The birefringence of one-dimension PMMA surface gratings on a gold film substrate is investigated. The grating served as a coupler to facilitate the incoming light coupled to surface plasmon wave (SPW) which possesses high propagation wave vector. Since surface plasmon waves(SPWs) have a special dispersion relation, the birefringence £Gneff (£Gneff =nx-ny, where grating k-vector is along x axis) of this structure is relatively large and can be changed from positive to negative by changing the operation wavelength. The obtained the four Stokes parameters at 515nm and 633nm are marked on the Poincare sphere. £Gneff is 2£k/7 and -£k/8 at 515nm and 633nm respectively. Further, by changing the form factor of PMMA gratings, we found that the maximum £Gneff occurred when PMMA stripe width : air gap=1:1.

Uniform lying helix(ULH) is a cholesteric LC structure with helical axix lying on the substrate. This structure has a periodic refractive index profile characteristics, so that it can be used as a phase grating. The ULH period can be tuned with different electric fields which provide with various applications. However, ULH is not a steady state in general, once the electric field shutdown, ULH texture will transform to planar texture. Generally, the ULH exist only under a few conditions: well homogeneous alignment and cell the ratio of gap to pitch smaller than 2 , in case the ratio more than 2, the ULH won¡¦t align well. We use two methods to make ULH align well at large cell gap pitch ratio; cooling down from isotropic temperature under electric field and putting mechanical stress on the sample, therefore we can get a well alignment and more stable ULH. We discuss the influence of different boundary conditions to the stability of ULH, and we discover that when d/p large than 10, the stability of ULH improved significantly. Then we study the influence in different alignment anchoring, we find stronger anchoring energy makes ULH transform to planar easily. So we use photo alignment to get weaker anchoring energy, and the ULH using photo alignment stable more than 24 hours. Finally we use a large d/p ULH as tunable phase grating, the pitch length can be tuned about 380nm with low power consumption, and it still have grating function when the field shutdown . Keyword: cholesteric liquid crystal¡Buniform lying helix¡Bgrating

The spectral characteristics of fiber grating-stabilized 980nm pump lasers were studied theoretically and experimentally. A new process of fiber tip flattening making quadrangular-pyramid-shaped fiber lens (QPSFL) was successfully developed. This fiber tip flattening process can improve the yield fabricating QPSEL up to 20% compared with the previous research of the process without tip flattening. The QPSFL was used in coupling between the high-power 980nm laser diodes and the single mode fibers (SMFs). A fiber grating was fused at the end of the single mode fiber. The reflectivity of fiber gratings were 6%, 8% and 10%, and the length of the external cavity was about 2.5m. The measured result showed that the stability of temperature to peak wavelength and driving current to peak wavelength were improved 60 and 30 times, respectively. A theoretical modeling which combined the laser rate equation and the grating theory was successfully developed as well. The qualitative analysis of the numerical simulation showed that the peak wavelength would be locked in the reflection spectrum of the fiber grating. On the other hand, we have also finished packaging a butterfly 980nm pump laser module by the laser welding technology.

The laser-induced holographic grating technique was employed to study the dynamic of the intensity grating formation in the azo-dye doped liquid crystals. The liquid crystal material in this study has several mesomorphic phases: Smectic C, Smectic A, Nematic and Isotropic. The first order of diffraction in the mesomorphic phases have been investigated by changing the polarizations of the probe beam.

The measurement of strain is critical in many engineering design, test, and health monitoring procedures. Despite the promise of non-contacting and remote strain measurement, optical techniques have not been widely adopted by industry; the preference being the use of electrical resistance strain gauges. This is due to the perceived and real complexities of many optical techniques.

Beams of light carrying orbital angular momentum, such as vortex beams, have many applications in imaging and micromanipulation. We focus on applications in communication, in particular for quantum key distribution, where the security of communication channels is enhanced with the laws of quantum mechanics. However, this procedure requires superpositions of vortex beams. We want to generate such beams using integrated optics components due to their small size and their advantages in scalability and stability. Angular gratings, which are ring resonators with an embedded Bragg grating, are integrated structures known to generate vortex beams. We propose that a ring resonator with two embedded Bragg gratings, each on the inner and outer sidewalls, would generate a superposition of vortex beams. We verify this claim through analytical models, simulations and experiments.

This thesis presents the theory design and fabrication of a diffractive grating coupler. The first part of the design process is to choose the period of the grating coupler based on the desired coupling angle. The second part of the design process is to choose the geometry of the grating that gives maximum coupling efficiency based on rigorous analyses. The diffraction gratings are fabricated by recording the interference between two waves in photoresist. The waveguide is fabricated from silicon nitride that is deposited by chemical vapor deposition. The diffraction grating recording assembly is described along with the grating coupler fabrication process. A grating coupler is fabricated with an input coupling efficiency of 15% at a coupling angle of 22.9°. The results also show that the light is being coupled into the nitride waveguide indirectly. The light is coupled first into a photoresist slab and then into the nitride waveguide through modal coupling and scattering. An analysis of the structure explains the coupling, and rigorous analyses are given to show that the measured results are in accordance with theory.

Thermal switch is very important in today’s world and it has varies of applications including heat dissipation and engine efficiency improving. The commercial thermal switch based on mechanical design is very slow and the structure is too complicated to make them smaller. To enable fast thermal switch as well as to make thermal switch more compact, I try to use second-order phase transition material to enable our thermal switch. Noticing the transition properties of thermoresponsive polymer for drug delivery, its potential in thermal switch can be expected. I used Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) as an example to show the abrupt thermal conductivity change of thermoresponsive polymer solutions below and above their phase transition temperature. A novel technique, transition grating method, is used to measure the thermal conductivity. The ratio of thermal switch up to 1.15 in transparent PNIPAM solutions after the transition is observed. This work will demonstrate the new design of using second-order phase transition material to enable fast and efficient thermal switch. / Master of Science / Controllable thermal conductivity (thermal switching) is very important to thermal management area and useful in a wide area of applications. Nowadays, mechanical thermal conductivity controller device suffers from large scale and slow transition speeds. To solve these problems, I tired the phase transition thermoresponsive polymers to create quick thermal switching because the thermal conductivity will change with the phase. Thermoresponsive polymers show sharp phase changes upon small changes in temperature. Such polymers are already widely used in biomedical-like applications, the thermal switch applications are not well-studied. In this work, I tested Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (the abbreviation is PNIPAM) as an example to show the quick thermal conductivity changing ability of thermoresponsive polymer when the transition was happened .I used a novel approach, called the TTG, transient thermal grating. It has easy setup and high sensitivity. The thermal conductivity switching ratio as high as 1.15 in transparent PNIPAM solutions after transition is observed. This work will give new opportunities to control thermal switches using the phase change of thermoresponsive material or abrupt other phase change material in general.

A fully distributed multi-parameter acoustic sensing technology is proposed. Current fully distributed sensing techniques are exclusively based on intrinsic scatterings in optical fibers. They demonstrate long sensing span, but their limited applicable parameters (temperature and strain) and costly interrogation systems have prevented their widespread applications. A novel concept of acoustic fiber Bragg grating (AFBG) is conceived with inspiration from optical fiber Bragg grating (FBG). This AFBG structure exploits periodic spatial perturbations on an elongated waveguide to sense variations in the spectrum of an acoustic wave. It achieves ten times higher sensitivity than the traditional time-of-flight measurement system using acoustic pulses. A fast interrogation method is developed to avoid frequency scan, reducing both the system response time (from 3min to <1ms) and total cost. Since acoustic wave propagates with low attenuation along varieties of solid materials (metal, silica, sapphire, etc.), AFBG can be fabricated on a number of waveguides and to sense multiple parameters. Sub-millimeter metal wire and optical fiber based AFBGs have been demonstrated experimentally for effective temperature (25~700 degC) and corrosion sensing. A hollow borosilicate tube is demonstrated for simultaneous temperature (25~200 degC) and pressure (15~75 psi) sensing using two types of acoustic modes. Furthermore, a continuous 0.6 m AFBG is employed for distributed temperature sensing up to 500 degC and to accurately locate the 0.18 m long heated section. Sensing parameters, sensitivity and range of an AFBG can be tuned to fit a specific application by selecting acoustic waveguides with different materials and/or geometries. Therefore, AFBG is a fully distributed sensing technology with tremendous potentiality. / Ph. D. / Fully distributed sensing techniques are part of the growing ”Internet-of-Things” trend, as they improve on traditional point sensors by providing spatially distributed measurements. Current techniques for fully distributed sensing are based on fiber optics, and while these techniques are capable of measuring parameters along a lengthy sensing distance, their wider application is constrained by limited applicable parameters and costly interrogation systems. In this research, an innovative, fully distributed, multi-parameter acoustic sensing technology based on acoustic fiber Bragg grating (AFBG) is proposed. AFBG takes advantage of the interaction between an acoustic wave and the periodic structure on the measured material, and uses the spectrum property of an acoustic wave to achieve ten times higher sensitivity than traditional time-of-flight methods. In addition, a fast interrogation method is developed to avoid frequency scan, reducing both the system response time (from 3 min. to <1 ms) and system cost (from $5, 000 to < $500). AFBG can be fabricated using different elongated materials (i.e. waveguides) as acoustic waves propagate along a variety of materials without extensive power loss. In this research, AFBG is deployed on a sub-millimeter metal wire and silica fiber to demonstrate effective corrosion and temperature sensing (25 ∼ 700 ◦C). In addition, hollow tubes are shown to be feasible waveguides for simultaneous temperature (25 ∼ 200 ◦C) and pressure (15 ∼ 75 psi) sensing. Finally a long AFBG is employed for distributed temperature sensing up to 500 ◦C. Wide applicability and low cost suggest that this sensing technology may be a viable approach for fully distributed sensing, contributing to the growing Internet-of-Things movement.

Confocal microscopes utilize point illumination and pinhole detection to reject out-of-focus light. Because of the point illumination and detection pinhole, confocal microscopes typically utilize point scanning for imaging, which limits the overall acquisition speed. Due to the excellent optical sectioning capabilities of confocal microscopes, they are excellent tools for the study of three-dimensional objects at the microscopic scale. Fluorescence confocal microscopy is especially useful in biomedical imaging due to its high sensitivity and specificity. However, all designs for confocal microscopes must balance tradeoffs between the numerical aperture (NA), field of view (FOV), acquisition speed, and cost during the design process. In this dissertation, two different designs for an array confocal microscope are proposed to significantly increase the acquisition speed of confocal microscopes. An array confocal microscope scans an array of beams in the object plane to parallelize the confocal microscope to significantly reduce the acquisition time. If N beams are used in the array confocal microscope, the acquisition time is reduced by a factor of N. The first design scans an array of miniature objectives over the object plane to overcome the trade-off between FOV and NA. The array of objectives is laterally translated and each objective scans a small portion of the total FOV. Therefore, the number of objectives used in the array limits the FOV, and the FOV is increased without sacrificing NA. The second design utilizes a single objective with a high NA, large FOV, and large working distance designed specifically for whole brain imaging. This array confocal microscope is designed to speed up the acquisition time required for whole brain imaging. Utilizing an objective with a large FOV and scanning using multiple beams in the array significantly reduces the time required to image large three-dimensional volumes. Both array confocal microscope designs use beam-splitting gratings to efficiently split one laser beam into a number of equal energy outgoing beams, so this dissertation explores design methods and analyses of beam-splitting gratings to fabrication errors. In this dissertation, an optimization method to design single layer beam-splitting gratings with reduced sensitivity to fabrication errors is proposed. Beam-spitting gratings are typically only designed for a single wavelength, so achromatic beam-splitting grating doublets are also analyzed for possible use in array confocal microscopes with multiple excitation wavelengths. An analysis of the lateral shift between grating layers in the achromatic grating doublet proves grating profiles with constant first spatial derivatives are significantly less sensitive than continuous phase profiles. These achromatic grating doublets have designed performance at two wavelengths, but the diffraction angles at the two wavelengths differ. To overcome that limitation, scale-invariant achromatic gratings are designed, which not only provide designed performance at two wavelengths, but also equal diffraction angles at two wavelengths.