Prism-based approach to create intensity-interferometric non-diffractive cw light sheets.

Light sheets are optical beam-like fields with one-dimensional intensity localization. Ideally, the field intensity should be independent of the longitudinal and one of the transverse coordinates, which is difficult to achieve even for truncated light sheets. In this work, we present a general theoretical framework for intensity-interferometric continuous wave (cw) light sheets formed by overlapping the interference fringe patterns of mutually uncorrelated frequency components of the field. We show that the key parameters of the light sheets can be calculated using simple analytical expressions. We propose a practical way to generate such light sheets with the help of prisms and demonstrate numerically the abilities of the method. Both bright and dark light sheets with an exceptionally small thickness and long divergence-free propagation distance are possible to generate. We also show that the transverse profile of the generated light sheets can be shaped by modifying the spectrum of the light. We believe our findings advance the beam-engineering technology and its applications.

Interferometric imaging of reflective micro-objects in the presence of strong aberrations.

Some imaging techniques reduce the effect of optical aberrations either by detecting and actively compensating for them or by utilizing interferometry. A microscope based on a Mach-Zehnder interferometer has been recently introduced to allow obtaining sharp images of light-transmitting objects in the presence of strong aberrations. However, the method is not capable of imaging microstructures on opaque substrates. In this work, we use a Michelson interferometer to demonstrate imaging of reflecting and back-scattering objects on any substrate with micrometer-scale resolution. The system is remarkably insensitive to both deterministic and random aberrations that can completely destroy the object's intensity image.

Highly birefringent metamaterial structure as a tunable partial polarizer.

We consider a highly anisotropic metamaterial structure, composed of parallel metal nanostripes, and show that a thin layer of the material can be used as a tunable partial polarizer. The transmittance of the structure for TE-polarized waves depends strongly on the incidence angle, while for TM-polarized waves, it stays high and essentially constant. In particular, using the structure, the degree of polarization of a partially polarized or unpolarized light can be tuned by changing the incidence angle. The TE-wave transmittance drops from, c.a., 1 to 0 when the incidence angle increases by 5 deg only, owing to the presence of an unusual higher-order odd-symmetric TM mode that we have revealed in the structure. The tuning can be made smoother by introducing another layer of a similar metal-nanostripe structure on top of the first one. The new design allows the TE-wave transmittance to decrease gradually towards 0 with the incidence angle increasing from 0 to about 30 deg. Our structures serve as an essential optical component for studies involving partially polarized light.

Optical wave retarder based on metal-nanostripe metamaterial.

Wave retarders, including quarter- and half-wave plates, are used in many optical systems for polarization conversion. They are usually realized with anisotropic crystalline materials. However, much thinner and possibly also less expensive wave plates can be made of micro- and nanostructures. We present a new way to create thin-film optical retarders based on a highly birefringent metamaterial. The wave plate is capable of low-loss, broadband operation, which we verify both numerically and experimentally. Owing to the remarkable simplicity of our design, the wave plates operating on the proposed principle can meet the requirements of large-scale production and find widespread application in optics and photonics.

Theoretical description and design of nanomaterial slab waveguides: application to compensation of optical diffraction.

Planar optical waveguides made of designable spatially dispersive nanomaterials can offer new capabilities for nanophotonic components. As an example, a thin slab waveguide can be designed to compensate for optical diffraction and provide divergence-free propagation for strongly focused optical beams. Optical signals in such waveguides can be transferred in narrow channels formed by the light itself. We introduce here a theoretical method for characterization and design of nanostructured waveguides taking into account their inherent spatial dispersion and anisotropy. Using the method, we design a diffraction-compensating slab waveguide that contains only a single layer of silver nanorods. The waveguide shows low propagation loss and broadband diffraction compensation, potentially allowing transfer of optical information at a THz rate.

Optical wave parameters for spatially dispersive and anisotropic nanomaterials.

Spatial dispersion is an intriguing property of essentially all nanostructured optical media. In particular, it makes optical waves with equal frequencies and polarizations have different wavelengths, if they propagate in different directions. This can offer new approaches to control light radiation and propagation. Spatially dispersive nanomaterials, such as metamaterials, are often treated in terms of wave parameters, such as refractive index and impedance retrieved from reflection and transmission coefficients of the material at each incidence angle. Usually, however, the waves are approximated as transverse, which simplifies the description, but yields wrong results, if spatial dispersion or optical anisotropy is significant. In this work, we present a method to calculate the wave parameters of a general spatially dispersive and optically anisotropic medium without applying such an approximation. The method allows one to evaluate the true impedances and field vectors of the effective waves, obtaining thus the true light intensity and energy propagation direction in the medium. The equations are applied to several examples of spatially dispersive and anisotropic materials. The method introduces new insights into optics of nanostructured media and extends the design of such media towards optical phenomena involving significant spatial dispersion.

Optical-image transfer through a diffraction-compensating metamaterial.

Cancellation of optical diffraction is an intriguing phenomenon enabling optical fields to preserve their transverse intensity profiles upon propagation. In this work, we introduce a metamaterial design that exhibits this phenomenon for three-dimensional optical beams. As an advantage over other diffraction-compensating materials, our metamaterial is impedance-matched to glass, which suppresses optical reflection at the glass-metamaterial interface. The material is designed for beams formed by TM-polarized plane-wave components. We show, however, that unpolarized optical images with arbitrary shapes can be transferred over remarkable distances in the material without distortion. We foresee multiple applications of our results in integrated optics and optical imaging.

A technique for large-area position-controlled growth of GaAs nanowire arrays.

We demonstrate a technique for fabricating position-controlled, large-area arrays of vertical semiconductor nanowires (NWs) with adjustable periods and NW diameters. In our approach, a Au-covered GaAs substrate is first coated with a thin film of photoresponsive azopolymer, which is exposed twice to a laser interference pattern forming a 2D surface relief grating. After dry etching, an array of polymer islands is formed, which is used as a mask to fabricate a matrix of gold particles. The Au particles are then used as seeds in vapour-liquid-solid growth to create arrays of vertical GaAs NWs using metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy. The presented technique enables producing NWs of uniform size distribution with high throughput and potentially on large wafer sizes without relying on expensive lithography techniques. The feasibility of the technique is demonstrated by arrays of vertical NWs with periods of 255-1000 nm and diameters of 50-80 nm on a 2 × 2 cm area. The grown NWs exhibit high long range order and good crystalline quality. Although only GaAs NWs were grown in this study, in principle, the presented technique is suitable for any material available for Au seeded NW growth.

Characterization of surface acoustic waves by stroboscopic white-light interferometry.

We present phase-sensitive absolute amplitude measurements of surface acoustic wave fields obtained using a stroboscopic white-light interferometer. The data analysis makes use of the high resolution available in the measured interferometric phase data, enabling the characterization of the out-of-plane surface vibration fields in electrically excited microstructures with better than 100 pm amplitude resolution. The setup uses a supercontinuum light source with tailored spectral properties for obtaining the high amplitude resolution. The duration of the light pulses is less than 300 ps to allow the detection of high frequencies. These capabilities enabled a detailed measurement of the focusing of surface acoustic waves by an annular interdigital transducer structure operating at 74 MHz, featuring a maximum vibration amplitude of 3 nm.

Picosecond supercontinuum light source for stroboscopic white-light interferometry with freely adjustable pulse repetition rate.

We present a picosecond supercontinuum light source designed for stroboscopic white-light interferometry. This source offers a potential for high-resolution characterization of vibrational fields in electromechanical components with frequencies up to the GHz range. The light source concept combines a gain-switched laser diode, the output of which is amplified in a two-stage fiber amplifier, with supercontinuum generation in a microstructured optical fiber. Implemented in our white-light interferometer setup, optical pulses with optimized spectral properties and below 310 ps duration are used for stroboscopic illumination at freely adjustable repetition rates. The performance of the source is demonstrated by characterizing the surface vibration field of a square-plate silicon MEMS resonator at 3.37 MHz. A minimum detectable vibration amplitude of less than 100 pm is reached.

Shaping single emitter emission with metallic hole arrays: strong focusing of dipolar radiation.

Nanoscale plasmonic structures allow for control of the emission of single emitters, such as fluorescent molecules and quantum dots, enabling phenomena such as lifetime reduction, emission redirection and color sorting of photons. We present single emitter emission tailored with arrays of holes of heterogeneous size, perforated in a gold film. With spatial control of the local amplitude and phase of the electromagnetic field radiated by the emitter, a desired near- or far-field distribution of the electromagnetic waves can be obtained. This control is established by varying the aspect ratio of the individual holes and the periodicity of the array surrounding the emitter. As an example showing the versatility of the technique, we present the strong focusing of the radiation of a highly divergent dipole source, for both p- and s-polarized waves.

Numerical solver for supercontinuum generation in multimode optical fibers.

We present an approach for numerically solving the multimode generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equation (MM-GNLSE). We propose to transform the MM-GNLSE to a system of first-order ordinary differential equations (ODEs) that can then be solved using readily available ODE solvers, thus making modeling of pulse propagation in multimode fibers easier. The solver is verified for the simplest multimode case in which only the two orthogonal polarization states in a non-birefringent microstructured optical fiber are involved. Also, the nonlinear dynamics of the degree and state of spectral polarization are presented for this case.

Stroboscopic white-light interferometry of vibrating microstructures.

We describe a LED-based stroboscopic white-light interferometer and a data analysis method that allow mapping out-of-plane surface vibration fields in electrically excited microstructures with sub-nm amplitude resolution for vibration frequencies ranging up to tens of MHz. The data analysis, which is performed entirely in the frequency domain, makes use of the high resolution available in the measured interferometric phase data. For demonstration, we image the surface vibration fields in a square-plate silicon MEMS resonator for three vibration modes ranging in frequency between 3 and 14 MHz. The minimum detectable vibration amplitude in this case was less than 100 pm.

High and stable photoinduced anisotropy in guest-host polymer mediated by chromophore aggregation.

We present a novel materials concept for optical inscription of stable birefringent optical elements into guest-host type polymers by making use of chromophore aggregation. The method is based on photoalignment of azobenzene chromophores, the aggregation of which leads to significant enhancement and stabilization of the photoinduced birefringence. The obtained order parameter of the molecular alignment (0.3) in combination with the exceptional thermal stability of the anisotropy renders the material system unique among amorphous azobenzene-containing polymers and provides a route toward designing efficient photoresponsive optical elements through the guest-host type approach.

Measurement of evanescent wave properties of a bulk acoustic wave resonator.

Acoustic wave fields in a thin-film bulk acoustic wave resonator are studied using a heterodyne laser interferometer. The measurement area is extended outside the active electrode region of the resonator, so that wave fields in both the active and surrounding regions can be characterized. At frequencies at which the region surrounding the resonator does not support laterally propagating acoustic waves, the analysis of the measurement data shows exponentially decaying amplitude fields outside the active resonator area, as suggested by theory. The magnitude of the imaginary wave vectors is determined by fitting an exponential function to the measured amplitude data, and thereby the experimentally determined dispersion diagram is extended into the region of imaginary wave numbers.

Dispersion and mirror transmission characteristics of bulk acoustic wave resonators.

A heterodyne laser interferometer is used for a detailed study of the acoustic wave fields excited in a 932-MHz solidly mounted ZnO thin-film BAW resonator. The sample is manufactured on a glass substrate, which also allows direct measurement of the vibration fields from the bottom of the acoustic mirror. Vibration fields are measured both on top of the resonator and at the mirror-substrate interface in a frequency range of 350 to 1200 MHz. Plate wave dispersion diagrams are calculated from the experimental data in both cases and the transmission characteristics of the acoustic mirror are determined as a function of both frequency and lateral wave number. The experimental data are compared with 1-D and 2-D simulations to evaluate the validity of the modeling tools commonly used in mirror design. All the major features observed in the 1-D model are identified in the measured dispersion diagrams, and the mirror transmission characteristics predicted for the longitudinal waves, by both the 1-D and the 2-D models, match the measured values well.

Efficient surface-relief gratings in hydrogen-bonded polymer-azobenzene complexes.

We show that efficient photoinduced surface-relief gratings can be inscribed in polymer-azobenzene complexes which are bonded by phenol-pyridine hydrogen bonding. The grating inscription was studied as a function of chromophore concentration and the molecular weight of the host polymer, both of which can be easily tuned without demanding organic synthesis. Stable gratings with modulation depth as high as 440 nm and with diffraction efficiency exceeding 40% were inscribed in the equimolar complexes. Our results demonstrate that phenol-pyridine hydrogen bonding not only allows one to increase the chromophore content until each polymer unit is occupied but is also sufficiently strong to induce mass migration of the polymer chains in a manner comparable to covalently functionalized polymers.

Modal analysis of the self-imaging phenomenon in optical fibers with an annular core.

We investigate the occurrence of self-images, or Talbot images, in a spatially multimode field that propagates along an optical fiber whose core has an annular-shaped cross section. By use of full-vectorial modal analysis, we study the effect of the transverse fiber dimensions on the self-imaging properties. According to our analysis, good self-images can be expected when the fiber core is thin and the modes are far from their cutoffs. However, as the core diameter is made larger to increase the number of modes available in the imaging, the general self-imaging properties tend to deteriorate.

Spatial coherence effects in light scattering from metallic nanocylinders.

We study the scattering of a partially coherent electromagnetic beam from metallic nanocylinders and analyze the effects of plasmon resonances on the coherence and polarization properties of the optical near field. We employ the coherent-mode representation for the incident field and solve the scattering problem independently for each mode by using a boundary-integral method. Our results show that the plasmon resonances may significantly affect the coherence and polarization characteristics of the near field and that partial coherence influences the energy flow in nanocylinder arrays.