Specularly-Reflected Wave Guidance of Terahertz Plasmonic Metamaterial Based on the Metal-Wire-Woven Hole Arrays: Functional Design and Application of Transmission Spectral Dips.

Terahertz (THz) plasmonic metamaterial, based on a metal-wire-woven hole array (MWW-HA), is investigated for the distinct power depletion in the transmittance spectrum of 0.1-2 THz, including the reflected waves from metal holes and woven metal wires. Woven metal wires have four orders of power depletion, which perform sharp dips in a transmittance spectrum.

Highly Transparent and Polarization-Maintained Terahertz Plasmonic Metamaterials Based on Metal-Wire-Woven Hole Arrays: Fundamentals and Characterization of Transmission Spectral Peaks.

Metal-hole-supported terahertz (THz) waves through the structure of a metal-wire-woven hole array (MWW-HA) present high-frequency-passed transmittance spectra of one plasmonic metamaterial with artificial plasmonic frequencies, which are inversely proportional to metal-hole widths. For the transmitted THz waves of MWW-HA, transverse-electric (TE) and transverse-magnetic (TM) waveguide modes mix within a symmetric metal-hole boundary. THz resonance waves transversely crossing the holes of MWW-HA are experimentally characterized with spectral peaks in the frequency range of 0.

Volatile Gas Sensing through Terahertz Pipe Waveguide.

Gas sensing to recognize volatile liquids is successfully conducted through pipe-guided terahertz (THz) radiation in a reflective and label-free manner. The hollow core of a pipe waveguide can efficiently deliver the sensing probe of the THz confined waveguide fields to any place where dangerous vapors exist. Target vapors that naturally diffuse from a sample site into the pipe core can be detected based on strong interaction between the probe and analyte.

Frequency-dependent skin penetration depth of terahertz radiation determined by water sorption-desorption.

A multilayered water-skin model is used to experimentally verify a new sensing method for determining the skin penetration depth of radiation with 0.1-0.9 terahertz (THz) frequencies.

Terahertz artificial material based on integrated metal-rod-array for phase sensitive fluid detection.

A terahertz artificial material composed of metal rod array is experimentally investigated on its transmission spectral property and successfully incorporated into microfluidics as a miniaturized terahertz waveguide with an extended optical-path-length for label-free fluidic sensing. Theoretical and experimental characterizations of terahertz transmission spectra show that the wave guidance along the metal rod array originates from the resonance of transverse-electric-polarized waves within the metal rod slits. The extended optical path length along three layers of metal-rod-array enables terahertz waves sufficiently overlapping the fluid molecules embedded among the rods, leading to strongly enhanced phase change by approximately one order of magnitude compared with the blank metal-parallel-plate waveguide.

Broadband Ce/Cr-doped crystal fibers for high axial resolution OCT light source.

The fabrication and characteristics of Ce/Cr-doped crystal fibers employing drawing tower technique are reported. The fluorescence spectrum of the Ce/Cr fibers at the core diameter ranging from 10 to 21 µm exhibited a 200-nm near-Gaussian broadband emission which enabled to provide an axial resolution of 1.8-μm and a power density of 79.

All-fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer based on two liquid infiltrations in a photonic crystal fiber.

We propose a novel all-fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) fabricated by infiltrating two separated liquid sections along a PCF. Due to the reduced effective index difference between the core region and the liquid-filled cladding region, the guided field in the liquid sections possesses a larger mode field area and can simultaneously induce the core mode and cladding modes of the empty PCF to form a MZI. The measured results demonstrate that very clear interference spectra can be obtained.

Terahertz plasmonic waveguide based on metal rod arrays for nanofilm sensing.

A high-aspect-ratio metallic rod array is demonstrated to generate and propagate highly confined terahertz (THz) surface plasmonic waves under end-fire excitation. The transverse modal power distribution and spectral properties of the bound THz plasmonic wave are characterized in two metallic rod arrays with different periods and in two configurations with and without attaching a subwavelength superstrate. The integrated metallic rod array-based waveguide can be used to sense the various thin films deposited on the polypropylene superstrate based on the phase-sensitive mechanism.

Using graphene nano-particle embedded in photonic crystal fiber for evanescent wave mode-locking of fiber laser.

A photonic crystal fiber (PCF) with high-quality graphene nano-particles uniformly dispersed in the hole cladding are demonstrated to passively mode-lock the erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) by evanescent-wave interaction. The few-layer graphene nano-particles are obtained by a stabilized electrochemical exfoliation at a threshold bias. These slowly and softly exfoliated graphene nano-particle exhibits an intense 2D band and an almost disappeared D band in the Raman scattering spectrum.

Subwavelength confined terahertz waves on planar waveguides using metallic gratings.

A terahertz plasmonic waveguide is experimentally demonstrated using a plastic ribbon waveguide integrated with a diffraction metal grating to approach subwavelength-scaled confinement and long-distance delivery. Appropriately adjusting the metal-thickness and the periodical slit width of a grating greatly improves both guiding ability and field confinement in the hybrid waveguide structure. The measured lateral decay length of the bound terahertz surface waves on the hybrid waveguide can be reduced to less than λ/4 after propagating a waveguide of around 50mm-long in length.

Terahertz refractive index sensors using dielectric pipe waveguides.

A dielectric pipe waveguide is successfully demonstrated as a terahertz refractive index sensor for powder and liquid-vapor sensing. Without additional engineered structures, a simple pipe waveguide can act as a terahertz resonator based on anti-resonant reflecting guidance, forming multiple resonant transmission-dips. Loading various powders in the ring-cladding or inserting different vapors into the hollow core of the pipe waveguide leads to a significant shift of resonant frequency, and the spectral shift is related to the refractive-index change.

Polarization independent Fabry-Pérot filter based on polymer-stabilized blue phase liquid crystals with fast response time.

This work demonstrates a polarization-independent electrically tunable Fabry-Pérot (FP) filter that is based on polymer-stabilized blue phase liquid crystals (PSBPLCs). An external vertical electric field can be applied to modulate the effective refractive index of the PSBPLCs along the optical axis. Therefore, the wavelength-tuning property of the FP filter is completely independent of the polarization state of the incident light.

Birefringent photonic crystal fiber coils and their application to transverse displacement sensing.

We have experimentally investigated the birefringent properties of photonic crystal fiber (PCF) coils in cooperation with a Sagnac loop interferometer. By reducing the bending radius of the PCF coils, very clear interference patterns can be observed for the bending-induced stress effect. Increasing the fiber turns can result in more obvious interference patterns with smaller fringe spacing but has no contribution to the increment of the birefringence value.

Mode multiplexer for multimode transmission in multimode fibers.

We have numerically demonstrated an efficient mode multiplexer which can tailor the input field patterns by using a phase controller and a mode coupler formed by four single-mode fibers (SMFs). By connecting the mode multiplexer to a multimode fiber (MMF), two orthogonal higher-order modes of the MMF can be simultaneously excited to form two communication channels. The simulated results show that very low modal interference between the two excited modes can be achieved by using the proposed mode multiplexer.

All-optically controllable dye-doped liquid crystal infiltrated photonic crystal fiber.

A novel demonstration of an all-optically controllable dye-doped liquid crystal infiltrated photonic crystal fiber (DDLCIPCF) is presented. Overall spectral transmittance of the DDLCIPCF can decrease and then increase with a concomitant red-shift of the spectrum curve with increasing irradiation time of one UV beam. Continuing irradiation of one green beam following UV illumination on the DDLCIPCF can cause the transmission spectrum to recover completely.

Reversible photo-induced long-period fiber gratings in photonic liquid crystal fibers.

A novel light-controllable long-period fiber grating (LPFG) is demonstrated by making use of a PCF infiltrated with a photoresponsive liquid crystal (LC) mixture consisting of nematic LC molecules and light-sensitive 4-methoxyazobenzene (4MAB). With the aid of the photo-induced isomerization of 4MAB, the refractive index of the LC mixture can be modulated and the periodic index perturbation along the fiber can be achieved by exposing the PCF to a blue laser through a mask. The resonance wavelength and dip depth of the LPFG can be controlled by using different blue-laser irradiation time, numbers of period, and 4MAB concentrations.

Subwavelength film sensing based on terahertz anti-resonant reflecting hollow waveguides.

A simple dielectric hollow-tube has been experimentally demonstrated at terahertz range for bio-molecular layer sensing based on the anti-resonant reflecting wave-guidance mechanism. We experimentally study the dependence of thin-film detection sensitivity on the optical geometrical parameters of tubes, different thicknesses and tube wall refractive indices, and on different resonant frequencies. A polypropylene hollow-tube with optimized sensitivity of 0.

Photo and electrical tunable effects in photonic liquid crystal fiber.

This work demonstrates photo alignment and electrical tuning effects in photonic liquid crystal fiber (PLCF). Applying voltages of 0 approximately 130V and 250 approximately 400V shifts the short and long wavelength edges of the transmission bands by about 45 nm and 74 nm toward longer wavelengths, respectively. An electro-tunable notch filter is formed in the PLCF without the use of gratings.

Selectively liquid-filled photonic crystal fibers for optical devices.

We have theoretically investigated the propagation properties of two kinds of selectively liquid-filled PCFs. For internally liquid-filled PCFs, the outer air-hole layers function as the second cladding to reduce the penetration of the light field while the inner liquid-hole layers can still induce the tunable PBG effect. The complementary structures, externally liquid-filled PCFs, can be used in long-period fiber gratings to decrease the utilization of the lossy liquids and remain single-mode operation for the existence of the inner air-hole layers.

Tunable dual-core liquid-filled photonic crystal fibers for dispersion compensation.

We have theoretically investigated the dispersion characteristics of dispersion compensating fibers based on dual-core liquid-filled PCFs. A very high negative chromatic dispersion value D = -19000 ps/(nm-km) can be achieved at 1.55-microm wavelength by an appropriate design.

Plasmonic optical properties of a single gold nano-rod.

Polarization-contrast microscopy coupled with an atomic force microscope is utilized to attain far-field optical images of the multipolar surface plasmon resonance (SPR) modes of single gold nano-rod. Modulated standing modes resulted from the interference of longitudinal SPR modes and incident light are observed and studied. By counting the average distance of adjacent beats on this single gold nano-rod, the wave vector of longitudinal SPR modes can be obtained.

Analysis of two-dimensional photonic crystals using a multidomain pseudospectral method.

An analysis method based on a multidomain pseudospectral method is proposed for calculating the band diagrams of two-dimensional photonic crystals and is shown to possess excellent numerical convergence behavior and accuracy. The proposed scheme utilizes the multidomain Chebyshev collocation method. By applying Chebyshev-Lagrange interpolating polynomials to the approximation of spatial derivatives at collocation points, the Helmholtz equation is converted into a matrix eigenvalue equation which is then solved for the eigenfrequencies by the shift inverse power method.

Yee-mesh-based finite difference eigenmode solver with PML absorbing boundary conditions for optical waveguides and photonic crystal fibers.

Eigenvalue equations for solving full-vector modes of optical waveguides are formulated using Yee-mesh-based finite difference algorithms and incorporated with perfectly matched layer absorbing boundary conditions. The established method is thus able to calculate the complex propagation constants and the confinement losses of leaky waveguide modes. Proper matching of dielectric interface conditions through the Taylor series expansion of the fields is adopted in the formulation to achieve high numerical accuracy.

Compact finite-difference frequency-domain method for the analysis of two-dimensional photonic crystals.

A finite-difference frequency-domain method based on the Yee's cell is utilized to analyze the band diagrams of two-dimensional photonic crystals with square or triangular lattice. The differential operator is replaced by the compact scheme and the index average scheme is introduced to deal with the curved dielectric interfaces in the unit cell. For the triangular lattice, the hexagonal unit cell is converted into a rectangular one for easier mesh generation.