Physics Commons^™

Achromatic Angle-Insensitive Infrared Quarter-Wave Retarder Based On Total Internal Reflection At The Si–Sio2 Interface, R. M.A. Azzam, Cristina L. Spinu

Electrical Engineering Faculty Publications

An achromatic infrared (λ = 1.2–4 μm), Si-prism quarter-wave retarder (QWR) is described that uses total internal reflection at a buried Si–SiO₂ interface at an angle of incidence φ near 33°, where ∂Δ/∂φ = 0. The retardance Δ deviates from 90° by <±2° within a field of view of ±10° (in air) over the entire bandwidth. Because the SiO₂ layer at the base of the prism is optically thick, this QWR is unaffected by environmental contamination.

Wide Angle Decentered Lens Beam Steering For Infrared Countermeasures Applications, Jennifer L. Gibson, Bradley D. Duncan, Edward A. Watson, John S. Loomis

Electro-Optics and Photonics Faculty Publications

A beam-steering system consisting of three cemented achromatic doublets is presented. Intended for use in IR countermeasure applications, our system is designed to operate over the 2- to 5-μm spectrum with minimum angular dispersion. We show that dispersion can be minimized by using doublet lenses fashioned from AMTIR-1 and germanium. Our system is designed to be compact and lightweight, with no internal foci, while allowing steering to ±22.5 deg. We also maintain a minimum 2-in. clear aperture for all steering angles, and a nominal divergence of 1 mrad. Plane wave and Gaussian beam analyses of our system are presented.

Lorentz-Violating Electrostatics And Magnetostatics, Quentin G. Bailey, V. Alan Kostelecký

Publications

Electromagnetostatics experiments show promise for improving existing sensitivities to parity-odd coefficients for Lorentz violation in the photon sector.

Map Estimation For Hyperspectral Image Resolution Enhancement Using An Auxiliary Sensor, Russell C. Hardie, Michael T. Eismann, Gregory L. Wilson

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper presents a novel maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimator for enhancing the spatial resolution of an image using co-registered high spatial-resolution imagery from an auxiliary sensor. Here we focus on the use of high-resolution panchomatic data to enhance hyperspectral imagery. However, the estimation framework developed allows for any number of spectral bands in the primary and auxiliary image. The proposed technique is suitable for applications where some correlation, either localized or global, exists between the auxiliary image and the image being enhanced. To exploit localized correlations, a spatially varying statistical model, based on vector quantization, is used. Another important …

Volume Holographic Recording And Readout For 90-Deg Geometry, Partha P. Banerjee, Monish Ranjan Chatterjee, Nickolai Kukhtarev, Tatiana Kukhtareva

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

When a prerecorded cross-beam hologram is reconstructed (so-called edge-lit readout) with a uniform plane wave and a point source, the resulting exact solutions reveal Bessel-function-type diffracted beam profiles, which are fundamentally modified under weak propagational diffraction. The case of a profiled beam readout with propagational diffraction may be analyzed using a transfer function approach based on 2-D Laplace transforms. In a second series of investigations, dynamic readout from a cross-beam volume hologram recorded with two orthogonal uniform plane waves is considered for various dependences of the refractive index modulation with intensity. Typically, refractive index profiles that are proportional to the …

Volume Holographic Optical Elements, Ching-Cherng Sun, Partha P. Banerjee

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

The final two papers are concerned with the analysis of novel holograms. Banerjee et al. investigate holographic recording and reconstruction for edge-lit holograms recorded in a 90-degree geometry. Various cases of recording and readout that incorporate propagational diffraction have been modeled. It is shown that the 90-degree geometry can result in beam shaping, as evidenced through preliminary experimental results with photorefractive lithium niobate. Nguyen et al. propose a new approach for designing computer-generated holograms. An artificial neural network is used to initiate the genetic algorithm so that the high computation cost of genetic algorithms for synthesizing holograms is significantly reduced …

Phase Shifts That Accompany Total Internal Reflection At A Dielectric–Dielectric Interface, R. M.A. Azzam

Electrical Engineering Faculty Publications

The absolute, average, and differential phase shifts that p- and s-polarized light experience in total internal reflection (TIR) at the planar interface between two transparent media are considered as functions of the angle of incidence φ. Special angles at which quarter-wave phase shifts are achieved are determined as functions of the relative refractive index N. When the average phase shift equals π/2, the differential reflection phase shift Δ is maximum, and the reflection Jones matrix assumes a simple form. For N>√3, the average and differential phase shifts are equal (hence δ_p=3δ_s) at …

Dynamical Studies Of Model Membrane And Cellular Response To Nanosecond, High-Intensity Pulsed Electric Fields, Qin Hu

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The dynamics of electroporation of biological cells subjected to nanosecond, high intensity pulses are studied based on a coupled scheme involving the current continuity and Smoluchowski equations. The improved pore formation energy model includes a dependence on pore population and density. It also allows for variable surface tension and incorporates the effects of finite conductivity on the electrostatic correction term, which was not considered by the simple energy models in the literature. It is shown that E(r) becomes self-adjusting with variations in its magnitude and profile. The whole scheme is self-consistent and dynamic.

An electromechanical analysis based on thin-shell theory …

Interferometric And Holographic Imaging Of Surface-Breaking Cracks, James Lawrence Blackshire, Bradley D. Duncan

Electro-Optics and Photonics Faculty Publications

Two advanced nondestructive evaluation systems are developed for imaging surface-breaking cracks in aerospace materials. The systems use scanning heterodyne interferometry and frequency-translated holography principles to image ultrasonic displacement fields on material surfaces with high resolution and sensitivity. Surface-breaking cracks are detected and characterized by visualizing near-field ultrasonic scattering processes, which in turn results in local intensification of ultrasonic displacement fields in the immediate vicinity of a crack. The local intensification permits cracks to be easily distinguished from background levels, and creates unique displacement field images that follow the contours and morphology of the cracks with microscopic precision. The interferometric and …

Scaling And Characterization Of Direct Current Glow Discharge Plasma In Atmospheric Air, Abdel-Aleam Hefney Mohamed

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A microhollow cathode discharge was used as a plasma cathode to sustain a stable direct current glow discharge in atmospheric pressure air. The volumetric scale of glow discharge increased from the millimeter to the centimeter range by extending the plasma in lateral and axial directions. In the axial direction, the length of the glow discharge column was varied from 1 mm to 2 cm, with the sustaining voltage increasing linearly with the glow discharge column length. Extension in the lateral direction was obtained by operating discharges in parallel. The glow discharge plasma of the parallel discharge columns was found to …

Microdischarge Arrays, Wenhui Shi

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Microhollow cathode discharges (MHCDs) are DC or pulsed gas discharges between two electrodes, separated by a dielectric, and containing a concentric hole. The diameter of the hole, in this hollow cathode configuration, is in the hundred-micrometer range. MHCDs satisfy the two conditions necessary for an efficient excimer radiation sources: (1) high energy electrons which are required to provide a high concentration of excited or ionized rare gas atoms; (2) high pressure operation which favors excimer formation (a three-body process). Flat panel excimer sources require parallel operation of MHCDs. Based on the current-voltage characteristics of MHCD discharges, which have positive slopes …

Deviation Of Time-Resolved Luminescence Dynamics In Mwir Semiconductor Materials From Carrier Recombination Theory Predictions, Peter M. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Time resolved luminescence spectroscopy was used to characterize luminescence decay curves for a bulk InAs sample and an InAsSb type-I quantum-well sample over the first 3ns following excitation. The luminescence decay curves were then converted to carrier densities and used to find recombination coefficients that provided the least-squared-error solution of the rate equation describing carrier recombination. Recombination coefficients describing Shockley Read-Hall (A_SRH) radiative (B_rad) and Auger (C_Aug) recombination were determined at two different temperatures and four excitation powers, then analyzed for consistency and physical significance. For all of the resulting least …

Excimer Emission From Cathode Boundary Layer Discharges, Mohamed Moselhy, Karl H. Schoenbach

Bioelectrics Publications

The excimer emission from direct current glow discharges between a planar cathode and a ring-shaped anode of 0.75 and 1.5 mm diameter, respectively, separated by a gap of 250 μm, was studied in xenon and argon in a pressure range from 75 to 760 Torr. The thickness of the “cathode boundary layer” plasma, in the 100 μm range, and a discharge sustaining voltage of approximately 200 V, indicates that the discharge is restricted to the cathode fall and the negative glow. The radiant excimer emittance at 172 nm increases with pressure and reaches a value of 4 W/cm² for …

Comparative Analysis Of Bragg Fibers, Shangping Guo, Sacharia Albin, Robert S. Rogowski

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

In this paper, we compare three analysis methods for Bragg fibers, viz. the transfer matrix method, the asymptotic method and the Galerkin method. We also show that with minor modifications, the transfer matrix method is able to calculate exactly the leakage loss of Bragg fibers due to a finite number of H/L layers. This approach is more straightforward than the commonly used Chew’s method. It is shown that the asymptotic approximation condition should be satisfied in order to get accurate results. The TE and TM modes, and the band gap structures are analyzed using Galerkin method.

Influence Of Antenna Aiming On Ece In Mast, Josef Preinhaelter, Jakub Urban, Pavol Pavlo, Vladimir Shevchenko, Martin Valovič, Linda L. Vahala, George Vahala

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

The effect of the direction of the detected beam on the intensity of ECE is studied. It is found that the combined effects of the strong dependence of the conversion efficiencey of O mode at the plasma resonance on the direction of the incident wave and the partial screening of the beam waist by the MAST vessel wall, can be responsible for the weakening of ECE emission for some frequencies. The theoretical model for ECE data interpretation on MAST has been significantly improved. New features of the model are as follows: the quasioptical treatment of the receiving antenna, interference, polarization …

Power Consideration In The Pulsed Dielectric Barrier Discharge At Atmospheric Pressure, M. Laroussi, X. Lu, V. Kolobov, R. Arslanbekov

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Nonequilibrium, atmospheric pressure discharges are rapidly becoming an important technological component in material processing applications. Amongst their attractive features is the ability to achieve enhanced gas phase chemistry without the need for elevated gas temperatures. To further enhance the plasma chemistry, pulsed operation with pulse widths in the nanoseconds range has been suggested. We report on a specially designed, dielectric barrier discharge based diffuse pulsed discharge and its electrical characteristics. Two current pulses corresponding to two consecutive discharges are generated per voltage pulse. The second discharge, which occurs at the falling edge of the voltage pulse, is induced by the …

Quantum Lattice Representation Of Dark Solitons, George Vahala, Linda L. Vahala, Jeffrey Yepez

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

The nonlinear Schrodinger (NLS) equation in a self-defocusing Kerr medium supports dark solitons. Moreover the mean field description of a dilute Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is described by the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, which for a highly anisotropic (cigar-shaped) magnetic trap reduces to a one-dimensional (1D) cubic NLS in an external potential. A quantum lattice algorithm is developed for the dark solitons. Simulations are presented for both black (stationary) solitons as well as (moving) dark solitons. Collisions of dark solitons are compared with the exact analytic solutions and coupled dark-bright vector solitons are examined. The quantum algorithm requires 2 qubits per scalar field …

Photonic Band Gap Analysis Using Finite-Difference Frequency-Domain Method, Shangping Guo, Feng Wu, Sacharia Albin

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

A finite-difference frequency-domain (FDFD) method is applied for photonic band gap calculations. The Maxwell’s equations under generalized coordinates are solved for both orthogonal and non-orthogonal lattice geometries. Complete and accurate band gap information is obtained by using this FDFD approach. Numerical results for 2D TE/TM modes in square and triangular lattices are in excellent agreements with results from plane wave method (PWM). The accuracy, convergence and computation time of this method are also discussed.

Are Microbubbles Necessary For The Breakdown Of Liquid Water Subjected To A Submicrosecond Pulse?, R. P. Joshi, J. Qian, G. Zhao, J. Kolb, K. H. Schoenbach, E. Schamiloglu, J. Gaudet

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Electrical breakdown in homogeneous liquid water for an ∼ 100 ns voltage pulse is analyzed. It is shown that electron-impact ionization is not likely to be important and could only be operative for low-density situations or possibly under optical excitation. Simulation results also indicate that field ionization of liquid water can lead to a liquid breakdown provided the ionization energies were very low in the order of 2.3eV. Under such conditions, an electric-field collapse at the anode and plasma propagation toward the cathode, with minimal physical charge transport, is predicted. However, the low, unphysical ionization energies necessary for matching …

Multiple Scattering Of Light In Inhomogeneous Media And Applications, Claudia Mujat

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Light scattering-based techniques are being developed for non-invasive diagnostics of inhomogeneous media in various fields, such as medicine, biology, and material characterization. However, as most media of interest are highly scattering and have a complex structure, it is difficult to obtain a full analytical solution of the scattering problem without introducing approximations and assumptions about the properties of the system under consideration. Moreover, most of the previous studies deal with idealized scattering situations, rarely encountered in practice. This dissertation provides new analytical, numerical, and experimental solutions to describe subtle effects introduced by the properties of the light sources, and by …

Polarimetric Characterization Of Random Electromagnetic Beams And Applications, Mircea Mujat

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Polarimetry is one of the principal means of investigating the interaction of light with matter. Theoretical models and experimental techniques are presented in this dissertation for polarimetric characterization of random electromagnetic beams and of signatures of random media in different scattering regimes and configurations. The degree of polarization rather than the full description of the state of polarization is of interest in multiple scattering and free space propagation where the statistical nature and not the deterministic component of light bears the relevant information. A new interferometric technique for determining the degree of polarization by measuring the intensity fluctuations in a …

Quadratic Spatial Soliton Interactions, Ladislav Jankovic

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Quadratic spatial soliton interactions were investigated in this Dissertation. The first part deals with characterizing the principal features of multi-soliton generation and soliton self-reflection. The second deals with two beam processes leading to soliton interactions and collisions. These subjects were investigated both theoretically and experimentally. The experiments were performed by using potassium niobate (KNBO3) and periodically poled potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP) crystals. These particular crystals were desirable for these experiments because of their large nonlinear coefficients and, more importantly, because the experiments could be performed under non-critical-phase-matching (NCPM) conditions. The single soliton generation measurements, performed on KNBO3 by launching the …

Stable Spatial Solitons In Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers, Erdem Ultanir

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A spatial soliton is a shape invariant self guided beam of light or a self induced waveguide. Spatial solitons appear as a result of the balance of diffraction and nonlinear focusing in a system. They have been observed in many different conservative media in the last couple of years. Solitons are ubiquitous, because of the probability of using their interactions in optical data processing, communications etc. Up to now due to the power required to generate the solitons, and the response times of the soliton supporting media, these special waves of nature could not penetrate the applications arena. Semiconductors, with …

Chemical Structure - Nonlinear Optical Property Relationships For A Series Of Two-Photon Absorbing Fluorene Molecules, Joel Mccajah Hales

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation reports on the investigation of two-photon absorption (2PA) in a series of fluorenyl molecules. Several current and emerging technologies exploit this optical nonlinearity including two-photon fluorescence imaging, three-dimensional microfabrication, site-specific photodynamic cancer therapy and biological caging studies. The two key features of this nonlinearity which make it an ideal candidate for the above applications are its quadratic dependence on the incident irradiance and the improved penetration into absorbing media that it affords. As a consequence of the burgeoning field which exploits 2PA, it is a goal to find materials that exhibit strong two-photon absorbing capabilities. Organic materials are …

Thermal Management, Beam Control,And Packaging Designs For High Power, Te-Yuan Chung

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Several novel techniques for controlling, managing and utilizing high power diode lasers are described. Low pressure water spray cooling for a high heat flux system is developed and proven to be an ideal cooling method for high power diode laser arrays. In order to enable better thermal and optical performance of diode laser arrays, a new and simple optical element, the beam control prism, is invented. It provides the ability to accomplish beam shaping and beam tilting at the same time. Several low thermal resistance diode packaging designs using beam control prisms are proposed, studied and produced. Two pump cavity …

Evaluation Of The Photo-Induced Structural Mechanisms In Chalcogenide, Cedric Lopez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Chalcogenide glasses and their use in a wide range of optical, electronic and memory applications, has created a need for a more thorough understanding of material property variation as a function of composition and in geometries representative of actual devices. This study evaluates compositional dependencies and photo-induced structural mechanisms in As-S-Se chalcogenide glasses. An effective fabrication method for the reproducible processing of bulk chalcogenide materials has been demonstrated and an array of tools developed, for the systematic characterization of the resulting material's physical and optical properties. The influence of compositional variation on the physical properties of 13 glasses within the …

Selective Mode Excitation In Specialty Waveguides Using Micro Optical, Waleed Mohammed

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although optical fibers and specialty waveguides are the base of majority of today's telecom and light delivery applications, fabrication deformation, nonlinearity and attenuation limit the bandwidth of the data being transmitted or the amount of power carried by these systems. One-way to overcome these limitations without changing the fibers design or fabrication is to engineer the input light in order to excite a certain mode or a group of modes with unique optical properties. Diffractive and micro optics are highly effective for selectively coupling light to specific modes. Using micro optics, mode selective coupling can be achieved through several matching …

Discrete Nonlinear Wave Propagation In Kerr Nonlinear Media, Joachim Meier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Discrete optical systems are a subgroup of periodic structures in which the evolution of a continuous electromagnetic field can be described by a discrete model. In this model, the total field is the sum of localized, discrete modes. Weakly coupled arrays of single mode channel waveguides have been known to fall into this class of systems since the late 1960's. Nonlinear discrete optics has received a considerable amount of interest in the last few years, triggered by the experimental realization of discrete solitons in a Kerr nonlinear AlGaAs waveguide array by H. Eisenberg and coworkers in 1998. In this work …

Dispersion-Managed Breathing-Mode Semiconductor Mode-Locked Ring Laser, Bojan Resan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A novel dispersion-managed breathing-mode semiconductor mode-locked ring laser is developed. The "breathing-mode" designation derives from the fact that intracavity pulses are alternately stretched and compressed as they circulate around the ring resonator. The pulses are stretched before entering the semiconductor gain medium to minimize the detrimental strong integrating self-phase modulation and to enable efficient pulse amplification. Subsequently compressed pulses facilitate bleaching the semiconductor saturable absorber. The intracavity pulse compression ratio is higher than 50. Down chirping when compared to up chirping allows broader mode-locked spectra and shorter pulse generation owing to temporal and spectral semiconductor gain dynamics. Pulses as short …

Monolithic Integration Of Dual Optical Elements On High Power Semicond, Laurent Vaissie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the monolithic integration of dual optical elements on high power semiconductor lasers for emission around 980nm wavelength. In the proposed configuration, light is coupled out of the AlGaAs/GaAs waveguide by a low reflectivity grating coupler towards the substrate where a second monolithic optical element is integrated to improve the device performance or functionality. A fabrication process based on electron beam lithography and plasma etching was developed to control the grating coupler duty cycle and shape. The near-field intensity profile outcoupled by the grating is modeled using a combination of finite-difference time domain (FDTD) analysis of the nonuniform …