Spacecraft thermal control is entirely reliant upon radiative heat transfer for temperature regulation. Current methods are often static in nature and do not provide dynamic control of radiative heat transfer. As a result, modern spacecraft thermal control systems are typically 'cold-biased' with radiators that are larger than necessary for many operating conditions. Deploying a variable radiator as a thermal control technique in which the projected surface area can be adjusted to provide the appropriate heat loss for a given condition can reduce unnecessary heat rejection and reduce power requirements. However, the radiative behavior of the apparent surface representing the expanding/collapsing radiator changes in addition to the projected surface area size. This work experimentally quantifies the spectral, directional emissivity of an apparent surface comprised of a series of V-grooves (e.g. corrugated surface), as a function of angle and highlights its emission characteristics that trend toward black behavior. The experimental setup for quantifying this apparent radiative surface behavior is described and utilized to show the influence of surface geometry, direction and wavelength. The experimental design is validated and demonstrated using fully oxidized, nearly diffuse, copper, corrugated test samples. The results presented in this work demonstrate, for the corrugated oxidized copper surfaces tested, that (1) higher emissivity values correspond to higher wavelengths in the spectral range of 2.5 to 15.4 μm (2) apparent emissivity values increase with decreasing V-groove angle resulting in less spectral variation in emissivity and greater blackbody like behavior, (3) azimuth dependence can be relatively small despite the obvious pattern associated with a corrugated surface, (4) as the V-groove angle decreases, higher emissivity values are associated with θ→0° and ϕ→90°. Results provide a foundation for future radiator design, improved spacecraft thermal control methods, and improved emissivity testing methods for patterned or angular surfaces.

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The target of this work is to optically interconnect a semiconductor laser and a single mode fiber (SMF) through a simple Si bench technology using buried waveguide devices. This technology is suitable for applications such as optical transceivers and add-and-drop multiplexers. Three major components, namely, planarized laser diode, buried waveguide, and SMF are hybrid integrated on the Si bench. The ridge-type laser was planarized by BCB etch-back process, and was flip-chip mounted on the Si bench. On the other hand, the sol-gel buried waveguide was passively aligned to SMF using V-groove and U-groove techniques. Miss-alignment loss as low as 1 dB can be obtained.

The objective of this thesis is to integrate the optical waveguide and single mode fiber in a passive alignment way on a silicon bench. This technique can reduce the complexity of packaging the individual components and increase yield of the module in order to achieve the goal of the mass production. In this module, buried waveguide structure was used for light guidance. A 1.31µm semiconductor laser was used as the input light source. Light signal launched by semiconductor laser is transferred through the buried waveguide into the single mode fiber. This module structure is consisted of two major parts, namely, the buried waveguide and the silicon bench. Buried optical Waveguide uses SO2 as the bottom cladding. Conventional photolithography procedures and etching technique were used to form a trench on the SiO2 cladding. The waveguide core was fabricated by coating the organic-inorganic hybrid materials into the trench. Finally, an organic-inorganic hybrid materials with a refractive index smaller than that of the core is used as the top cladding. The silicon benches were obtained by etching V-groove and saw-cutting U-groove on the silicon substrates for fixing the fiber. The patterning of buried waveguide and silicon V-groove were fabricated by a single optical mask procedure. Therefore accurate alignment between the waveguide and the single mode fiber can be obtained.

The effects of geometry parameters of graded-index polymer optical fiber (GI-POF) components on the coupling efficiency and signal mixed proportion are studied in this thesis. Simulation and experimental approaches are used to investigate the effects of light sources on the coupling efficiency of misalighment, Y-couplers and V-groove couplers. Two different light sources are employed in this study: Laser diode (LD) and vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). The optimum coupling angle and refractive index of filler in the Y-coupler are studied with a light-emitting diode (LED) light source. A good agreement between the simulation and the experiment results is shown in this work. Furthermore, two V-groove array arrangements, i.e. the parallel V-groove array and the skew V-groove array, are proposed in this study to mix multi-light-sources. The optimum parameters of V-groove are designed to achieve the highest coupling efficiency. The performances of different V-groove array arrangements have also been demonstrated for multi-signal mixing.

Strongly localised plasmons in metallic nano-structures offer exciting characteristics for guiding and focusing light on the nano-scale, opening the way for the development of new types of sensors, circuitry and improved resolution of optical microscopy. The work presented in this thesis focuses on two major areas of plasmonics research - nano-focusing structures and nano-sized waveguides. Nano-focusing structures focus light to an area smaller than the wavelength and will find applications in sensing, efficiently coupling light to nano-scale devices, as well as improving the resolution of near field microscopy. In the past the majority of nano-focusing structures have been nano-scale cones or tips, which are capable of focusing light to a spot of nano-scale area whilst enhancing the light field. The alternatives are triangular nano-focusing structures which have received far less attention, and only one type of triangular nano-focusing structure is known – a sharp V-groove in a metal substrate. This structure focuses light to a strip of nano-scale width, which may lead to new applications in microscopy and sensing. The difficulty with implementing the V-groove is that the structure is not robust and is quite difficult to fabricate. This thesis aims to develop new triangular nano-focusing devices which will overcome these difficulties, whilst still producing an intense light source on the nano-scale. The two proposed structures presented in this thesis are a metallic wedge submerged in uniform dielectric and a tapered metal film lying on a dielectric substrate, the latter being the easier to fabricate and the more structurally sound and robust. The investigation is performed using the approximation of continuous electrodynamics, the geometrical optics approximation and the zero-plane method. The second aim of this thesis is to investigate plasmonic waveguides and couplers for the development of nano-optical circuitry, more compact photonic devices and sensors. The research will attempt to fill the gaps in the current knowledge of the V-groove waveguide, which consists of a sharp triangular groove in a metal substrate, and the gap plasmon waveguide, which consists of a rectangular slot in a thin metal film. The majority of this work will be performed using the author’s in house finite-difference time-domain algorithm and FEMLAB as well as the effective medium method and geometric optics approximation. The V-groove may be used as either a nano-focusing or waveguiding device. As a waveguide the V-groove is one of the most promising plasmonic waveguides in the optical regime. However, there exist quite a number of gaps in the current knowledge of V-groove waveguides which this thesis will attempt to fill. In particular, the effect of rounded groove tip on plasmon propagation has been assessed for the V-groove. The investigation of rounded groove tip is important, as due to modern fabrication processes it’s not possibly to produce an infinitely sharp groove, and the existing literature has not considered the impact of this problem. The thesis will also investigate the impacts of the inclusion of dielectric filling in the groove on plasmon propagation parameters. This research will be important for optimising the propagation characteristics of the mode for certain applications, but it may also lead to easier methods of fabricating the V-groove device and prevent oxidation of the metal film. The gap plasmon waveguide is easier to fabricate than the V-groove, and is a new type of sub-wavelength waveguide which displays many advantages over other types of plasmon waveguides, including ease of fabrication, almost 100% transmission around sharp bends, sub-wavelength localisation and long propagation distances of the guided mode, etc. This waveguide may prove invaluable in the development of compact photonic devices. In the past the modes supported by this structure were not thoroughly analysed and the possibility of using this structure to develop sub-wavelength couplers for sensing and nano-optical circuits was not considered in detail. This thesis aims to resolve these issues. In conclusion, the results of this thesis will lead to a better understanding of Vgroove and gap plasmon waveguide devices for the development of nano-optical circuits, compact photonic devices and sensors. This thesis also proposes two new nano-focusing structures which are easier to fabricate than the V-groove structure and will lead to applications in sensing, coupling light efficiently into nano-scale devices and improving the resolution of near-field microscopy.

Effective focusing of electromagnetic (EM) energy to nanoscale regions is one of the major challenges in nano-photonics and plasmonics. The strong localization of the optical energy into regions much smaller than allowed by the diffraction limit, also called nanofocusing, offers promising applications in nano-sensor technology, nanofabrication, near-field optics or spectroscopy. One of the most promising solutions to the problem of efficient nanofocusing is related to surface plasmon propagation in metallic structures. Metallic tapered rods, commonly used as probes in near field microscopy and spectroscopy, are of a particular interest. They can provide very strong EM field enhancement at the tip due to surface plasmons (SP’s) propagating towards the tip of the tapered metal rod. A large number of studies have been devoted to the manufacturing process of tapered rods or tapered fibers coated by a metal film. On the other hand, structures such as metallic V-grooves or metal wedges can also provide strong electric field enhancements but manufacturing of these structures is still a challenge. It has been shown, however, that the attainable electric field enhancement at the apex in the V-groove is higher than at the tip of a metal tapered rod when the dissipation level in the metal is strong. Metallic V-grooves also have very promising characteristics as plasmonic waveguides. This thesis will present a thorough theoretical and numerical investigation of nanofocusing during plasmon propagation along a metal tapered rod and into a metallic V-groove. Optimal structural parameters including optimal taper angle, taper length and shape of the taper are determined in order to achieve maximum field enhancement factors at the tip of the nanofocusing structure. An analytical investigation of plasmon nanofocusing by metal tapered rods is carried out by means of the geometric optics approximation (GOA), which is also called adiabatic nanofocusing. However, GOA is applicable only for analysing tapered structures with small taper angles and without considering a terminating tip structure in order to neglect reflections. Rigorous numerical methods are employed for analysing non-adiabatic nanofocusing, by tapered rod and V-grooves with larger taper angles and with a rounded tip. These structures cannot be studied by analytical methods due to the presence of reflected waves from the taper section, the tip and also from (artificial) computational boundaries. A new method is introduced to combine the advantages of GOA and rigorous numerical methods in order to reduce significantly the use of computational resources and yet achieve accurate results for the analysis of large tapered structures, within reasonable calculation time. Detailed comparison between GOA and rigorous numerical methods will be carried out in order to find the critical taper angle of the tapered structures at which GOA is still applicable. It will be demonstrated that optimal taper angles, at which maximum field enhancements occur, coincide with the critical angles, at which GOA is still applicable. It will be shown that the applicability of GOA can be substantially expanded to include structures which could be analysed previously by numerical methods only. The influence of the rounded tip, the taper angle and the role of dissipation onto the plasmon field distribution along the tapered rod and near the tip will be analysed analytically and numerically in detail. It will be demonstrated that electric field enhancement factors of up to ~ 2500 within nanoscale regions are predicted. These are sufficient, for instance, to detect single molecules using surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) with the tip of a tapered rod, an approach also known as tip enhanced Raman spectroscopy or TERS. The results obtained in this project will be important for applications for which strong local field enhancement factors are crucial for the performance of devices such as near field microscopes or spectroscopy. The optimal design of nanofocusing structures, at which the delivery of electromagnetic energy to the nanometer region is most efficient, will lead to new applications in near field sensors, near field measuring technology, or generation of nanometer sized energy sources. This includes: applications in tip enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS); manipulation of nanoparticles and molecules; efficient coupling of optical energy into and out of plasmonic circuits; second harmonic generation in non-linear optics; or delivery of energy to quantum dots, for instance, for quantum computations.