Table Of ContentTopics in Applied Physics 129
Cheng-Chung Lee E ditor
The Current
Trends of
Optics and
Photonics
Topics in Applied Physics
Volume 129
Series editors
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Cheng-Chung Lee
Editor
The Current Trends of Optics
and Photonics
1 3
Editor
Cheng-Chung Lee
Thin Film Technology Center/Department of
Optics and Photonics
National Central University
Chung-Li
Taiwan
ISSN 0303-4216 ISSN 1437-0859 (electronic)
ISBN 978-94-017-9391-9 ISBN 978-94-017-9392-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-9392-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014952783
Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg New York London
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Preface
Life comes from light and so does human civilization. In our vocabulary, the terms
optics and photonics were coined to describe light. Indeed, the evolution of human
civilization goes hand in hand with optics and photonics; particularly, since the
invention of the laser in the last century, optics and photonics have progressed
extremely rapidly and influenced human civilization significantly. Today, our daily
lives as we know them wouldn't be possible without optics and photonics, a fact
that has moved the United Nations (UN) to declare 2015 the International Year
of Light and Light-based Technologies (IYL 2015). Hopefully, this will help the
light-based technologies to be promoted even further in solving the global prob-
lems concerning energy, education, agriculture, health, environment, etc. One of
the most effective ways to achieve these goals is to provide updated and reliable
content on the subject to the public, which is the aim of this book.
As opposed to covering all fields of optics and photonics, instead, the book will
highlight a number of currently interesting topics that might be useful for further
research and development. In Part I we present the latest developments concerning
optical thin films and metamaterials. Optical thin films play a vital role in optics
and photonics, and without them the two fields might well not be where they are
today. We introduce the theory of and manufacturing technique for a gain layer
to make coatings with reflectance greater than 100 %, then describe a method for
producing large useful coating areas of filters for DWDM with record-breaking
uniformity, better than / 0.003 % over an area of 50 mm in diameter. We exam-
+−
ine the design and production of antireflective coatings with hydrophobic and
hydrophilic characteristics, residual color to decorate solar cells and blackness,
then illustrate the advantages of coatings with a negative refractive index layer.
Monitoring is the key technique to accomplishing new designs and is extremely
important in the coating process; accordingly, five advanced monitoring methods
are proposed.
Metamaterials are artificial structures designed for controlling electromagnetic
and acoustic waves or fields, and exhibit exceptional properties that are unexpected
on the basis of their chemical constituents. These properties lead to some fasci-
nating phenomena such as negative refraction, sub-wavelength imaging, and field
v
vi Preface
enhancement. A simple review on metamaterials research and discussion of the
problems that still need to be resolved round out the second part of Part I (Chap. 2).
Since the invention of the laser in the 1960s of the last century, several kinds
of lasers have been produced. A recently developed rare-earth-elements-doped
fiber laser stands out for its special characteristics, such that of a movable focus-
ing element for material process; its compact size, which makes it easy to install
in a device; tunable spectrum and high output power; diffraction-limited and high-
quality optical beam; low cost, etc. In this context, femtosecond Yb-doped fiber
oscillators and amplifiers are the most important candidates, and their theory and
development are examined in Part II (Chap. 3). Here, we demonstrate high-power
femtosecond fiber lasers employing diode-pumping as well as novel mode-locking
techniques for fiber-based oscillators. In fundamental mode, the ultimate fiber laser
system generates a peak power of over 45 kW and burst pulse energy of 350 nJ. Its
harmonics have peak powers of 6.7 kW (532 nm) and 0.6 kW (266 nm). The gen-
eration of a supercontinuum using noise-like pulses propagating through ~100 m
of single-mode fiber in the normal dispersion region with a low threshold (43 nJ)
and flat spectrum over 1050–1250 nm is also illustrated.
The optical free-space transmission scheme has recently been developed to pro-
vide high-speed and secure wireless connections, and visible light communication
(VLC) systems in particular have proven to be a suitable candidate for delivering
these wireless connections between fiber backbone networks and mobile devices.
Therefore, a modern VLC communication system based on laser pointer lasers (LPL)
for providing high transmission rates and long free-space links is introduced in Part III
(Chap. 4). Different technical aspects of VLC, which include enhancing the transmission
data rate, mitigating optical background noise, achieving a bi-directional transmis-
sion, and using AC-LED for VLC are demonstrated. In Chaps. 5–7, we subsequently
propose a novel approach to nonlinear distortion compensation employing the sub-
carrier-to-subcarrier intermixing interference (SSII) cancellation technique in the con-
text of an electroabsorption modulator (EAM)-based orthogonal frequency-division
multiplexing and intensity-modulation-direct-detection (OFDM-IMDD) transmis-
sion system. In order to develop the universal transmitters for the next-generation
wavelength division multiplexing passive optical network (WDM-PON), the color-
less weak-resonant-cavity Fabry-Perot laser diode (WRC-FPLD), which is injection-
locked with the help of a highly coherent master laser is used, reducing the relative
intensity noise peak at 5 GHz by 18 dB and increasing its throughput frequency
response by 5 dB. This enhances the signal-to-noise ratio from 10.5 dB to 18.9 dB
and the on/off extinction ratio from 10.4 dB to 11.4 dB, enabling the error-free on-
off-keying (OOK) transmission at 10 Gbit/s with a requested receiving power sensi-
tivity of 15 dBm at a bit-error-rate (BER) of 10 9.
−
−
Given their energy efficiency, longer service life, comparative environmental
friendliness, and compact size, the light-emitting diodes (LEDs), are now utilized
in many fields, such as lighting, displays, interferometry, biophotonics, biomedical
applications, agriculture, transportation, art and decoration, communication, safety,
and in the military, and will eventually replace, at least partially, the traditional
fluorescent lamps and high-pressure halogen lamps, making them an important
Preface vii
new light source. The key issues concerning LEDs for high lumen/watt efficiency
are the internal quantum efficiency, light extraction, heat dissipation, and device
packaging. Several techniques for addressing these issues, such as substrate pre-
treatment, nano-pillar sapphire substrate, structure design with graded quantum
wells, quantum dots, nano-particles and novel electron blocking layers, epitaxial
technology, Joule heating minimization, transparent conductive layer patterning,
and improved packaging and light extraction are described in Part IV (Chap. 8).
The depletion of fossil energy sources and dramatic change in our climate
have sparked a new interest in renewable energies, with solar energy being one
of the important among them. As solar cells are used to harvest solar energy and
directly convert it to electricity, Part V (Chap. 9) discusses in great detail several
types solar cell, including inorganic and organic variants. Recent advances are also
briefly described.
Over the last few years, advances in display technology have greatly benefited
people in their work and daily lives, and it would be fair to say that “displays”
are among the most important and ubiquitous devices in today’s society. One of
the most essential elements for display is liquid crystal technology. In addition to
displays, liquid crystals are also an important component applied in many optics
and photonics context, such as holographic gratings, beam steering, q-plates for
shaping laser beams, photo-alignment technology, optical attenuators, bio-sen-
sors, lenses, polarization convertors, spatial filters, lasers, etc. The physics of liq-
uid crystals and essential device skills, as well as the emerging new type of liquid
crystal displays, are described in Part VI (Chaps. 10–12). Novel applications of
cutting-edge liquid crystal technology in 3D displays, non-display applications
and biomedical technology are also proposed (Chaps. 13–15).
Nanophotonics have opened up a new research field and allow us to manipulate
light at the nanometer scale with characteristics that may not be limited by the
physical and chemical composition of natural materials or the diffraction limit of
electromagnetic waves. Now that highly interesting fundamental research works
have been published, scientists and engineers have started searching for potential
applications. In Part VII (Chaps. 16–25) several novel applications are illustrated
such as plasmonic nano-lasers, nano-structure light-emitting diodes, one-dimen-
sional photonic crystal nanowires with small footprints and ultrahigh Q-factors,
nano-structured waveguides with slow light effect, thin films with a negative
refractive index, anti-reflection with nano-structures for solar cells, high-sensi-
tivity plasmonic biosensors, etc. We hope the illustrations in Part VII will inspire
people to pursue further cutting-edge breakthroughs in nanophotonics.
The principles and applications of the interactions between photons and biolog-
ical samples have recently been established as a field of study and are collectively
referred to as biophotonics. Many novel photonic technologies and molecular
probes have now been developed, making it possible to carry out multi-modality
studies with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolutions that provide not only
structural, but also functional information. In Part VIII (Chaps. 26–29), we pre-
sent a brief historical/chronological overview to highlight the key technological
developments in four specific biophotonics techniques based on laser microscopy,
viii Preface
namely, Fluorescence Life-time Imaging/Foster Resonance Energy Transfer
(FLIM/FRET) Microscopy; Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT); Super resolu-
tion Microscopy, and Harmonic Generation Microscopy, all of which have made
tremendous strides in the last decade not only in terms of their technological
development, but also in niche biological and biomedical applications.
Chung-Li, Taiwan, June 2014 Cheng-Chung Lee
Contents
Part I Optical Thin Films and Metamaterials
1 Thin Film Optical Coatings .................................. 3
Cheng-Chung Lee
1.1 Introduction .......................................... 3
1.2 Extra-High Reflection Coating with Negative Extinction
Coefficient ........................................... 4
1.3 Narrow Band Pass Filter for Optical Communication
with the Half-Peak Bandwidth in Order of Nanometer ......... 7
1.4 Antireflection Coating (AR Coating) ....................... 11
1.5 Coatings with Negative Refractive Index Layer .............. 16
1.6 Optical Monitoring ..................................... 19
1.6.1 In Situ Sensitive Optical Monitoring with Error
Compensation (ISMEC) .......................... 20
1.6.2 Optical Monitoring and Real Time Admittance
Loci Calculation Through Dynamic Interferometer .... 21
1.6.3 Optical Monitoring Using Admittance Diagram ....... 24
1.6.4 Broadband Monitoring Through Equivalent
Optical Admittance Loci Observation ............... 25
1.6.5 Reflection Coefficient Monitoring Through
Broadband Spectrum ............................ 27
1.7 Summary ............................................ 29
References ................................................. 31
2 Metamaterials and Transformation Optics ..................... 35
Pi-Gang Luan
2.1 Introduction .......................................... 35
2.2 Negative Refraction, Flat Lens, and Perfect Lens ............. 36
2.3 Photonic Crystals and Subwavelength Imaging ............... 42
2.4 Resonance, Constraints, and Metamaterials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.5 Indefinite Media/Hyperbolic Metamaterials and Hyperlens ..... 49
ix
