High-performance, large-area optical gratings for applications like chirped pulse amplification, gravitational wave astronomy, and X-ray optics require sub-nanometer line placement control over several cm2. Electron beam lithography with a variable shaped beam (VSB) is well suited but limited by tool-dependent…
In this study, we investigate analytically and experimentally the roles of quasi-linearly polarized (LP), hybrid, plasmonic and photonic modes in optical detection and excitation with aperture tips in scanning near-field optical microscopy. Aperture tips are tapered and metal-coated optical fibers where…
We designed and fabricated an all-reflective 50/50 beam splitter based on a dielectric grating. This beam splitter was used to set up a power-recycled Michelson interferometer with a finesse of about F PR ≈ 880. Aspects of the diffractive beam splitter as well as of the interferometer design are discussed.
We report ultrabroadband optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) with an output pulse energy of up to 250 μJ from an OPCPA stage pumped by short pulses of ∼100 fs duration at 395 nm wavelength. In order to generate ultrahigh-power pulses in the few-cycle regime, such a short-pulse-pumped…
We present mechanical Q -factors (quality factors) of a crystalline quartz test mass with a nano-structured surface, measured in the temperature regime from 5 to 300 K. The nano-structure was a grating with a period of 2 μm and a depth of about 0.1 μm. Comparative measurements were performed on the plain…
We investigate dispersion properties of photonic crystal waveguides in a low-index material system. The modes above the light line, of a waveguide consisting of one row of missing holes (W1), exhibit high losses due to out-of-plane radiation. In contrast, the index-guided modes below the light line show…
All-reflective interferometry based on nano-structured diffraction gratings offers new possibilities for gravitational wave detection. We investigate an all-reflective Fabry-Perot interferometer concept in 2nd order Littrow mount. The input-output relations for such a resonator are derived treating the…