Kui Yi

Nonpolarizing guided-mode resonance filter

A normal-incidence nonpolarizing guided-mode resonance filter is designed. There are two waveguide layers and one grating layer in the filter. By adjusting the distance between the two waveguide layers, the same resonance wavelength for both TE and TM polarization can be achieved. An antireflection design method is also used to decrease the sideband reflection of the filter. The results show that the filter has high reflection, more than 99.9% at 500 nm, and the FWHMs of TE- and TM-polarized light are 2.16 and 0.15 nm, respectively.

High-efficiency, broad-bandwidth metal/multilayer-dielectric gratings

We report on an 800 nm center-wavelength metal/multilayer-dielectric grating (MMDG) with broadband, high diffraction efficiency. The trapezoidal grating ridge consists of an HfO2 layer sandwiched between two SiO2 films. Combining the advantages of SiO2 and HfO2, the grating ridge reduces the difficulties of grating ridge attainment. For such a configuration, high-performance MMDG can be successfully fabricated using the existing technology. Experimentally we demonstrated a 163 nm bandwidth MMDG with -1st-order diffraction efficiency greater than 90%. The fabricated MMDG achieved high performance as the design with large fabrication tolerances.

Nonpolarizing and polarizing filter design.

We describe a nonpolarizing filter design at oblique incidence and a polarizing filter design at normal incidence that use a uniaxially anisotropic layer. The phase thicknesses and the optical admittances of the layers are compensated for by the birefringent properties of a thin film at oblique incidence. This concept can be applied to the design of nonpolarizing bandpass and edge filters at oblique incidence and of polarizing beam splitters at normal incidence. Besides, the dependence of narrow-bandpass filters on normal incidence is discussed.

Measurements of light scattering from glass substrates by total integrated scattering

A total integrated scattering (TIS) measurement was performed to investigate the surface and volume scattering of K9 glass substrates with low reflectance. Ag layers with thicknesses of 60 nm were deposited on the front and back surfaces of the K9 glass substrates by the magnetron sputtering technique. Surface scattering of the K9 glass substrate was obtained by the TIS measurement of the Ag layers on the assumption that the Ag layers and the K9 substrate had the same surface profile. Volume scattering of the substrates was deduced by subtracting the front and back surface scattering from the total scattering of the substrates.

Electrical transport in metallic films

On the basis of the Boltzmann equation, the authors propose a model that includes scattering from both film surfaces and grain boundaries, and have studied the quasiclassical electrical transport in metallic films. The in-plane electric conductivity of metallic films is obtained, and the theoretical results are shown to be in good agreement with experimental data. We also give the relation between temperature coefficient of resistivity and thickness of metallic films and make a comparison with experiment. 2004 American Institute of Physics.

Combining wet etching and real-time damage event imaging to reveal the most dangerous laser damage initiator in fused silica

A reliable method, combining a wet etch process and real-time damage event imaging during a raster scan laser damage test, has been developed to directly determine the most dangerous precursor inducing low-density laser damage at 355 nm in fused silica. It is revealed that ~16% of laser damage sites were initiated at the place of the scratches, ~49% initiated at the digs, and ~35% initiated at invisible defects. The morphologies of dangerous scratches and digs were compared with those of moderate ones. It is found that local sharp variation at the edge, twist, or inside of a subsurface defect is the most dangerous laser damage precursor.

Mechanism initiated by nanoabsorber for UV nanosecond-pulse-driven damage of dielectric coatings

A model of plasma formation for UV nanosecond pulse-laser interaction with SiO(2) thin film based on nanoabsorber is proposed. The formalism considered the temperature dependence of band gap. The numerical results show that during the process of nanosecond pulsed-laser interaction with SiO(2) films, foreign inclusion absorbing a fraction of incident radiation heats the surrounding host material through heat conduction causing the decrease of the band gap and making the initial transparent matrix into an absorptive medium around the inclusion. During the remainder pulse, the abosorbing volume of the host material is effectively growed and lead to the formation of the damage craters. We investigated the experimental damage craters and compared with theoretical prediction. The pulselength dependence of damage threshold was also investigated.

Nanosecond laser pulse induced concentric surface structures on SiO 2 layer

We report the periodic concentric surface structures on SiO2 layer induced by a single shot nanosecond laser pulse at 1.06 μm. The fringe period of the structures ranges from 7.0 μm to 26.8 μm, depending on the laser fluence and the distance from central defect precursor. The size and depth of the damage sites increase almost linearly with the laser fluence from 19.6 J/cm(2) to 61 J/cm(2). Plasma flash was clearly observed during the damage process. We attribute the formation mechanism of the structures to the interference between the reflected laser radiations at the air/shock-front and the shock-front/film interfaces.

Morphology, structure and optical properties in TiO 2 nanostructured films annealed at various temperatures

Amorphous TiO2 nanostructured thin films (TNFs) were deposited by the glancing angle deposition technique (GLAD) with an electron gun. All of the prepared TNFs were composed of discrete nanoscale columns, characterized by scanning electron microscope. With the annealing treatment, the pure anatase phase was transformed from amorphous TNFs. The morphological, structural and optical properties of TNFs under the annealing treatment were measured, and the evolvement mechanism was further analyzed. The optimum annealing temperature for the pure anatase precipitation of TNFs is about 400°C. The variation of morphology, chemical state and crystallization of TNFs also resulted in the shift of the transmittance spectra. The results show that appropriate post-annealing treatment can build fine nanostructures and pure anatase precipitation, which can support the applications and researches about the anatase phase TNFs powerfully.

High-spectral-resolution characterization of broadband high-efficiency reflection gratings

An optical characterization method with high spectral resolution for broadband, multilayer dielectric gratings working at the -1st reflection order is demonstrated in this paper. The diffraction-efficiency measurement setup for the broadband gratings with high efficiencies mainly consists of a double-light-path system with a monochromator as the illumination source and an automatic rotation stage for incident and diffraction angles adjustment. Two typical practical difficulties, namely (1) the mismatch between the spot size of diffracted light and the limited detector aperture and (2) the shared propagation path between the incident and diffracted light at the Littrow angle, were well solved. A fabricated multilayer dielectric grating was measured on the established measurement setup. Diffraction efficiencies greater than 90% in the wavelength range from 763 to 852 nm were obtained with an average relative deviation less than 1.0%. At the moment, the wavelength resolution is 1 nm and the angle resolution is 0.2 deg. The high-resolution broadband diffraction spectrometry testing method is applicable to characterizing broadband pulse compression gratings in the laser systems.