Noise properties of microwave signals synthesized with femtosecond lasers

We discuss various aspects of high resolution measurements of phase fluctuations at microwave frequencies. This includes methods to achieve thermal noise limited sensitivity, along with the improved immunity to oscillator amplitude noise. A few prototype measurement systems were developed to measure phase fluctuations of microwave signals extracted from the optical pulse trains generated by femtosecond lasers. This enabled first reliable measurements of the excess phase noise associated with optical-to-microwave frequency division. The spectral density of the excess phase noise was found to be -140 dBc/Hz at 100 Hz offset from the 10 GHz carrier which was almost 40 dB better than that of a high quality microwave synthesizer.     

High resolution radially symmetric nanostructures from simultaneous electron beam induced etching and deposition

Electron beam induced etching (EBIE) and deposition (EBID) are promising fabrication techniques in which an electron beam is used to dissociate surface-adsorbed precursor molecules to achieve etching or deposition. Spatial resolution is normally limited by the electron flux distribution at the substrate surface. Here we present simultaneous EBIE and EBID (EBIED) as a method for surpassing this resolution limit by using adsorbate depletion to induce etching and deposition in adjacent regions within the electron flux profile. Our simulation results indicate the possibility of growth control of radially symmetric nanostructures at the sub-1 nm length scale on bulk substrates. The technique is well suited to the fabrication of ring-shaped nanostructures such as those employed in plasmonics, sensing devices, magneto-optics and magnetoelectronics.     

Application of femtosecond laser ablation time-of-flight mass spectrometry to in-depth multilayer analysis

A femtosecond laser system was used in combination with a time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOF-MS) for in-depth profiling of semiconductor and metal samples. The semiconductor sample was a Co-implanted (10(17) ions/cm3) silicon wafer that had been carefully characterized by other established techniques. The total depth of the shallow implanted layer was 150 nm. As a second sample, a thin film metal standard had been used (NIST 2135c). This standard consisted of a silicon wafer with nine alternating Cr and Ni layers, each having a thickness of 56 and 57 nm, respectively. An orthogonal TOF-MS setup was implemented. This configuration was optimized until a sufficient mass resolution of 300 (m/delta m) and sensitivity was achieved. The experiments revealed that femtosecond-laser ablation TOF-MS is capable of resolving the depth profiles of these demanding samples. The poor precision of the measurements is discussed, and it is shown that this is due to pulse-to-pulse stability of the current laser system. Femtosecond-laser ablation TOF-MS is shown to be a promising technique for rapid in-depth profiling with a good lateral resolution of various multilayer thin film samples.     

Active synchronization and carrier phase locking of two separate mode-locked femtosecond lasers

Two independent mode-locked femtosecond lasers are synchronized to an unprecedented precision. The rms timing jitter between the lasers is 4.3 fs observed within a 160 Hz bandwidth over tens of seconds, or 26 fs within a 50 kHz bandwidth. Novel multi-stage phase-locked loops help to preserve this ultrahigh timing resolution while setting on arbitrary delay between the two pulse trains (0–5 ns). Under such synchronization, phase locking between the carrier frequencies of the two femtosecond lasers has been achieved. It is also demonstrated that the same level of synchronization can be achieved with two lasers at different repetition frequencies.     

Coating material innovation in conjunction with optimized deposition technologies

Concentrating on physical vapour deposition methods several examples of recently developed coating materials for optical applications were studied for film deposition with optimized coating technologies: mixed evaporation materials for ion assisted deposition with modern plasma ion sources, planar metal and oxide sputter targets for Direct Current (DC) and Mid-Frequency (MF) pulsed sputter deposition and planar and rotatable sputter targets of transparent conductive oxides (TCO) for large-area sputter deposition.Films from specially designed titania based mixed evaporation materials deposited with new plasma ion sources and possible operation with pure oxygen showed extended ranges of the ratio between refractive index and structural film stress, hence there is an increased potential for the reduction of the total coating stress in High-Low alternating stacks and for coating plastics.DC and MF-pulsed sputtering of niobium metal and suboxide targets for optical coatings yielded essential benefits of the suboxide targets in a range of practical coating conditions (for absent in-situ post-oxidation ability): higher refractive index and deposition rate, better reproducibility and easier process control, and the potential for co-deposition of several targets.Technological progress in the manufacture of rotatable indium tin oxide (ITO) targets with regard to higher wall-thickness and density was shown to be reflected in higher material stock and coater up-time, economical deposition rates and stable process behaviour. Both for the rotatable ITO targets and higher-dense aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) planar targets values of film transmittance and resistivity were in the range of the best values industrially achieved for films from the respective planar targets. The results for the rotatable ITO and planar AZO targets point to equally optimized process and film properties for the optimized rotatable AZO targets currently in testing.     

Microchip lasers and their applications in optical microsystems

The microchip lasers are the most compact diode pumped solid state lasers. They are fabricated using collective mass production processes, at low cost. Several hundreds of microchip lasers can be fabricated on one single thin wafer of a laser material. The microchip laser is pumped with a standard GaAlAs or GaInAs diode laser, directly or through a multimode fibre. It is a kind of optical transformer which transforms a poor quality laser diode beam to a diffraction limited TEM00 and single frequency laser beam. Moreover, by Q-switching, very short pulses (∼0.4–2 ns) with very high peak power (0.5–50 kW) can be obtained. Most of the well known laser materials can be used for emissions near 1, 1.3, 1.5 and 2. Visible and UV emissions are obtained using harmonic generations in non-linear crystals. Microchip lasers have many different industrial applications in large markets such as: automotive, laser marking, environmental and medical applications, public works, telecommunications. They should open the domain of solid state lasers to high volume and low cost markets.     

Nanosecond and femtosecond laser ablation of brass: particulate and ICPMS measurements

Femtosecond and nanosecond lasers were compared for ablating brass alloys. All operating parameters from both lasers were equal except for the pulse duration. The ablated aerosol vapor was collected on silicon substrates for particle size measurements or sent into an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer. The diameters and size distribution of particulates were measured from scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of the collected ablated aerosol. SEM measurements showed that particles ablated using nanosecond pulses were single spherical entities ranging in diameter from several micrometers to several hundred nanometers. Primary particles ablated using femtosecond ablation were approximately 100 nm in diameter but formed large agglomerates. ICPMS showed enhanced signal intensity and stability using femtosecond compared to nanosecond laser ablation.     

基于飞秒激光与纳秒激光协同多光子诱导荧光的火焰中氢原子瞬态检测

为了准确测量碳氢燃料燃烧过程中原位氢原子,提出了飞秒-纳秒激光协同激发的氢原子瞬态在线探测策略。以243 nm的飞秒激光经过双光子过程将基态氢原子激发到2S能级,随后这些氢原子再被656 nm的纳秒激光激发到3P能级,通过探测3P-2S的荧光发射,实现了宽当量比范围的氢原子无干扰瞬态在线测量。实验结果表明：通过飞秒-纳秒协同的方式,可以有效降低激光光解产生的氢原子对原位氢原子探测的干扰。     

External cavity tunable quantum cascade lasers and their applications to trace gas monitoring

Since the first quantum cascade laser (QCL) was demonstrated approximately 16 years ago, we have witnessed an explosion of interesting developments in QCL technology and QCL-based trace gas sensors. QCLs operate in the mid-IR region (3-24?μm) and can directly access the rotational vibrational bands of most molecular species and, therefore, are ideally suited for trace gas detection with high specificity and sensitivity. These sensors have applications in a wide range of fields, including environmental monitoring, atmospheric chemistry, medical diagnostics, homeland security, detection of explosive compounds, and industrial process control, to name a few. Tunable external cavity (EC)-QCLs in particular offer narrow linewidths, wide ranges of tunability, and stable power outputs, which open up new possibilities for sensor development. These features allow for the simultaneous detection of multiple species and the study of large molecules, free radicals, ions, and reaction kinetics. In this article, we review the current status of EC-QCLs and sensor developments based on them and speculate on possible future developments.     

Femtosecond pulsed laser ablation and deposition of titanium carbide

In this work we have evaporated a titanium carbide target by an Nd:glass laser with 250 fs pulse duration. The plasma produced from the ablation has been characterized by Intensified Coupled Charge Device (ICCD) fast imaging, optical emission spectroscopy and quadrupole mass spectrometry, while X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Scanning and Transmission Electron Microscopy have been used to study the deposited film morphology and composition. The plume shape and front velocity are very similar to those found in other systems and are typical of femtosecond ablation. In particular the front velocity is 1.1 × 10⁷ cm s^− 1 at a laser fluence of 1.9 J cm^− 2, while the value of the cosine exponent is 4.5 in the same conditions. In the TiC system a delayed emission, found by ICCD imaging and emission spectroscopy, is also present. In fact, although the emission involved in the “traditional” plume ends after about 1 μs, the target is still hot and gives origin to another emission, expanding with a velocity that is about two orders of magnitude lower compared to that of the traditional plume (2.2 × 10⁴ cm s^− 1 at a laser fluence of 1.9 J cm^− 2).The results of the analysis of both the gaseous plume and the deposited films seem to indicate that in the case of TiC system the presence of a large number of particles ejected from the target is responsible for the formation of the films. XPS and EDX data indicate that the stoichiometry of the target is preserved in the films, while XRD analysis shows that the films are amorphous in structure.     

Corrosion protection performance of High Performance Fiber Reinforced Cement Composites as a repair material

This paper regards the corrosion protection performance of High Performance Fiber Reinforced Cement Composites (HPFRCC) as a repair material. For the purpose of improving workability, the volumetric fiber content in HPFRCC was decreased from its usual rate of 1.5% to as low as 0.75%. The applicability of HPFRCC as a repair material for preventing steel corrosion was investigated using specimens that simulated either surface coating repair or patch repair. The results can be summarized as follows: Patch repair with HPFRCC to depths beyond the backside of the reinforcement effectively suppressed chloride penetration and prevented reinforcement corrosion, whereas surface coating with HPFRCC could not prevent corrosion of the steel in the RC substrate. As long as the fiber content is set so that only fine cracks are formed under service conditions, differences in fiber content did not affect the corrosion preventing performance of HPFRCC as a repair material.     

Thin-film CdS formed with pulsed-laser deposition towards optical and hybrid device applications

The paper shows various optical and optoelectronic experiments carried out on thin-film CdS on glass. The films have been prepared with nanosecond pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) on glass by using ultraviolet and infrared Nd:YAG laser emissions. The discussed topics contain the successful realization of green light emitting lasers, the properties of ultrafast two-photon excited emission, PLD controlled CdS dichroism, and organic/inorganic hybrid devices. Based on the presented results several future investigations are proposed.     

原子层沉积技术及其在半导体中的应用

首先简述原子层沉积（ALD）技术的发展背景，通过分析ALD的互补性和自限制性等工艺基础，介绍了它在膜层的均匀性、保形性以及膜厚控制能力等方面的优势，着重列举ALD在半导体互连技术、高k电介质等方面的应用。同时指出了目前ALD工艺中存在的主要问题。     

Characteristics and applications of plasma enhanced-atomic layer deposition

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is expected to play an important role in future device fabrication due to various benefits, such as atomic level thickness control and excellent conformality. Plasma enhanced ALD (PE-ALD) allows deposition at significantly lower temperatures with better film properties compared to that of conventional thermal ALD. In addition, since ALD is a surface-sensitive deposition technique, surface modification through plasma exposure can be used to alter nucleation and adhesion. In this paper, characteristics of PE-ALD for various applications in semiconductor fabrication are presented through comparison to thermal ALD. The results indicate that the PE-ALD processes are versatile methods to enable nanoscale manufacturing in emerging applications.     

Improve the binding force of PEEK coating with Mg surface by femtosecond lasers induced micro/nanostructures

Journal of Materials Science - A polymer coating is an effective approach to increase the surface wear and corrosion resistance of magnesium alloys, but the low bonding strength limits its further...     

Two-color femtosecond experiments by use of two independently tunable Ti:sapphire lasers with a sample-and-hold switch

We performed femtosecond two-color experiments (four-wave mixing and pump probe) using two independently tunable, partially synchronized femtosecond lasers. Despite the fact that the jitter is of the order of 5-10 ps, the time resolution is limited only by the pulse width when a homemade sample-and-hold switch is used.     

Long-wavelength vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers for high-speed applications and gas sensing

Long-wavelength InGaAlAs-InP vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (LW-VCSELs) covering the wavelength range from 1.3 to 2.3 mum are presented. Furthermore, these lasers can be fabricated in a novel high-speed design-reducing parasitics to enable bandwidths in excess of 11 GHz at 1.55 mum. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the fastest 1.55 mum VCSEL ever presented. As a proof-of-concept one- and two-dimensional arrays have been fabricated with high yield. All devices use a buried tunnel junction for current confinement and a dielectric backside reflector with integrated electroplated gold-heatsink. This concept enables CW operation at room temperature with typical single-mode output powers above 1 mW. Both, wavelength range and modulation performance, together with VCSEL features such as operation voltage around IV and power consumption as low as 10-20 mW enable applications in tunable diode laser spectroscopy (TDLS) and optical data transmission. Error-free data transmission at 10 Gbit/s over 22 km which can be readily applied in uncooled coarse wavelength division multiplex passive optical networks is presented. A laser hygrometer using a 1.84 mum VCSEL demonstrates the functionality of TDLS systems with VCSELs.