William M. Robertson

Experimental measurement of the effect of termination on surface electromagnetic waves in one-dimensional photonic bandgap arrays

Two different attenuated total-internal reflection prism configurations are used to explore the excitation of surface electromagnetic waves on one-dimensional (1-D) photonic bandgap (PBG) arrays. The effect of surface termination of the photonic crystal is shown to have a significant effect on the dispersion of the surface modes excited at that interface. The results show that it is possible to engineer the position of the surface mode within the forbidden bandgap. Modes that are located close to the center of the bandgap are shown to be more localized, leading to significantly higher surface electromagnetic fields than modes located near the band edge. The existence of surface modes can have an effect on many of the proposed applications for PBG materials. The modes are also of interest in their own right for use in applications such as sensors and modulators.

An optical backplane demonstrator system based on FET-SEED smart pixel arrays and diffractive lenslet arrays

We have demonstrated a representative portion of an optical backplane using FET-SEED smart pixels and free-space optics to interconnect printed circuit boards (PCBs) in a two board, unidirectional link configuration. 4/spl times/4 arrays of FET-SEED transceivers were designed, fabricated, and packaged all the PCB level, The optical interconnection was constructed using diffractive microoptics, and custom optomechanics. The system was operated in two modes, one showing high data throughput, 100 MBit/sec, and the other demonstrating large connection densities, 2222 channel/cm/sup 2/.<<ETX>>

4x4 Vertical-Cavity-Surface- Emitting Laser (VCSEL) and Metal-Semiconductor-Metal (MSM) Optical Backplane Demonstrator System

We describe a system demonstrator based on vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers, metal-semiconductor-metal detectors, printed circuit board (PCB) level optoelectronic device packaging, a compact bulk optical relay, and novel barrel/PCB optomechanics. The entire system was constructed in a standard VME electrical backplane chassis and was capable of operating at >1.7 Gbit/s of aggregate data capacity. In addition to the component technologies developed, we describe operational testing and characterization of the demonstrator.

Compact acoustic bandgap material based on a subwavelength collection of detuned Helmholtz resonators

This study explores the amplitude and phase transmission of audio-frequency sound through a waveguide side-loaded with a series of closely spaced and sequentially tuned Helmholtz resonators. This system exhibits a series of acoustic bandgaps due to the Helmholtz resonance and standing-wave cavity modes. The bandgaps are achieved in a physically compact manner in that the resonators are spaced by much less than a wavelength. The response of the Helmholtz resonator-loaded waveguide is described by a simple adaptation of an existing theory. Finally, within the forbidden transmission regions the system exhibits narrow bands of negative group delay.

Design and Characterization of a Microchannel Optical Interconnect for Optical Backplanes

The design, modeling, and experimental characterization of a microchannel-based free-space optical interconnect is described. The microchannel interconnect was used to implement a representative portion of an optical backplane that was based on field-effect transistor, self-electro-optic device smart-pixel transceivers. Telecentric relays were used to form the optical interconnect, and two modes based on two different optical window clusterings were implemented. The optical system design, including the optical geometry for different degrees of clustering of windows supported by a lenslet relay and the image mapping associated with a free-space optical system, is described. A comparison of the optical beam properties at the device planes, including the spot size and power uniformity of the spot array, as well as the effects of clipping and misalignment for the different operating modes, is presented. In addition, the effects of beam clipping and misalignment for the different operating modes is presented. We show that microchannel free-space optical interconnects based on a window-clustering scheme significantly increase the connection density. A connection density of 2222 connections/cm(2) was achieved for this prototype system with 2 x 2 window clustering.

Design, implementation, and characterization of an optical power supply spot-array generator for a four-stage free-space optical backplane.

The design and implementation of a robust, scalable, and modular optical power supply spot-array generator for a modulator-based free-space optical backplane demonstrator is presented. Four arrays of 8 x 4 spots with 6.47-mum radii (at 1/e(2) points) pitched at 125 mum in the vertical direction and 250 mum in the horizontal were required to provide the light for the optical interconnect. Tight system tolerances demanded careful optical design, robust optomechanics, and effective alignment techniques. Issues such as spot-array generation, polarization, power efficiency, and power uniformity are discussed. Characterization results are presented.

Excitation of Bloch-like surface waves in quasi-crystals and aperiodic dielectric multilayers

The existence of Bloch surface waves in periodic dielectric multilayer structures with a surface defect is well known. Not yet recognized is that quasi-crystals and aperiodic dielectric multilayers can also support Bloch-like surface waves. In this work, we numerically show the excitation of Bloch-like surface waves in Fibonacci quasi-crystals and Thue-Morse aperiodic dielectric multilayers using the prism coupling method. We report improved surface electric field intensity and penetration depth of Bloch-like surface waves in the air side in such structures compared to their periodic counterparts.

Extraordinary acoustic transmission mediated by Helmholtz resonators

We demonstrate perfect transmission of sound through a rigid barrier embedded with Helmholtz resonators. The resonators are confined within a waveguide and they are oriented such that one neck protrudes onto each side of the barrier. Perfect sound transmission occurs even though the open area of the necks is less than 3% of the barrier area. Maximum transmission occurs at the resonant frequency of the Helmholtz resonator. Because the dimensions of the Helmholtz resonators are much smaller than the resonant wavelength, the transmission is independent of the direction of sound on the barrier and of the relative placement of the necks. Further, we show that the transmitted sound experiences a continuous phase transition of π radians as a function of frequency through resonance. In simulations of adjacent resonators with slightly offset resonance frequencies, the phase difference leads to destructive interference. By expanding the simulation to a linear array of tuned Helmholtz resonators we show that it is possible to create an acoustic lens. The ability of Helmholtz resonator arrays to manipulate the phase of a plane acoustic wave enables a new class of sonic beam-forming devices analogous to diffractive optics.

Experimental realization of extraordinary acoustic transmission using Helmholtz resonators

The phenomenon of extraordinary acoustic transmission through a solid barrier with an embedded Helmholtz resonator (HR) is demonstrated. The Helmholtz resonator consists of an embedded cavity and two necks that protrude, one on each side of the barrier. Extraordinary transmission occurs for a narrow spectral range encompassing the resonant frequency of the Helmholtz resonator. We show that an amplitude transmission of 97.5% is achieved through a resonator whose neck creates an open area of 6.25% of the total barrier area. In addition to the enhanced transmission, we show that there is a smooth, continuous phase transition in the transmitted sound as a function of frequency. The frequency dependent phase transition is used to experimentally realize slow wave propagation for a narrow-band Gaussian wave packet centered at the maximum transmission frequency. The use of parallel pairs of Helmholtz resonators tuned to different resonant frequencies is experimentally explored as a means of increasing the transmission bandwidth. These experiments show that because of the phase transition, there is always a frequency between the two Helmholtz resonant frequencies at which destructive interference occurs whether the resonances are close or far apart. Finally, we explain how the phase transition associated with Helmholtz-resonator-mediated extraordinary acoustic transmission can be exploited to produce diffractive acoustic components including sub-wavelength thickness acoustic lenses.

Slow light by Bloch surface wave tunneling

We demonstrate a slow light configuration that makes use of Bloch Surface Waves as an intermediate excitation in a double-prism tunneling configuration. This method is simple compared to the more usual technique for slowing light using the phenomenon of electromagnetically induced transparency in atomic gases or doped ionic crystals operated at temperatures below 4 K. Using a semi-numerical approach, we show that a 1D photonic crystal, a multilayer structure composed of alternating layers of TiO(2) and SiO(2), can be used to slow down light by a factor of up to 400. The results also show that better control of the speed of light can be achieved by changing the number of bilayers and the air-gap thickness appropriately.