Enhanced light transmission through a single subwavelength aperture

The optical transmission through a subwavelength aperture in a metal film is strongly enhanced when the incident light is resonant with surface plasmons at the corrugated metal surface surrounding the aperture. Conversely, the aperture acts as a novel probe of the surface plasmons, yielding useful insights for optimizing the transmission enhancement. For the optimal corrugation geometry, a set of concentric circular grooves, three times more light is transmitted through the central subwavelength aperture than directly impinges upon it. This effect is useful in the fabrication of near-field optical devices with extremely high optical throughput.     

Enhanced optical transmission through a subwavelength 1D aperture

We present finite difference time domain simulations of the enhancement of the optical transmission through a single subwavelength slit in a thick metal film caused by resonances of the electromagnetic fields in and near the slit. These can be enhanced by including a periodic modulation on the in-coupling surface, and the dependence of the transmission on the grating structural parameters is analysed in detail.     

Funneling light through a subwavelength aperture with epsilon-near-zero materials

We present a comprehensive study of enhanced light funneling through a subwavelength aperture with realistic (lossy) epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) materials. We realize experimentally an inclusion-free ENZ material layer operating at optical frequencies and characterize its performance. An analytical expression describing light funneling through several structures involving ENZ coupling layers is developed, validated with numerical solutions of Maxwell equations, and utilized to relate the performance of the ENZ coupling systems to their main limiting factor, material losses.     

Shaping of few-cycle laser pulses via a subwavelength structure

We theoretically investigate the propagation of few-cycle laser pulses in resonant two-level dense media with a sub- wavelength structure, which is described by the full Maxwell-Bloch equations without the frame of slowly varying envelope and rotating wave approximations. The input pulses can be shaped into shorter ones with a single or less than one optical cycle. The effect of the parameters of the subwavelength structure and laser pulses is studied. Our study shows that the media with a subwavelength structure can significantly shape the few-cycle pulses into a subcycle pulse, even for the case of chirp pulses as input fields. This suggests that such subwavelength structures have potential application in the shaping of few-cycle laser pulses.     

锥形镀膜光纤探针中飞秒激光脉冲的传输

采用三维时域有限差分法对飞秒激光脉冲照明下锥形镀膜光纤探针内的光场进行了计算,研究了飞秒脉冲在探针中传输时的时域、频谱和相位特性,并分析了不同锥角和不同长度的探针对这些特性的影响.研究结果发现飞秒脉冲在探针中传输时出现了脉冲展宽、幅值振荡以及频谱分裂等现象,并且利用频谱和相位的变化特性初步解释了脉冲的展宽和脉冲振幅随时间周期性变化等现象. 关键词： 时域有限差分法 飞秒脉冲 光纤探针     

Modeling of near-field optical diffraction from a subwavelength aperture in a thin conducting film

A theoretical model, novel to our knowledge, to investigate the near-field optical diffraction from a subwavelength aperture in a thin conducting film is presented. A governing equation for the magnetic field distribution in an optical thin film based on the power flow theorem is derived for the first time. Thus all of the components of the electric and magnetic fields inside or outside the thin film with a subwavelength aperture embedded can be obtained by applying the Hankel transform accurately. Numerical computations are performed to illustrate the edge effect by an enhancement factor of 2.2 and the depolarization phenomenon of the transmission in terms of the distance from the film surface.     

Numerical modeling of laser shock peening with femtosecond laser pulses and comparisons to experiments

A physics-based model has been developed for laser shock peening (LSP) with femtosecond (fs) laser pulses (fs-LSP), which has never been reported in literature to the authors’ best knowledge. The model is tested by comparing simulations with measured plume/shock wave front transient propagations and the LSP-induced hardness enhancement layer thickness. Reasonably good agreements have been obtained. The model shows that fs-LSP can produce much higher pressure than LSP with nanosecond (ns) laser pulses (ns-LSP), and it can also generate very large compressive residual stress in the workpiece near-surface layer with a thickness up to ∼100 μm. The developed model provides a powerful guiding tool for the fundamental study and the practical applications of fs-LSP. This study, together with the recently reported work by Nakano et al. [Journal of Laser Micro/Nanoengineering 4(1) (2009) 35-38], has confirmed the feasibility of fs-LSP on both theoretical and experimental sides.     

Multiple filamentation of femtosecond laser pulses

The formation of fluorescent channels with color centers in LiF crystals under the action of the multiple filamentation of femtosecond laser pulses is studied experimentally and theoretically for pulse powers around four orders of magnitude higher than the critical self-focusing value.     

单一亚波长孔径增强透射效应的传输线模型

为了研究亚波长孔径的增强透射效应,把传输线理论引入到了单一亚波长金属孔径的增强光学透射效应中。把金属孔径看成传输线,将电流在传输线上的传输和类Fabry-Pérot腔联系起来;把孔径的出射面看成是传输线的输出端,将出射面的电流看成是一种局域的衰逝电流,电流经传输线在传输线的输出端以天线辐射的形式辐射电磁波。解释了孔径透射的近场分布问题、孔径增强透射峰的位置问题和透射峰位置随金属板厚度的红移问题,得到了与其它理论和实验一致的结果,对开发基于增强透射的亚波长元件具有重要的参考价值。     

Size resonances in penetration of intense femtosecond laser pulses through ultra-thin foils

An analytic expression for the transmission coefficient as a function of the foil thickness d describing penetration of intense femtosecond laser pulses through ultra-thin foils with a thickness of the order of 30–100 nm is derived using the Vlasov-Boltzmann equation. It is found that the transmission of laser radiation stops at the skin depth c/ω _p , but sharp and narrow resonances occur for the foil thickness d > c/ω _p with the transmission coefficient T = 1. The article is published in the original.     

Microwave transmission through a single subwavelength annular aperture in a metal plate

The resonant transmission of a small annular aperture, with a diameter much smaller than the radiation wavelength, in a thin metal plate is studied at microwave frequencies. It transpires that such an annular aperture supports several resonant guided modes, including those that are not quantized in the azimuthal direction. Such modes have resonant frequencies that are largely independent of the diameter of the annular aperture, thus being supported by annular apertures that tend to zero radius. The transmittance of such a structure at microwave frequencies is detailed and compared with the predictions of a finite element method model.     

Feedback-controlled optimization of amplified femtosecond laser pulses

Received: 17 December 1998     

Light-emitting diodes as measurement devices for femtosecond laser pulses

We present results showing that, when it is used as a photodetector, a light-emitting diode (LED) has a power-dependent response that can be used for sensitive detection and characterization of picosecond and femtosecond laser pulses. A characterization of a typical LED is presented at 800 nm, and we demonstrate how this effect can be used to construct an extremely compact novel autocorrelator based on a Wollaston prism.     

Near-field properties of diffraction through a circular subwavelength-size aperture

Analytical nonparaxial vectorial electric field expressions for both Gaussian beams and plane waves diffracted through a circular aperture are derived by using the vector plane angular spectrum method for the first time,which is suitable for the subwavelength aperture and the near-field region.The transverse properties of intensity distributions and their evolutions with the propagating distance,and the power transmission functions for diffracted fields containing the whole field,the evanescent field and the propagating field are investigated in detail,which is helpful for understanding the relationship between evanescent and propagating components in the near-field region and can be applied to apertured near-field scanning optical microscopy.     

Ultrafast electron pulses from a tungsten tip triggered by low-power femtosecond laser pulses

We present an experimental and numerical study of electron emission from a sharp tungsten tip triggered by sub-8-fs low-power laser pulses. This process is nonlinear in the laser electric field, and the nonlinearity can be tuned via the dc voltage applied to the tip. Numerical simulations of this system show that electron emission takes place within less than one optical period of the exciting laser pulse, so that an 8 fs 800 nm laser pulse is capable of producing a single electron pulse of less than 1 fs duration. Furthermore, we find that the carrier-envelope phase dependence of the emission process is smaller than 0.1% for an 8 fs pulse but is steeply increasing with decreasing laser pulse duration.     

Dual band enhanced transmission through a subwavelength aperture based on two split-ring-resonators

Enhanced transmission through a subwavelength aperture is observed at two frequency bands with employment of two split-ring-resonators (SRR) of different sizes. Each of the SRR is excited to produce resonance and the electric field energy localized in its gap and split region can be coupled into a small hole with a radius of 2.3 mm around the respective resonance frequency. The simulation results show that the energy through the small hole is increased at 5.94 GHz (r/λ ₁=0.045) and 7.03 GHz (r/λ ₂=0.054), where 1042-fold and 88-fold enhancements are obtained, respectively, in comparison with the case of a single isolated hole. Moreover, it is found that placing two identical SRR structures in front of the hole can realize higher enhanced transmission with respect to the case of only one SRR utilized. The electric field coupling-enhancement mechanism is well described by studying the electric field distribution.     

Beam focusing through a tapered subwavelength aperture surrounded by dielectric surface gratings

A novel plasmonic nanolens formed by a tapered subwavelength metal slit surrounded by surface dielectric gratings is proposed and demonstrated numerically. By patterning surface corrugations on the output surface, the beam can be focused, by regulating the aperture, the focal length can be controlled effectively. Numerical simulations using Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method coupled with anisotropic perfectly matched layer (APML) boundary conditions verify that the proposed metallic lens can focus the radiation on the scale of a wavelength below the substrate and the method is effective for the design of nano-optical devices such as optical microprobes.