A titania grating with a high diffraction efficiency was fabricated using sol-gel method and imprinting technique with silicone mold. For this process, titania sol was dropped onto a silicone mold transferred from the photoresist pattern by the imprinting process, and then retransferred onto a glass substrate to form a titania diffraction grating. The first -order diffraction transmittance of the fabricated element with a 1.0-μm pitch and a depth of 0.48 μm was 31.7% at a wavelength of 632.8 nm. This grating can be fabricated without using expensive apparatuses such as reactive ion etching and molding equipment.
We fabricated a transmission silicone grating using two-beam interference method and imprint lithography, and evaluated its optical characteristics during a compression process. The grating pattern with ~0.4 μm depth and 1 μm pitch was created on a silicone surface by imprinting process with a photoresist mold to realize a simple, low-cost fabrication process. The first order diffraction transmittance of this grating reached ~10% at 633 nm wavelength. We also measured the relationship between the grating period and compressive stress to the fabricated elements. The grating period changed from 1 μm to ~0.8 μm by ~17% compression of the fabricated element in one direction, perpendicular to the grooves.
An infrared wire-grid polarizer consisting of a 400-nm pitch Au grating on a photocuring film with ∼30 μm thickness was fabricated using photoimprinting, thermal evaporation, and peeling off the imprinted film from the substrate in a high humidity environment. This element exhibited a transverse magnetic transmittance greater than 75% in the 4- to 5.5-μm wavelength range because of thin film and an extinction ratio typically greater than 20 dB in the 2.5- to 7.5-μm wavelength range. The maximum extinction ratio of this element exceeded 28 dB at 6.5 μm wavelength. This film polarizer with high TM transmittance can be fabricated at lower costs and simpler fabrication processes compared to conventional infrared polarizers.
We fabricated an infrared wire-grid polarizer with the high transverse magnetic (TM) polarization transmittance and high
extinction ratio by soft imprint lithography, sol-gel method, and Al shadow coating processes. A zilconia film was coated
on Si substrate by using sol-gel method and spin coating method. Then, sol-gel zirconia grating was formed on the back
side using imprinting using a silicone mold. The polarizer was produced by depositing Al obliquely on the grating. The
TM transmittance of the fabricated element was greater than 80% at a wavelength of 4.8 μm. The sol-gel zilconia films
acted as antireflection films. The extinction ratio exceeded 26 dB at its wavelength.
We examined infrared transmission characteristics of a sol–gel derived zirconia film and the antireflective (AR) effect of this film for an Si substrate in the midinfrared region. The surface reflection loss of an Si plate is high (∼30%) because of the high refractive index (3.42) in the infrared region. We employed zirconia nanoparticle dispersion with 15 wt. % (1-butanol solvent) as starting sol solution. Then, the dispersion was coated with Si substrate at a spin-coating speed of 2000 rpm, and the substrate was heated to 150°C. The number of coatings was repeated seven times. As a result, the transmittance at 5.6-μm wavelength was enhanced to 66.2%, and we found that the coated film worked efficiently as the AR film up to 10-μm wavelength. Additionally, by heating the substrate to 800°C, the large absorptions at 2.9-, 6.4-, and 6.9-μm wavelengths could be suppressed because the hydroxy group in the film was reduced. Its peak transmittance was 67.9% at 4.9-μm wavelength.
The infrared wire-grid polarizer consisting of an Al grating, Si, and sol-gel derived zirconia grating film was fabricated by soft imprint process and Al shadow coating processes. A silicone mold was used because of its low surface energy, flexibility, and capability of transferring submicrosized patterns. As a result, the Al grating with a pitch of 400 nm and a depth of 100 nm was obtained on the zirconia grating film. The fabricated polarizer exhibited a polarization function with the TM transmittance greater than that of the Si substrate in the specific wavelength range of 3.6–8.5 μm, because the zirconia film acted as an antireflection film. The maximum value was 63% at a wavelength of 5.2 μm. This increment of the TM transmission spectrum results in interference within the zirconia film. Also, the extinction ratio exceeded almost 20 dB in the 3-8.8 μm wavelength range.
We fabricated a titanium oxide grating using an imprinting technique and a sol–gel method and evaluated phase retardation. A titanium oxide grating with 75 nm depth, fill factor of 0.3, and 400 nm period was obtained by imprinting a titanium oxide sol solution on a silicone (polydimethylsiloxane; PDMS) mold at 150°C. As a result of phase retardation evaluation, it reached 9.2 deg at the 532-nm wavelength.
A reflective wave plate with subwavelength grating structure of the photoresist was fabricated using two-beam interference technology, and was then evaluated for phase retardation. Whereas the phase retardation of the transmission wave plate with 400 nm period, fill factor of 0.5, and 240 nm depth, respectively, was 15° at 632.8 nm wavelength, the phase retardation of the fabricated reflective element with 400 nm period, fill factor of 0.5, and 240 nm depth reached 29° for the reason that the optical length of the reflective one became twice as long as the transmissive one because of the use of reflection. By changing the period and depth to 285 nm and to 295 nm, respectively, the phase retardation of a reflective wave plate for 473 nm wavelength achieved 144° at the incident angle of 45°.
Infrared wire-grid polarizers were fabricated consisting of a 500-nm pitch Al grating on a low toxic chalcogenide glass (Sb-Ge-Sn-S system) using the direct imprinting of subwavelength grating followed by a deposition of Al metal by thermal evaporation. To fabricate the subwavelength grating on a chalcogenide glass more easily, the sharp grating was formed on the mold surface. The fabricated polarizer with Al thickness of 130 nm exhibited a polarization function with a transverse magnetic transmittance greater than 60% in the 5–9-μm wavelength range, and an extinction ratio greater than 20 dB in the 4–11-μm wavelength range. The polarizer can be fabricated at lower costs and simpler fabrication processes compared to conventional infrared polarizers.
We fabricated a subwavelength-grating structure on the Y2O3 ceramic substrate, which has higher transparency than
silicon in the mid-infrared range. After coating a photoresist on this substrate, we formed a grating pattern of 350-nm
pitch by the two-beam interference of the He-Cd laser (325-nm wavelength). By using this photoresist grating as a mask,
WSi was etched with reactive SF6 ions. The transmittance of the transverse magnetic (TM) polarization was greater than
70% in the 3-7-μm wavelength range without antireflection films and the extinction ratio was over 20 dB in the
2.5-5-μm wavelength range. In addition, we also fabricated near-infrared wire-grid polarizer consisting of a 230-nm
pitch WSi grating on a SiO2 substrate. The TM polarization transmittance of the fabricated polarizer exceeded 80% in the
1000-1600-nm wavelength range. The extinction ratio was higher than 20 dB in the 650-1500-nm wavelength range.
We fabricated an infrared wire-grid polarizer that was made of a tungsten silicide (WSi) grating on a Si substrate. The
photolithography by the use of the two-beam interference was conducted for generating the short-period grating
structure. This photoresist pattern was used as a mask for the reactive ion etching of the WSi coating and the Si substrate.
Consequently, we could fabricate the WSi/Si grating with 400-nm period and 550-nm depth that acted as a wire-grid
polarizer. The transmittance of TM polarization was 58% at 4-μm wavelength, which exceeded the theoretical
transmittance of Si (54%). This enhancement of the transmittance was caused by the reduction in the reflectance due to
the subwavelength-grating structure. The extinction ratio at 2.7-μm wavelength was 20 dB. We also measured the
extinction coefficient κ of WSi, and verified that WSi was a suitable polarizing material in the mid-infrared range.
We fabricated infrared Fabry-Perot filters by stacking two wet-etched Si plates. When an electric voltage was applied between the plates, the spacing between the plates changed due to an electrostatic force, which caused a shift of interference peaks. The Si plates were etched in a KOH solution to 34-μm thickness in order to reduce the driving voltage. When the voltage was raised from 0 to 20 V, an interference peak shifted from 7.9- to 5.5-μm wavelength, corresponding to the decrease in the spacing from 7.9 to 5.5 μm. The peak transmittance increased to 91% by an antireflection coating on the outer surface of the filter. This coating was effective to suppress the interference inside the Si plates that created a complicated spectrum.
We have developed GdxY1-xCa4O(BO3)3 (GdYCOB) crystal in order to control birefringence. As a result, GdYCOB is noncritically phase matchable for third- harmonic generation of a 1064 nm light by type-I mixing (1064 + 532 yields 355 nm). However, during high-power operation, degradation of output power and distortion of beam pattern occurred due to photo-induced damages and thermal dephasing. In this paper, we report on nonlinear optical properties and improved the performance of GdYCOB by suppression of photo- induced damages and thermal dephasing.
Optical parallel logic operations were studied using IR light as a signal beam. The optical system was constructed with a planar heat source, a liquid crystal switch array, a chalcogenide glass fiber bundle, and a PtSi CCD sensor array. A variety of logic operations, e.g., AND, NAND, OR, NOR, and XOR, were demonstrated successfully by this optical system.
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