The ability to create arbitrary patterned linear, circular, and elliptical liquid crystal polymer polarizers is demonstrated in this work. The operating wavelength of the thin-film polarizer ranges from 400 to 4200 nm. The linear absorption-based micropolarizer is fabricated using dichroic dye as a guest in liquid crystal polymer host with feature sizes as small as 4 µm. The circular interference-based micropolarizer is fabricated using cholesteric liquid crystal polymers with feature sizes as small as 6.2 µm. The elliptical micropolarizer is achieved using the combination of a microretarder and a micropolarizer. The chemistry, fabrication process, spatial resolution and optical properties of micropolarizers are presented. Alignments of liquid crystal polymers and cholesteric liquid crystal polymers are both achieved using photoalignment technique with polarized photo-lithography. Two different methods, thermal annealing and solvent rinse, are utilized for patterning cholesteric liquid crystal polymers over large areas. In addition to exploring absorption-based and interference-based micropolarizers, arrays of micropolarizers are fabricated for the construction of 580nm and 760nm division-of-focal-plane full-Stokes imaging polarimeters. The polarimeter utilizes a set of four optimized measurements which represent a regular tetrahedron inscribed in the Poincaré sphere. Results from the device fabrication, instrument calibration and characterization for the 580 nm polarimeter are presented. The optimized imaging polarimeter can be used for sampling the polarization signature across a scene with a resolution of 1608 x 1208 x 14-bit at 20 frames/second.

Sol-gel materials are an important material class, as they provide for easy modification of material properties, good processability and routine synthesis. This allows for the tailoring of the material properties to the needs of specific device designs. In the case of electro-optic modulators with a coplanar or coplanar strip (CPS) electrode design, sol-gel cladding materials can be used to confine the light to the electro-optic material as well as to concentrate the electrical field used for poling and driving the modulator. Another important material property that can influence the poling efficiency is the conductivity of the material surrounding the electro-optic material, and this property can also be controlled. In this dissertation I discuss several approaches to altering the material properties of sol-gel materials in order to achieve a specific performance objective. The optical loss in the telecom regime as well the refractive index will be discussed. I will introduce a novel titania-based family of sol-gel materials, which exhibit very high refractive indices, tuneability and high dielectric constant (ε). Coplanar electrode design is useful for device platforms that do not allow for a microstrip geometry, such as silicon and Si₃N₄ devices. CPS electrodes however bring new challenges with them, especially optimizing the poling process. I will discuss a method for characterizing coplanar poled polymer films by a modified Teng-Man technique as well as with second harmonic microscope (SHM). SHM allows for an almost real-time mapping of the Pockels coefficient. The described method allows for quantitative measurements of the Pockels coefficient in a poled film with spatial resolution at the micron level. Finally, I will discuss the device design considerations for a silicon-EO hybrid modulator. Optimal dimensions for the silicon waveguide are shown and the feasibility of the proposed electrode design for high speed operation is theoretically shown. All design parameters, including electrode spacing and height are optimized towards the highest possible figure of merit. The functionality of a simple test device is shown. For Si₃N₄ waveguides optimal dimensions are found as well and the influence of a high ε sol-gel side cladding is examined.

A process to design a relay lens is presented. The process is to concatenate a collimator lens and an imaging lens. For this study the imager and collimator are required to have an external or remote stop in collimated space to prevent interference upon concatenation. The relay is created by concatenating the collimator and imager at the external or remote stop. This process allows the use of optimized infinite conjugate imagers to develop a relay lens. A collimator lens can be created by reversing the path of an imager. Magnification is achieved by scaling the focal length of the imager while keeping the focal length of the collimator constant. Computer design software is used to develop examples of relays designed using the process. A discussion of the aberration theory governing the integration of the collimator and imager to create a relay is also presented.

In this thesis, several novel devices for fiber laser are proposed and demonstrated. The first type of device is based on modal interference in non-adiabatic fiber tapers. Using such tapers, we demonstrate a simple technique to tune the wavelength of an all-fiber erbium-doped laser. Next, we systematically investigate the use of non-adiabatic fiber tapers for sensing purposes. As a result of this investigation, we have built and characterized several simple and sensitive sensors for highly accurate measurements of strain, temperature, and refractive index.Another class of devices investigated in this dissertation is based on micro-cavities. We propose and demonstrate, for the first time, the use of high-Q micro-spherical resonators as feedback mirrors for fiber lasers. The advantages of these new "mirrors" include compactness, low cost, tunability of the reflection coefficient, and an extremely narrow reflection bandwidth.We demonstrate single-frequency and Q-switched fiber lasers based on micro-spherical mirrors. The next natural step in the development of fiber-lasers involves the phenomenon of mode-locking. For this purpose, we developed a novel type of saturable absorber based on a fiber-taper embedded in a carbon nanotube/polymer composite material (FTECntPC). Subsequently, mode-locking was successfully demonstrated in an erbium-doped fiber laser using the aforementioned FTECntPC saturable absorber. We have thoroughly investigated the dynamics of passively mode-locked fiber lasers that incorporate the FTECntPC saturable absorber. With this new saturable absorber we have been able to obtain the highest pulse energies that have been generated to date directly from a soliton all-fiber laser. In addition, with the help of the novel saturable absorber, we have been able to build and analyze the first bi-directional passively mode-locked fiber laser.

A novel optical surface testing method termed the grating-slit test is demonstrated to provide quantitative measurements and a large dynamic measurement range. Although it uses a grating and a slit, as in the traditional Ronchi test, the grating-slit test is different in that the grating is used as the object and the slit is located at the observation plane. This is an arrangement that appears not to have been previously discussed in the optical testing literature. The grating-slit test produces fringes in accordance with the transverse ray aberrations of an aberrated wavefront. By using a spatial light modulator as the incoherent sinusoidal intensity grating it is possible to modulate the grating and produce phase shifting to make a quantitative measurement. The method becomes feasible given the superior intensity grayscale ability and highly incoherent illumination of the spatial light modulator used. Since the grating is used as the object, there are no significant diffraction effects that usually limit the Ronchi test. A geometrical and a detailed physical analysis of the grating-slit test are presented that agree in the appropriate limit. In order to convert the measured transverse ray aberrations to the surface figure error, a surface slope sensitivity method is developed. This method uses a perturbation algorithm to reconstruct the surface figure error from the measured transverse ray aberration function by exact ray tracing. The algorithm takes into account the pupil distortion and maps the transverse ray aberration from the coordinate system of the observation plane to the coordinate system of the surface under test. A numerical simulation proves the validity of the algorithm. To demonstrate the dynamic range of the grating-slit testing method, two optical surfaces are measured. The first surface is a polished spherical mirror with 0.6 waves of aberration as measured with an interferometer. Using the concept of transverse ray aberration separation, the first surface is measured without a strict alignment requirement. The second surface is a concave ground optical surface with 275 waves of astigmatism. The measurements from the grating-slit test yield useable surface figure information that is in agreement with the results from other testing methods.

The recent demonstration of a novel snapshot imaging polarimeter using the fringe modulation technique shows a promise in building a compact and moving-parts-free device. As just demonstrated in principle, this technique has not been adequately studied. In the effort of advancing this technique, we build a complete theory framework that can address the key issues regarding the polarization aberrations caused by using the functional elements. With this model, we can have the necessary knowledge in designing, analyzing and optimizing the systems. Also, we propose a broader technique that uses arbitrary modulation instead of sinusoidal fringes, which can give us more engineering freedom and can be the solution of achromatizing the system. In the hardware aspect, several important progresses are made. We extend the polarimeter technique from visible to middle wavelength infrared by using the yttrium vanadate crystals. Also, we incorporate a Savart Plate polarimter into a fundus camera to measure the human eye's retinal retardance, useful information for glaucoma diagnosis. Thirdly, a world-smallest imaging polarimeter is proposed and demonstrated, which may open many applications in security, remote sensing and bioscience.

The overall purpose of the dissertation is to design and develop novel optical imaging systems that require minimal or no mechanical scanning to reduce the acquisition time for extracting image data from biological tissue samples. Two imaging modalities have been focused upon: a parallel optical coherence tomography (POCT) system and a volume holographic imaging system (VHIS). Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a coherent imaging technique, which shows great promise in biomedical applications. A POCT system is a novel technology that replaces mechanically transverse scanning in the lateral direction with electronic scanning. This will reduce the time required to acquire image data. In this system an array with multiple reduced diameter (15μm) single mode fibers (SMFs) is required to obtain an image in the transverse direction. Each fiber in the array is configured in an interferometer and is used to image one pixel in the transverse direction. A VHIS is based on volume holographic gratings acting as Bragg filters in conjunction with conventional optical imaging components to form a spatial-spectral imaging system. The high angular selectivity of the VHIS can be used to obtain two-dimensional image information from objects without the need for mechanical scanning. In addition, the high wavelength selectivity of the VHIS can provide spectral information of a specific area of the object that is being observed. Multiple sections of the object are projected using multiplexed holographic gratings in the same volume of the Phenanthrenquinone- (PQ-) doped Poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) recording material.

The degree of sophistication and customization available in optical components has been driven by advances in lens design and fabrication. The optical testing of these components remains a challenge. In particular, the precision measurement of the properties of transmissive optics such as transmitted wavefront, surface figure, and index of refraction continues to require new methodology tools.A method of surface figure measurement is described based on the transmitted wavefront of an optical element obtained from a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Given known values for the refractive index and center thickness, along with the sample's transmitted wavefront, the unknown surface profile is reconstructed in a deterministic way. The technique relies on knowledge of one of the surfaces of the element, such as an easy to measure plano or spherical surface, and is well-suited for testing aspheric surfaces. Additionally, this method has the advantage of making measurements on multiplexed surfaces, such as a lenslet array.Since the index of refraction of materials varies with wavelength, the test sample undergoes chromatic effects with wavelength. Chromatic aberration is an important concern whenever optics are designed for use in the visible spectrum. A method has been presented for obtaining the longitudinal chromatic aberration of a test part from the transmitted wavefronts at 5 different wavelengths. The longitudinal chromatic aberration measurements on a plano-convex lens and an achromat are presented.Injection molding is becoming a popular manufacturing method for optical plastic elements because of low cost and mass production. During injection molding, the plastic lenses undergo large pressure and temperature changes so that the resulting lens has a spatially-varying index. Since the index is assumed to be a single number in the design stage, except for index-gradient lenses, an inhomogeneous index of the sample can cause a decrease in optical performance. The surface reconstruction algorithm can be modified to find two dimensional index values over the test aperture. In this case, both surfaces are measured by an external interferometer and one unknown parameter is the index value.

Several contemporary research topics on the subject of light-matter coupling are addressed. Through a variety of experimental methods, the emissive and carrier correlation properties of both quantum dots (QD) and quantum wells (QW) are explored.The radiative decay properties of self-assembled indium arsenide (InAs) quantum dots grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) are discussed. The measurement of radiative lifetime is used to determine dipole moment. In addition, evidence is presented of radiative lifetime reduction for quasi-resonant and strictly resonant time-resolved measurements. This lessening is attributed to carrier correlations which exist during resonant excitation but that are not present during above-band pumping. The data do not support the assertion that the shorter radiative lifetime is caused by a superradiant effect.MBE-grown Fibonacci sequence QWs exhibiting novel polaritonic properties are also introduced. These quasiperiodic structures stand apart from periodic structures in that they possess nonperiodic long-range order. Subsequent investigation of nonlinear reflectivity in the quasiperiodic structure showed excellent agreement with theoretical predictions. Of particular interest is the narrow deep dip close to the heavy hole resonance as well as the valley between the heavy hole and light hole resonance positions.

This dissertation investigates design, modeling and testing methods of optical surfaces in illumination optics.The main focus of this dissertation is to investigate the faceted non-imaging specular light reflector that is often used to generate a uniform, incoherent illuminance distribution. General design methodologies of faceted light reflectors are overviewed. Several design examples of faceted light reflectors including a novel LED flashlight, a novel microscope illuminator and a 20-m segmented paraboloidal solar collector are discussed and analyzed.An accurate source model is important for illumination system design. In this dissertation, an analytic short-arc source modeling method is developed and integrated in the illumination design software ZEMAX.In addition to the design and modeling work, this dissertation explores a flexible, low-cost and robust Software Configurable Optical Test System (SCOTS) for testing specular free-form surfaces that are often used in illumination systems. The application of this testing system in measuring a 3-m segmented paraboloidal solar reflector is investigated. Preliminary SCOTS test results for an F/0.2 concave automotive headlight reflector are introduced. In addition to testing the surfaces of illumination optics using SCOTS, the applications of SCOTS in the measurement of large, high precision optics are also explored and briefly discussed.