Abstract:We present a study on InAs/InGaAs QDs nanostmctures grown by molecular beam epitaxy on InGaAs metamorphic buffers,that are designed so as to determine the strain of QD and, then, to shift the luminescence emission towards the 1.5 μm region (QD strain engineering). Moreover, we embed the QDs in InAlAs or GaAs barriers in addition to the InGaAs confining layers, in order to increase the activation energy for confined carrier thermal escape; thus, we reduce the thermal quenching of the photoluminescence, which prevents room temperature emission in the long wavelength range. We study the dependence of QD properties, such as emission energy and activation energy, on barrier thickness and height and we discuss how it is possible to compensate for the barrier-induced QD emission blue-shift taking advantage of QD strain engineering. Furthermore, the combination of enhanced barriers and QD strain engineering in such metamorphic QD nanostructures allowed us to obtain room temperature emission up to 1.46 μm, thus proving how this is a valuable approach in the quest for 1.55 μm room temperature emission from QDs grown on GaAs substrates.

Abstract:This work deals with the study of optical and morphological properties of InGaAs/AlGaAs quantum dot (QD) structures grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Photoluminescence (PL) emission energies, activation energies of PL quenching and QD sizes are studied as functions of the Al content in the AlyGal_yAs confining layers (CL). We show that the PL emission energy of In(Ga)As/AlyGal-yAs QD structures increases with increasing y and that the sizes of InAs/AlyGal-yAs QDs decrease with increasing y. By the comparison of the experimental results with those of an effective-mass model developed to calculate the QD fundamental transition energies, we show that the blueshift of emission energy has to be ascribed not only to the increase in barrier discontinuities that confine the carriers into QDs but even to effects related to changes of the QD morphology dependent on CL composition. Moreover, we show that the Al content in the barriers determines also the activation energy of thermal quenching of PL, which depends on the thermal escape of carriers from QD levels. These studies resulted in the preparation of structures with efficient light-emission in the 980 nm spectral window of interest for lightwave communications.

Abstract:We present a study on InAs/InGaAs QDs nanostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy on InGaAs metamorphic buffers, that are designed so as to determine the strain of QD and, then, to shift the luminescence emission towards the 1.5 μm region (QD strain engineering). Moreover, we embed the QDs in InAlAs or GaAs barriers in addition to the InGaAs confining layers, in order to increase the activation energy for confined carrier thermal escape; thus, we reduce the thermal quenching of the photoluminescence, which prevents room temperature emission in the long wavelength range. We study the dependence of QD properties, such as emission energy and activation energy, on barrier thickness and height and we discuss how it is possible to compensate for the barrier-induced QD emission blue-shift taking advantage of QD strain engineering. Furthermore, the combination of enhanced barriers and QD strain engineering in such metamorphic QD nanostructures allowed us to obtain room temperature emission up to 1.46 μm, thus proving how this is a valuable approach in the quest for 1.55 gmm room temperature emission from QDs grown on GaAs substrates. The work has been partially supported by the “SANDiE” Network of Excellence of EU(contract no. NMP4-CT-2004-500101). The AFM characterization has been carried out at CIM, University of Parma.

Abstract:ZnS films were deposited on porous Si (PS) substrates with different porosities by pulsed laser deposition. The photoluminescence spectra of the samples were measured to study the effect of substrate porosity on luminescence properties of ZnS/porous Si composites. After deposition of ZnS films, the red photoluminescence peak of porous Si shows a slight blueshift compared with as-prepared porous Si samples. With an increase of the porosity, a green emission at about 550 nm was observed which may be ascribed to the defect-center luminescence of ZnS films, and the photoluminescence of ZnS/porous Si composites is very close to white light. Good crystal structures of the samples were observed by x-ray diffraction,showing that ZnS films were grown in preferred orientation. Due to the roughness of porous Si surface, some cracks appear in ZnS films, which could be seen from scanning electron microscope images.

Abstract:In this paper we present a study on the influence of the number and the thickness of silicon spacer layer on the optical properties of single- and multi-layers of self assembled Ge/Si (001) islands performed by means of cathodoluminescence spectroscopy, high resolution X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. In single-layer sample, we do not evidence dependence of the island no-phonon emission peak position on the silicon cap-layer thickness. In multi-layer samples having a thin (33 nm) silicon spacer layer the no-phonon emission energyvalue progressively blue-shifts for an increasing number of island layers. This is interpreted as an enhanced intermixing driven by the strain interaction existing between island layers. On the contrary, island emission energy position is independent on the number of layers in the sample series having a thicker spacer layer (60 nm). These findings are consistent with the X-ray diffraction observation that islands belonging to different layers have the same composition. As a consequence we can conclude that multilayers with 60-nm spaced islands layer are more homogeneous and ordered.

Abstract:In this letter we present the results regarding the electrical and optical characterization of Geiger mode silicon avalanche photodiodes (GMAP) fabricated by silicon standard planar technology. Low dark count rates, negligible afterpulsing effects,good timing resolution and high quantum detection efficiency in all the visible range have been measured. The very good electro-optical performances of our photodiodes make them attractive for the fabrication of arrays with a large number of GMAP to be used both in the commercial and the scientific fields, as telecommunications and nuclear medical imaging.

Abstract:The mode characteristics for twin coupled microdisks are investigated by fmite-difference time-domain technique. In the coupled microdisks, the same order whispering-gallery (WG) modes can form coupled modes with split mode wavelengths.We find that the coupled fundamental and first order WG modes can have anticrossing mode coupling as their wavelengths approach the same value in some case, which prevents the cross of the coupled mode wavelengths. The anticrossing mode coupling greatly reduces the coupled mode Q-factor, because the coupled mode field distribution transfers between the fundamental and the first order WG modes.

Abstract:We present the details of the sol-gel processing used to realize inverse silica opal, where the silica was activated with 0.3 mol% of Er3 ions. The template (direct opal) was obtained assembling polystyrene spheres of the dimensions of 260 nm by means of a vertical deposition technique. The Er3 -activated silica inverse opal was obtained infiltrating, into the void of the template, the silica sol doped with Er3 ions and subsequently removing the polystyrene spheres by means of calcinations.Scanning electron microscope showed that the inverse opals possess a fcc structure with a air hollows of about 210 nm and a photonic band gap, in the visible range, was observed from reflectance measurements. Spectroscopic properties of Er3 -activated silica inverse opal were investigated by luminescence spectroscopy, where, upon excitation at 514.5 nm, an emission of 4I13/2 → 4I15/2 of Er3 ions transition with a 21 nm bandwidth was observed. Moreover the 4I13/2 level decay curve presents a single-exponential profile, with a measured lifetime of 18 ms, corresponding a high quantum efficiency of the system.

Abstract:The elastic and vibrational properties of a material, bulk or planar waveguide, are studied by Brillouin and Raman spectroscopy to follow the process of nanocrystals growth in glass-ceramics. The nanoparticles cause the appearance, in the low frequency Raman spectrum, of characteristic peaks, whose position depends on the size of the crystals. At the same time, sharp crystal peaks, due to optical phonons, appear in the Raman spectra, allowing the determination of the nucleated phase, and a frequency shift of the Brillouin peaks is observed.

Abstract:The chemical compositions of Ag-Er co-doped phosphate and silicate glasses were investigated with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy with the purpose to identify the chemical state of silver. The analysis of the Ag 3d core lines show the presence of nanometer-sized silver particles in each of the annealed samples, even if these Ag 3d lines appear to be very different from each other. We explain these results as a different interaction of silver with the two glasses matrix, which leads to a different nucleation rate of the Ag clusters.

Abstract:A novel method of correlation function for analyzing cross-sensitivity between strain and temperature is reported for the first time in this paper. Using the new method, the correlative characteristics between strain and temperature of fiber Bragg grating sensors are studied both theoretically and experimentally The experimental results accord with the theoretical calculations.

Abstract:The special character of a PCF which is used as a gas or liquid sensor is discussed. The field distribution is analyzed when the solid core PCF is injected with different medium that has different relative dielectric constant (or refractive index). And the experiential formulas of the relation between refractive index of some kinds of liquid and their concentration are given,in order to measure the concentration of the relative liquid. At the same time, the effect of propagation constant on PCF sensor character is also discussed. Furthermore, the photonic band-gap (PBG) ofPCF (PBG-PCF) is calculated at different medium relative dielectric constant, when it is injected with different medium. That is the principle basis for this kind of PCF sensors.

Abstract:We fabricated long-period fiber gratings (LPFGs) using electric arc discharges. We observed that the fiber becomes slightly tapered due to longitudinal tension during the arc: this effect depends on the arc current and time length. We experimentally investigated how these characteristics can influence grating' s performances, especially in view of employing the LPFG as gain equalizer for an erbium-doped optical amplifier. As expected, we found that the spectral response of the grating depends on the period A, the intensity of the perturbation, the grating length and the type of mode-coupling induced. Since this last parameter cannot be estimated directly from the transmission spectra, we propose a method to determine the modecoupling occurring in the device and to assess the index modulation induced by the electric arcs. This method combines both experimental and simulated data, and can be used to characterize LPFGs made-up by any method.

Abstract:In 40 Gb/s systems with low polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) fibers, first-order PMD is the dominate factor with quite small value. An adaptive PMD compensator consisting of an electrical polarization controller (PC), a section of polarization maintaining fiber (PMF), a degree of polarization (DOP) detector and a feedback control module is employed in 40 Gb/s NSFCNet. This compensator has a simple structure and high speed, which can compensate up to 20 ps first-order PMD adaptively and the average searching time is 2 ms.

Abstract:A double beam near-infrared spectrometer is developed to compensate the water absorption and instrumental drift in intensity. The spectrometer maybe used for both single and double beam measurements, and the two operation modes are compared. The results show that the double beam technique eliminates instrumental drift in the single beam measurement and therefore the stability of the system increases by more than 20%. The compensation of the double beam system on water absorption is verified by the measurement of fat content in milk. The results show that the spectrum data based on double beam mode get better calibration model and lower prediction error than traditional single beam mode.

Abstract:A method of pitch-variation moire fringes is proposed to realize the temporal phase unwrapping for three-dimensional profilometry. On the basis of the principle of moire pattern, we achieve variable spatial frequencies of fringes in a moire pattern by rotating two gratings. Furthermore a five-point fitting method is used to automatically compute the central position of side-lobe spectrum of the moire fringes. Finally, a generalized temporal phase unwrapping algorithm is introduced to process the three-dimensional reconstruction. The theoretical analysis and experimental results show the validity of the proposed method.

Abstract:A method of pitch-variation moiré fringes is proposed to realize the temporal phase unwrapping for three-dimensional pattern by rotating two gratings. Furthermore a five-point fitting method is used to automatically compute the central duced to process the three-dimensional reconstruction. The theoretical analysis and experimental results show the validity of the proposed method.

Abstract:In this paper, a two-function light source is recommended. It can both amplify the light power and demodulate the wavelength signal. Its output power is 1000 times as high as traditional broadband light source (BBS) and it can demodulate the signal by scanning wavelength in 30 nmof bandwidth range in the situation of 1550 nm central wavelength. This kind of light source effectively solves the problem of light energy supply in more-point measurement of FBG and simplifies the structure of sensing measurement.

Abstract:In this paper, results are presented on first application of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique for quantitative determination of Mg concentration in alpha-olefins. It is demonstrated that this technique gives accuracies in Mg concentrations which are comparable with those of traditional methods, as ICP-OES, in short times and without need for sample preparation. Limits of detection for Mg of the order of 500 ppb are demonstrated. Moreover, a brief discussion about the realization of proper calibration curves and the definition of the limit of detection (LOD) is reported.

Abstract:A novel optical-spectrum-encoded (OSE) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is proposed in this letter. To simply exemplify the conversion idea, a 5-bit device structure consisted of Fabry-Perot interferometers (FPI) is analyzed and numerically simulated. The dependence of peak-transmission wavelength on modulation voltage in an electro-optical FPI and the dependence of transmitted power on incident light wavelength in an FPI are discussed and utilized to implement OSEADC.A linearly tunable mode-locked laser, as a voltage-wavelength transformer and a sampler, and chirped grating FPIs, as an encoder array, can be used to obtain much greater sampling rate and bit-resolution.

Abstract:We report the observation of the splitting of whispering-gallery mode in the silica spherical resonator. To characterize the fused-silica spherical resonator, an evanescent fiber taper coupling technique is employed. The coupling system consists of a fiber taper with a diameter of about 2.8 microns and a fused-silica spherical resonator with a diameter of about 143 microns. By injecting the laser power into the fiber taper, a number of narrow absorption peaks with equal peak spacing of 3.7 nm are observed in a wide spectral range. After replacing the resonator by the other one with the shape being slightly modified, whispering-gallery mode splitting in the spherical resonator is observed. The wavelength spacing between adjacent peaks is 0.32 nm, much smaller than that of the previous one.

Abstract:On the basis of liquid crystal model with the electric dipole moment of cell membrane,the microscopic mechanism of the electricity and thermology effects of interaction of laser with cell membrane is researched by electromagnetic, quantum mechanics and quantum statistics. We derive the formulas on the polarization effects and "temperature-rising effect" of laser-cell membrane interaction. The results of the theoretical research can explain some experiments.

Abstract:This paper proposes a control method for avalanche photodiode (APD) reverse bias with temperature compensation and load resistance compensation. The influence of background light and load resistance on APD detection circuit is analyzed in detail. A theoretical model of temperature compensation and load resistance compensation is established, which is used for APD biasing circuit designing. It is predicted that this control method is especially suitable for LD laser range finder used on vehicles. Experimental results confirm thatthe design proposed in this paper can considerablely improve the performance of range finder.

Abstract:The purpose of Optoelectronics Letters is rapid reporting new important results in the fields of photonics-optoelectronics in English to advance the international academic exchanges.