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At least 55 records · Page 3

Beam optics tuning with 6dsim framework

Poster will detail different method for tuning a PID controller. The purpose of this is to control the temperature of a metal block inside a vacuum chamber. This will by useful for experiments that involves Skipper CCDs, such as SENSEI or Obscura.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Optical Device for Converting a Laser Beam into Two Co-aligned but Oppositely Directed Beams

Optical systems consisting of a series of optical elements require alignment from the input end to the output end. The optical elements can be mirrors, lenses, sources, detectors, or other devices. Complex optical systems are often difficult to align from end-to-end because the alignment beam must be inserted at one end in order for the beam to traverse the entire optical path to the other end. The ends of the optical train may not be easily accessible to the alignment beam. Typically, when a series of optical elements is to be aligned, an alignment laser beam is inserted into the optical path with a pick-off mirror at one end of the series of elements. But it may be impossible to insert the beam at an end-point. It can be difficult to locate the pick-off mirror at the desired position because there is not enough space, there is no mounting surface, or the location is occupied by a source, detector, or other component. Alternatively, the laser beam might be inserted at an intermediate location (not at an end-point) and sent, first in one direction and then the other, to the opposite ends of the optical system for alignment. However, in this case, alignment must be performed in two directions and extra effort is required to co-align the two beams to make them parallel and coincident, i.e., to follow the same path as an end-to-end beam. An optical device has been developed that accepts a laser beam as input and produces two co-aligned, but counter-propagating beams. In contrast to a conventional alignment laser placed at one end of the optical path, this invention can be placed at a convenient position within the optical train and aligned to send its two beams simultaneously along precisely opposite paths that, taken together, trace out exactly the same path as the conventional alignment laser. This invention allows the user the freedom to choose locations within the optical train for placement of the alignment beam. It is also self-aligned by design and requires almost no adjustment.

Jennings, Donald↗

Phase-wrapping method for beam steering in optical phased arrays

A method and apparatus are provided for controlling the phase shifts produced in a binary corporate tree network of the kind, e.g., that can drive a phased array for steering an optical beam. The method employs a novel phase-wrapping technique in which an entire layer of the binary tree is disabled when the phase added in that layer reaches 2π. With that technique, it is possible to economize on electrical control lines and on the use of electric power, while still maintaining the ability to produce arbitrary phases at the output of the tree network.

Gehl, Michael↗

Diffractive Combiner of Single-Mode Pump Laser-Diode Beams

An optical beam combiner now under development would make it possible to use the outputs of multiple single-mode laser diodes to pump a neodymium: yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:YAG) nonplanar ring oscillator (NPRO) laser while ensuring that the laser operates at only a single desired frequency. Heretofore, an Nd:YAG NPRO like the present one has been pumped by a single multimode laser-diode beam delivered via an optical fiber. It would be desirable to use multiple pump laser diodes to increase reliability beyond that obtainable from a single pump laser diode. However, as explained below, simplistically coupling multiple multimode laser-diode beams through a fiber-optic combiner would entail a significant reduction in coupling efficiency, and lasing would occur at one or more other frequencies in addition to the single desired frequency. Figure 1 schematically illustrates the principle of operation of a laser-diode-pumped Nd:YAG NPRO. The laser beam path is confined in a Nd:YAG crystal by means of total internal reflections on the three back facets and a partial-reflection coating on the front facet. The wavelength of the pump beam - 808 nm - is the wavelength most strongly absorbed by the Nd:YAG crystal. The crystal can lase at a wavelength of either 1,064 nm or 1,319 nm - which one depending on the optical coating on the front facet. A thermal lens effect induced by the pump beam enables stable lasing in the lowest-order transverse electromagnetic mode (the TEM00 mode). The frequency of this laser is very stable because of the mechanical stability of the laser crystal and the unidirectional nature of the lasing. The unidirectionality is a result of the combined effects of (1) a Faraday rotation induced by an externally applied magnetic field and (2) polarization associated with non-normal incidence and reflection on the front facet.

Liu, Duncan↗

Optical Beam-Shear Sensors

A technique for measuring optical beam shear is based on collecting light from the four quadrants of the beam and comparing the optical power collected from each quadrant with that from the other three quadrants. As used here, "shear" signifies lateral displacement of a beam of light from a nominal optical axis. A sensor for implementing this technique consists of a modified focusing lens and a quad-cell photodetector, both centered on the nominal optical axis. The modification of the lens consists in cutting the lens into four sectors (corresponding to the four quadrants) by sawing along two orthogonal diameters, then reassembling the lens following either of two approaches described next. In one approach, the lens is reassembled by gluing the sectors back together. In the simplest variant of this approach, the kerf of the saw matches the spacing of the photodetector cells, so that the focus of each sector crosses the axis of symmetry to fall on the opposite photodetector cell (see figure). In another variant of this approach, the lens sectors are spaced apart to make their individual foci to fall on separate photodetector cells, without crossing the optical axis. In the case of a sufficiently wide beam, the modified lens could be replaced with four independent lenses placed in a square array, each focusing onto an independent photodetector

Martin, Stefan↗

2D Exotic Optical Lattice via a Digital‐Coding Circular Airy Beam

Optical lattices have been widely used from classical to quantum physics. The tunable and scalable fabrication of lattices would be of great significance in lattice‐based multipartite applications. This work demonstrates first that a circular Airy beam (CAB), which has the peculiar properties of self‐healing and abrupt autofocusing, can be used to generate two‐dimensional (2D) optical lattices in propagation when encoded by a programmable spatial mask, resulting in the formation of large‐scale and tunable optical lattices with both axis and axial symmetry, and even high‐orbital kaleidoscope shapes. The efficient diffraction of CAB during the spatial crosstalk with the mask enables the realization of tunable lattices with rich periodicity and complexity. The study shows a flexible method to manipulate lattices with large‐scale and versatile structures for potential applications in integrated and scalable optical and photonic devices.

Sun, Peisheng↗

Crossed beam roof target for motion tracking

A system for detecting motion between a first body and a second body includes first and second detector-emitter pairs, disposed on the first body, and configured to transmit and receive first and second optical beams, respectively. At least a first optical rotator is disposed on the second body and configured to receive and reflect at least one of the first and second optical beams. First and second detectors of the detector-emitter pairs are configured to detect the first and second optical beams, respectively. Each of the first and second detectors is configured to detect motion between the first and second bodies in multiple degrees of freedom (DOFs). The first optical rotator includes a V-notch oriented to form an apex of an isosceles triangle with respect to a base of the isosceles triangle formed by the first and second detector-emitter pairs. The V-notch is configured to receive the first optical beam and reflect the first optical beam to both the first and second detectors. The V-notch is also configured to receive the second optical beam and reflect the second optical beam to both the first and second detectors.

Olczak, Eugene↗

Truncated non-linear interferometer-based sensor system

A truncated non-linear interferometer-based sensor system includes an input that receives an optical beam and a non-linear amplifier that generates a probe beam and a conjugate beam from the optical beam. The system's local oscillators are related to the probe beam and the conjugate beam. The system includes a sensor that transduces an input with the probe beam and the conjugate beam. The transduction detects changes in the phase of each of the probe beam and the conjugate beam. The system's phase sensitive detectors detect phase modulations between the respective local oscillators, the probe beam, and the conjugate beam and outputs phase signals based on detected phase modulations. The system measures phase signals indicative of the sensor's input resulting from a sum or difference of the phase signals. The measurement exhibits a quantum noise reduction in an intensity difference, a phase sum, or an amplitude difference quadrature.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Dual wavelength negative imaging DLP-SLA system and method

The present disclosure relates to a method for forming a three dimensional (3D) component from a photopolymer resin. The method may involve generating a first optical beam at a first wavelength, with the first optical beam causing polymerization of a photopolymerizable resist. A second optical beam is generated at a second wavelength, different from the first wavelength, which inhibits polymerization of the photopolymerizable resist. A device is used to receive the first and second optical beams and to generate therefrom corresponding separate first and second light patterns, respectively, where the first light pattern forms a first image on the photopolymerizable resist to cause polymerization of a first portion of the photopolymerizable resist, while the second light pattern forms a second image on the photopolymerizable resist and inhibits polymerization of a second portion of the photopolymerizable resist.

Moran, Bryan D.↗

Optical fiber system employing topological guidance of light

An optical fiber system exploits a principle of topological confinement for guided higher-order modes, in contrast to more conventional total-internal-reflection (TIR) confinement. The optical fiber has a geometry and index profile defining a cutoff wavelength for a predetermined L-mode of optical signal propagation in the optical fiber, where L is azimuthal mode index. An optical source subsystem is coupled to the optical fiber to establish an optical signal propagating in the optical fiber, wherein the optical signal has the predetermined L-mode and a wavelength being either (1) at least 15% above the cutoff wavelength such that the optical beam propagates as a topologically confined mode, or (2) sufficiently above the cutoff wavelength that, based on the L-mode of the optical beam, the optical beam propagates as a topologically confined mode having propagation loss less than 3 dB/meter.

Ramachandran, Siddharth↗

Ultrafast photonic micro-systems

A microelectromechanical device for diffracting optical beams comprises a diffractive element suspended over a channel. The diffractive element is configured to receive an optical beam and diffract and/or transmit the optical beam based on an orientation of the diffractive element. At least one torsional actuator is operatively connected to the diffractive element. The at least one torsional actuator is configured to selectively adjust the orientation of the diffractive element. The diffractive element has a diffractive element resonant frequency that is nearly the same as a resonant frequency of the optical beam.

Wang, Jin↗

Dew point meter, components thereof, and methods of use thereof

In one aspect, the present disclosure is directed to a sample cell for a dew point meter, the sample cell comprising: a flow channel configured to receive a gas sample, the flow channel comprising: a non-mirror window surface, wherein the flow channel is configured to allow a first optical beam originating from an optical source to impinge on the non-mirror window surface and output a second optical beam from the non-mirror window surface towards an optical detector.

Cheng, Mao↗

Analysis of bunching of an electron beam at optical wavelengths

This paper presents an analysis of the bunching of an electron beam at optical wavelengths by means of the inverse Cerenkov effect. A laser light beam is used to modulate the velocity of the electrons, and this velocity modulation becomes charge-density modulation after an appropriate drift distance. The effects of energy and angular spread of the electrons are included, as well as the impact of scatterings in the index-matching medium. Bunching can occur with reasonable parameter values and the drift distance is of the order of several centimeters.

Chen, C. K.↗

Field tests of the optical cross beam system

Recent detailed evaluation of the use of an optical cross-beam system to measure convective wind velocities are reported. Low level measurements, where the optical system is looking at either the earth surface or cloud banks, are demonstrated. Further information on the nature and scale of the light fluctuations is reviewed.

Sandborn, V. A.↗