Fabrication of High Performance Laminated Polarization Splitters Consisting of Thick a-Si:H /SiO(x):H Multilayers

We report fabrication techniques ofa-Si:H/SiO(x):H multilayers having ample thickness and flat layer boundaries for high performance laminated polarization splitters (LPS's). In the new fabrication process we used the following techniques to achieve low stress and high surface flatness: SiO(x):H film deposition by rf sputtering with a mixture of Ar/H(2), two-step deposition using rf bias sputtering, and elimination of surface roughness and defects by mechanical polishing. This process enabled deposition of a multilayer as thick as 265 mum while preserving layer boundaries as flat as 1 nm (rms). As a result, LPS's having low loss, a large aperture, and a long splitting distance were successfully obtained. The high optical performance is applicable to functional devices integrated into fibers or planar waveguides.     

Two-dimensional point spread matrix of layered metal-dielectric imaging elements

We describe the change of the spatial distribution of the state of polarization occurring during two-dimensional (2D) imaging through a multilayer and in particular through a layered metallic flat lens. Linear or circular polarization of incident light is not preserved due to the difference in the amplitude transfer functions for the TM and TE polarizations. In effect, the transfer function and the point spread function (PSF) that characterize 2D imaging through a multilayer both have a matrix form, and cross-polarization coupling is observed for spatially modulated beams with a linear or circular incident polarization. The PSF in a matrix form is used to characterize the resolution of the superlens for different polarization states. We demonstrate how the 2D PSF may be used to design a simple diffractive nanoelement consisting of two radial slits. The structure assures the separation of nondiffracting radial beams originating from two slits in the mask and exhibits an interesting property of a backward power flow in between the two rings.     

多层介质高反射膜的散射特性研究

为了研究多层介质高反射薄膜的散射特性减小光学薄膜的散射损耗,以多层光学薄膜矢量光散射理论为基础,利用光学薄膜的总散射损耗与光学薄膜双向反射分布函数的关系,研究了多层介质高反射薄膜分别在膜层界面粗糙度为完全相关和完全非相关模型下入射角和偏振状态对总散射损耗的影响,以及入射波长对总散射损耗的影响.理论研究结果表明,随着入射角的变化p偏振入射光引起的p偏振的总散射损耗强烈依赖于膜层界面粗糙度的相关特性,尤其是在布儒斯特角附近更为明显;此外,通过对介质高反射膜在两种不同模型下的总散射损耗随入射波长的变化与其反射率谱的比较发现,完全相关模型下的总散射损耗与反射率谱的变化趋势一致,完全非相关模型则恰好反之.     

Multiple-source optical diffusion approximation for a multilayer scattering medium

A method for improving the accuracy of the optical diffusion theory for a multilayer scattering medium is presented. An infinitesimally narrow incident light beam is replaced by multiple isotropic point sources of different strengths that are placed in the scattering medium along the incident beam. The multiple sources are then used to develop a multilayer diffusion theory. Diffuse reflectance is then computed using the multilayer diffusion theory and compared with accurate data computed by the Monte Carlo method. This multisource method is found to be significantly more accurate than the previous single-source method.     

Effect of laser-radiation polarization on the nonlinear scattering of light in nanodiamond suspensions

The effect of laser radiation polarization on the nonlinear scattering of light in aqueous suspensions of detonation nanodiamonds (DNDs) in a regime of optical power limiting (OPL) has been studied. It is established that the nonlinear transmission coefficient of DND suspension in the OPL regime in a field of nanosecond laser pulses with a wavelength of 532 nm is independent of the polarization of incident radiation. The nonlinear scattering of light observed at an angle of 90° in the plane perpendicular to the plane of polarization of the incident radiation depends on the polarization angle in accordance with a trigonometric law. It is shown that the ratio of the signals of scattered radiation for the vertical and horizontal polarizations exhibits nonmonotonic dependence on the laser-beam power density. The results are explained by the Rayleigh-Mie scattering and a change in the size of scattering centers as a result of the effect of a laser upon the DND suspension.     

Mo/B4C/Si multilayer-coated photodiode with polarization sensitivity at an extreme-ultraviolet wavelength of 13.5 nm

A silicon photodiode coated with an interface-engineered Mo/Si multilayer was developed as a polarization sensitive detector. The Mo/B4C/Si multilayer was designed to reflect 13.5-nm extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) radiation at an incident angle of 45 degrees, at which the maximum polarization sensitivity occurs. The sensitivity of this specially coated photodiode and its polarization responses were determined by measurement of the reflectance and transmittance of the multilayer coating with synchrotron radiation. The Mo/B4C/Si multilayer was found to reflect 69.9% of the s-polarized radiation and only 2.4% of the p-polarized radiation, thus transmitting approximately 0.2% s-polarized radiation and 8.4% p-polarized radiation at a 13.5-nm wavelength and a 45 degrees angle of incidence. A polarization ratio, (Tp - Ts)/(Tp + Ts), of 95% was achieved with sufficiently high sensitivity from this photodiode. This result demonstrates the high polarization sensitivity and the usefulness of multilayer-coated photodiodes as novel EUV polarimeters.     

Ultrasonic guided wave scattering in a plate overlap

Guided wave scattering in a plate overlap is investigated by numerical calculations and experimental measurements of transmission and reflection factors from the overlap region. In the numerical study, a hybrid boundary element-finite element method is used to calculate the guided wave scattered field from the overlap region. Transmission and reflection factors are calculated for incident A0 and S0 Lamb and n0 shear horizontal waves, including higher modes generated through mode conversion phenomena. In addition, parametric studies of transmission and reflection factors in this problem are performed numerically over various incident modes, frequencies, and overlap lengths. For verification and comparison with numerical results, experiments were conducted to measure the transmission and reflection factors for incident Lamb and shear horizontal waves in steel plates with two different overlap areas. The experimental results agree well with the numerical calculations. The numerical and experimental results show that it is highly feasible to carry out efficient Lamb wave nondestructive evaluation (NDE) in overlapped plates and in multilayer structures with various lap joints by selecting various modes and tuning frequency.     

Angle- and size-dependent characteristics of incoherent Raman and fluorescent scattering by microspheres. 2. Numerical simulation

The results of numerical simulation of inelastic scattering by microspheres with the use of a dipole model are presented. The formulas that are derived speed up the computation, thereby permitting larger-sized microspheres to be studied. The angular scattering cross section and depolarization are calculated for a wide range of size parameters as well as for different orientations of incident wave polarization. Calculations performed with small incremental changes in size permit the influence of morphology-dependent resonance (MDR) on the power and angular distribution of scattered radiation to be studied. TM and TE types of MDR produce enhanced scattering of the incident wave with vertical and horizontal polarization; the corresponding shape of the phase function becomes oscillatory. Special attention is paid to the simulation of backward scattering by water droplets, which is important for Raman lidar applications.     

Polarization of transmission scattering simulated by using a multiple-facets model

A Mueller matrix for scattering by a rough plane surface of a glass hemisphere was simulated by using a micro-facet model. The algorithms are formulated in vector representation in terms of the input and output directions. The single-facet scattering simulation used the results of the Kirchhoff integral for medium rough surfaces with exponential height distribution. Scatterings by two or more facets were also simulated. For a fixed angle between the incident and the detection directions, the transmission scattering and its polarization properties were symmetric when plotted against the off-specular incident angle. The single-facet model generated no depolarization or polarization change. When double-facet scattering was included, polarizations were changed appreciably while depolarization was still very small. Depolarization increased appreciably when scattering by higher orders was included. The simulated results that include all orders of scattering fit excellently to the measured scattering transmittance and its polarization and depolarization.     

The disturbance of a plane dyadic wave by a small spherical cavity

Dyadic scattering offers a general setting for solving wave-obstacle interaction problems in Continuum Mechanics, because it eliminates the direction of polarization from the scattering formulation. Once the dyadic problem has been solved, any classical scattering problem for the displacement field is recoverable through a contraction with the given polarization. In the present work we solve the scattering problem of a plane dyadic incident field which is disturbed by a spherical cavity in the medium of propagation. The cavity is considered to be small in the sense that its characteristic dimension is much less than the wave length of the incident field. The zeroth and the first order low-frequency approximations of the near field as well as the leading approximation of the far-field (which is of the third order) are obtained explicitly via an appropriate generalization of the Papkovich representation for dyadic fields. The leading approximation of the scattering cross-section is also provided. The results are then used to check the credibility of related vector results obtained from the Boundary Element Method and an amazing coincidence is observed, at least for small enough frequencies.     

Polarization effects on scatterer sizing accuracy analyzed with frequency-domain angle-resolved low-coherence interferometry

Angle-resolved low-coherence interferometry (a/LCI) enables us to make depth-resolved measurements of scattered light that can be used to recover subsurface structural information such as the size of cell nuclei. Endoscopic frequency-domain a/LCI (fa/LCI) acquires data by using a novel fiber probe in a fraction of a second, making it a clinically practical system. However, birefringent effects in fiber-based systems can alter the polarization state of the incident light and potentially skew the collected data. We analyze the effect the polarization state of the incident light has on scattering data collected from polystyrene microsphere tissue phantoms and in vitro cell samples and examine the subsequent accuracy of the determined sizes. It is shown that the endoscopic fa/LCI system accurately determines the size of polystyrene microspheres without the need to control the polarization of the incident beam, but that epithelial cell nuclear sizes are accurately determined only when the polarization state of the incident light is well characterized.     

Angular-scattering characteristics of ferroelectric liquid-crystal electro-optical devices operating in the transient-scattering and the extended-scattering modes

The angular distribution of forward-scattered light in transient-scattering-mode (TSM) and extended-scattering-mode (ESM) ferroelectric liquid-crystal (FLC) devices was evaluated by use of circularly polarized incident light. For both modes the intensity and the distribution of forward-scattered light depended primarily on the FLC birefringence, spontaneous polarization, and the cell path length. In the FLC materials examined, the forward-scattering intensity under ESM drive conditions increased with longer FLC pitch lengths, whereas under TSM conditions stronger forward scattering was observed with increasing FLC spontaneous polarization. Although both TSM and ESM drive conditions displayed a similar angular distribution for forward-scattered light, the intensity of ESM scattering over a 0 degrees -6 degrees range was considerably smaller than that observed in earlier experiments with linearly polarized incident light.     

Localizable imaging study for the noninvasive diagnosis of lesions with the backscattering polarized light

The asymmetry appearing in the degree of polarization (DOP) distribution of the backscattering polarized light from tissues is investigated by using polarized Monte Carlo simulation. When the incident point is close to the boundary of the lesion inside the tissue, high asymmetry emerges regardless of the polarized direction of the incident light. A noninvasive method based upon the DOP asymmetry of the backscattering light is proposed to locate lesions hidden in live tissues by scanning a point light source. Imaging of the front projection on complicated lesion structures is demonstrated with this method. Its transverse resolution, which is affected by the wavelength of incident light and the size of the scattering particle, can reach the diameter of the lesion scattering particle theoretically while the best longitudinal detection depth can be achieved by choosing a suitable incident wavelength according to the scattering characters of the tissue.     

Flow visualization in supersonic ejectors using laser tomography techniques

This paper presents flow imaging techniques developed for investigating flow in ejectors. These visualization techniques use the laser sheet method but differ from each other by the kind of the illumination source, the polarization direction of the incident light and the type of the scattering tracers. Each of these methods enables the visualization of specific phenomena (shock structure, flow instabilities, mixing process). Although the flow visualizations are primarily qualitative, they allow the determination of the flow regime, the measurement of the non-mixing length, can indicate suggestions for the design of ejectors and provide the possibility to validate numerical simulations.     

Influence of size parameter and refractive index of the scatterer on polarization-gated optical imaging through turbid media

The influence of incident polarized light, refractive index, and size parameter of the scatterer on achievable resolution and contrast (image quality) of polarization-gated transillumination imaging in turbid media is reported here. Differential polarization detection led to significant improvement of image quality of an object embedded in a medium of small-sized scatterers (diameter Dor=lambda,g>or=0.7), the improvement in image quality was less pronounced using either linear or circular polarization gating when the refractive index of the scatterer was high (ns=1.59), but for a lower value of refractive index (ns=1.37), image quality improved with the differential circular polarization gating. We offer a plausible explanation for these observations.     

Multiple scattering of electromagnetic waves by an aggregate of uniaxial anisotropic spheres

An exact analytical solution is obtained for the scattering of electromagnetic waves from a plane wave with arbitrary directions of propagation and polarization by an aggregate of interacting homogeneous uniaxial anisotropic spheres with parallel primary optical axes. The expansion coefficients of a plane wave with arbitrary directions of propagation and polarization, for both TM and TE modes, are derived in terms of spherical vector wave functions. The effects of the incident angle α and the polarization angle β on the radar cross sections (RCSs) of several types of collective uniaxial anisotropic spheres are numerically analyzed in detail. The characteristics of the forward and backward RCSs in relation to the incident wavelength are also numerically studied. Selected results on the forward and backward RCSs of several types of square arrays of SiO? spheres illuminated by a plane wave with different incident angles are described. The accuracy of the expansion coefficients of the incident fields is verified by comparing them with the results obtained from references when the plane wave is degenerated to a z-propagating and x- or y-polarized plane wave. The validity of the theory is also confirmed by comparing the numerical results with those provided by a CST simulation.     

Inelastic scattering in planetary atmospheres. 2: Polarization of the rotational component

The inelastic part of Rayleigh scattering, which we previously showed can account for the partially filled line profiles of the blue sky observed at high spectral resolution, also explains the variation of polarization across a line profile. At lower spectral resolution, only the rotational part of the molecular scattering is needed to account for the polarization phenomena; translational (Brillouin) shifts can be neglected. Aerosol scattering, like the ground reflection, reduces the polarizations observed in the zenith sky by diluting the molecular (Rayleigh) component. Although the theory agrees well with existing data, more observations of high quality are needed for a thorough test of the Ring effect.     

基于偏振分束器的C波段可调谐薄膜滤波器

针对多腔窄带薄膜滤光片在倾斜入射时会产生严重的偏振相关损耗问题,研制了一种基于双折射晶体偏振分束器、信道间隔为100 GHz的角度可调薄膜滤波器.该方法可简化倾斜入射时多腔窄带薄膜滤光片消偏振膜系结构,通过对入射光信号偏振态的控制,仅使用常规窄带滤光片就能实现角度调谐其中心透射波长.该可调谐滤波器件具有结构简单、成本低...     

Mechanism and symmetry properties of depolarization in weak scattering of light

The mechanism and some symmetry properties of depolarization upon weak scattering of light from a class of random media were studied theoretically. Departing from the angular distribution of the degree of polarization, our derivations showed the mechanism that induces the change of polarization can be split into two parts of different nature. One is the vectorial effect that redistributes the original light components, and the other is the interaction effect of the medium that modulates the correlation properties of the incident field. We also showed that there is dependence of the angular distribution on the incident polarization state; i.e., the angular pattern and its symmetry depend on both the orientation and ellipticity of the incident polarization. Random light was analyzed in the space-frequency domain.