Encapsulated and Monolithic Resonant Structures for Laser Applications

Typically, the composition of a laser system includes a gain medium, a pump illumination source, and an external feedback cavity. This cavity consists of a highly reflective mirror and an outcoupler component. The geometry of the outcoupler can be engineered to tailor the reflected or transmitted beam\u27s spatial and spectral distribution. Functionally, the transmitted beam profile is dependent on the laser application. Broadband reflection profiles can be obtained by utilizing a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR). A DBR device consists of multiple layers of alternating materials. Constructive interference of the reflected light off each interface between different materials produces the spectrally broadband response. The spectral response is a function of the fabrication and material parameters of the DBR. In contrast, guided-mode resonance filters (GMRF) exploit phase matching between evanescent- and guided-waves to provide a strong reflection. Based on the materials in the structure, the spectral response can demonstrate broadband or narrowband reflectivity. The operation wavelength of a GMRF is dependent on the structural parameters of the device as well as the angle of incidence. However, conventional designs of resonant optics leave critical aspects of the structure exposed to the surrounding environment. Additional damage or contamination to the waveguide or grating layer will significantly alter the device\u27s spectral response. This dissertation introduces two GMRF geometries aimed at device integration, development of similar-material resonant devices, and full-device protection from outside influence. Unlike distributed Bragg reflectors, these geometries do not rely heavily on strict material and deposition requirements. Instead, they take advantage of the deposition processes to minimize coating deposition, achieve high reflectivity and demonstrate control over polarization dependence. Given their versatility in design and ability to withstand high power densities, these resonant structures find applications in fiber laser systems, spectral beam combining, and standard laser cavities

Inverse designed plasmonic metasurface with parts per billion optical hydrogen detection

Plasmonic sensors rely on optical resonances in metal nanoparticles and are typically limited by their broad spectral features. This constraint is particularly taxing for optical hydrogen sensors, in which hydrogen is absorbed inside optically-lossy Pd nanostructures and for which state-of-the-art detection limits are only at the low parts-per-million (ppm) range. Here, we overcome this limitation by inversely designing a plasmonic metasurface based on a periodic array of Pd nanoparticles. Guided by a particle swarm optimization algorithm, we numerically identify and experimentally demonstrate a sensor with an optimal balance between a narrow spectral linewidth and a large field enhancement inside the nanoparticles, enabling a measured hydrogen detection limit of 250 parts-per-billion (ppb). Our work significantly improves current plasmonic hydrogen sensor capabilities and, in a broader context, highlights the power of inverse design of plasmonic metasurfaces for ultrasensitive optical (gas) detection

Micro/Nano Manufacturing

Micro manufacturing involves dealing with the fabrication of structures in the size range of 0.1 to 1000 µm. The scope of nano manufacturing extends the size range of manufactured features to even smaller length scales—below 100 nm. A strict borderline between micro and nano manufacturing can hardly be drawn, such that both domains are treated as complementary and mutually beneficial within a closely interconnected scientific community. Both micro and nano manufacturing can be considered as important enablers for high-end products. This Special Issue of Applied Sciences is dedicated to recent advances in research and development within the field of micro and nano manufacturing. The included papers report recent findings and advances in manufacturing technologies for producing products with micro and nano scale features and structures as well as applications underpinned by the advances in these technologies

Open-Source TIG-Based Metal 3D-Printing

Metal 3-D printing has been relegated to high-cost proprietary high-resolution systems and low-resolution low-cost metal inert gas (MIG) systems. In order to provide a path to high-resolution, low-cost, metal 3-D printing, this manuscript proposes a new open source metal 3-D printer design based around a low-cost tungsten inert gas (TIG) welder coupled to a commercial open source self replicating rapid prototyper. Optimal printing parameters for the machine are acquired using a novel computational intelligence software. TIG has many advantages over MIG, such as having a low heat input, clean beads, and the potential for both high-resolution prints as well as insitu alloying of complex geometries. The design can be adapted to most RepRap-class systems and has a basic yet powerful free and open source software (FOSS) package for the characterization of the 3-D printer. This system can be used for fabricating custom metal scientific components and tools, near net-shape structural metal component rapid prototyping, adapting and depositing on existing metal structures, and is deployable for in-field prototyping for appropriate technology applications

Design, Analysis, And Optimization Of Diffractive Optical Elements Under High Numerical Aperture Focusing

The demand for high optical resolution has brought researchers to explore the use of beam shaping diffractive optical elements (DOEs) for improving performance of high numerical aperture (NA) optical systems. DOEs can be designed to modulate the amplitude, phase and/or polarization of a laser beam such that it focuses into a targeted irradiance distribution, or point spread function (PSF). The focused PSF can be reshaped in both the transverse focal plane and along the optical axis. Optical lithography, microscopy and direct laser writing are but a few of the many applications in which a properly designed DOE can significantly improve optical performance of the system. Designing DOEs for use in high-NA applications is complicated by electric field depolarization that occurs with tight focusing. The linear polarization of off-axis rays is tilted upon refraction towards the focal point, generating additional transverse and longitudinal polarization components. These additional field components contribute significantly to the shape of the PSF under tight focusing and cannot be neglected as in scalar diffraction theory. The PSF can be modeled more rigorously using the electromagnetic diffraction integrals derived by Wolf, which account for the full vector character of the field. In this work, optimization algorithms based on vector diffraction theory were developed for designing DOEs that reshape the PSF of a 1.4-NA objective lens. The optimization techniques include simple exhaustive search, iterative optimization (Method of Generalized Projections), and evolutionary computation (Particle Swarm Optimization). DOE designs were obtained that can reshape either the transverse PSF or the irradiance distribution along the optical axis. In one example of transverse beam shaping, all polarization components were simultaneously reshaped so their vector addition generates a focused flat-top square irradiance pattern. Other designs were obtained that can be used to narrow the axial irradiance distribution, giving a focused beam that is superresolved relative to the diffraction limit. In addition to theory, experimental studies were undertaken that include (1) fabricating an axially superresolving DOE, (2) incorporating the DOE into the optical setup, (3) imaging the focused PSF, and (4) measuring aberrations in the objective lens to study how these affect performance of the DOE

Analysis and Optimization of Graphene FET based Nanoelectronic Integrated Circuits

Like cell to the human body, transistors are the basic building blocks of any electronics circuits. Silicon has been the industries obvious choice for making transistors. Transistors with large size occupy large chip area, consume lots of power and the number of functionalities will be limited due to area constraints. Thus to make the devices smaller, smarter and faster, the transistors are aggressively scaled down in each generation. Moore's law states that the transistors count in any electronic circuits doubles every 18 months. Following this Moore's law, the transistor has already been scaled down to 14 nm. However there are limitations to how much further these transistors can be scaled down. Particularly below 10 nm, these silicon based transistors hit the fundamental limits like loss of gate control, high leakage and various other short channel effects. Thus it is not possible to favor the silicon transistors for future electronics applications. As a result, the research has shifted to new device concepts and device materials alternative to silicon. Carbon is the next abundant element found in the Earth and one of such carbon based nanomaterial is graphene. Graphene when extracted from Graphite, the same material used as the lid in pencil, have a tremendous potential to take future electronics devices to new heights in terms of size, cost and efficiency. Thus after its first experimental discovery of graphene in 2004, graphene has been the leading research area for both academics as well as industries. This dissertation is focused on the analysis and optimization of graphene based circuits for future electronics. The first part of this dissertation considers graphene based transistors for analog/radio frequency (RF) circuits. In this section, a dual gate Graphene Field Effect Transistor (GFET) is considered to build the case study circuits like voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) and low noise amplifier (LNA). The behavioral model of the transistor is modeled in different tools: well accepted EDA (electronic design automation) and a non-EDA based tool i.e. \simscape. This section of the dissertation addresses the application of non-EDA based concepts for the analysis of new device concepts, taking LC-VCO and LNA as a case study circuits. The non-EDA based approach is very handy for a new device material when the concept is not matured and the model files are not readily available from the fab. The results matches very well with that of the EDA tools. The second part of the section considers application of multiswarm optimization (MSO) in an EDA tool to explore the design space for the design of LC-VCO. The VCO provides an oscillation frequency at 2.85 GHz, with phase noise of less than -80 dBc/Hz and power dissipation less than 16 mW. The second part of this dissertation considers graphene nanotube field effect transistors (GNRFET) for the application of digital domain. As a case study, static random access memory (SRAM) hs been design and the results shows a very promising future for GNRFET based SRAM as compared to silicon based transistor SRAM. The power comparison between the two shows that GNRFET based SRAM are 93% more power efficient than the silicon transistor based SRAM at 45 nm. In summary, the dissertation is to expected to aid the state of the art in following ways: 1) A non-EDA based tool has been used to characterize the device and measure the circuit performance. The results well matches to that obtained from the EDA tools. This tool becomes very handy for new device concepts when the simulation needs to be fast and accuracy can be tradeoff with. 2)Since an analog domain lacks well-design design paradigm, as compared to digital domain, this dissertation considers case study circuits to design the circuits and apply optimization. 3) Performance comparison of GNRFET based SRAM to the conventional silicon based SRAM shows that with maturation of the fabrication technology, graphene can be very useful for digital circuits as well

High Efficiency and Wide Color Gamut Liquid Crystal Displays

Liquid crystal display (LCD) has become ubiquitous and indispensable in our daily life. Recently, it faces strong competition from organic light emitting diode (OLED). In order to maintain a strong leader position, LCD camp has an urgent need to enrich the color performance and reduce the power consumption. This dissertation focuses on solving these two emerging and important challenges. In the first part of the dissertation we investigate the quantum dot (QD) technology to improve the both the color gamut and the light efficiency of LCD. QD emits saturated color and grants LCD the capability to reproduce color vivid images. Moreover, the QD emission spectrum can be custom designed to match to transmission band of color filters. To fully take advantage of QD\u27s unique features, we propose a systematic modelling of the LCD backlight and optimize the QD spectrum to simultaneously maximize the color gamut and light efficiency. Moreover, QD enhanced LCD demonstrates several advantages: excellent ambient contrast, negligible color shift and controllable white point. Besides three primary LCD, We also present a spatiotemporal four-primary QD enhanced LCD. The LCD\u27s color is generated partially from time domain and partially from spatial domain. As a result, this LCD mode offers 1.5× increment in spatial resolution, 2× brightness enhancement, slightly larger color gamut and mitigated LC response requirement (~4ms). It can be employed in the commercial TV to meet the challenging Energy star 6 regulation. Besides conventional LCD, we also extend the QD applications to liquid displays and smart lighting devices. The second part of this dissertation focuses on improving the LCD light efficiency. Conventional LCD system has fairly low light efficiency (4%~7%) since polarizers and color filters absorb 50% and 67% of the incoming light respectively. We propose two approaches to reduce the light loss within polarizers and color filters. The first method is a polarization preserving backlight system. It can be combined with linearly polarized light source to boost the LCD efficiency. Moreover, this polarization preserving backlight offers high polarization efficiency (~77.8%), 2.4× on-axis luminance enhancement, and no need for extra optics films. The second approach is a LCD backlight system with simultaneous color/polarization recycling. We design a novel polarizing color filter with high transmittance ( \u3e 90%), low absorption loss (~3.3%), high extinction ratio (\u3e10,000:1) and large angular tolerance (up to ±50˚). This polarizing color filter can be used in LCD system to introduce the color/polarization recycling and accordingly boost LCD efficiency by ~3 times. These two approaches open new gateway for ultra-low power LCDs. In the final session of this dissertation, we demonstrate a low power and color vivid reflective liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) display with low viscosity liquid crystal mixture. Compared with commercial LC material, the new LC mixture offers ~4X faster response at 20oC and ~8X faster response at -20°C. This fast response LC material enables the field-sequential-color (FSC) driving for power saving. It also leads to several attractive advantages: submillisecond response time at room temperature, vivid color even at -20oC, high brightness, excellent ambient contrast ratio, and suppressed color breakup. With this material improvement, LCOS display can be promising for the emerging wearable display market