Active micromachined integrated terahertz circuits

Schottky barrier diodes have been integrated into on-chip rectangular waveguides. Two novel techniques have been developed to fabricate diodes with posts suitable for integration into waveguides. One technique produces diodes with anode diameters of the order of microns with post heights from 90 to 125 microns and the second technique produces sub-micron anodes with post heights around 20 microns. A method has been developed to incorporate these structures into a rectangular waveguide and provide a top contact onto the anode which could be used as an I.F. output in a mixer circuit. Devices have been fabricated and D.C. characterized.

A new micro-machined millimeter-wave and terahertz snap-together rectangular waveguide technology

A novel technique for micro-machining millimeter and submillimeter-wave rectangular waveguide components is reported. These are fabricated in two halves which simply snap together, utilizing locating pins and holes, and are physically robust, and cheap, and easy to manufacture. In addition, S-parameter measurements on these structures are reported for the first time and display lower loss than previously reported micro-machined rectangular waveguides.

Wavelet filtered modelling applied to measurements of a waveguide's THz time domain response

A quasi-optical de-embedding technique for characterizing waveguides is demonstrated using wideband time-resolved terahertz spectroscopy. A transfer function representation is adopted for the description of the signal in the input and output port of the waveguides. The time domain responses were discretised and the waveguide transfer function was obtained through a parametric approach in the z-domain after describing the system with an ARX as well as with a state space model. Prior to the identification procedure, filtering was performed in the wavelet domain to minimize signal distortion and the noise propagating in the ARX and subspace models. The model identification procedure requires isolation of the phase delay in the structure and therefore the time-domain signatures must be firstly aligned with respect to each other before they are compared. An initial estimate of the number of propagating modes was provided by comparing the measured phase delay in the structure with theoretical calculations that take into account the physical dimensions of the waveguide. Models derived from measurements of THz transients in a precision WR-8 waveguide adjustable short will be presented.

Eigenvalues of a one-dimensional Dirac operator pencil

We study the spectrum of a one-dimensional Dirac operator pencil, with a coupling constant in front of the potential considered as the spectral parameter. Motivated by recent investigations of graphene waveguides, we focus on the values of the coupling constant for which the kernel of the Dirac operator contains a square integrable function. In physics literature such a function is called a confined zero mode. Several results on the asymptotic distribution of coupling constants giving rise to zero modes are obtained. In particular, we show that this distribution depends in a subtle way on the sign variation and the presence of gaps in the potential. Surprisingly, it also depends on the arithmetic properties of certain quantities determined by the potential. We further observe that variable sign potentials may produce complex eigenvalues of the operator pencil. Some examples and numerical calculations illustrating these phenomena are presented.

Thomas-Fermi ground state of dipolar fermions in a circular storage ring

Recent developments in the field of ultracold gases has led to the production of degenerate samples of polar molecules. These have large static electric-dipole moments, which in turn causes the molecules to interact strongly. We investigate the interaction of polar particles in waveguide geometries subject to an applied polarizing field. For circular waveguides, tilting the direction of the polarizing field creates a periodic inhomogeneity of the interparticle interaction. We explore the consequences of geometry and interaction for stability of the ground state within the Thomas-Fermi model. Certain combinations of tilt angles and interaction strengths are found to preclude the existence of a stable Thomas-Fermi ground state. The system is shown to exhibit different behavior for quasi-one-dimensional and three-dimensional trapping geometries.

Mathematical modelling of the refractive index reconstruction through global optimization

We examine a mathematical model of non-destructive testing of planar waveguides, based on numerical solution of a nonlinear integral equation. Such problem is ill-posed, and the method of Tikhonov regularization is applied. To minimize Tikhonov functional, and find the parameters of the waveguide, we use two new optimization methods: the cutting angle method of global optimization, and the discrete gradient method of nonsmooth local optimization. We examine how the noise in the experimental data influences the solution, and how the regularization parameter has to be chosen. We show that even with significant noise in the data, the numerical solution is of high accuracy, and the method can be used to process real experimental da.ta..

Planar waveguide refractive index profile reconstruction using global optimization

The approach taken here of reconstruction of the refractive index profile of planar waveguides involves solving a non-linear integral equation with Tikhonov regularization. Using global optimization with the new cutting angle and discrete gradient methods has yielded an acceptable reconstruction, even in the presence of significant noise in the data.

Dielectrophoretically assembled particles : feasibility for optofluidic systems

This work presents the dielectrophoretic manipulation of sub-micron particles suspended in water and the investigation of their optical responses using a microfluidic system. The particles are made of silica and have different diameters of 600, 450, and 250 nm. Experiments show a very interesting feature of the curved microelectrodes, in which the particles are pushed toward or away from the microchannel centerline depending on their levitation heights, which is further analyzed by numerical simulations. In doing so, applying an AC signal of 12 V_p-p and 5 MHz across the microelectrodes along with a flow rate of 1 μl/min within the microchannel leads to the formation of a tunable band of particles along the centerline. Experiments show that the 250 nm particles guide the longitudinal light along the microchannel due to their small scattering. This arrangement is employed to study the feasibility of developing an optofluidic system, which can be potentially used for the formation of particles-core/liquid-cladding optical waveguides.

Characterization of supported cylinder-planar germanium waveguide sensors with synchrotron Infrared radiation

Cylinder-planar Ge waveguides are being developed as evanescent-wave sensors for chemical microanalysis. The only non-planar surface is a cylinder section having a 300-mm radius of curvature. This confers a symmetric taper, allowing for direct coupling into and out of the waveguide's 1-mm² end faces while obtaining multiple reflections at the central <30-μm-thick sensing region. Ray-optic calculations indicate that the propagation angle at the central minimum has a strong nonlinear dependence on both angle and vertical position of the input ray. This results in rather inefficient coupling of input light into the off-axis modes that are most useful for evanescent-wave absorption spectroscopy. Mode-specific performance of the cylinder-planar waveguides has also been investigated experimentally. As compared to a blackbody source, the much greater brightness of synchrotron-generated infrared (IR) radiation allows a similar total energy throughput, but restricted to a smaller fraction of the allowed waveguide modes. However, such angle-selective excitation results in a strong oscillatory interference pattern in the transmission spectra. These spectral oscillations are the principal technical limitation on using synchrotron radiation to measure evanescent-wave absorption spectra with the thin waveguides.

Spectral element modelling of wave propagation with boundary and structural discontinuity reflections

Spectral element method is very efficient in modelling high-frequency stress wave propagation because it works in the frequency domain. It does not need to use very fine meshes in order to capture high frequency wave energy as the time domain methods do, such as finite element method. However, the conventional spectral element method requires a throw-off element to be added to the structural boundaries to act as a conduit for energy to transmit out of the system. This makes the method difficult to model wave reflection at boundaries. To overcome this limitation, imaginary spectral elements are proposed in this study, which are combined with the real structural elements to model wave reflections at structural boundaries. The efficiency and accuracy of this proposed approach is verified by comparing the numerical simulation results with measured results of one dimensional stress wave propagation in a steel bar. The method is also applied to model wave propagation in a steel bar with not only boundary reflection, but also reflections from single and multiple cracks. The reflection and transmission coefficients, which are obtained from the discrete spring model, are adopted to quantify the discontinuities. Experimental tests of wave propagation in a steel bar with one crack of different depths are also carried out. Numerical simulations and experimental results show that the proposed method is effective and reliable in modelling wave propagation in one-dimensional waveguides with reflections from boundary and structural discontinuities. The proposed method can be applied to effectively model stress wave propagation for structural damage detection.

Modal analysis of anisotropic diffused-channel waveguide by a scalar finite element method

A procedure to model optical diffused-channel waveguides is presented in this work. The dielectric waveguides present anisotropic refractive indexes which are calculated from the proton concentration. The proton concentration inside the channel is calculated by the anisotropic 2D-linear diffusion equation and converted to the refractive indexes using mathematical relations obtained from experimental data, the arbitrary refractive index profile is modeled by a. nodal expansion in the base functions. The TE and TM-like propagation properties (effective index) and the electromagnetic fields for well-annealed proton-exchanged (APE) LiNbO3 waveguides are computed by the finite element method.

Erbium and ytterbium co-doped SiO2 : GeO2 planar waveguide prepared by the sol-gel route using an alternative precursor

The sol-gel method combined with a spin-coating technique has been successfully applied for the preparation of rare-earth doped silica:germania films used for the fabrication of erbium-doped waveguide amplifiers (EDWA), presenting several advantages over other methods for the preparation of thin films. As with other methods, the sol-gel route also shows some drawbacks, such as cracks related to the thickness of silica films and high hydrolysis rate of certain precursors such as germanium alkoxides. This article describes the preparation and optical characterization of erbium and ytterbium co-doped SiO2:GeO2 crack-free thick films prepared by the sol-gel route combined with a spin-coating technique using a chemically stable non-aqueous germanium oxide solution as an alternative precursor. The non-crystalline films obtained are planar waveguides exhibiting a single mode at 1,550 nm with an average thickness of 3.9 mu m presenting low percentages of porosity evaluated by the Lorentz-Lorenz Effective Medium Approximation, and low stress, according to the refractive index values measured in both transversal electric and magnetic polarizations. Weakly confining core layers (0.3% < Delta n < 0.75%) were obtained according to the refractive index difference between the core and buffer layers, suggesting that low-loss coupling EDWA may be obtained. The life time of the erbium I-4(13/2) metastable state was measured as a function of erbium concentration in different systems and based on these values it is possible to infer that the hydroxyl group was reduced and the formation of rare-earth clusters was avoided.

Epitaxially grown LiNbO3 thin films by polymeric precursor method

LiNbO3 thin films were grown on (0001) sapphire substrates by a chemical route, using the polymeric precursor method. The overall process consists of preparing a coating solution from the Pechini process, based on metallic citrate polymerization, the precursor films, deposited by dip coating, are then heat treated to eliminate the organic material and to synthesize the phase. In this work, we studied the influence of the heat treatment on the structural and optical properties of single-layered films. Two routes were also investigated to increase the film thickness: increasing the viscosity of the coating solution and/or increasing the number of successively deposited layers. The x-ray diffraction theta -2 theta scans revealed the c-axis orientation of the single- and multilayered films and showed that efficient crystallization can be obtained at temperatures as low as 400 degreesC, the phi-scan diffraction evidenced the epitaxial growth with two in-plane variants, A microstructural study revealed that the films were crack free, homogeneous, and relatively dense. Finally, the investigation of the optical properties (optical transmittance and refractive index) confirmed the good quality of the films. These results indicate that the polymeric precursor method is a promising process to develop lithium niobate waveguides.

Spectral redistribution of waveguided emission in BEH-PPV films

We report on spectral redistribution of the photoluminescence (PL) emission from the edge of thin-film planar waveguides of the conjugated polymer BEH-PPV [Poly(2,5-bis(2'-ethyl-hexyl)-1,4-phenylenevinylene] induced by self-absorption in the polymer film. The PL spectra present drastic changes and displace to longer wavelengths with increasing self-absorption. We observe an enhancement of the absolute PL intensity at longer wavelengths, which was interpreted as due to re-emission of self-absorbed photons. The significant efficiency for the PL re-emission suggests the use of self-absorption as a mechanism for tuning the emission into the near infrared.