Planar leaky light-guides and couplers

A quantitative theory of light propagation in a dielectric slab guide with general cladding media is presented. It is based on a plane wave which bounces in a zigzag fashion along the guide as a result of total or partial reflections at the two surfaces of the film. Two mechanisms are considered which contribute to the attenuation of the guide: losses due to absorption in the slab and cladding materials, and radiation losses if the guide is a leaky one. We point out the significance of the Goos-Hänchen effect for all questions relating to the power flow in the slab guide. The theory is illustrated by discussing dispersion and attenuation of guides with various low-index and high-index claddings, operating above and below cutoff. The low-index leaky guide is considered particularly in detail. Its high attenuation by leakage can be reduced to practically acceptable values (<1d B/cm) by increasing the film thickness to ≳ 40λ. One application of this guide is in the leaky wave coupler. This coupler may be viewed as a prism-film coupler simplified by omission of the gap. It offers a new approach to the problem of broad-band coupling to thin-film light guides

Far infrared absorption of CsBr and CsI crystals doped with OH- and OD-

In CsBr:OH- both librational transitions and the “non Devonshire” line have been found. CsBr:OD- displays the expected isotope shift of a librator. Narrow lines in CsBr and CsI, observed directly above the two phonon lattice absorption, are tentatively explained as due to OH- aggregates

Self-generated and externally driven current oscillations in n-GaAs

Experimental investigations of self-generated and externally driven non-linear current oscillations due to impact ionization of shallow impurities in n-type GaAs at low temperatures are presented. The regular relaxation oscillations which appear at the onset of breakdown are destabilized by a magnetic field normal to the epitaxial layer and multifrequency oscillations and chaotic fluctuations following the Ruelle-Takens-Newhouse scenario can be found. Driving the self-generated oscillations with an external periodic bias voltage quasiperiodicity, mode locking, interaction and overlap of mode locked resonances and period doubling can be observed depending on frequency and amplitude of the external force. The reconstructed return maps, recorded phase diagrams and Devil's staircase agree with theoretical predictions based on the circle map and give new evidence of the universality of the transition from quasiperiodicity to chaos

Magnetoresistance of n-GaAs at filamentary current flow

A large number of sharp structures are observed in the 4.2 K magnetoresistance of n-GaAs biased above impurity breakdown in a regime where current flow is filamentary. Most of the structures cannot be attributed to spectral properties of the semiconductor such as impact excitation of shallow donors or the magnetoimpurity effect. Experimental results give evidence that these structures are caused by a redistribution of the filamentary current flow when one filament border is swept across an imperfection in the material

Nonlinear subgap photoconductivity of polycrystalline silicon

The photoconductance of polycrystalline silicon films at photon energies smaller than the band gap has been measured as a function of intensity applying a 1.3 μm wavelength semiconductor laser. The observed photosignal increases superlinearly at low intensities and saturates above about 1.5 W/cm−2. This distinct nonlinearity is caused by a significant energy dependence of optical to thermal cross sections of trap states in the band gap. Assuming a three‐level‐rate equation model, grain boundary trap densities were evaluated

Near-field induced FIR Josephson-detection by x-axis-oriented YBa_{2}Cu_{3}O_{7-d} -films

A novel approach to intrinsic Josephson-detection of far infrared radiation is reported utilizing near-zone field effects at electric contacts on c-axis oriented YBa2Cu3O7- films. While only a bolometric signal was observed focusing the radiation far off the contacts on c-axis normal films, irradiating the edge of contacts yielded an almost wavelength independent fast signal showing the characteristic intensity dependence of Josephson-detection. The signal is attributed to a c-axis parallel component of the electric radiation field being generated in the near-zone field of diffraction at the metallic contact structures

Visible light emission due to resonant CO_{2} excitation of dental hard tissue

Visible light emission of dental hard substances excited by high-power infrared pulses of a tunable TEA CO2 laser has been investigated. A clear correlation between observed visible light emission, plasma formation as well as ablation of dental hard tissue has been demonstrated. Both, the highly nonlinear infrared to visible upconversion process and the ablation efficiency show a sharp spectral resonance close to a vibrational mode of PO4 at 1090 cm-1 in dental enamel and dentin. The influence of strong infrared light impulses on dental hard tissue is examined by performing upconversion studies of visible light emission of human dental enamel and dentin. Our experimental setup allows one to determine the plasma formation threshold being important in dental surgery

Regular and chaotic current oscillations in n-type GaAs in transverse and longitudinal magnetic fields

Self-sustained current oscillations due to impurity breakdown in n-type GaAs epitaxial layers are reported for various magnetic-field strengths and orientations of the field with respect to the direction of current. In all cases relaxation oscillations at the onset of breakdown and formation of a current filament in the postbreakdown regime are observed. A magnetic field normal to the epitaxial layer destabilizes the filament and causes multifrequency oscillations and chaotic fluctuations. On the other hand, if the magnetic field lies in the plane of the layer the filamentary current flow is stable up to field strengths of 2 T

Cyclotron resonance photoconductivity of a two-dimensional electron gas in HgTe quantum wells

Far-infrared cyclotron resonance photoconductivity (CRP) is investigated in HgTe quantum wells (QWs) of various widths grown on (013) oriented GaAs substrates. It is shown that CRP is caused by the heating of two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). From the resonance magnetic field strength effective masses and their dependence on the carrier concentration is obtained. We found that the effective mass in each sample slightly increases from the value (0.0260 \pm 0.0005)m_0 at N_s = 2.2x10^11 cm^(-2) to (0.0335 \pm 0.0005)m_0 at N_s = 9.6x10^11 cm^(-2). Compared to determination of effective masses by the temperature dependence of magnitudes of the Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillations used so far in this material our measurements demonstrate that the CRP provides a more accurate (about few percents) tool. Combining optical methods with transport measurements we found that the transport time substantially exceeds the cyclotron resonance lifetime as well as the quantum lifetime which is the shortest.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figure

Notes on the submillimeter laser emission from cyanic compounds

From CH3CN and from a mixture of CH3CN and (CH3)2SO4 laser emission additional to that already reported in the literature has been found at 119μ, 310.4μ, 311.5μ, 334.4μ and 334.8μ