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Theses/Dissertations

2014

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Articles 31 - 59 of 59

Full-Text Articles in Physics

Holographic Recording And Applications Of Multiplexed Volume Bragg Gratings In Photo-Thermo-Refractive Glass, Daniel Ott Jan 2014

Holographic Recording And Applications Of Multiplexed Volume Bragg Gratings In Photo-Thermo-Refractive Glass, Daniel Ott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent developments in holographic recording of volume Bragg gratings (VBGs) in photo-thermo-refractive (PTR) glass have demonstrated their utility as components in high power laser systems for spectral narrowing, transverse mode control, beam combining, and pulse stretching/compression. VBG structures are capable of diffracting incident light into a single diffraction order with high efficiency given the Bragg condition is met. The Bragg condition depends on both the wavelength and angle of the incident light making VBGs useful for filtering and manipulating both the wavelength and angular spectrum of a source. This dissertation expands upon previous research in PTR VBGs by investigating multiplexed …

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Entangled Photon Pairs In Disordered Photonic Lattices, Lane Martin Jan 2014

Entangled Photon Pairs In Disordered Photonic Lattices, Lane Martin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Photonic lattices consisting of arrays of evanescently coupled waveguides fabricated with precisely controlled parameters have enabled the study of discrete optical phenomena, both classical and quantum, and the simulation of other physical phenomena governed by the same dynamics. In this dissertation, I have experimentally demonstrated transverse Anderson localization of classical light in arrays with off-diagonal coupling disorder and investigated theoretically and experimentally the propagation of entangled photon pairs through such disordered systems. I discovered a new phenomenon, Anderson co-localization, in which a spatially entangled photon pair in a correlated transversally extended state localizes in the correlation space, though neither photon …

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Injection-Locked Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (Vcsels) For Optical Arbitrary Waveform Generation, Sharad Bhooplapur Jan 2014

Injection-Locked Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (Vcsels) For Optical Arbitrary Waveform Generation, Sharad Bhooplapur

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Complex optical pulse shapes are typically generated from ultrashort laser pulses by manipulating the optical spectrum of the input pulses. This generates complex but periodic time-domain waveforms. Optical Arbitrary Waveform Generation (OAWG) builds on the techniques of ultrashort pulse-shaping, with the goal of making non-periodic, truly arbitrary optical waveforms. Some applications of OAWG are coherently controlling chemical reactions on a femtosecond time scale, improving the performance of LADAR systems, high-capacity optical telecommunications and ultra wideband signals processing. In this work, an array of Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSELs) are used as modulators, by injection-locking each VCSEL to an individual …

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Nonlinear Integrated Photonics On Silicon And Gallium Arsenide Substrates, Jichi Ma Jan 2014

Nonlinear Integrated Photonics On Silicon And Gallium Arsenide Substrates, Jichi Ma

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Silicon photonics is nowadays a mature technology and is on the verge of becoming a blossoming industry. Silicon photonics has also been pursued as a platform for integrated nonlinear optics based on Raman and Kerr effects. In recent years, more futuristic directions have been pursued by various groups. For instance, the realm of silicon photonics has been expanded beyond the well-established near-infrared wavelengths and into the mid-infrared (3 - 5 µm). In this wavelength range, the omnipresent hurdle of nonlinear silicon photonics in the telecommunication band, i.e., nonlinear losses due to two-photon absorption, is inherently nonexistent. With the lack of …

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Photonic Filtering For Applications In Microwave Generation And Metrology, Marcus Bagnell Jan 2014

Photonic Filtering For Applications In Microwave Generation And Metrology, Marcus Bagnell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work uses the photonic filtering properties of Fabry-Perot etalons to show improvements in the electrical signals created upon photodetection of the optical signal. First, a method of delay measurement is described which uses multi-heterodyne detection to find correlations in white light signals at 20 km of delay to sub millimeter resolution. By filtering incoming white light with a Fabry-Perot etalon, the pseudo periodic signal is suitable for measurement by combining and photodetecting it with an optical frequency comb. In this way, optical data from a large bandwidth can be downconverted and sampled on low frequency electronics. Second, a high …

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Multifunctional, Multimaterial Particle Fabrication Via An In-Fiber Fluid Instability, Joshua Kaufman Jan 2014

Multifunctional, Multimaterial Particle Fabrication Via An In-Fiber Fluid Instability, Joshua Kaufman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Spherical micro- and nano-particles have found widespread use in many various applications from paint to cosmetics to medicine. Due to the multiplicity of desired particle material(s), structure, size range, and functionality, many approaches exist for generating such particles. Bottom-up methods such as chemical synthesis have a high yield and work with a wide range of materials; however, these processes typically lead to large polydispersity and cannot produce structured particles. Top-down approaches such as microfluidics overcome the polydispersity issue and may produce a few different structures in particles, but at lower rates and only at the micro-scale. A method that can …

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Large Area Conformal Infrared Frequency Selective Surfaces, Jeffrey D'Archangel Jan 2014

Large Area Conformal Infrared Frequency Selective Surfaces, Jeffrey D'Archangel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Frequency selective surfaces (FSS) were originally developed for electromagnetic filtering applications at microwave frequencies. Electron-beam lithography has enabled the extension of FSS to infrared frequencies; however, these techniques create sample sizes that are seldom appropriate for real world applications due to the size and rigidity of the substrate. A new method of fabricating large area conformal infrared FSS is introduced, which involves releasing miniature FSS arrays from a substrate for implementation in a coating. A selective etching process is proposed and executed to create FSS particles from crossed-dipole and square-loop FSS arrays. When the fill-factor of the particles in the …

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Broad Bandwidth, All-Fiber, Thulium-Doped Photonic Crystal Fiber Amplifier For Potential Use In Scaling Ultrashort Pulse Peak Powers, Alex Sincore Jan 2014

Broad Bandwidth, All-Fiber, Thulium-Doped Photonic Crystal Fiber Amplifier For Potential Use In Scaling Ultrashort Pulse Peak Powers, Alex Sincore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Fiber based ultrashort pulse laser sources are desirable for many applications; however generating high peak powers in fiber lasers is primarily limited by the onset of nonlinear effects such as self-phase modulation, stimulated Raman scattering, and self-focusing. Increasing the fiber core diameter mitigates the onset of these nonlinear effects, but also allows unwanted higher-order transverse spatial modes to propagate. Both large core diameters and single-mode propagation can be simultaneously attained using photonic crystal fibers. Thulium-doped fiber lasers are attractive for high peak power ultrashort pulse systems. They offer a broad gain bandwidth, capable of amplifying sub-100 femtosecond pulses. The longer …

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Laser Filamentation - Beyond Self-Focusing And Plasma Defocusing, Khan Lim Jan 2014

Laser Filamentation - Beyond Self-Focusing And Plasma Defocusing, Khan Lim

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Laser filamentation is a highly complex and dynamic nonlinear process that is sensitive to many physical parameters. The basic properties that define a filament consist of (i) a narrow, high intensity core that persists for distances much greater than the Rayleigh distance, (ii) a low density plasma channel existing within the filament core, and (iii) a supercontinuum generated over the course of filamentation. However, there remain many questions pertaining to how these basic properties are affected by changes in the conditions in which the filaments are formed; that is the premise of the work presented in this dissertation. To examine …

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Multimaterial Fibers In Photonics And Nanotechnology, Guangming Tao Jan 2014

Multimaterial Fibers In Photonics And Nanotechnology, Guangming Tao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent progress in combing multiple materials with distinct optical, electronic, and thermomechanical properties monolithically in a kilometer-long fiber drawn from a preform offers unique multifunctionality at a low cost. A wide range of unique in-fiber devices have been developed in fiber form-factor using this strategy. Here, I summary my recent results in this nascent field of 'multimaterial fibers'. I will focus on my achievements in producing robust infrared optical fibers and in appropriating optical fiber production technology for applications in nanofabrication. The development of optical components suitable for the infrared (IR) is crucial for applications in this spectral range to …

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Comparison Of Computer-Based And Optical Face Recognition Paradigms, Abdulaziz A. Alorf Jan 2014

Comparison Of Computer-Based And Optical Face Recognition Paradigms, Abdulaziz A. Alorf

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

The main objectives of this thesis are to validate an improved principal components analysis (IPCA) algorithm on images; designing and simulating a digital model for image compression, face recognition and image detection by using a principal components analysis (PCA) algorithm and the IPCA algorithm; designing and simulating an optical model for face recognition and object detection by using the joint transform correlator (JTC); establishing detection and recognition thresholds for each model; comparing between the performance of the PCA algorithm and the performance of the IPCA algorithm in compression, recognition and, detection; and comparing between the performance of the digital model …

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Integration Of Instrumentation And Processing Software Of A Laser Speckle Contrast Imaging System, Jacob James Carrick Jan 2014

Integration Of Instrumentation And Processing Software Of A Laser Speckle Contrast Imaging System, Jacob James Carrick

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) has the potential to be a powerful tool in medicine, but more research in the field is required so it can be used properly. To help in the progression of Michigan Tech's research in the field, a graphical user interface (GUI) was designed in Matlab to control the instrumentation of the experiments as well as process the raw speckle images into contrast images while they are being acquired. The design of the system was successful and is currently being used by Michigan Tech's Biomedical Engineering department. This thesis describes the development of the LSCI GUI …

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Characterization Of The Atmospheric Effects On The Transmission Of Thermal Radiation, Mohamed E. Hanafy Jan 2014

Characterization Of The Atmospheric Effects On The Transmission Of Thermal Radiation, Mohamed E. Hanafy

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Atmospheric scattering plays a crucial rule in degrading the performance of electro optical imaging systems operating in the visible and infra-red spectral bands, and hence limits the quality of the acquired images, either through reduction of contrast or increase of image blur. The exact nature of light scattering by atmospheric media is highly complex and depends on the types, orientations, sizes and distributions of particles constituting these media, as well as wavelengths, polarization states and directions of the propagating radiation. Here we follow the common approach for solving imaging and propagation problems by treating the propagating light through atmospheric media …

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Multi-Wavelength Speckle Reduction For Laser Pico-Projectors Using Diffractive Optics, Weston H. Thomas Jan 2014

Multi-Wavelength Speckle Reduction For Laser Pico-Projectors Using Diffractive Optics, Weston H. Thomas

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Personal electronic devices, such as cell phones and tablets, continue to decrease in size while the number of features and add-ons keep increasing. One particular feature of great interest is an integrated projector system. Laser pico-projectors have been considered, but the technology has not been developed enough to warrant integration. With new advancements in diode technology and MEMS devices, laser-based projection is currently being advanced for pico-projectors. A primary problem encountered when using a pico-projector is coherent interference known as speckle. Laser speckle can lead to eye irritation and headaches after prolonged viewing. Diffractive optical elements known as diffusers have …

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Techniques For Characterization Of Third Order Optical Nonlinearities, Manuel Ferdinandus Jan 2014

Techniques For Characterization Of Third Order Optical Nonlinearities, Manuel Ferdinandus

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation describes the development of novel techniques for characterization of nonlinear properties of materials. The dissertation is divided into two parts, a background and theory section and a technique development section. In the background and theory section we explain the origins of the nonlinear optical response of materials across many different spatial and temporal scales. The mechanisms that we are most interested in are the electronic nuclear and reorientational responses, which occur on the range of sub-femtosecond to several picoseconds. The electronic mechanism is due to the electrons of a material experiencing a non-parabolic potential well due a strong …

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Advanced Liquid Crystal Materials For Display And Photonic Applications, Yuan Chen Jan 2014

Advanced Liquid Crystal Materials For Display And Photonic Applications, Yuan Chen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Thin-film-transistor (TFT) liquid crystal display (LCD) has been widely used in smartphones, pads, laptops, computer monitors, and large screen televisions, just to name a few. A great deal of effort has been delved into wide viewing angle, high resolution, low power consumption, and vivid color. However, relatively slow response time and low transmittance remain as technical challenges. To improve response time, several approaches have been developed, such as low viscosity liquid crystals, overdrive and undershoot voltage schemes, thin cell gap with a high birefringence liquid crystal, and elevated temperature operation. The state-of-the-art gray-to-gray response time of a nematic LC device …

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Generation And Characterization Of Sub-70 Isolated Attosecond Pulses, Qi Zhang Jan 2014

Generation And Characterization Of Sub-70 Isolated Attosecond Pulses, Qi Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Dynamics occurring on microscopic scales, such as electronic motion inside atoms and molecules, are governed by quantum mechanics. However, the Schroedinger equation is usually too complicated to solve analytically for systems other than the hydrogen atom. Even for some simple atoms such as helium, it still takes months to do a full numerical analysis. Therefore, practical problems are often solved only after simplification. The results are then compared with the experimental outcome in both the spectral and temporal domain. For accurate experimental comparison, temporal resolution on the attosecond scale is required. This had not been achieved until the first demonstration …

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Lp Fiber Mode Converters Using Holographic Phase Mask In Photo-Thermo-Refractive Glass, Aniket Patil Jan 2014

Lp Fiber Mode Converters Using Holographic Phase Mask In Photo-Thermo-Refractive Glass, Aniket Patil

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this study, an investigation was undertaken to research the use of holographic phase masks (HPMs) in photo-thermo-refractive (PTR) glass as mode converters for linearly polarized (LP) fiber modes. A Spatial Light Modulator (SLM) was used to generate higher-order transverse fiber modes LPm,n. Under proper incidence condition on the holographic device, LPm,n modes are diffracted and simultaneously converted into higher order or lower order LP modes. The process was analyzed by imaging the far field on a CCD camera. It is demonstrated that using this novel method of converting transverse fiber modes several combinations of LP modes can be converted …

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Particle Manipulation Via Optical Forces And Engineering Soft-Matter Systems With Tunable Nonlinearities., Shima Fardad Jan 2014

Particle Manipulation Via Optical Forces And Engineering Soft-Matter Systems With Tunable Nonlinearities., Shima Fardad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

One of the most intriguing properties of light-matter interaction is the ability of an electromagnetic field to exert mechanical forces on polarizable objects. This phenomenon is a direct consequence of the fact that light carries momentum, which in turn can be transferred to matter. Mediated by scattering, this interaction usually manifests itself as a “pushing force” in the direction of beam propagation. However, it is possible to judiciously engineer these optical forces, either by tailoring particle polarizability, and/or by structuring the incident light field. As a simple example, a tightly focused laser beam demonstrates strong gradient forces, which may attract …

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Digitally Manufactured Spatially Variant Photonic Crystals, Javier Jair Pazos Jan 2014

Digitally Manufactured Spatially Variant Photonic Crystals, Javier Jair Pazos

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Metamaterials and photonic crystals are engineered composites that exhibit electromagnetic properties superior to those found in nature. They have been shown to produce novel and useful phenomena that allow extraordinary control over the electromagnetic field. One of these phenomena is self-collimation, an effect observed in photonic crystals in which a beam of light propagates without diffraction and is forced to flow in the direction of the crystal. Self-collimation however, like many of the mechanisms enabled through dispersion engineering, is effective in directions only along the principal axes of the lattice. To this effect, a general purpose synThesis procedure was developed …

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Multimaterial Fibers And Tapers A Platform For Nonlinear Photonics And Nanotechnology, Soroush Shabahang Jan 2014

Multimaterial Fibers And Tapers A Platform For Nonlinear Photonics And Nanotechnology, Soroush Shabahang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The development of optical sources and components suitable for the mid-infrared is crucial for applications in this spectral range to reach the maturity level of their counterparts in the visible and near-infrared spectral regimes. The recent commercialization of quantum cascade lasers is leading to further interest in this spectral range. Wideband mid-infrared coherent sources, such as supercontinuum generation, have yet to be fully developed. A mid-infrared supercontinuum source would allow for unique applications in spectroscopy and sensing. Over the last decade, it has been shown that high-index confinement in highly nonlinear fibers pumped with high-peak-power pulses is an excellent approach …

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Semiconductor Laser Based On Thermoelectrophotonics, Xiaohang Liu Jan 2014

Semiconductor Laser Based On Thermoelectrophotonics, Xiaohang Liu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents to our knowledge the first demonstration of a quantum well (QW) laser monolithically integrated with internal optical pump based on a light emitting diode (LED). The LED with high efficiency is operated in a thermoelectrophotonic (TEP) regime for which it can absorb both its own emitted light and heat. The LED optical pump can reduce internal optical loss in the QW laser, and enables monolithically integrated TEP heat pumps to the semiconductor laser. The design, growth and fabrication processes of the laser chip are discussed, and its experimental data is presented. In order to further increase the …

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Specialty Fiber Lasers And Novel Fiber Devices, Clemence Jollivet Jan 2014

Specialty Fiber Lasers And Novel Fiber Devices, Clemence Jollivet

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

At the Dawn of the 21st century, the field of specialty optical fibers experienced a scientific revolution with the introduction of the stack-and-draw technique, a multi-steps and advanced fiber fabrication method, which enabled the creation of well-controlled micro-structured designs. Since then, an extremely wide variety of finely tuned fiber structures have been demonstrated including novel materials and novel designs. As the complexity of the fiber design increased, highly-controlled fabrication processes became critical. To determine the ability of a novel fiber design to deliver light with properties tailored according to a specific application, several mode analysis techniques were reported, addressing the …

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Cascaded Plasmon Resonances For Enhanced Nonlinear Optical Response, Seyfollah Toroghi Jan 2014

Cascaded Plasmon Resonances For Enhanced Nonlinear Optical Response, Seyfollah Toroghi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The continued development of integrated photonic devices requires low-power, small volume all-optical modulators. The weak nonlinear optical response of conventional optical materials requires the use of high intensities and large interaction volumes in order to achieve significant light modulation, hindering the miniaturization of all-optical switches and the development of lightweight transmission optics with nonlinear optical response. These challenges may be addressed using plasmonic nanostructures due to their unique ability to confine and enhance electric fields in sub-wavelength volumes. The ultrafast nonlinear response of free electrons in such plasmonic structures and the fast thermal nonlinear optical response of metal nanoparticles, as …

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Parity-Time And Supersymmetry In Optics, Mohammad Ali Miri Jan 2014

Parity-Time And Supersymmetry In Optics, Mohammad Ali Miri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Symmetry plays a crucial role in exploring the laws of nature. By exploiting some of the underlying analogies between the mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics and that of electrodynamics, in this dissertation we show that optics can provide a fertile ground for studying, observing, and utilizing some of the peculiar symmetries that are currently out of reach in other areas of physics. In particular, in this work, we investigate two important classes of symmetries, parity-time symmetry (PT) and supersymmetry (SUSY), within the context of classical optics. The presence of PT symmetry can lead to entirely real spectra in non-Hermitian systems. …

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Microwave Assisted Reconstruction Of Optical Interferograms For Distributed Fiber Optics Sensing & Characterization Of Pcb Dielectric Properties Using Two Striplines On The Same Board, Lei Hua Jan 2014

Microwave Assisted Reconstruction Of Optical Interferograms For Distributed Fiber Optics Sensing & Characterization Of Pcb Dielectric Properties Using Two Striplines On The Same Board, Lei Hua

Masters Theses

"A new concept, the microwave-assisted reconstruction of an optical interferogram for distributed sensing, was developed to resolve both the position and reflectivity of each sensor along an optical fiber. This approach involves sending a microwave-modulated optical signal through cascaded fiber optic interferometers. The optical spectrum of each sensor can be reconstructed by sweeping the optical wavelength and detecting the modulation signal. A series of cascaded fiber optic extrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometric sensors was used to prove the concept. The microwave-reconstructed interferogram matched well with those recorded individually from a traditional optical spectrometer. The application of distributed strain measurement was also investigated. …

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Reference Compensation For Localized Surface-Plasmon Resonance Sensors, Neha Nehru Jan 2014

Reference Compensation For Localized Surface-Plasmon Resonance Sensors, Neha Nehru

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Noble metal nanoparticles supporting localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPR) have been extensively investigated for label free detection of various biological and chemical interactions. When compared to other optical sensing techniques, LSPR sensors offer label-free detection of biomolecular interactions in localized sensing volume solutions. However, these sensors also suffer from a major disadvantage – LSPR sensors remain highly susceptible to interference because they respond to both solution refractive index change and non-specific binding as well as specific binding of the target analyte. These interactions can severely compromise the measurement of the target analyte in a complex unknown media and hence limit …

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Modification Of Plasmonic Nano Structures' Absorption And Scattering Under Evanescent Wave Illumination Above Optical Waveguides Or With The Presence Of Different Material Nano Scale Atomic Force Microscope Tips, Gazi Mostafa Huda Jan 2014

Modification Of Plasmonic Nano Structures' Absorption And Scattering Under Evanescent Wave Illumination Above Optical Waveguides Or With The Presence Of Different Material Nano Scale Atomic Force Microscope Tips, Gazi Mostafa Huda

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

The interaction of an evanescent wave and plasmonic nanostructures are simulated in Finite Element Method. Specifically, the optical absorption cross section (Cabs) of a silver nanoparticle (AgNP) and a gold nanoparticle (AuNP) in the presence of metallic (gold) and dielectric (silicon) atomic force microscope (AFM) probes are numerically calculated in COMSOL. The system was illuminated by a transverse magnetic polarized, total internally reflected (TIR) waves or propagating surface plasmon (SP) wave. Both material nanoscale probes localize and enhance the field between the apex of the tip and the particle. Based on the absorption cross section equation the author …

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Ionizing Radiation Detection Using Microstructured Optical Fiber, Stanton Dehaven Jan 2014

Ionizing Radiation Detection Using Microstructured Optical Fiber, Stanton Dehaven

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Ionizing radiation detecting microstructured optical fibers are fabricated, modeled and experimentally measured for X-ray detection in the 10-40 keV energy range. These fibers operate by containing a scintillator material which emits visible light when exposed to ionizing radiation. An X-ray source characterized with a CdTe spectrometer is used to quantify the X-ray detection efficiency of the fibers. The solid state CdTe detector is considered 100% efficient in this energy range. A liquid filled microstructured optical fiber (MOF) is presented where numerical analysis and experimental observation leads to a geometric theory of photon transmission using total internal reflection. The model relates …

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