Physics Commons^™

Magnetic Sensors For Biodetection, Pranjali Vineet Sneha Deshpande

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The objective of thesis is to design magnetic sensor for detection of nanoparticles. Recently integrating the standard laboratory techniques into integrated system on chip is growing attention. Recent development is to combine magnetic markers and magnetoresistive sensors together in magnetic chip. In this thesis two magnetoresistive sensors were studied and designed.

By applying magnetic fields, magnetic nanoparticles can be manipulated on-chip, which can be utilized to pull the molecules to specific binding sites or to test the binding strength and distinguish between specifically and non-specifically bound molecules

Magnetoresistive sensors are compatible with the semiconductor industry which provides electronic signal directly …

Analysis And Application Of The Bi-Directional Scatter Distribution Function Of Photonic Crystals, Robert B. Lamott

Theses and Dissertations

Photonic crystals (PCs) are periodic structures built from materials with different refractive indices repeated at sub-wavelength intervals, which results in unusual optical characteristics, including narrowband laser protection, and zero reflectance and high absorption anomalies. Most of the research into the optical properties of PCs has concentrated only on the small range of wavelengths and angles where these effects occur. To better understand where all light leaving a PC is scattered, a Complete Angle Scatter Instrument was used to analyze the scatter from three Guided Mode Resonance Filters designed for laser protection. In the plane of incidence, measurements of the scatter …

Misregistration In Adaptive Optics Systems, Nathan D. Engstrom

Theses and Dissertations

An adaptive optics (AO) system is most effective when there is a known alignment between the wave front sensor (WFS) and the deformable mirror (DM). Misregistration is the term for the unknown alignment between the WFS and DM. Misregistration degrades system performance and can make the system unstable. An AO system uses a reconstruction matrix to transform WFS measurements into DM commands. A standard AO system uses a model reconstruction matrix that assumes perfect registration between the WFS and DM. The object of this research is to mitigate the negative effects of misregistration by using offline WFS measurements to create …

Electron Multipactor: Theory Review, Comparison And Modeling Of Mitigation Techniques In Icepic, Neil G. Rogers

Theses and Dissertations

Mitigation approaches for single surface multipactor at dielectric windows are investigated using Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulations. Initially baseline susceptibility diagrams are constructed analytically and compared with self-consistent, dynamic system trajectories. The power deposited on the surface of a dielectric window in an HPM system is considered using three different methods and the results of PIC simulations. Geometric mitigation is then considered by varying the window orientation with respect to the HPM electric held. Small angular deviations, less than 20 degrees, from the nominal case of normal incidence show dramatic changes in the susceptibility diagram. A materials approach to mitigation is then …

Evaluation Of Performance Of A Maximum Likelihood Estimator For Tracking Purposes In The Presence Of Speckle Noise, Adrian Brett Monz

Theses and Dissertations

In many cases, optical tracking systems do not have cooperative beacons avail- able. This is particularly true for the case involving tracking a laser illuminated target such as a missile seeker head, where the object of interest is an extended source. Furthermore the extended source is often observed in the presence of noise such as shot and speckle noise as well as atmospheric turbulence which further degrades the signal. This research effort presents the evaluation of an existing algorithm based on the maximum-likelihood technique for tilt estimation in the presence of extended sources and speckle noise, with particular application to …

Adaptive Control Of Woofer-Tweeter Adaptive Optics, Jimmie J. Perez

Theses and Dissertations

Adaptive optics applies advanced sensing and control to improve the ability of optical systems to collect images through a turbulent atmosphere. The results of this research effort demonstrate that the combination of two recent approaches improves the performance of adaptive optics in directed energy and laser communication scenarios. The first approach is adaptive control, which offers improved performance over fixed-gain controllers in the presence of rapidly changing turbulence. The second approach incorporated into the study is a dual-mirror system. The two mirrors are a high-bandwidth, low-actuator-stroke (tweeter) mirror and a low-bandwidth, large actuator-stroke (woofer) mirror. The woofer-tweeter combination allows for …

Femtosecond Laser Written Volumetric Diffractive Optical Elements And Their Applications, Jiyeon Choi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the first demonstration of femtosecond laser written waveguides in 1996, femtosecond laser direct writing (FLDW) has been providing a versatile means to fabricate embedded 3-D microstructures in transparent materials. The key mechanisms are nonlinear absorption processes that occur when a laser beam is tightly focused into a material and the intensity of the focused beam reaches the range creating enough free electrons to induce structural modification. One of the most useful features that can be exploited in fabricating photonic structures is the refractive index change which results from the localized energy deposition. The laser processing system for FLDW can …

Wavefront Sensor For Eye Aberrations Measurements, Costin Curatu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ocular wavefront sensing is vital to improving our understanding of the human eye and to developing advanced vision correction methods, such as adaptive optics, customized contact lenses, and customized laser refractive surgery. It is also a necessary technique for high-resolution imaging of the retina. The most commonly used wavefront sensing method is based on the Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor. Since Junzhong Liang's first application of Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensing for the human eye in 1994, the method has quickly gained acceptance and popularity in the ophthalmic industry. Several commercial Shack-Hartmann eye aberrometers are currently available. While the existing aberrometers offer reasonable measurement …

Analysis And Design Of Wide-Angle Foveated Optical Systems, George Curatu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The development of compact imaging systems capable of transmitting high-resolution images in real-time while covering a wide field-of-view (FOV) is critical in a variety of military and civilian applications: surveillance, threat detection, target acquisition, tracking, remote operation of unmanned vehicles, etc. Recently, optical foveated imaging using liquid crystal (LC) spatial light modulators (SLM) has received considerable attention as a potential approach to reducing size and complexity in fast wide-angle lenses. The fundamental concept behind optical foveated imaging is reducing the number of elements in a fast wide-angle lens by placing a phase SLM at the pupil stop to dynamically compensate …

Dense Spectral Beam Combining With Volume Bragg Gratings In Photo-Thermo-Refractive Glass, Oleksiy Andrusyak

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Beam combining techniques have become an important tool in the design of high-power high-brightness laser systems. Spectral beam combining (SBC) is an incoherent combining technique that does not require phase control of sources, allowing for a stable and robust system. Using SBC, beams from an array of lasers with each element operated at a different wavelength are combined into a single near-diffraction-limited beam with the same aperture using dispersive optical elements. SBC by means of volume Bragg gratings (VBGs) utilizes unique spectral response of VBGs: diffraction efficiency is close to unity when the Bragg condition is satisfied and is close …

Design, Analysis, And Optimization Of Diffractive Optical Elements Under High Numerical Aperture Focusing, Toufic Jabbour

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The demand for high optical resolution has brought researchers to explore the use of beam shaping diffractive optical elements (DOEs) for improving performance of high numerical aperture (NA) optical systems. DOEs can be designed to modulate the amplitude, phase and/or polarization of a laser beam such that it focuses into a targeted irradiance distribution, or point spread function (PSF). The focused PSF can be reshaped in both the transverse focal plane and along the optical axis. Optical lithography, microscopy and direct laser writing are but a few of the many applications in which a properly designed DOE can significantly improve …

Optical Nonlinear Interactions In Dielectric Nano-Suspensions, Ramy El-Ganainy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work is divided into two main parts. In the first part (chapters 2-7) we consider the nonlinear response of nano-particle colloidal systems. Starting from the Nernst-Planck and Smoluchowski equations, we demonstrate that in these arrangements the underlying nonlinearities as well as the nonlinear Rayleigh losses depend exponentially on optical intensity. Two different nonlinear regimes are identified depending on the refractive index contrast of the nanoparticles involved and the interesting prospect of self-induced transparency is demonstrated. Soliton stability is systematically analyzed for both 1D and 2D configurations and their propagation dynamics in the presence of Rayleigh losses is examined. We …

Gabor Domain Optical Coherence Microscopy, Supraja Murali

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Time domain Optical Coherence Tomography (TD-OCT), first reported in 1991, makes use of the low temporal coherence properties of a NIR broadband laser to create depth sectioning of up to 2mm under the surface using optical interferometry and point to point scanning. Prior and ongoing work in OCT in the research community has concentrated on improving axial resolution through the development of broadband sources and speed of image acquisition through new techniques such as Spectral domain OCT (SD-OCT). In SD-OCT, an entire depth scan is acquired at once with a low numerical aperture (NA) objective lens focused at a fixed …

Power Scaling Of Large Mode Area Thulium Fiber Lasers In Various Spectral And Temporal Regimes, Timothy Mccomb

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

High power thulium fiber lasers are interesting for a myriad of applications due to their potential for high average output power, excellent beam quality, compactness, portability, high operating efficiency and broad, eye-safe spectral range from 1.8-2.1 microns. Currently, the majority of thulium laser research effort is being invested into scaling average output powers; however, such output powers are being scaled with no degree of control on laser system output spectrum or temporal behavior. Thulium fiber laser technology is not useful for many of its most important applications without implementation of techniques enabling tunable, narrow spectral widths with appropriate pulse durations …

Silicon Carbide And Agile Optics Based Sensors For Power Plant Gas Turbines, Laser Beam Analysis And Biomedicine, Mumtaz Sheikh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Proposed are novel sensors for extreme environment power plants, laser beam analysis and biomedicine. A hybrid wireless-wired extreme environment temperature sensor using a thick single-crystal Silicon Carbide (SiC) chip embedded inside a sintered SiC probe design is investigated and experimentally demonstrated. The sensor probe employs the SiC chip as a Fabry-Perot (FP) interferometer to measure the change in refractive index and thickness of SiC with temperature. A novel temperature sensing method that combines wavelength-tuned signal processing for coarse measurements and classical FP etalon peak shift for fine measurements is proposed and demonstrated. This method gives direct unambiguous temperature measurements with …

Design And Fabrication Of Space Variant Micro Optical Elements, Pradeep Srinivasan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A wide range of applications currently utilize conventional optical elements to individually transform the phase, polarization, and spectral transmission/reflection of the incident radiation to realize the desired system level function. The material properties and the feasibility of fabrication primarily impact the device and system functionality that can be realized. With the advancement in micro/nano patterning, growth, deposition and etching technology, devices with novel and multiplexed optical functionalities have become feasible. As a result, it has become possible to engineer the device response in the near and far field by controlling the phase, polarization or spectral response at the micro scale. …

Wavelength-Division-Multiplexed Transmission Using Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers And Electronic Impairment Compensation, Xiaoxu Li

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the last decade, rapid growth of broadband services necessitated research aimed at increasing transmission capacity in fiber-optic communication systems. Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology has been widely used in fiber-optic systems to fully utilize fiber transmission bandwidth. Among optical amplifiers for WDM transmission, semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is a promising candidate, thanks to its broad bandwidth, compact size, and low cost. In transmission systems using SOAs, due to their large noise figures, high signal launching powers are required to ensure reasonable optical signal-to-noise ratio of the received signals. Hence the SOAs are operated in the saturation region and the …

Nonlinear Femtosecond Near Infrared Laser Structuring In Oxide Glasses, Arnaud Royon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Three-dimensional femtosecond laser structuring has a growing interest because of its ease of implementation and the numerous possible applications in the domain of photonic components. Structures such as waveguides, diffraction gratings, optical memories or photonic crystals can be fabricated thanks to this technique. Its use with oxide glasses is promising because of several advantages; they are resistant to flux and ageing, their chemical composition can easily be changed to fit the well-defined requirements of an application. They can already be found in Raman amplifiers, optical fibers, fiber lasers, and other devices. This thesis is based on two axes. The first …

Application And Extension Of Glauber Ising-Spin Dynamics In The Context Of A Single Chain Magnet System, Ryan Tucker Kristensen

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The Glauber Ising-spin dynamic with a local equilibrium approximation is applied to infinite and finite one-dimensional (anti-)ferromagnetic Ising chains with classic nearest neighbor interactions. The application of the Glauber dynamic and local equilibrium approximation is then extended to the one-dimensional ferrimagnetic chain with nearest neighbor interactions. Time dependant behavior and equilibrium states of the one-dimensional ferrimagnetic chain are then discussed in terms of the single chain magnet referred to as CoPhOMe, whose behavior empirical data to date suggest is consistent with a one-dimensional Ising ferrimagnet.