Papers by Author: Harvey N. Rutt

Abstract: Zinc sulfide (ZnS) thin films as the waveguide medium have been deposited onto oxidized silicon wafer substrates at cold temperature (Tcold = –50oC) and ambient temperature (Tambient = 25oC) by thermal evaporation technique. The surface morphology of ZnS films were pictured with an atomic force microscopy (AFM) and the surface roughness were calculated from the AFM images. The propagation losses of the samples were measured using a scanning detection technique attached to a prism coupler. The AFM results revealed that the surface of cold deposited ZnS film is rougher than the surface of ambient deposited ZnS film. The propagation losses of the cold deposited ZnS waveguide are consistently lower than the ambient deposited ZnS waveguide at all measured wavelengths.

Abstract: Zinc sulfide (ZnS) waveguides with the thickness of 0.5 μm have been deposited onto oxidized silicon wafer substrates at cold temperature (T_cold = –50°C) and ambient temperature (T_ambient = 25°C) by thermal evaporation technique. The propagation losses of ZnS waveguides were determined by a scattering detection method. The propagation losses of cold deposited ZnS waveguide were 20.41, 11.35, 3.51 and 2.30 dB/cm measured the wavelengths of 633, 986, 1305 and 1540 nm, respectively. Where as, the propagation losses of ambient deposited ZnS waveguide were 131.50, 47.99, 4.43 and 2.74 dB/cm measured the wavelengths of 633, 986, 1305 and 1540 nm, respectively. The propagation loss of the cold deposited ZnS waveguide was dominated by surface scattering whereas the propagation loss of the ambient deposited ZnS waveguide was dominated by bulk scattering.

Abstract: We review our progress in developing single-mode tellurite glass holey fiber for infrared nonlinear applications. Tellurite glass preforms with complex holey structure were fabricated by using glass extrusion technique. The fabrication of single-mode tellurite holey fibers with the effective mode area ranging from 2.6-3000mm2 and the effective nonlinearity γ ranging from 0.23- 280W-1km-1 were demonstrated. By controlling the microstructured features in the holey cladding, the dispersion profile and the zero dispersion wavelength of this type of single-material optical fiber were tailored within a broad range. Broadband supercontinuum spectra from 0.9 to 2.5mm were generated from the fabricated fibers by using femtosecond laser. Attenuations due to the impurities, such as transition metal ions, rare-earth ions and hydroxyl groups, were also investigated in the bulk tellurite glass and fiber from visible to mid-infrared regimes.