Controlling broadband light on robust surfaces useful for many applications such as solar receivers. In many of these applications, spectral selectivity is desirable with lower absorptivity and emissivity in the thermal infrared. This paper investigates texturing and direct micromachining method using a femtosecond laser to produce spectrally selective absorbers in the Infrared (IR) spectrum on stainless steel. The relationship between process parameters, surface morphology and optical performance is shown including angular dependent infrared reflectance resulting from coupling to diffractive modes when the feature size approaches the wavelength. The results show that highly effective black surfaces with diffuse reflectances less than 1% in the visible and thermal IR reflectances greater than 90% can be achieved.
This project demonstrates the prototype of a low-cost strain sensor by directly coupling light from a resonant cavity light emitting diode into a single mode fiber with a fiber Bragg grating and detecting the transmitted light using a fiber-coupled photodiode. While most strain sensors use expensive techniques for measuring the spectral shift in the reflected or transmitted light from the fiber Bragg grating, such as optical spectrum analyzers or spectrometers, this project demonstrates the use of a silicon photodiode for detection. We measure the coupling efficiency between the resonant cavity light emitting diode and single mode fiber, showing that it is more efficient than coupling between a surface emitting light emitting diode and a single mode fiber. We demonstrate a proof-of-concept strain sensor using these low-cost components that has a detection limit of approximately 100 με. This work could help enable a new application space for fiber-based sensors where many inexpensive sensors are needed, such as distributed sensing networks.
Monoclinic HfO2 nanoparticles (9 - 45 nm) are synthesized using a sol-gel method and optically characterized using transmission- and angle-dependent reflection spectroscopy in the mid- to far-infrared. A detailed HfO2 identification of the infrared-active phonon modes is presented; consistent with previously reported thin film values, and in excellent agreement with density functional perturbation theory calculations. An anomaly is observed in both reflection and transmission measurements, at 556 cm-1 that is not attributed to the optical phonon modes. Numerical models indicate that this measured anomaly is in the spectral region of a localized surface phonon polariton mode. The results of this work suggest that HfO2 nanoparticles could enable new mid- and far-infrared materials and devices with engineered optical properties.
We present Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) simulations to explore feasibility of chip-to-chip waveguide
coupling via Optical Quilt Packaging (OQP). OQP is a newly proposed scheme for wide-bandwidth, highly-efficient
waveguide coupling and is suitable for direct optical interconnect between semiconductor optical sources, optical
waveguides, and detectors via waveguides. This approach leverages advances in quilt packaging (QP), an electronic
packaging technique wherein contacts formed along the vertical faces are joined to form electrically-conductive and
mechanically-stable chip-to-chip contacts. In OQP, waveguides of separate substrates are aligned with sub-micron
accuracy by protruding lithographically-defined copper nodules on the side of a chip. With OQP, high efficiency chip-to-chip
optical coupling can be achieved by aligning waveguides of separate chips with sub-micron accuracy and reducing
chip-to-chip distance. We used MEEP (MIT Electromagnetic Equation Propagation) to investigate the feasibility of OQP
by calculating the optical coupling loss between butt coupled waveguides. Transmission between a typical QCL ridge
waveguide and a single-mode Ge-on-Si waveguide was calculated to exceed 65% when an interchip gap of 0.5 μm and
to be no worse than 20% for a gap of less than 4 μm. These results compare favorably to conventional off-chip coupling.
To further increase the coupling efficiency and reduce sensitivity to alignment, we used a horn-shaped Ge-on-Si
waveguide and found a 13% increase in coupling efficiency when the horn is 1.5 times wider than the wavelength and 2
times longer than the wavelength. Also when the horizontal misalignment increases, coupling loss of the horn-shaped
waveguide increases at a slower rate than a ridge waveguide.
Quantum Cascade (QC) wafer quality testing requires intensive processing and characterization. Here, we demonstrate a
minimally invasive technique that gives rapid feedback on wafer quality. A mesa is fabricated using only a single etch
and metallization step. The device is electrically pumped and optically and electrically characterized. The peak
wavelength position and the full width at half maximum (FWHM) as a function of applied electric field, turn-on voltage,
maximum operating current density and threshold current density of the mesas are measured. Results of the mesa and
lasers processed from the same wafer are compared and differed by less than 10 %.
The voltage tuning of gain spectra in three types of Quantum Cascade laser designs is investigated. The gain spectra of
the luminescence device are tunable over the whole voltage operation range for all designs. The lasers are as tunable as
the electroluminescence below threshold, while a reduced tunability is observed in all lasers above threshold. This is
attributed to the decrease of resistance across the laser active region as the photon density increases. A resumed
tunability high above threshold occurs in all lasers based on the anti-crossed designs. Lasers based on the anti-crossed
diagonal transition are tunable above threshold, with a tuning range of about 40 cm-1 (~4% of the laser emission
wavenumber) at room temperature, i.e. a tuning rate of 800 cm-1 per volt per period of active region and injector.
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