Olivier Parriaux

Normalized analysis for the sensitivity optimization of integrated optical evanescent-wave sensors

Closed-form analytical expressions and normalized charts provide the conditions for the maximum sensitivity of transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) evanescent-wave step-index waveguide sensors. The analysis covers both cases where the measurand is homogeneously distributed in the semi-infinite waveguide cover, and where it is an ultrathin film at the waveguide-cover interface.

Microbend fiber-optic sensor

The invention relates to a fiber-optic detector and concerns more particularly a detector capable of producing microbends in an optical fiber in response to the variation of a physical quantity or of an environmental parameter. The sensor of the invention consists of an optical fiber provide with a sheath which is covered by a layer exhibiting periodic discontinuities. The sheath and its covering react to the variation of the parameter to be detected in such a manner as to produce microbends of the same periodicity as that of the discontinuities.Intensity modulation induced by microbending in multimode fibers is considered as a transduction mechanism for detecting environmental changes such as pressure, temperature, acceleration, and magnetic and electric fields. A generic microbend sensor has been defined and studied, and its components, such as sensing fiber, light source, optical fiber leads, and detector, have been examined and optimized. Finally, the generic microbend sensor has been tested demonstrating good performance.

An intelligible explanation of highly-efficient diffraction in deep dielectric rectangular transmission gratings.

This paper describes in a very easy and intelligible way, how the diffraction efficiencies of binary dielectric transmission gratings depend on the geometrical groove parameters and how a high efficiency can be obtained. The phenomenological explanation is based on the modal method. The mechanism of excitation of modes by the incident wave, their propagation constants and how they couple into the diffraction orders helps to understand the diffraction process of such gratings and enables a grating design without complicated numerical calculations.

Radially polarized 3 kW beam from a CO2 laser with an intracavity resonant grating mirror.

A 3 kW radially polarized beam is generated from a CO(2) laser by means of a resonant grating mirror. The design results and spectral characterization of a broadband polarizing mirror are presented as well as the mirrors operation in a CO(2) laser resonator. In a long-term experiment a radially polarized beam with a power of 2.7 kW was observed for several hours, proving the high stability of this polarizing scheme.

Sensitivity enhancement in evanescent optical waveguide sensors

It is shown, that the sensitivity of the effective refractive index on the cladding index in evanescent optical waveguide sensors, can be larger than unity. This implies that the attenuation of a guided wave propagating in a waveguide immersed in an absorptive medium can be made larger than that of a free-space wave propagating through the same medium. The conditions and physical explanation for this puzzling behavior are identified and as a practical application, an absorption sensor, based on a suspended silicon slab waveguide, is proposed where the sensitivity is enhanced by a factor of 1.35.

Investigation of the polarization-dependent diffraction of deep dielectric rectangular transmission gratings illuminated in Littrow mounting.

Dielectric transmission gratings with a similar period as the wavelength of the incident light can exhibit strong polarization dependence. By optimizing the groove width of a negative first-order Littrow transmission grating it can be achieved that light is transmitted to the zeroth order for one polarization, regardless of the groove depth, while it is efficiently diffracted for the other polarization. An investigation of this remarkable effect, based on a modal field representation inside the grating, as well as experimental results are presented.

Highly-dispersive dielectric transmission gratings with 100% diffraction efficiency.

A new approach for the realization of highly dispersive dielectric transmission gratings is presented, which enables the suppression of any reflection losses and, thus, 100% diffraction efficiency. By applying a simple two-mode-model a comprehensible explanation as well as a theoretical design of such a reflection-free transmission grating is presented.

High-efficiency, broad band, high-damage threshold high-index gratings for femtosecond pulse compression.

High efficiency, broad-band TE-polarization diffraction over a wavelength range centered at 800 nm is obtained by high index gratings placed on a non-corrugated mirror. More than 96% efficiency wide band top-hat diffraction efficiency spectra, as well as more than 1 J/cm(2) damage threshold under 50 fs pulses are demonstrated experimentally. This opens the way to high-efficiency Chirped Pulse Amplification for high average power laser machining by means of all-dielectric structures as well as for ultra-short high energy pulses by means of metal-dielectric structures.

99% efficiency measured in the -1st order of a resonant grating

A resonant diffraction grating comprising a mirror, a dielectric layer and a high index corrugation at the layer-air interface is shown to exhibit off-Littrow the record diffraction efficiency of 99% in the -1st reflected order at 1064 nm wavelength thanks to the excitation of a leaky mode of the layer. Such high figure is obtained by a grating 5 to 10 times shallower than in current attempts to realize high efficiency all-dielectric gratings.

SINGLE-STEP UV RECORDING OF SINUSOIDAL SURFACE GRATINGS IN HYBRID SOLGEL GLASSES

Efficient surface gratings are UV imprinted in an acrylate-rich hybrid solgel glass. Structural changes occurring in the material upon exposure to light are investigated. Large amplitude modulation (700 nm) and low surface roughness (0.2 nm) were measured by atomic force microscopy. Diffraction efficiencies were found to be close to theoretical predictions. The method of fabrication does not involve any etching step, and an all-UV process is proposed. The gratings are resistant to temperature and to solvent effects. These devices could have useful applications in sensor and spectroscopic devices.