No Arabic abstract
We propose a method for ultra-sensitive displacement and phase metrology based on the interferometric evanescent wave excitation of nano-antennas. We show that with a proper choice of nano-antenna, tiny displacements or relative phase variations can be converted into sensitive scattering direction changes in the Fourier $k$-space. These changes stem from the strong position dependence of the imaginary Poynting vector orientation within interfering evanescent waves. Using strongly-evanescent standing waves, high sensitivity is achieved in the nano-antennas zero scattering direction, which varies linearly with displacement over a long range. With weakly-evanescent wave interference, even higher sensitivity to tiny displacement or phase changes can be reached around chosen location. The high sensitivity of the proposed method can form the basis for many applications.
We report a very high precision interferometric sensor with resolution up to ~{lambda}/1024, exploiting hollow photonic bandgap waveguide-based geometry for the first time. Here sensing has been measured by a complete switching in the direction of the outgoing beam, owing to transverse momentum oscillation phenomena. Using a 1.32 {mu}m source and core-width of 7.25 {mu}m, a complete switching cycle is obtained even due to a small change of ~1 nm in the core-width. Using hollow-core photonic bandgap waveguide, Talbot effect, revivals of the initial phase, oscillation in the transverse momentum along with multi-mode interference served as the backbone of the design. The ultra-sensitive multi-mode interferometric sensor based on photonic crystals will certainly open up a paradigm shift in interferometer-based sensing technologies toward device-level applications in photonic sensing/switching and related precision measurement systems.
While polarisation sensing is vital in many areas of research, with applications spanning from microscopy to aerospace, traditional approaches are limited by method-related error amplification or accumulation, placing fundamental limitations on precision and accuracy in single-shot polarimetry. Here, we put forward a new measurement paradigm to circumvent this, introducing the notion of a universal full Poincare generator to map all polarisation analyser states into a single vectorially structured light field, allowing all vector components to be analysed in a single-shot with theoretically user-defined precision. To demonstrate the advantage of our approach, we use a common GRIN optic as our mapping device and show mean errors of <1% for each vector component, enhancing the sensitivity by around three times, allowing us to sense weak polarisation aberrations not measurable by traditional single-shot techniques. Our work paves the way for next-generation polarimetry, impacting a wide variety of applications relying on weak vector measurement.
We present the experimental test of a method for controlling the absolute length of the diagonals of square ring laser gyroscopes. The purpose is to actively stabilize the ring cavity geometry and to enhance the rotation sensor stability in order to reach the requirements for the detection of the relativistic Lense-Thirring effect with a ground-based array of optical gyroscopes. The test apparatus consists of two optical cavities 1.32 m in length, reproducing the features of the ring cavity diagonal resonators of large frame He-Ne ring laser gyroscopes. The proposed measurement technique is based on the use of a single diode laser, injection locked to a frequency stabilized He-Ne/Iodine frequency standard, and a single electro-optic modulator. The laser is modulated with a combination of three frequencies allowing to lock the two cavities to the same resonance frequency and, at the same time, to determine the cavity Free Spectral Range (FSR). We obtain a stable lock of the two cavities to the same optical frequency reference, providing a length stabilization at the level of 1 part in $10^{11}$, and the determination of the two FSRs with a relative precision of 0.2 ppm. This is equivalent to an error of 500 nm on the absolute length difference between the two cavities.
The scattering of electromagnetic wave by a periodic array of nanowires is calculated by the boundary element method. The method is extended to the infinite grating near the interface between two dielectrics. A special Green function is derived that allows to study the evanescent wave. The Rayleigh--- Woods anomalies are found in the period-to-wavelength dependence of the average Pointing vector in the wave zone. For thin wires the calculations are shown to agree with the two-dimensional coupled dipole approximation.
We study terahertz transmission through nano-patterned vanadium dioxide thin film. It is found that the patterning allows the lowering of the apparent transition temperature. For the case of the smallest width nano antennas, the transition temperature is lower by as many as ten degrees relative to the bare film, so that the nano patterned hysteresis curves completely separate themselves from their bare film counterparts. This early transition comes from the one order of magnitude enhanced effective dielectric constants by nano antennas. This phenomenon opens up the possibility of transition temperature engineering.