Bulletin of the American Physical Society
Annual Meeting of the APS Four Corners Section
Volume 62, Number 17
Friday–Saturday, October 20–21, 2017; Fort Collins, CO
Session E2: Optical Physics |
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Chair: Chris Oates, NIST Boulder Room: Lory Student Center 382 |
Friday, October 20, 2017 1:20PM - 1:44PM |
E2.00001: The Advanced LIGO Detectors and the Detection of Gravitational Waves Invited Speaker: Eric Gustafson On February 11, 2016 LIGO announced to the world the first direct detection of gravitational waves which were made by their two observatories at Hanford, Washington and Livingston, Louisiana. These gravitational waves were generated by the inspiral and coalescence of a pair of stellar mass black holes. Since the first detection three more black hole binary mergers have been reported: two by the LIGO detectors alone and one by the LIGO detectors and the VIRGO detector which had recently come on line. In this talk the speaker will discuss the experimental challenges which had to be faced to reach the sensitivity required for detections to be made, with the focus of the talk on several of the Advanced LIGO optical and laser subsystems. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 20, 2017 1:44PM - 1:56PM |
E2.00002: Laser induced damage characteristics of optical thin film with ion assisted planarization and annealing Hanchen Wang, Travis Day, Elizbieta Jankowska, Breandan Reagan, Jorge Rocca, Christopher Stolz, Paul Mirkarimi, James Folta, John Roehling, Carmen Menoni Ion beam sputtering growth of amorphous oxides coupled with processing using Ar ion assist is termed \textit{planarization}. This process was introduced by our team reducing defect cross-section on pre-patterned substrates by up to 90{\%} and increasing laser damage performance by 10x The effects of SiO$_{\mathrm{2}}$ planarization processing on the laser damage resistance of single, bilayers, and multilayer coatings of HfO$_{\mathrm{2}}$ and SiO$_{\mathrm{2}}$ is investigated at pulse durations of 9ps and 220ps. Planarized samples experience a large increase in absorption loss at 1\textmu m wavelength, which is reduced after in-air annealing suggesting presence of oxygen point defects. It is shown the laser damage threshold reduces with planarized SiO$_{\mathrm{2}}$ layers directly implemented compared to control samples at both pulse durations. In-air annealing instead shows a recovery of the laser damage threshold. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 20, 2017 1:56PM - 2:08PM |
E2.00003: Surface Plasmon Polariton Beams with Flat Top Profiles Lauren Zundel, Rosario Martinez-Herrero, Alejandro Manjavacas Flat top beams, which are characterized by their uniform intensity and square profile shape, are well known in the context of paraxial optical beams, but remain unexplored in the field of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). SPPs, which have emerged as ideal platforms for the manipulation of light below the diffraction limit, are collective oscillations of the conduction electrons in a metallic material, coupled to electromagnetic waves. These excitations are able to propagate for hundreds of wavelengths while confined to a small volume around the interface between the metal and its surrounding dielectric environment. Here, we introduce and characterize, for the first time, SPP beams with flat top profiles. This is accomplished by using a set of SPP Hermite Gauss modes forming a complete basis for the solutions of Maxwell’s equations for a metal-dielectric interface in the paraxial approximation. We provide a comprehensive analysis of the evolution of the shape and intensity of these flat top beams over propagation distances of hundreds of wavelengths. The introduction of flat top beams brings a new element to the SPP toolbox that can enable unique coupling and excitation scenarios not possible with conventional SPP profiles. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 20, 2017 2:08PM - 2:20PM |
E2.00004: Observing the Birth and Splitting of Optical Vortices Through Phase-Stepping Interferometry William G. Holtzmann, Fabio DaSilva, Mark E. Siemens ``Twisted" light beams contain photons with Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM), given as $\ell\hbar$ per photon by Allen et al. where $\ell$ is an integer, and are characterized by a helical wavefront. When all of the photons carry the same value of OAM, the beam will have an optical vortex in its center which has a topological charge equal to $\ell$. However, when a light beam carries a superposition of OAM values, there will generally be multiple optical vortices with varying topological charges. We use a near-field imaging system capable of imaging a light beam on the surface of a forked diffraction grating, which imparts OAM onto the first order diffracted beam, to observe the birth and movement of these optical vortices. Additionally, we use a phase-stepping interferometry technique to fully measure the phase of the light beam immediately after passing through the forked grating. In this technique, the transmitted beam through the grating is phase controlled by adjusting its path length through a piece of glass before interfering it with the first order diffracted beam. This is done for at least four different phase steps, and then we use the acquired images to calculate the phase of the light beam, allowing for a full characterization of the beam in the near-field. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 20, 2017 2:20PM - 2:32PM |
E2.00005: Optical Measurement of SiN Ring Resonators Amy Soudachanh, Alejandro Grine, Michael Wood, Darwin Serkland, Christopher Hains Optical gyroscopes are rotation rate sensors utilized for location tracking and motion detection in consumer and military applications. Current technology uses the MEMs gyro in products such as the smart phone while the fiber optic gyro (FOG) is needed in more sensitive applications (e.g. satellites). The MEMS gyro provides a resolution of 10-100$^{\circ}$/hr in exchange for its low cost, size, weight, and power (CSWaP). In contrast, the FOG resolves 1-10$^{\circ}$/hr at the price of larger CSWaP. Our work aims to design an optomechanical oscillator gyro that has the potential to offer comparable resolution to the FOG while having SWaP similar to the MEMs gyro. In this study, a free space optical measurement setup is built to test inverse quadratic tapered SiN waveguides coupled to SiN ring resonators of various radii. This setup includes two distinct microscopes to offer a top-down view and image of the input facet for rapid coupling and discernment of facet quality. Attached to the setup is an output imaging system to confirm coupling has occurred. So far, coupling efficiency of 4\% in a 1.5x0.5 $\mu$m waveguide mode at 1550 nm has been achieved. Future work includes increasing coupling efficiency and testing the optical quality of the ring resonators. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 20, 2017 2:32PM - 2:44PM |
E2.00006: Broadband Mirrors for Visible, Infrared, and Ultraviolet Light Margaret Miles, David D. Allred, R. Steven Turley One of the proposals for the next generation of NASA space telescopes is the LUVOIR mission. The proposed observatory envisions a large aperture telescope with high reflectance from the visible into the extreme ultraviolet. We will report on work to extend the range of this telescope further into the ultraviolet to enhance its capabilities. Most of the range for the telescope can be achieved with a thin aluminum coating which will have high reflectance in the infrared, visible, and near-UV parts of the spectrum. Unfortunately, the aluminum readily oxidizes when exposed to air effectively limiting reflectance for photons with energies less than about 9~eV. We will discuss studies of the oxidation rate of aluminum under various vacuum conditions and proposals on limiting the oxidation to extend the range to 14~eV. In order to study the development of oxidation, the mirror needs to be fabricated and the reflectance measured in the same vacuum system. We will also discuss a scheme to extend the mirror to be reflective for even higher energy photons up to 30~eV by undercoating the aluminum layer with a multilayer mirror. [Preview Abstract] |
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