metal-dielectric multilayers. The proposed metamaterial consists of silver and a high refractive index dielectric, and is designed using the effective medium theory as strongly anisotropic and impedance matched to air. Further it is characterised with the transfer matrix method, and investigated with FDTD. The diffraction-free behaviour is verified by the analysis of FWHM of PSF in the function of the number of periods. Small reflections, small attenuation, and reduced Fabry–Pérot resonances make it a flexible diffraction-free material for arbitrarily shaped optical planar elements with sizes of the order of one wavelength.     

衍射光学透镜色散特性的仿真研究

在白光照射下,衍射光学透镜的焦距不仅同材料色散和波长色散有关,而且还同孔径因子有关。基于折射率随波长变化的经验公式,利用自编的仿真计算程序包,得到了透镜焦距、材料色散、波长色散、孔径因子之间的关系曲线。所获得的理论分析和仿真计算结果为进一步设计消色差的纯衍射目视光学系统提供了理论依据,具有一定的指导意义。