Wide-angle and broadband graded-refractive-index antireflection coatings

The design and fabrication of graded-refractive-index （GRIN） antireflection （AR） coatings with wide-angle and broadband characteristics are demonstrated. The optimization of the graded-index profiles with a genetic algorithm is used in the design of the GRIN AR coatings. The average reflectance over a wavelength range from 400 nm to 800 nm and angles of incidence from 0° to 80° could be reduced to only 0.1% by applying an optimized AR coating onto BK7 glass. The optimization of step-graded GRIN AR coating is then further investigated in detail. A two-layer AR coating was deposited by electron beam evaporation with glancing angle deposition technology, and the positional homogeneity was improved by depositing the film from two opposite directions. The microstructure of the AR coating was investigated by scanning electron microscopy, and the residual reflectances of the coating sample are in agreement with theoretical calculations. The optimized GRIN AR coatings are beneficial to increasing the efficiency of light utilization.

Improvement in refractive-index change in LiNbO3：Ce：Cu by applying an external electric field

By jointly solving two-centre material equations with a nonzero external electric field and coupled-wave equations, we have numerically studied the dependence of the non-volatile holographic recording in LiNbO3：Ce：Cu crystals on the external electric field. The dominative photovoltaic effect of the non-volatile holographic recording in doubly doped LiNbO3 crystals is directly verified. And an external electric field that is applied in the positive direction along the c-axis （or a large one in the negative direction of the c-axis） in the recording phase and another one that is applied in the negative direction of the c-axis in the fixing phase are both proved to benefit strong photorefractive performances. Experimental verifications are given with a small electric field applied externally.

A High-Sensitivity Refractive-Index Sensor Based on Plasmonic Waveguides Asymmetrically Coupled with a Nanodisk Resonator

A high-sensitivity plasmonic refractive-index sensor based on the asymmetrical coupling of two metal-insulator- metal waveguides with a nanodisk resonator is proposed and simulated in the finite-difference time domain. Both analytic and simulated results show that the resonance wavelengths of the sensor have an approximate linear relationship with the refractive index of the materials which are filled into the slit waveguides and the disk- shaped resonator. The working mechanism of this sensor is exactly due to the linear relationship, based on which tile refractive index of the materials unknown can be obtained from the detection of the resonance wavelength. The measurement sensitivity can reach as high as 6.45 × 10-7, which is nearly five times higher than the results reported in the recent literature [Opt. Commun. 300 （2013） 265]. With an optimum design, the sensing value can be further improved, and it can be widely applied into the biological sensing. Tile sensor working for temperature sensing is also analyzed.

Tight Focusing of Radially and Azimuthally Polarized Vortex Beams through a Dielectric Interface

Based on vectorial Debye theory, tight focusing of radially and azimuthally polarized vortex beams passing through a dielectric interface are studied. The intensity distribution in the focal region is illustrated by numerical calculations. We show the influence of numerical-aperture （NA） on the full-width at half maximum （FWHM） of the focal spot or the focal hole. It has been found that compared with the azimuthally polarized Besse^Gaussian （BG） beams, the longitudinal component in the z direction of the radially polarized BG beams has no influence on the FWHM of the focal spot and hole, but enhances the total light intensity.

Temperature-Insensitive Chemical Sensor with Twin Bragg Gratings in an Optical Fibre

To reduce temperature sensitivity of the fibre Bragg grating （FBG） chemical sensor, a simple method is proposed by measuring the peak wavelength difference between an etched FBG and an un-etched one in an optical fibre. Thermal characteristics and chemical sensitivity of the sensor are experimentally investigated. The experimental results indicate that the etched FBG and the rest one have almost the same thermal response, and concentration changes of the surrounding chemical solutions can be detected by measuring the peak wavelength difference between them. The sensor has been used to measure the concentrations of propylene glycol solutions and sugar solutions, and it could detect 0.7% and 0.45% concentration changes for them with an optical spectrum analyser in resolution of 10pm.

A Polydisperse Sphere Model Describing the Propagation of Light in Biological Tissue

A polydisperse sphere model with the complex refractive index is employed to describe the propagation of light in biological tissue. The scattering coefficient, absorption coefficient and scattering phase function are calculated. At the same time, the inverse problem on retrieving the particles size distribution, imaginary part of the refractive index and number density of scatterers is investigated. The result shows that the retrieval scheme together with the Chahine algorithm is effective in dealing with such an inverse problem. It is also clarified that a group of parameters including the scattering coefficient, absorption coefficient and phase function are associated with another group including the refractive index, particle size distribution and number density of scatterers, which is a problem described in two different ways and the anisotropy factor is not an independent variable, but is determined by the phase function.

Photopolymerization-Induced Two-Beam Coupling and Light-Induced Scattering in Polymethyl Methacrylate

Light amplification due to two-beam coupling is realized in doped polymethyl methacrylate （PMMA） glasses. A coupling gain as large as 14 cm^-1 is obtained. The dynamic behaviour of absorption and light-induced scattering due to the process of photopolymerization are also studied. The results show that the amplification and its dynamic process enable possible applications of PMMA in optical devices.

Resolution Ability and Surface Bright Spots of a Lossy Left-handed Material Slab

The imaging quality of a lossy left-handed material （LHM） slab is studied. The exact solution is obtained for the interaction of a monochromatic source with a lossy LHM slab by Fourier integrals in wave number domain. It is found that a small amount of loss may have a strong suppression of the super-resolution ability. However, the resolution of a lossy slab can still be better than a conventional lens because the evanescent wave can still be partly restored if the loss is small enough. The localized field with large amplitude （surthce bright spots） near the interfaces of the slab is related to the resonance of the coupling between surface waves at the interfaces, The evanescent wave restoration and the surface bright spots are two relevant phenomena. The distance of the bright spots is close to the half of the resolution length.

Refractive-index change and sensitivity improvement in holographic recording in LiNbO_3:Ce:Cu crystals with green light

Nonvolatile holographic recording is performed with green light in LiNbO3：Ce：Cu crystals. The refractiveindex change and the recording sensitivity are times better than those obtained by recording with red light, and higher optical fixing efficiency is obtained. Correspondingly, theoretical investigations are given.

Advances in Optical Fiber Bragg Grating Sensor Technologies

The authors review their recent advances in the development of optical fiber Bragg grating （FBG） sensor technologies. After a brief review of the fiber grating sensors, several newly developed FBG sensors are described. With the continuous development of fiber materials, microstructures and post-processing technologies, FBG sensors are still creative after the first demonstration of permanent gratings thirty years ago.

Optical Sensing Based on Light Coupling Between Two Parallel Long-Period Fiber Gratings

A new optical intensity-based sensing mechanism for the measurement of refractive index and minute displacement is proposed in this paper, which is based on modifying the amount of light coupled between two parallel long-period fiber gratings. The characteristics of this sensing mechanism with experiments and simulation results are demonstrated.

Analysis of a conformal invisible device

We perform a semi-analytical calculation of the field distributions of a conformal invisible device via mode expansions. For a discrete set of frequencies in the regime of wave optics, the conformal invisible device is perfectly transparent, which stems from the special conformal mapping and the refractive- index profile of the Mikaelian lens.

Effects of Exposure Conditions on the Spectral Characteristics of Uniform Fiber Bragg Gratings

During the fabrication of uniform fiber gratings, the exposure conditions have effects on the reflection and transmission spectral characteristics of gratings. The reflectivity of fiber gratirgs is nonlinear as a function of both the exposure fluency and exposure time. The shorter-wavelength loss, the change of the bandwidth and the shift of the center wavelength are also investigated in this paper.