3D-Printed Quasi-Cylindrical Bragg Reflector to Boost the Gain and Directivity of cm- and mm-Wave Antennas.

We demonstrate a concept for a large enhancement of the directivity and gain of readily available cm- and mm-wave antennas, i.e., without altering any property of the antenna design. Our concept exploits the high reflectivity of a Bragg reflector composed of three bilayers made of transparent materials. The cavity has a triangular aperture in order to resemble the idea of a horn-like, highly directive antenna. Importantly, we report gain enhancements of more than 400% in relation to the gain of the antenna without the Bragg structure, accompanied by a highly directive radiation pattern. The proposed structure is cost-effective and easy to fabricate with 3D-printing. Our results are presented for frequencies within the conventional WiFi frequencies, based on IEEE 802.11 standards, thus, enabling easily implementation by non-experts and needing only to be placed around the antenna to improve the directivity and gain of the signal.

Repeatability of material parameter extraction of liquids from transmission terahertz time-domain measurements.

Recently, many research groups worldwide have reported on the THz properties of liquids. Often these parameters, i.e., refractive index and absorption coefficient, are determined using liquids in cuvettes and terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. Here, we discuss the measurement process and determine how repeatable such measurements and the data extraction are using rapeseed oil as a sample. We address system stability, cuvette positioning, cuvette cleaning and cuvette assembly as sources affecting the repeatability. The results show that system stability and cuvette assembly are the most prominent factors limiting the repeatability of the THz measurements. These findings suggest that a single cuvette with precise positioning and thorough cleaning of the cuvette delivers the best discrimination among different liquid samples. Furthermore, when using a single cuvette and measurement systems of similar stability, the repeatability calculated based on several consecutive measurements is a good estimate to tell whether samples can be discriminated.

Ultralow chirp photonic crystal fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer.

A photonic crystal fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer design was optimized to obtain high performance and ultralow chirp. Two long-period gratings were used to excite the cladding modes, and the rich structure of the cladding was tailored to obtain a slightly chirped free spectral range, as required by the Telecommunication Standardization Sector of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T) Norm G.694.1. Finally, a fabrication tolerance analysis was performed. The advantages of the proposed device are an ultralow chirp, high bandwidth, and fabrication robustness tolerance.

Three-dimensional quasi-conformal transformation optics through numerical optimization.

In this paper we demonstrate the possibility to achieve 3-dimensional quasi-conformal transformation optics through parametrization and numerical optimization without using sliding boundary conditions. The proposed technique, which uses a quasi-Newton method, is validated in two cylindrical waveguide bends as design examples. Our results indicate an arbitrarily small average anisotropy can be achieved in 3D transformation optics as the number of degrees of freedom provided by the parametrization was increased. The waveguide simulations confirm modal preservation when the residual anisotropy is neglected.

Tapered GRIN fiber microsensor.

The sensitivity of an optical fiber microsensor based on inter-modal interference can be considerably improved by tapering a short extension of the multimode fiber. In the case of Graded Index fibers with a parabolic refractive index profile, a meridional ray exhibits a sinusoidal path. When these fibers are tapered, the period of the propagated beam decrease down-taper and increase up-taper. We take advantage of this modulation -along with the enhanced overlap between the evanescent field and the external medium- to substantially increase the sensitivity of these devices by tuning the sensor's maximum sensitivity wavelength. Moreover, the extension of this device is reduced by one order of magnitude, making it more propitious for reduced space applications. Numerical and experimental results demonstrate the success and feasibility of this approach.

Broadband dispersion compensation using inner cladding modes in photonic crystal fibers.

A photonic crystal fiber is optimized for chromatic dispersion compensation by using inner cladding modes. To this end, a photonic-oriented version of the downhill-simplex algorithm is employed. The numerical results show a dispersion profile that accurately compensates the targeted dispersion curve, as well as its dispersion slope. The presented fiber has a simple structure, while radiation losses can be reduced simply by adding a few more air-hole rings. Fabrication tolerances are also considered showing how fabrication inaccuracies effects can be overridden by just adjusting the compensation length.

Ultrahigh-birefringent squeezed lattice photonic crystal fiber with rotated elliptical air holes.

We report an experimental realization of a highly birefringent photonic crystal fiber as a result of compressing a regular hexagonal structure. The experimental measurements estimate a group birefringence of approximately 5.5x10(-3) at 1550 nm in good agreement with the numerical results. We study the influence of compressing the regular structure at different directions and magnifications, obtaining a method to realistically enhance the phase birefringence while moderating the group birefringence.