No Arabic abstract
Optical bottle beams can be used to trap atoms and small low-index particles. We introduce a figure of merit for optical bottle beams, specifically in the context of optical traps, and use it to compare optical bottle-beam traps obtained by three different methods. Using this figure of merit and an optimization algorithm, we identified optical bottle-beam traps based on a Gaussian beam illuminating a metasurface that are superior in terms of power efficiency than existing approaches. We numerically demonstrate a silicon metasurface for creating an optical bottle-beam trap.
By analogy to the three dimensional optical bottle beam, we introduce the plasmonic bottle beam: a two dimensional surface wave which features a lattice of plasmonic bottles, i.e. alternating regions of bright focii surrounded by low intensities. The two-dimensional bottle beam is created by the interference of a non-diffracting beam, a cosine-Gaussian beam, and a plane wave, thus giving rise to a non-diffracting complex intensity distribution. By controlling the propagation constant of the cosine-Gauss beam, the size and number of plasmonic bottles can be engineered. The two dimensional lattice of hot spots formed by this new plasmonic wave could have applications in plasmonic trapping.
We predict and experimentally observe three-dimensional microscale nonparaxial optical bottle beams based on the generation of a caustic surface under revolution. Such bottle beams exhibit high contrast between the surrounding surface and the effectively void interior. Via caustic engineering we can precisely control the functional form of the high intensity surface to achieve microscale bottle beams with longitudinal and transverse dimensions of the same order of magnitude. Although, in general, the phase profile at the input plane can be computed numerically, we find closed form expressions for bottle beams with various type of surfaces both in real and in the Fourier space.
Thin film optical elements exhibiting translational invariance, and thus robustness to optical misalignment, are crucial for rapid development of compact and integrated optical devices. In this letter, we experimentally demonstrate a beam-shaping element that generates an annular beam by spatially filtering the fundamental Gaussian mode of a laser beam. The element comprises of a one-dimensional photonic crystal cavity fabricated using sputtered thin films. The planar architecture and in-plane symmetry of the element render our beam-shaping technique translationally invariant. The generated annular beam is sensitive to the polarization direction and the wavelength of the incident laser beam. Using this property of the annular beam, we show simultaneous generation of concentric annular beams of different wavelengths. Our experimental observations show an excellent agreement with simulation results performed using finite-difference time-domain method. Such a beam-shaping element has applications in areas ranging from microscopy and medicine to semiconductor lithography and manufacturing in microelectronics industry.
Nonlinear frequency conversion plays a crucial role in advancing the functionality of next-generation optical systems. Portable metrology references and quantum networks will demand highly efficient second-order nonlinear devices, and the intense nonlinear interactions of nanophotonic waveguides can be leveraged to meet these requirements. Here we demonstrate second harmonic generation (SHG) in GaAs-on-insulator waveguides with unprecedented efficiency of 40 W$^{-1}$ for a single-pass device. This result is achieved by minimizing the propagation loss and optimizing phase-matching. We investigate surface-state absorption and design the waveguide geometry for modal phase-matching with tolerance to fabrication variation. A 2.0 $mu$m pump is converted to a 1.0 $mu$m signal in a length of 2.9 mm with a wide signal bandwidth of 148 GHz. Tunable and efficient operation is demonstrated over a temperature range of 45 $^{circ}$C with a slope of 0.24 nm/$^{circ}$C. Wafer-bonding between GaAs and SiO$_2$ is optimized to minimize waveguide loss, and the devices are fabricated on 76 mm wafers with high uniformity. We expect this device to enable fully integrated self-referenced frequency combs and high-rate entangled photon pair generation.
Optical atomic clocks are poised to redefine the SI second, thanks to stability and accuracy more than one hundred times better than the current microwave atomic clock standard. However, the best optical clocks have not seen their performance transferred to the electronic domain, where radar, navigation, communications, and fundamental research rely on less stable microwave sources. By comparing two independent optical-to-electronic signal generators, we demonstrate a 10 GHz microwave signal with phase that exactly tracks that of the optical clock phase from which it is derived, yielding an absolute fractional frequency instability of 1*10-18 in the electronic domain. Such faithful reproduction of the optical clock phase expands the opportunities for optical clocks both technologically and scientifically for time-dissemination, navigation, and long-baseline interferometric imaging.