Comparative analysis of the accuracy requirements of the equipment for determining the mean integral refractive index of air using different realizations of the gradient method

The speed of propagation of electromagnetic waves in the Earth’s atmosphere differs from the speed of their propagation in a vacuum, which is one of the main factors that have a significant impact on the accuracy of long distance measurement. This influence is taken into account in long distance measurement with the correction for the mean integral group refractive index of air, which depends on such meteorological parameters as temperature, atmospheric pressure and relative air humidity. The purpose of this work is to compare the accuracy requirements for equipment designed to measure temperature, pressure, and relative humidity required to determine the above correction by the gradient method using the Euler-Maclaurin quadrature formula (hereafter, the Euler-Maclaurin method) and the formula based on Hermite interpolation polynomials (hereafter, the Hermite method). The requirements for the uncertainty of measurements carried out with the sensors of meteorological parameters, allowing to find the mean integral group refractive index of air, providing length measurements of the baselines of up to 5 km with an expanded uncertainty of not more than 1 mm, are established. Keywords: atmosphere; mean integral group refractive index of air; laser long distance measurement

Group Refractive Index of Nanocrystalline Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia Transparent Cranial Implants

Transparent “Window to the Brain” (WttB) cranial implants made from a biocompatible ceramic, nanocrystalline Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia (nc-YSZ), were recently reported. These reports demonstrated chronic brain imaging across the implants in mice using optical coherence tomography (OCT) and laser speckle imaging. However, optical properties of these transparent cranial implants are neither completely characterized nor completely understood. In this study, we measure optical properties of the implant using a swept source OCT system with a spectral range of 136 nm centered at 1,300 nm to characterize the group refractive index of the nc-YSZ window, over a narrow range of temperatures at which the implant may be used during imaging or therapy (20–43°C). Group refractive index was found to be 2.1–2.2 for OCT imaging over this temperature range. Chromatic dispersion for this spectral range was observed to vary over the sample, sometimes flipping signs between normal and anomalous dispersion. These properties of nc-YSZ should be considered when designing optical systems and procedures that propagate light through the window, and when interpreting OCT brain images acquired across the window.

Wave discrimination at C-band frequencies in microstrip structures inspired by electromagnetically induced transparency

We present the design and practical implementation of a microstrip diplexer based on the wave discrimination property associated with the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT)-like effect. The EIT is a quantum interference phenomenon which happens between two atomic transition pathways and allows wave propagation within a medium’s absorption spectrum. Here, we exploit an analogous interference mechanism in a three-port microstrip structure to demonstrate a diplexer based on the EIT-like effect in the microwave regime. Since the transparency is accompanied by a high transmission and strong dispersion characteristics, compact frequency discriminating structures that can resolve nearby frequencies with high isolation can be devised. Our proposed C-band diplexer consists of pairs of unequal open-circuit stubs, which resonate at detuned frequencies and interfere to form the EIT-like passbands for diplexer action. The design is highly compact and scalable in frequency for both PCB and on-chip applications. A prototype of diplexer is fabricated for the center frequencies of lower and upper passbands at 4.6 GHz and 5.5 GHz respectively. The transmission zeros are designed at the complementary channels so that the two passbands are highly isolated presenting the isolation of about 40 dB. The measured insertion loss of lower and upper passband is 0.59 dB and 0.61 dB respectively. Measured input return loss is better than − 15 dB, while the output return losses are well below − 12 dB. Moreover, a decent value of about 200 is achieved for the group refractive index around the EIT-like passbands, which reveals the slow wave characteristics of the proposed EIT-based diplexer.

Plasmonic Nanosensor Based on Independently Tunable Multiple Fano Resonances

A novel refractive index nanosensor with compound structures is proposed in this paper. It consists of three different kinds of resonators and two stubs which are side-coupled to a metal-dielectric-metal (MDM) waveguide. By utilizing numerical investigation with the finite element method (FEM), the simulation results show that the transmission spectrum of the nanosensor has as much as five sharp peaks of Fano resonance. Due to their different resonance mechanisms, each peak of resonances can be independently tuned by adjusting the corresponding parameters of the structure. In addition, the sensitivity of the nanosensor is up to , and it also has an excellent performance with a high group refractive index of . For the sake of different functions to practical applications, a legitimate combination of various different components, such as T-shaped, ring, and split-ring cavities, has been proposed to make the nanosensor dramatically reduce its dimensions without sacrificing performance. These designing concepts pave a new way to construct such compact on-chip plasmonic structures, and it can be widely applied to nanosensors, optical splitters, filters, optical switches, nonlinear photonic and slow-light devices.