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Funding Information: Jenny ja Antti Wihurin Rahasto (00210075); Academy of Finland (308394); Aalto Science Institute AScI; Academy of Finland Flagship Programme, Photonics Research and Innovation (PREIN). Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Optica Open Access Publishing Agreement Light sheets are optical beam-like fields with one-dimensional intensity localization. Ideally, the field intensity should be independent of the longitudinal and one of the transverse coordinates, which is difficult to achieve even for truncated light sheets. In this work, we present a general theoretical framework for intensity-interferometric continuous wave (cw) light sheets formed by overlapping the interference fringe patterns of mutually uncorrelated frequency components of the field. We show that the key parameters of the light sheets can be calculated using simple analytical expressions. We propose a practical way to generate such light sheets with the help of prisms and demonstrate numerically the abilities of the method. Both bright and dark light sheets with an exceptionally small thickness and long divergence-free propagation distance are possible to generate. We also show that the transverse profile of the generated light sheets can be shaped by modifying the spectrum of the light. We believe ourfindings advance the beam-engineering technology and its applications.

Spatial coherence is a fundamental property of light with many applications. However, if a light source is spatially incoherent and structured, its near-field coherence is difficult to evaluate directly because of the complexity of the emitted random light. In this work, we propose a general approach to calculate the near-field mutual intensity and transverse coherence length of propagating radiation from a periodically structured incoherent source using optical reciprocity. If the structure period is subwavelength and much smaller than the source, the mutual intensity reduces to a Fourier transform of the angular intensity spectrum of the radiation. Tailoring the near-field spatial coherence of incoherent sources by structuring can be used, e.g., for applications in optical sensing and imaging.

Some imaging techniques reduce the effect of optical aberrations either by detecting and actively compensating for them or by utilizing interferometry. A microscope based on a Mach-Zehnder interferometer has been recently introduced to allow obtaining sharp images of light-transmitting objects in the presence of strong aberrations. However, the method is not capable of imaging microstructures on opaque substrates. In this work, we use a Michelson interferometer to demonstrate imaging of reflecting and back-scattering objects on any substrate with micrometer-scale resolution. The system is remarkably insensitive to both deterministic and random aberrations that can completely destroy the object's intensity image.

It is necessary to understand the photoinitiated curing process, which occurs in vat photopolymerization resins during exposure, to develop high quality end products. Usually a curable resin contains photosensitizers, crosslinkable monomers and neutral absorbers, which have different roles in the curing process. The photosensitizer initiates the process by absorbing a photon and creating a chain initiator species, which causes the monomers to polymerize, crosslink and form a solid shape. While a photoinitiator is essential to achieve curing, a neutral absorber is required to control the cure depth. Short cure depth results in thin layers and high resolution end products, whereas large cure depth increases manufacturing speed. Thus, information about the absorptive properties of both the initiator and the absorber is crucial for the development of additive manufacturing techniques that are based on photoinitiated curing. To investigate these absorptive properties, a working curve method is applied with a mask projection vat photopolymerization apparatus to determine the absorption cross-sections of Irgacure 784 and Disperse Orange 13 and compare the results to ones obtained with spectrophotometry. With both methods, the results for each substance are within the same order of magnitude, but photobleaching seems to affect the vat photopolymerization results.

We describe a stabilized homodyne full-field interferometer capable of measuring vertical surface deformations of microstructures in the time domain. The interferometer is stabilized to a chosen operation point by obtaining a feedback signal from a non-moving, freely selectable, reference region on the sample surface. The stabilized full-field interferometer enables detection of time-dependent changes in the surface profile with nanometer scale vertical resolution, while the temporal resolution of the measurement is ultimately limited by the refresh rate of the camera only. The lateral resolution of the surface deformation is determined by the combination of the imaging optics together with the pixel size of the camera. The setup is used to measure the deformation of an Aluminum nitride membrane as a function of time-dependent pressure change. The data analysis allows for unambiguous determination of surface deformations over multiple fringes of the interferogram, hence enabling the study of a wide range of physical phenomena with varying magnitude of vertical surface movement.

In an optically absorbing or amplifying linear medium, the energy flow density of interfering optical waves is in general periodically modulated in space. This makes the wave transmission through a material boundary, as described by the Fresnel transmission coefficients, nonreciprocal and apparently violating the energy conservation law. The modulation has been previously described in connection to ordinary homogeneous nonmagnetic materials. In this work, we extend the description to nanomaterials with designed structural units that can be magnetic at optical frequencies. We find that in such a “metamaterial” the modulation in energy flow can be used to enhance optical far-field emission in spite of the fact that the material is highly absorbing. We also demonstrate a nanomaterial design that absorbs light, but simultaneously eliminates the power flow modulation and returns the reciprocity, which is impossible to achieve with a nonmagnetic material. We anticipate that these unusual optical effects can be usedto increase the efficiency of nanostructured light emitters and absorbers, such as light-emitting diodes and solar cells.

Wave retarders, including quarter- and half-wave plates, are used in many optical systems for polarization conversion. They are usually realized with anisotropic crystalline materials. However, much thinner and possibly also less expensive wave plates can be made of micro- and nanostructures. We present a new way to create thin-film optical retarders based on a highly birefringent metamaterial. The wave plate is capable of low-loss, broadband operation, which we verify both numerically and experimentally. Owing to the remarkable simplicity of our design, the wave plates operating on the proposed principle can meet the requirements of large-scale production and find widespread application in optics and photonics.

We describe advanced methods to design anisotropic and spatially dispersive optical metamaterials for controlling propagation and radiation of light. Our methods allow one to use remarkably accurate semi-analytical calculations that make it possible to consider the interaction of light with large metamaterial structures.

The ongoing rapid development of digital camera technology together with increasing computing power enabling fast image analysis has opened up possibilities to further advance the performance of full-field interferometry. We present a software-based stabilization method for stroboscopic homodyne full-field interferometry that enables phase sensitive absolute-amplitude measurements of surface vibrations in microelectromechanical devices. The reference signal for the stabilization is obtained from a freely selectable region in the acquired interference images, resulting in a compact interferometer design without the need for additional optical components for monitoring the operation point. The proposed stabilization method is implemented in an LED-based stroboscopic Michelson-type full-field interferometer. To demonstrate the performance of the setup, an out-of-plane vibration field at 12 MHz in a square-plate silicon resonator is characterized. The data analysis reveals that a minimum detectable amplitude of less than 30 pm is achieved in the measurement. These first results already demonstrate the potential of the software-stabilization concept and serve to advance the detection of low-amplitude surface vibrations with full-field interferometry. [2014-0355]

Spatial dispersion is an intriguing property of essentially all nanostructured optical media. In particular, it makes optical waves with equal frequencies and polarizations have different wavelengths, if they propagate in different directions. This can offer new approaches to control light radiation and propagation. Spatially dispersive nanomaterials, such as metamaterials, are often treated in terms of wave parameters, such as refractive index and impedance retrieved from reflection and transmission coefficients of the material at each incidence angle. Usually, however, the waves are approximated as transverse, which simplifies the description, but yields wrong results, if spatial dispersion or optical anisotropy is significant. In this work, we present a method to calculate the wave parameters of a general spatially dispersive and optically anisotropic medium without applying such an approximation. The method allows one to evaluate the true impedances and field vectors of the effective waves, obtaining thusthe true light intensity and energy propagation direction in the medium. The equations are applied to several examples of spatially dispersive and anisotropic materials. The method introduces new insights into optics of nanostructured media and extends the design of such media towards optical phenomena involving significant spatial dispersion.

Spatial dispersion makes optical properties of materials depend on the direction of light propagation. The effect can be applied to control optical emission by sources embedded in such media. We propose a method to determine the radiation pattern of essentially any emitter located in a general spatially dispersive and optically anisotropic medium. The method is based on a decomposition of the source into waves of electric current, each creating optical plane waves whose properties are determined by the wave parameters, the refractive index, and impedance. The method is computationally fast and very accurate even in strongly spatially dispersive plasmonic metamaterials. In particular, we observe large modification of dipole emission in a bifacial and a diffraction-compensating metamaterial. The method is applicable to a large variety of nanostructured materials and, therefore, we believe that it can find numerous applications in nano-optics.

In projection stereolithography, the cure depth and thereby the layer thickness in the manufacturing process may be varied by changing the operation wavelength. The change can be made even in the middle of the manufacturing process, which opens up possibilities for additional flexibility and speed-up of the process.In this paper, we investigate how the penetration depth of the curing light in the resin depends on the wavelength. The measurements were performed for wavelengths between 400 nm and 550 nm using a standard commercial resin. The penetration depth was found to almost double when moving from the short wavelengths to the long ones.

The field of plasmonics allows for confinement and control of light on the nanoscale. Due to potentially strong resonant interactions that light can have with metal nanoscale structures, metals are a good candidate to tailor interactions with light, e.g., periodic arrays of subwavelength metal structures can support extremely narrow resonances and show enhanced transmission. The field of plasmonics has evolved from using simple geometries to the desire to create complex nanostructures for improved control. The availability of fabrication techniques that provide for complex structures, however, is paired with the seemingly inevitable increase in complexity of fabrication techniques themselves. We present a facile and scalable method for the fabrication of periodic arrays of unique three-dimensional subwavelength-sized structures such as tapered holes and pyramidically shaped subwavelength-sized particles. The procedure consists of holographic inscription of a two-dimensional surface-relief grating in an azobenzene-containing polymer film, evaporative gold deposition and broad-beam ion milling of the relief structure. The method allows the fabrication of highly uniform arrays with tunable lattice parameters and dimensions over large sample areas. The optical response of the fabricated structures is determined experimentally and through simulation, which confirm the unique plasmonic response of the structures. While the proposed fabrication method has clear benefits for plasmonics, it could easily be applied also in other fields, for example by using other coating materials.

We consider a highly anisotropic metamaterial structure, composed of parallel metal nanostripes, and show that a thin layer of the material can be used as a tunable partial polarizer. The transmittance of the structure for TE-polarized waves depends strongly on the incidence angle, while for TM-polarized waves, it stays high and essentially constant. In particular, using the structure, the degree of polarization of a partially polarized or unpolarized light can be tuned by changing the incidence angle. The TE-wave transmittance drops from, c.a., 1 to 0 when the incidence angle increases by 5 deg only, owing to the presence of an unusual higher-order odd-symmetric TM mode that we have revealed in the structure. The tuning can be made smoother by introducing another layer of a similar metal-nanostripe structure on top of the first one. The new design allows the TE-wave transmittance to decrease gradually towards 0 with the incidence angle increasing from 0 to about 30 deg. Our structures serve as an essential optical component for studies involving partially polarized light.

While nanoscale local enhancement of fluorescence is a well-studied phenomenon, enhancement of far-field radiation of large-area samples using nanostructures has been explored much less. In this work, we demonstrate planar nanostructures with exceptionally high far-field intensity enhancement factors and in addition show that the enhancement can be made controllable via the polarization state of the pump light. We also find that, counterintuitively, the Purcell effect plays only a small part in the observed far-field enhancement. The results of these studies can be applied, for example, in thin-film optical emitters, fluorescence sensors, and wide-field fluorescence microscopy.

Metal micro- and nanostructures for optical and electronic applications are typically fabricated by means of interferometric optical or electron-beam lithographies using conventional photo- or electron-beam resists. In this work, we report on fabrication of periodic nanostructures of gold by exploiting photoinduced surface-relief gratings in an azobenzene-functionalized polymer film as masks for reactive ion etching of the metal. The proposed technique provides a convenient, fast and flexible alternative to photoresist-based lithography for fabricating metal nanostructures of large surface area. Owing to the fact that the azo-polymer is sensitive to the polarization rather than the intensity modulation of the exposing light, the technique is particularly suitable for patterning highly reflective surfaces.

We introduce a fast and cost-effective technique to fabricate large-area periodically nanopatterned metal samples and apply this technique to create reflective nano-grid wave plates for optical wavelengths. The technique makes use of azo-polymer-based interference lithography and a special imprint method that enables creating large-area metal nanopatterns with high vertical walls. We fabricate and experimentally test a gold nano-grid wave plate that operates as reflective λ/4 -plate for λ = 604 nm and λ/2 -plate for λ = 997 nm.

Subwavelength-sized, periodically arranged holes in an opaque metal film have gained much attention since 1998, when Ebbesen et al. first reported the phenomenon of enhanced transmission of light through such a hole-array structure. Certain wavelengths show distinctly higher transmission than what would be expected based simply on the number of holes and the transmission of a single subwavelength hole, a phenomenon commonly attributed to different plasmonic modes in nanohole arrays. Traditionally, nanoscale holes and slits in metal films have been fabricated via electron-beam lithography or focused ion beam milling. Typically, finite hole arrays up to 50 μm in size with high control over hole size, shape, periodicity and resolution can be created with these methods. However, EBL and FIB become very costly and time-consuming to make larger-sized hole arrays and are not suitable for low-cost mass production. Herein, we exploit surface patterns on azopolymer films for making highly ordered and uniform arrays of nanoholes and nanoislands in thin gold films. The nanostructures can be created by employing azopolymer surface patterns as a template for metal deposition, after which the metal surface is subjected to large-area ion milling. Azopolymer-based surface patterning provides an easy way to vary the size and periodicity of the structures, which are manufactured homogeneously over large areas. The largest possible size of the structures depends merely on the size of the optical inscription beam and the used ion milling apparatus.

Cancellation of optical diffraction is an intriguing phenomenon enabling optical fields to preserve their transverse intensity profiles upon propagation. In this work, we introduce a metamaterial design that exhibits this phenomenon for three-dimensional optical beams. As an advantage over other diffraction-compensating materials, our metamaterial is impedance-matched to glass, which suppresses optical reflection at the glass-metamaterial interface. The material is designed for beams formed by TM-polarized plane-wave components. We show, however, that unpolarized optical images with arbitrary shapes can be transferred over remarkable distances in the material without distortion. We foresee multiple applications of our results in integrated optics and optical imaging. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America

We apply our recently developed analytical and numerical calculation techniques to design a low-loss optical metamaterial that eliminates optical diffraction for three-dimensional optical fields. The diffraction is suppressed for light propagating along the normal to the metamaterial surface and formed of TM-polarized plane-wave components. The effect is demonstrated by an example of divergence-free propagation of a radially polarized Laguerre-Gaussian beam. We also show that arbitrary optical images can be transferred through the material without distortion, if they are originally circularly polarized or unpolarized. Upon propagation, the images lose their TE-polarized components, but their shapes remain intact. Hence, the material acts as a new type of an optical polarizer.

We experimentally demonstrate the creation of a stable surface trap for colloidal microparticles in a high-intensity evanescent optical field that is produced by total internal reflection of two counter-propagating and mutually incoherent laser beams. While the particles confined in the trap undergo fast Brownian motion, they never “stick” to the surface – not even at high optical powers – but rather levitate above the surface. If many particles are stored in the trap, they tend to form a well ordered self-organized array. We apply a numerical model based on the general energy-momentum tensor formalism to evaluate the overall optical force acting on a trapped particle. The optical-field parameters are calculated using the finite element method. The simulations show that for small particles a sharp repulsive potential at the surface – required for the levitation – can have neither optical nor light-induced thermal origin. Among the possible non-optical forces, electrostatic double-layer repulsion is often considered to be the origin of the levitation. We find, however, that the experimentally observed levitation of small particles in a high-intensity evanescent-wave trap cannot be explained by this effect.

We report on phenol–pyridine hydrogen-bonded supramolecular polymer–azobenzene complexes made from a newly designed polar bisazobenzene chromophore. Because of the substitution with a polar nitro group, the chromophore possesses an extremely broad absorption band, spanning from near-UV up to 650 nm. Moreover, the inclusion of two methoxy groups to the central benzene ring prevents excessive chromophore–chromophore intermolecular interactions and provides advantageous size-related properties. Together, these features of the prepared photoresponsive polymer materials enable efficient inscription of (i) photoinduced birefringence with outstanding stability at various chromophore concentrations and (ii) surface-relief grating formation over a wide range of writing wavelengths from 405 to 633 nm. The photoresponsive behavior is compared to that of Disperse Yellow 7-based supramolecular complexes.

We study the spatial coherence properties of a three-dimensional, primary, quasi-homogeneous, and isotropic source and the far field that it generates. We assess the spectrum, degree of polarization, electromagnetic degree of coherence, and effective degree of coherence of the source and of the far field. We also demonstrate the formalism for a spherical Gaussian Schell-model current source. The polarization properties of light are fully accounted for in the analysis, and it is found that certain results pertaining to scalar coherence theory are reproduced also within the electromagnetic treatment.

Planar optical waveguides made of designable spatially dispersive nanomaterials can offer new capabilities for nanophotonic components. As an example, a thin slab waveguide can be designed to compensate for optical diffraction and provide divergence-free propagation for strongly focused optical beams. Optical signals in such waveguides can be transferred in narrow channels formed by the light itself. We introduce here a theoretical method for characterization and design of nanostructured waveguides taking into account their inherent spatial dispersion and anisotropy. Using the method, we design a diffraction-compensating slab waveguide that contains only a single layer of silver nanorods. The waveguide shows low propagation loss and broadband diffraction compensation, potentially allowing transfer of optical information at a THz rate.

We give an overview of our recent work on improving the optical performance of polymeric materials via supramolecular concepts, i.e., by making use of spontaneous non-covalent interactions between the chromophores and the polymer backbone. More precisely, we show that the aggregation of dipolar chromophores in amorphous polymeric materials can be controlled by simply choosing a proper polymer matrix. This approach has a potential impact in a wide range of optical phenomena where chromophore aggregation or phase separation sets a limit to the system performance.

The pulse-buildup in miniature passively Q-switched lasers occurs in a similar time-scale as the phonon-assisted thermalization of the laser manifolds. We study how the time-dynamics of the laser is affected by the thermalization and relaxation processes using a dimensionless geometrical rate equation model for a homogeneously broadened four-level gain medium. The pulse length is found to depend strongly on the thermalization rate when the ratio of the ground-state absorption cross section of the saturable absorber to the spectroscopic emission cross section of the laser transition is small (lsim 10). Numerically calculated design curves are shown for the 1064 nm transition in Nd:YAG, and guidelines are given for applying the model to other transitions. Experimental results are used for estimating the thermalization time constant of Nd:YAG for the 1 mum transition group and the ground-state absorption cross section of the Cr4+:YAG saturable absorber crystal.

We study the photoresponsive behavior of thin films of supramolecular 4-nitro-4′-hydroxyazobenzene−poly(4-vinylpyridine) complexes. Hydrogen bonding between the phenol and pyridine moieties allows attaching a chromophore to essentially each repeat unit of the polymer, thereby suppressing macroscopic phase separation and crystallization. Moreover, the noncooperative nature of hydrogen bonding leads to random complexation of the chromophores to the polymer backbone, which enables a systematic study of the effect of chromophore concentration on the photo-orientation of the complexes. Two regimes are observed: Photoinduced birefringence increases linearly with the chromophore concentration until nominally every third polymer repeat unit is occupied. Beyond that concentration, a new regime is observed with a drastically steeper slope of increase. The latter regime is connected to the interplay between the formation of a hydrogen-bonded supramolecular complex and intermolecular interactions between the mesogeni...

We exploit nondegenerate four-wave mixing to generate narrow-bandwidth visible light from blue to orange in microstructured optical fiber. The process is excited by nanosecond dual-wavelength pump pulses (532/1064 nm) produced by a frequency-doubled passively Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. A linearly polarized, fundamental mode signal wave is generated in the visible, accompanied by an idler wave in the near-infrared. The signal and idler wavelengths are adjustable by the design of the microstructure.

We report on generation of 946 nm laser pulses of a few nanosecond duration and up to 3.7 kW peak power from a compact diode-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. This power is 2.5 times as much as what previously has been obtained from this type of a laser. The short pulses with the record high peak power may be particularly attractive for laser range finding type applications.

The polarization of light is important in a great variety of optical phenomena, ranging from transmission, reflection and scattering to polarimetric imaging of scenes and quantum-mechanical selection rules of atomic and molecular transitions. Among some less-well-known phenomena that illustrate the vectorial nature of light are the Pancharatnam1 (or geometric2) phase, singularities in the polarization pattern of clear sky3 and polarization of microwave background radiation4. Here, we examine the partial polarization of focused light. We experimentally demonstrate a rather surprising phenomenon, where the focusing of unpolarized light results in rings of full polarization in the focal plane of the focusing optics. The polarization rings are imaged with a resolution of

We design, fabricate, and characterize a metasurface, whose multipole optical response depends significantly on the illumination direction. The metasurface is composed of gold-nanodisc dimers embedded in glass. In spite of their nanoscale size, the dimers exhibit a dominating electric-current-quadrupole response in a wide range of wavelengths around 700 nm when illuminated from one side, and a primarily electric-dipole response when illuminated from the opposite side. This leads to two consequences. First, the reflection coefficient of the metasurface considerably differs for the two sides of illumination. Second, quadrupole excitation results in a significant local enhancement of both electric and magnetic fields around the dimers. Our experimental spectroscopic data are in good agreement with simulations obtained using a multipole expansion model.

We present phase-sensitive absolute amplitude measurements of surface acoustic wave fields obtained using a stroboscopic white-light interferometer. The data analysis makes use of the high resolution available in the measured interferometric phase data, enabling the characterization of the out-of-plane surface vibration fields in electrically excited microstructures with better than 100 pm amplitude resolution. The setup uses a supercontinuum light source with tailored spectral properties for obtaining the high amplitude resolution. The duration of the light pulses is less than 300 ps to allow the detection of high frequencies. These capabilities enabled a detailed measurement of the focusing of surface acoustic waves by an annular interdigital transducer structure operating at 74 MHz, featuring a maximum vibration amplitude of 3 nm.

We introduce a new choice of material for the creation of microscopic magnetic potentials for the trapping and guiding of ultracold neutral atoms. The potentials are created above a ferrimagnetic, transparent (BiYTmGd)3(FeGa)5O12 film by patterning the magnetic-domain structure in the film with a magneto-optical recording method. Patterns with linewidth down to 2 µm have been achieved, enabling trap frequencies of the order of 100 kHz for 87 Rb atoms in the state |F =1 ,m F = −1� .T he main advantages of the material are: 1) magnetic-field noise is suppressed due to the dielectricity of the material and the absence of electric currents, 2) trapped atoms can be addressed optically through the transparent film, and 3) the film can be repatterned, which enables different experiments with the same component. PACS. 39.25.+k Atom manipulation (scanning probe microscopy, laser cooling, etc.) - 75.50.Ss Magnetic recording materials - 75.70.-i Magnetic properties of thin films, surfaces, and interfaces

A microcavity laser pumped by a pulsed evanescent optical wave is demonstrated. The laser radiates intense, linearly polarized light isotropically in a plane perpendicular to the axis of the cylindrical microcavity. The lasing was achieved by surrounding a small section of a glass capillary with a solution of rhodamine 6G and by coupling the pump light into the capillary wall. The laser modes are the whispering gallery modes which orbit in the capillary by total internal reflection. The laser gain is provided by the dye molecules around the capillary, where the evanescent waves of the modes spatially overlap with the evanescent part of the pump field. The lasing threshold pump energy was ∼100 nJ/pulse at a pump pulse duration of 6 ns.

We describe a method for obtaining a high phase space density of alkali atoms in a surface-mounted microscopic atom trap created above a transparent conductor or permanent magnet on a substrate prism. We show that the peak value of the phase space density can locally reach the level of ∼ 10-2 when the microtrap is loaded with atoms from a gravito-optical surface trap. Initial spin polarization of the atoms is not required.

We analyze two methods for obtaining a smooth evanescent-wave intensity profile on the inner surface of a multimode hollow optical fiber to be used as a waveguide for neutral atoms. The first method is based on the selective excitation of fiber modes with a laser beam possessing orbital angular momentum, of which Laguerre–Gaussian beams are considered as an example. The second method makes use of a rapid variation of the speckle pattern of the fiber's evanescent-wave in the timescale of the atomic motion. The variation is provided by dithering the angle of incidence of a Gaussian laser beam at the fiber entrance. The optimal beam waist and direction of dithering are determined.

We examine the idea to use self-focusing in a non-linear liquid crystal to increase the accuracy of measurements of wavefront distortions with an active Shack–Hartmann sensor. This modification should improve the measurement accuracy by two orders of magnitude.

We present a simple method to convert a Gaussian laser beam into an annular beam using a homeotropically oriented nematic liquid crystal. The method allows creation of a beam with sub-millimeter diameter and a width of a few tens of microns for a propagation distance of more than 10 mm. High spatial gradients in the radial intensity distribution make the beams promising for use in atom trapping and guiding.

We analyse the changes in the partial polarization of random, stationary light fields in transmission through a near-field probe. The probe is modelled as a two-dimensional metal-coated optical fibre tip through which the field is propagated by applying the boundary-integral method. Both the magnitude of the opening angle and the aperture size of the probe are found to significantly influence the partial polarization of the field. We discuss the results in terms of both the conventional two-dimensional and the recent three-dimensional formalism for the degree of polarization.

Acoustic wave fields in a thin-film bulk acoustic wave resonator are studied using a heterodyne laser interferometer. The measurement area is extended outside the active electrode region of the resonator, so that wave fields in both the active and surrounding regions can be characterized. At frequencies at which the region surrounding the resonator does not support laterally propagating acoustic waves, the analysis of the measurement data shows exponentially decaying amplitude fields outside the active resonator area, as suggested by theory. The magnitude of the imaginary wave vectors is determined by fitting an exponential function to the measured amplitude data, and thereby the experimentally determined dispersion diagram is extended into the region of imaginary wave numbers.

We investigate the dynamics of the excited-state population, the cavity photon number, and the spectrum of an optically pumped nanosecond-pulsed dye laser containing bandwidth-narrowing elements in the cavity. We show that, in order to achieve single-mode operation, the pump-pulse duration has to be long enough and the dye concentration sufficiently high. This is partly due to the frequency shift of the laser spectrum during the decrease of the excited-state population towards its steady-state value. We demonstrate a single-mode dye laser, where single-mode selection is realised with the aid of an intracavity Fox–Smith interferometer. In this way we have obtained 5-ns-long pulses at the wavelength of 590 nm with a pulse energy of 6 mJ and a spectral width of 100 MHz (FWHM).

Linewidth variations within an external-cavity mode of a grating-cavity laser were measured with high accuracy using the self-homodyne technique with a short delay line. To our knowledge, this is the first time that these variations have been accurately measured. In our laser, we observed the linewidth to change by a factor of five from 30 kHz to more than 150 kHz when the laser was tuned over a single external-cavity mode. A simple model based on a linear relationship between the chirp reduction factor and the frequency tuning of the laser is used to describe the results.

Functional optical metamaterials usually consist of absorbing, anisotropic and often non-centrosymmetric structures of a size that is only a few times smaller than the wavelength of visible light. If the structures would be substantially smaller, excitation of higher-order electromagnetic multipoles in them, including magnetic dipoles, would be inefficient. As a result, the material would act as an ordinary electric-dipole material. The required non-negligible size of metamolecules, however, makes the material spatially dispersive, so that its optical characteristics depend on light propagation direction. This phenomenon significantly complicates the description of metamaterials in terms of conventional electric permittivity and magnetic permeability tensors. In this work, we present a simple semianalytical method to describe such spatially dispersive metamaterials, which are also allowed to be optically anisotropic and non-centrosymmetric. Applying the method, we show that a strong spatial dispersion, combined with absorption and optical anisotropy, can be used to efficiently control propagational characteristics of optical beams.

We present a picosecond supercontinuum light source designed for stroboscopic white-light interferometry. This source offers a potential for high-resolution characterization of vibrational fields in electromechanical components with frequencies up to the GHz range. The light source concept combines a gain-switched laser diode, the output of which is amplified in a two-stage fiber amplifier, with supercontinuum generation in a microstructured optical fiber. Implemented in our white-light interferometer setup, optical pulses with optimized spectral properties and below 310 ps duration are used for stroboscopic illumination at freely adjustable repetition rates. The performance of the source is demonstrated by characterizing the surface vibration field of a square-plate silicon MEMS resonator at 3.37 MHz. A minimum detectable vibration amplitude of less than 100 pm is reached.

We introduce and theoretically describe internally twisted optical metamaterials, in which the metamolecules can have an arbitrary, but common, orientation in the unit cells. The molecules, and consequently the material, are not chiral, but they are allowed to be noncentrosymmetric. While such internally twisted crystalline structures are difficult to find in natural materials, metamaterials of this type can be designed and fabricated at will. Here, we present a theoretical method that enables a detailed analysis of such metamaterials. The method establishes a connection between the optical properties of a metamaterial and the plane-wave optical response of a single two-dimensional array of metamolecules. In the theory, the effective wave parameters, such as the refractive index and wave impedance, are retrieved. Using the model, we show that these parameters can dramatically depend on the wave propagation direction and metamolecular orientation, which can be used, along with optical anisotropy, to efficiently adjust and control the plane-wave content of optical beams.

In optical metamaterials, the scatterers are usually aligned symmetrically with respect to the unit cells of the material. In this work, we consider metamaterials in which the "metamolecules" can be non-centrosymmetric and have an arbitrary, but common, orientation in the unit cells. Such internally twisted crystalline structures are difficult to find in natural materials, but metamaterials of this type can be designed and fabricated at will. Here we present a theoretical method that enables a detailed analysis of internally twisted non-centrosymmetric metamaterials. The method establishes a connection between the optical properties of a metamaterial and the plane-wave optical response of a single two-dimensional array of metamolecules. In this theory, the effective wave parameters, such as the refractive index and wave impedance, are retrieved. Using the model, we show that these parameters can dramatically depend on the wave propagation direction and metamolecular orientation in a metamaterial. This dependence provides a possibility to adjust and control the plane-wave content of optical beams propagating in the material.