18,279 research outputs found
Improved light extraction in the bioluminescent lantern of a Photuris firefly (Lampyridae)
A common problem of light sources emitting from an homogeneous
high-refractive index medium into air is the loss of photons by total internal
reflection. Bioluminescent organisms, as well as artificial devices, have to
face this problem. It is expected that life, with its mechanisms for evolution,
would have selected appropriate optical structures to get around this problem,
at least partially. The morphology of the lantern of a specific firefly in the
genus Photuris has been examined. The optical properties of the different parts
of this lantern have been modeled, in order to determine their positive or
adverse effect with regard to the global light extraction. We conclude that the
most efficient pieces of the lantern structure are the misfit of the external
scales (which produce abrupt roughness in air) and the lowering of the
refractive index at the level of the cluster of photocytes, where the
bioluminescent production takes place.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, published in Optics Expres
Spectrally resolved single-shot wavefront sensing of broadband high-harmonic sources
Wavefront sensors are an important tool to characterize coherent beams of
extreme ultraviolet radiation. However, conventional Hartmann-type sensors do
not allow for independent wavefront characterization of different spectral
components that may be present in a beam, which limits their applicability for
intrinsically broadband high-harmonic generation (HHG) sources. Here we
introduce a wavefront sensor that measures the wavefronts of all the harmonics
in a HHG beam in a single camera exposure. By replacing the mask apertures with
transmission gratings at different orientations, we simultaneously detect
harmonic wavefronts and spectra, and obtain sensitivity to spatiotemporal
structure such as pulse front tilt as well. We demonstrate the capabilities of
the sensor through a parallel measurement of the wavefronts of 9 harmonics in a
wavelength range between 25 and 49 nm, with up to lambda/32 precision.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure
Optimized generation of spatial qudits by using a pure phase spatial light modulator
We present a method for preparing arbitrary pure states of spatial qudits,
namely, D-dimensional (D > 2) quantum systems carrying information in the
transverse momentum and position of single photons. For this purpose, a set of
D slits with complex transmission are displayed on a spatial light modulator
(SLM). In a recent work we have shown a method that requires a single
phase-only SLM to control independently the complex coefficients which define
the quantum state of dimension D. The amplitude information was codified by
introducing phase gratings inside each slit and the phase value of the complex
transmission was added to the phase gratings. After a spatial filtering process
we obtained in the image plane the desired qudit state. Although this method
has proven to be a good alternative to compact the previously reported
architectures, it presents some features that could be improved. In this paper
we present an alternative scheme to codify the required phase values that
minimizes the effects of temporal phase fluctuations associated to the SLM
where the codification is carried on. In this scheme the amplitudes are set by
appropriate phase gratings addressed at the SLM while the relative phases are
obtained by a lateral displacement of these phase gratings. We show that this
method improves the quality of the prepared state and provides very high
fidelities of preparation for any state. An additional advantage of this scheme
is that a complete 2\pi modulation is obtained by shifting the grating by one
period, and hence the encoding is not limited by the phase modulation range
achieved by the SLM. Numerical simulations, that take into account the phase
fluctuations, show high fidelities for thousands of qubit states covering the
whole Bloch sphere surface. Similar analysis are performed for qudits with D =
3 and D = 7.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure
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