Controlling the Shapes of the Moiré Patterns Generated Using the Interferometry and a Spatial Light Modulator

Moiré patterns are generated by the superposition of two periodic patterns of close frequencies. This present paper proposes a simple method to bridge the conventional gap between interferometry and moiré patterns by generating moiré patterns using straight-line interference fringes from a Michelson interferometer like setup and a circular grating pattern generated on a Spatial Light Modulator (SLM). The visible variation in the geometrical shapes of the moiré patterns by varying the ratio of the periods of the two periodic patterns has also been presented. The experimental results match with the simulation results. Keywords: Moiré, Interferometry, Spatial Light Modulator, Optics, Engineering physics

A Nanoplasmonic-Based Biosensing Approach for Wide-Range and Highly Sensitive Detection of Chemicals

In a specific biosensing application, a nanoplasmonic sensor chip has been tested by an experimental setup based on an aluminum holder and two plastic optical fibers used to illuminate and collect the transmitted light. The studied plasmonic probe is based on gold nanograting, realized on the top of a Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) chip. The PMMA substrate could be considered as a transparent substrate and, in such a way, it has been already used in previous work. Alternatively, here it is regarded as a slab waveguide. In particular, we have deposited upon the slab surface, covered with a nanograting, a synthetic receptor specific for bovine serum albumin (BSA), to test the proposed biosensing approach. Exploiting this different experimental configuration, we have determined how the orientation of the nanostripes forming the grating pattern, with respect to the direction of the input light (longitudinal or orthogonal), influences the biosensing performances. For example, the best limit of detection (LOD) in the BSA detection that has been obtained is equal to 23 pM. Specifically, the longitudinal configuration is characterized by two observable plasmonic phenomena, each sensitive to a different BSA concentration range, ranging from pM to µM. This aspect plays a key role in several biochemical sensing applications, where a wide working range is required.

Phase Measurement of Guided-Mode Resonance Device Using Digital Micromirror Device Gratings

This paper reports on the measurement system of the phase difference between s- and p-polarization components of the light passing through a guided-mode resonance (GMR) device using a digital micromirror device (DMD) gratings as a digital phase-shifting device. The phase of the non-zeroth order diffraction beams of the grating pattern displayed on the DMD can exhibit a phase change when the grating pattern is shifted. Two nearest different diffraction orders of p-polarized and s-polarized beams can be used as the reference and measurement beams, respectively, and are combined to implement the phase-shifting interferometry (PSI). The phase difference between the s- and the p-polarization components of the incident light passing through the GMR device can be obtained by applying the four-step phase-shift algorithm to the DMD-based PSI system. Experimental results show that this measurement system has a phase detection limit of 1° and was able to obtain the abrupt phase difference curve of the GMR device versus the incident angle.

Analysis of Embedded Optical Interferometry in Transparent Elastic Grating for Optical Detection of Ultrasonic Waves

In this paper, we propose a theoretical framework to explain how the transparent elastic grating structure can be employed to enhance the mechanical and optical properties for ultrasonic detection. Incident ultrasonic waves can compress the flexible material, where the change in thickness of the elastic film can be measured through an optical interferometer. Herein, the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was employed in the design of a thin film grating pattern. The PDMS grating with the grating period shorter than the ultrasound wavelength allowed the ultrasound to be coupled into surface acoustic wave (SAW) mode. The grating gaps provided spaces for the PDMS grating to be compressed when the ultrasound illuminated on it. This grating pattern can provide an embedded thin film based optical interferometer through Fabry–Perot resonant modes. Several optical thin film-based technologies for ultrasonic detection were compared. The proposed elastic grating gave rise to higher sensitivity to ultrasonic detection than a surface plasmon resonance-based sensor, a uniform PDMS thin film, a PDMS sensor with shearing interference, and a conventional Fabry–Perot-based sensor. The PDMS grating achieved the enhancement of sensitivity up to 1.3 × 10−5 Pa−1 and figure of merit of 1.4 × 10−5 Pa−1 which were higher than those of conventional Fabry–Perot structure by 7 times and 4 times, respectively.

Innovative fabrication of diffractive surfaces on plastic parts via textures micromilled on NiP injection moulds

Diffractive microstructured surfaces are nowadays increasingly applied to polymeric parts for aesthetic, security and optical functionalities. However, both the machining of the mould blaze-grating and its replication on plastic are still representing challenging issues, from both the technical and economical points of view. In this work, an innovative process chain based on carbide tools micromilling of mould gratings was developed for mass production of diffractive patterns on injection moulded parts. A micromilling experimental campaign was conducted on a nickel-phosphorus (NiP) thick coating to machine a blaze-grating on the mould surface, evaluating the influence of the cutting parameters on the diffractive surface quality. Subsequently, the microstructures were replicated on ABS, PC and PMMA by injection moulding. The roughness parameters Sk, Spk and Svk were added with the idea that their sum is representative of the polymer replication of regular diffraction grating pattern. Moreover, the effect of the moulded grating surface quality on the optical performance was preliminarily assessed. The obtained results show that the proposed process chain is suitable for low-cost mass production of polymeric parts with diffractive microstructures.

Distortion of the radiation patterns of phased antenna arrays under the influence of periodic and fluctuating noise.

Issues related to determination of distortions of directional patterns of phased antenna arrays under the influence of periodic and fluctuating multiplicative (modulating) noise are in the focus of the paper. Expressions are obtained for instantaneous directional patterns in terms of voltage and power, as well as the average value of the directional pattern in terms of voltage under the influence of periodic multiplicative noise. So far, since the phase ratios in these instantaneous diagrams change over time, the pattern of the grating fluctuates. The condition is defined under which the structure of the grating pattern «crumbles». At the same time, lower frequencies of acting multiplicative noise lead to distortion of the diagram: its main maximum expands, the level of side lobes increases and lateral reception directions are «smoothed». It is noted that in synthesized arrays, «scattering» of the directional pattern can occur at relatively small values​ of the frequency of multiplicative noise. In lattices with delay lines, periodic multiplicative noise does not cause significant distortion of the directional patterns. Expressions are obtained for determining average directional patterns by voltage and power under the influence of fluctuating multipath noise, including those obtained using correlation function of noise modulation. It has been shown that under the influence of stationary multiplicative noise, the beam pattern on the power of the grating with phase shifters is a convolution of the undistorted diagram on an undistorted scale and the energy spectrum of the noise modulation function. The upper limit of increasing the width of the main lobe of the beam pattern caused by multiplicative noise is determined. It is also shown that as the noise correlation time decreases and the phase distortion depth increases, the diagram expands and its side lobes smooth. It is noted that for distortions of the directional pattern of synthesized arrays, all the basic provisions for phased antenna arrays with phase shifters are true. For lattices with delay lines in the presence of multiplicative noise, the maximum of the average power of the beam pattern does not shift regardless of the shape of the energy spectrum of the noise modulation function. Multiplicative noise can cause only some expansion of the main lobe of the diagram and smoothing of the zero reception directions. Distortions of the grating pattern when exposed to slow fluctuation multiplicative noise are shown. These distortions are determined by changes in the phase and amplitude of the signal over time corresponding to the time shift between the signals in the individual elements of the array, and with slow multiplicative noise, the distortions are small. It is also shown that slow multiplicative noise leads to some reduction in the maximum beam pattern and to smoothing the pattern in the area of the side lobes. In the presence of such noise, the zero reception directions disappear.

A Separation Method of Superimposed Gratings in Double-Projector Fringe Projection Profilometry Using a Color Camera

Fringe projection profilometry has been intensively studied for several decades. However, due to the limitation of the field range of a single projector, when measuring objects with complex surfaces, there are always shadow areas in the captured images, resulting in missing measurement data in the dark areas. To solve this problem, systems with double projectors and single camera were employed. Not only were the shadow areas reduced, but system recalibration and multiple measurements were not needed, improving measuring efficiency. Nevertheless, separating the corresponding projection pattern from the superimposed fringe presented a difficult problem. A color camera has RGB three color channels. When the color camera is applied to fringe projection profilometry, the information obtained is three times as much as that of the monochrome camera. Due to the small overlap between the red- and blue-light spectra response of color cameras, the channel color crosstalk can be ignored. This paper proposes a method to project red and blue fringe patterns from two projectors and utilize the characteristics of the red and blue channels of the color camera to separate the superposition grating pattern. The original patterns can be recovered integrally and easily. To explain the effectiveness of superimposed fringe separation, a simulation and experiments were carried out. Both of them showed that the superimposed fringe can be separated correctly, proving that our method is feasible.

An Orthogonal Type Two-Axis Lloyd’s Mirror for Holographic Fabrication of Two-Dimensional Planar Scale Gratings with Large Area

In this paper, an orthogonal type two-axis Lloyd’s mirror interference lithography technique was employed to fabricate two-dimensional planar scale gratings for surface encoder application. The two-axis Lloyd’s mirror interferometer is composed of a substrate and two reflective mirrors (X- and Y-mirrors), which are placed edge by edge perpendicularly. An expanded and collimated beam was divided into three beams by this interferometer, a direct beam and two reflected beams, projected onto the substrate, X- and Y-mirrors, respectively. The unexpected beam sections having twice reflected off the mirrors were blocked by a filter. The remaining two reflected beams interfered with the direct beam on the substrate, generating perpendicularly cross patterns thus forming two-dimensional scale gratings. However, the two reflected beams undesirably interfere with each other and generate a grating pattern along 45-degree direction against the two orthogonal direction, which influence the pattern uniformity. Though an undesired grating pattern can be eliminated by polarization modulation with introduction of waveplates, spatial configuration of waveplates inevitably downsized the eventual grating, which is a key parameter for grating interferometry application. For solving this problem, theoretical and experimental study was carefully carried out to evaluate the fabrication quality with and without polarization modulation. Two-dimensional scale gratings with a 1 μm period in X- and Y-directions were achieved by using the constructed experiment system with a 442 nm He-Cd laser source. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) images and the result of diffraction performances demonstrated that the orthogonal type two-axis Lloyd’s mirror interferometer can stand a small order undesired interference, that is, a degree of orthogonality between two reflected beams, denoted by γ, no larger than a nominal value of 0.1.

Pancharatnam–Berry Optical Elements for Spin and Orbital Angular Momentum Division Demultiplexing

A Pancharatnam–Berry optical element is designed, fabricated, and optically characterized for the demultiplexing of beams with different polarization and orbital angular momentum states at the telecom wavelength of 1310 nm. The geometric phase control is achieved by fabricating properly-oriented subwavelength gratings on a silicon substrate, inducing a spatially-variant form birefringence. The digital grating pattern is transferred to the silicon substrate with a two-step nanofabrication protocol, using inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching to transfer the resist pattern generated with high-resolution electron beam lithography. The optical characterization of the sample confirms the expected capability to sort circularly polarized optical beams with different handedness and orbital angular momentum. Encompassing optical element design and silicon photonics, the designed silicon metasurface paves the way to innovative devices for total angular momentum mode division multiplexing with unprecedented levels of integration.