APL: Lasers, Optics, and Optoelectronics

Hybrid InP-based photonic crystal lasers on silicon on insulator wires

Y. Halioua, T. J. Karle, F. Raineri, P. Monnier, I. Sagnes et al.
We report on InP-based photonic crystal lasers operating at 1.585 [mu]m at room temperature, integrated with and evanescently coupled to silicon on insulator (SOI) waveguides. By optically pumping at 1.18 [mu]m through the SOI wires, pulsed laser emission from line defect photonic crystal waveguid ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 201119 (2009)] published Fri Nov 20, 2009.

Surface-plasmon mode hybridization in subwavelength microdisk lasers

R. Perahia, T. P. Mayer Alegre, A. H. Safavi-Naeini, and O. Painter
Hybridization of surface-plasmon and dielectric waveguide whispering-gallery modes are demonstrated in a semiconductor microdisk laser cavity of subwavelength proportions. A metal layer is deposited on top of the semiconductor microdisk, the radius of which is systematically varied to enable mode hy ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 201114 (2009)] published Fri Nov 20, 2009.

Resonant nanometric cross-shaped apertures: Single apertures versus periodic arrays

L. Lin, L. B. Hande, and A. Roberts
Here localized surface plasmon (LSP) resonances occurring inside cross-shaped apertures arranged in thin metallic films are investigated. It is shown that these resonances can be controlled by altering the geometry of the apertures, whereas surface plasmon polariton excitation and Wood anomalies ari ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 201116 (2009)] published Fri Nov 20, 2009.

Extremely broadened high-order harmonics generated by the femtosecond pulses propagating through the filaments in air

R. A. Ganeev and H. Kuroda
We demonstrate a considerable broadening of the harmonics generating in laser plasma using the laser pulses propagating through the filaments in air. A fourfold increase of harmonic bandwidth was achieved in the case of phase-modulated laser pulses, alongside with an increase in harmonic conversion ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 201117 (2009)] published Fri Nov 20, 2009.

On carrier spillover in c- and m-plane InGaN light emitting diodes

J. Lee, X. Li, X. Ni, U. Ozgur, H. Morkoc et al.
The internal quantum efficiency (IQE) and relative external quantum efficiency (EQE) in InGaN light-emitting diodes (LEDs) emitting at 400 nm with and without electron blocking layers (EBLs) on c-plane GaN and m-plane GaN were investigated in order to shed some light on any effect of polarization ch ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 201113 (2009)] published Fri Nov 20, 2009.

Study of an organic-inorganic hybrid columinescence system by photoacoustic method

Yue-tao Yang, Xiao-jun Liu, and Shu-yi Zhang
In this work, a columinescence system is found for lanthanide complexes Ln(p-ABA)HO (p-ABA: p-aminobenzoic acid) incorporated in silica matrix. It is found that the luminescence quantum yield of Tb emissions increases remarkably when partly replacing Tb(p-ABA)HO by Gd(p-ABA)HO in silica glass. Moreo ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 201115 (2009)] published Fri Nov 20, 2009.

Spectrally resolved confocal microscopy for laser mode imaging and beam characteristic investigations

W. Brezna and J. Smoliner
In this letter, confocal optical microscopy is used to investigate the intensity patterns of an infrared vertical cavity surface emitting laser in three dimensions with high spectral resolution. The measurements were performed between the near field (Fresnel) regime and the far field (Fraunhofer) re ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 201118 (2009)] published Fri Nov 20, 2009.

Control of free space propagation of Airy beams generated by quadratic nonlinear photonic crystals

Ido Dolev, Tal Ellenbogen, Noa Voloch-Bloch, and Ady Arie
We present experimentally the control of free space propagation of an Airy beam. This beam is generated by a nonlinear wave mixing process in an asymmetrically poled nonlinear photonic crystal. Changing the quasi-phase matching conditions, e.g., the crystal temperature or pump wavelength, alters the ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 201112 (2009)] published Fri Nov 20, 2009.

Reflection-mode sensing using optical microresonators

Barry Koch, Yasha Yi, Jun-Ying Zhang, Stephen Znameroski, and Terry Smith
The authors present an approach for applying optical microring resonators to sensing. The approach relies on the interaction of the resonator with a nanoparticle taggant, which can induce coupling between forward and backward propagating traveling-wave resonant modes of the device. In the convention ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 201111 (2009)] published Thu Nov 19, 2009.

Terahertz lasing from silicon by infrared Raman scattering on bismuth centers

S. G. Pavlov, U. Bottger, R. Eichholz, N. V. Abrosimov, H. Riemann et al.
Stimulated emission at terahertz frequencies (4.55.8 THz) has been realized by electronic Raman scattering of infrared radiation on bismuth donor centers in silicon at low temperatures. The Stokes shift of the observed laser emission is 40.53 meV which corresponds to the bismuth intracenter transiti ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 201110 (2009)] published Wed Nov 18, 2009.

Shape-dependent nonlinear absorption and relaxation in CuInS nanocrystals

N. Venkatram, Sudip K. Batabyal, Lu Tian, Jagadese J. Vittal, and Wei Ji
We report the observation of nonlinear-optical response and relaxation in copper indium sulfide (CuInS) crystalline nanoparticles and nanorods with femtosecond Z-scans and transient absorption measurements. Dependent on the size and shape, two-photon absorption and saturation in the one-photon absor ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 201109 (2009)] published Wed Nov 18, 2009.

Direct measurement of auger recombination in InGaN/GaN quantum wells and its impact on the efficiency of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well light emitting diodes

M. Zhang, P. Bhattacharya, J. Singh, and J. Hinckley
The Auger recombination coefficient in InGaN/GaN quantum wells, emitting at 407 nm has been determined from large signal modulation measurements on lasers in which these quantum wells form the gain region. A value of 1.5 x 10 cm s is determined for the Auger coefficient at room temperature, which i ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 201108 (2009)] published Wed Nov 18, 2009.

Extended depth of focus in a particle field measurement using a single-shot digital hologram

Wen Chen, Chenggen Quan, and Cho Jui Tay
We propose a method to extend the depth of focus in a particle field measurement using a single-shot digital hologram. A focal plane is obtained for each pixel based on an entropy method, and a depth map is subsequently extracted. A synthesized extended focused image is determined correspondingly us ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 201103 (2009)] published Mon Nov 16, 2009.

Blue light-emitting diodes with a roughened backside fabricated by wet etching

Chia-Feng Lin, Chun-Min Lin, Kuei-Ting Chen, Wan-Chun Huang, Ming-Shiou Lin et al.
The InGaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with a roughened patterned backside on the N-face GaN surface were fabricated through a crystallographic etching process to increase light-extraction efficiency. After laser decomposition, laser scribing, and a lateral crystallographic wet etching process ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 201102 (2009)] published Mon Nov 16, 2009.

Optical nanorod antennas as dispersive one-dimensional FabryPerot resonators for surface plasmons

Ertugrul Cubukcu and Federico Capasso
Resonant optical nanoantennas exhibit a different length scaling due to the surface plasmons compared to their radio frequency counterparts. In this letter, we address this difference by calculating the wavelength-dependent effective mode index n for a cylindrical one-dimensional gold nanowire waveg ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 201101 (2009)] published Mon Nov 16, 2009.

Nanofabrication of diffractive elements for soft x-ray and extreme ultraviolet applications using ion beam lithography

Johannes Lenz, Thomas Wilhein, and Stephan Irsen
In the soft x-ray (SXR) and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) spectral region, optical elements are mainly based on diffractive structures. We report on experiments showing the fabrication of such elements using ion beam lithography. This allows single-step milling of freestanding transmission as well as re ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 191118 (2009)] published Fri Nov 13, 2009.

Polarization splitting of discrete states in square shaped organic photonic dots

E. Siebert-Henze, M. Langner, M. Sudzius, S. I. Hintschich, H. Frob et al.
We analyze the polarization dependence of the discrete photonic states in an organic microcavity system that is laterally confined on the micron scale. Via microscopic photoluminescence measurements on square shaped photonic dots, we demonstrate a polarization splitting that increases up to 10 meV f ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 191116 (2009)] published Fri Nov 13, 2009.

Combined whispering gallery mode laser from hexagonal ZnO microcavities

J. Dai, C. X. Xu, R. Ding, K. Zheng, Z. L. Shi et al.
The hexagonal ZnO microrods were employed as whispering gallery mode (WGM) microcavities to obtain ultraviolet laser at room temperature. For each individual ZnO microrod, the laser presented low threshold and high quality Q factor and clear WGM spectral structure. The lasing spectra from different ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 191117 (2009)] published Fri Nov 13, 2009.

Dual-microring-resonator interference sensor

Huaxiang Yi, D. S. Citrin, Yao Chen, and Zhiping Zhou
Dual-microring-resonator interference with the microrings on separate arms of a MachZehnder interferometer is shown to provide the basis for high-performance sensors. The output spectrum, which depends on the overlap of the resonances of the two microring resonators, depends sensitively on the reson ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 191112 (2009)] published Thu Nov 12, 2009.

Incidence dependence of negative index in asymmetric cut wire pairs metamaterials

Shah Nawaz Burokur, Thomas Lepetit, and Andre de Lustrac
Metamaterials made of asymmetric cut wire pairs have experimentally demonstrated a negative refractive index at microwave frequencies. In this letter, we begin by presenting the analogy between asymmetric cut wire pairs and S-shaped metamaterials by a simple unifying approach. Then, using simulation ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 191114 (2009)] published Thu Nov 12, 2009.

Chip-based microcavities coupled to nitrogen-vacancy centers in single crystal diamond

Paul E. Barclay, Kai-Mei C. Fu, Charles Santori, and Raymond G. Beausoleil
Optical coupling of nitrogen-vacancy centers in single-crystal diamond to an on-chip microcavity is demonstrated. The microcavity is fabricated from a hybrid gallium phosphide and diamond material system and supports whispering gallery mode resonances with spectrometer resolution limited Q>25 000. ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 191115 (2009)] published Thu Nov 12, 2009.

Fiber laser generating switchable radially and azimuthally polarized beams with 140 mW output power at 1.6 [mu]m wavelength

Renjie Zhou, Baldemar Ibarra-Escamilla, Joseph W. Haus, Peter E. Powers, and Qiwen Zhan
We report a fiber laser design that is capable of producing switchable radially and azimuthally polarized beams at 1.6 [mu]m. A c-cut calcite crystal within a three-lens telescope is inserted in the cavity of an erbium doped fiber laser design. Due to the axially symmetric birefringence of the calc ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 191111 (2009)] published Thu Nov 12, 2009.

Subwavelength focusing behavior of high numerical-aperture phase Fresnel zone plates under various polarization states

Rakesh G. Mote, S. F. Yu, W. Zhou, and X. F. Li
An analytical model is developed to study the subwavelength focusing characteristics of a binary phase Fresnel zone plate (FZP). The model shows that high numerical-aperture phase FZP under the illumination of linear polarized light produces rotationally asymmetric focal spot with beamwidth varying ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 191113 (2009)] published Thu Nov 12, 2009.

Superconducting nanowire single-photon detector in an optical cavity for front-side illumination

Burm Baek, Jeffrey A. Stern, and Sae Woo Nam
We have integrated superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) with an optical cavity design for front-side illumination. Our optical cavity design increases the coupling efficiency of light to the nanowire detector and enables straightforward proximity fiber-coupling for a multichanne ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 191110 (2009)] published Thu Nov 12, 2009.

Local tuning of photonic crystal nanocavity modes by laser-assisted oxidation

H. S. Lee, S. Kiravittaya, S. Kumar, J. D. Plumhof, L. Balet et al.
The authors demonstrate a simple method to achieve local tuning of optical modes in GaAs photonic crystal nanocavities by continuous wave laser-assisted oxidation in air atmosphere. By irradiation with a focused laser beam at power levels of a few tens of milliwatts, photonic crystal nanocavity mode ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 191109 (2009)] published Wed Nov 11, 2009.

Surface plasmon excitation of amplified spontaneous emission from laser dye molecules embedded in polymer matrix

O. Popov, V. Lirtsman, and D. Davidov
We report on amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) from a polymer waveguide film containing laser dye molecules (active layer) excited by surface plasmon. The polymer waveguide is deposited on an intermediate polymer layer on top of a metal film on a prism, forming a planar KretschmannRaether configu ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 191108 (2009)] published Wed Nov 11, 2009.

Dependence of polarization splitting on mode tuning in microcavities

F. Becker, M. Langner, H. Frob, V. G. Lyssenko, K. Leo et al.
We present an in-depth analysis of the angle and mode tuning dependence of the polarization splitting in detuned organic microcavities. The system consists of highly reflecting dielectric mirrors comprising a continuous wedge-shaped cavity layer of 4,4-bis(N-carbazole)-biphenyl, doped with 2 wt % o ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 191106 (2009)] published Tue Nov 10, 2009.

Electroluminescence induced by photoluminescence excitation in GaInN/GaN light-emitting diodes

Martin F. Schubert, Qi Dai, Jiuru Xu, Jong Kyu Kim, and E. Fred Schubert
Optical emission resulting from 405 nm selective photoexcitation of carriers in the GaInN/GaN quantum well (QW) active region of a light-emitting diode reveals two recombination channels. The first recombination channel is the recombination of photoexcited carriers in the GaInN QWs. The second recom ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 191105 (2009)] published Tue Nov 10, 2009.

Experimental verification of broadband invisibility using a cloak based on inductor-capacitor networks

Xiu Liu, Chao Li, Kan Yao, Xiankun Meng, Wei Feng et al.
We demonstrate the experimental realization of an invisibility cloak based on inductor-capacitor (L-C) transmission line (TL) networks. The anisotropic medium parameters of a cloak in the cylindrical basis are controlled independently by three branches of the L-C unit cell, which leads to a full-par ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 191107 (2009)] published Tue Nov 10, 2009.

The study of plasma plume induced by pulsed laser ablation of silicon

Qing-Ju Huang and Jian-Wen Chen
Some photographs of laser-induced silicon plasma plume are obtained through synchronous photographs. The experimental results show that the plasma plume has different color properties at different areas. Each area of the plasma plume decreases gradually as gas pressure increases, and color becomes l ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 191104 (2009)] published Tue Nov 10, 2009.

Periodically poled KTiOAsO for highly efficient midinfrared optical parametric devices

Andrius Zukauskas, Nicky Thilmann, Valdas Pasiskevicius, Fredrik Laurell, and Carlota Canalias
We demonstrate high pattern-fidelity periodic poling of KTiOAsO at room temperature. The periodically poled crystal shows a d of 10.1 pm/V and is used in an optical parametric oscillator pumped at 1064 nm to generate parametric radiation at 1538 and 3452 nm with a conversion efficiency of 45%. ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 191103 (2009)] published Mon Nov 9, 2009.

High reflectivity airgap distributed Bragg reflectors realized by wet etching of AlInN sacrificial layers

Alexei Altoukhov, Jacques Levrat, Eric Feltin, Jean-Francois Carlin, Antonino Castiglia et al.
The authors report on the achievement of a vertically oriented three pair airgap/GaN distributed Bragg reflector realized by controlled oxidation and wet-chemical etching of AlInN sacrificial layers. Microreflectivity measurements exhibit high peak reflectivity values of 87% around 500 nm after the ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 191102 (2009)] published Mon Nov 9, 2009.

Two-state competition in 1.3 [mu]m multilayer InAs/InGaAs quantum dot lasers

Q. Cao, S. F. Yoon, C. Z. Tong, C. Y. Ngo, C. Y. Liu et al.
The competition of ground state (GS) and excited state (ES) is investigated from the as-grown and thermally annealed 1.3 [mu]m ten-layer p-doped InAs/GaAs quantum dot (QD) lasers. The modal gain competition between GS and ES are measured and analyzed around the ES threshold characteristics. Our res ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 191101 (2009)] published Mon Nov 9, 2009.