A method for suppressing the formation of optical damage in quadratic electrooptic devices operated at short wavelengths is presented. Formation of optical damage is attributed to the generation of a trapped space charge induced by photoionization of impurity ions by the propagating beam. It is shown that in potassium lithium tantalate niobate where the electrooptic effect is quadratic, operating the electrooptic device by a bipolar driving voltage prevents the space charge from accumulating, which inhibits the formation of the optical damage. A 6 hours continuous operation of electrooptic modulator for a 30 W/cm2 at λ = 445 nm input beam is demonstrated.

Electro-optically tunable transmission grating was imprinted in potassium lithium tantalate niobate by irreversible spatial patterning of the dielectric constant. While embedded into waveguided architecture, it provides a reliable and versatile building block for opto-electronic circuitry, capable of both active switching and multiplexing. Realization of such a block is critical for the fabrication of integrated photonic circuits in electro-optic substrates by means of Refractive Index Engineering by fast ion implantation.

A tunable laser that spans the entire C band is presented. The laser consists of an Er-doped fiber amplifier gain medium, a fiber ring resonator, and an electroholography-based tuning mechanism. The electrohologram used is in the g44 configuration where the Bragg condition can be electrically tuned for a specific wavelength. Two laser architectures are presented, one in which the diffracting beam and one in which the direct beam of the electrohologram is used as the laser output. Switching time between wavelengths is limited by the gain medium relaxation time, since the electrohologram switching time is less than 1 ns.

In this paper we present a scheme for the acquisition of high temporal resolution images of single particles with enhanced lateral localization accuracy. The scheme, which is implementable as a part of the illumination system of a standard confocal microscope, is based on the generation of a vector beam that is manipulated by polarimetry techniques to create a set of illumination PSFs with different spatial profiles. The combination of data collected in different illumination states enables the extraction of spatial information obscured by diffraction in the standard imaging system. An implementation of the scheme based on the utilization of the unique phenomenon of conical diffraction is presented, and the basic strategy it provides for enhanced localization in the diffraction limited region is demonstrated.

Abstract: Bacterial bioreporters are genetically engineered microbial strains capable of detecting specific chemicals, groups of chemicals or global biological effects such as toxicity or genotoxicity. A scheme for simultaneous selective detection of the fluorescent signals emitted by a bacterial biosensor array, able to detect four different types of toxicants, using a single photodetector (photomultiplier) is presented. The underlying principle of the scheme is to convert the spatially distributed signals from all the elements in the array to temporally distributed frequency multiplexed signals at the output of the photodetector. Experimental proof of this concept is demonstrated in a four-channel system, in which low power (a few tens of picowatts) fluorescent signals produced by the bacterial sensors are measured, while maintaining a wide dynamic range of detection (more than 3 orders of magnitude). Simultaneous monitoring of concentrations down to a few mg/l of different chemicals in a liquid sample is demonstrated. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]Copyright of Biosensors & Bioelectronics is the property of Elsevier Science Publishing Company, Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Electrically controlled absorption was observed in a slab waveguide, fabricated in a potassium lithium tantalate niobate substrate by proton implantation, at an energy of E=1.15 MeV and a fluence of 6.1×1016ions/cm2. The implantation created an amorphous layer which acted as the cladding with an adjacent proton doped layer at its bottom. It is suggested that a n-i junction is formed at the interface between the proton layer and the substrate, which is the core of the waveguide. The electrically controlled absorption is attributed to changes in the width of the depletion area of the n-i junction induced by the applied field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]Copyright of Applied Physics Letters is the property of American Institute of Physics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The electrical conductivity in the amorphous layer formed by the implantation of protons at 1.15 MeV with fluence of 1.1×1017 ions/cm2 within the depth of potassium lithium tantalate niobate is investigated by four probes and Hall effect measurements. It is shown that the conductivity originates from electrons that are induced by 'Hydrogen donors' that reside in a band structure 0.22 eV below the conduction band. It is claimed that this phenomenon enables the construction of conductive structures with submicron features within the depth of the substrate that can be used as embedded electrodes in electrooptical devices integrated in this substrate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]Copyright of Applied Physics Letters is the property of American Institute of Physics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

It is shown that the implantation of protons in electrooptical substrates enables the construction of 3D structures with submicron features that are both conductive and photoconductive embedded in amorphized regions that possess reduced refractive index. The conductivity and photoconductivity are attributed to the transformation of the material into a degenerate semiconductor due to the formation of high concentration of OH.sup.- complexes that are created by the bonding of the implanted H.sup.+ ions to the O.sup.-2 ions of the lattice. It is argued that these results extend significantly the capabilities of integrated photonic circuits and devices fabricated by Refractive Index Engineering by ion implantations.

Studies of the electrooptic effect in potassium tantalate niobate (KTN) and Li doped KTN in the vicinity of the ferroelectric phase transition are reported. It was observed that in KTN the standard electrooptic behavior is accompanied by electrically induced depolarization of the light traversing through the crystal. This behavior is attributed to the influence of the fluctuating dipolar clusters that are formed in KTN above the ferroelectric phase transition due to the emergence of the Nb ions out of the center of inversion of the unit cell. It was shown in addition that this behavior is inhibited in Li doped KTN, which enables exploiting the large electrooptic effect in these crystals.

Electroholographic switching with a rise time of 13 ns is henceforth presented. The switching was demonstrated in a potassium lithium tantalate crystal doped with copper and titanium with Tc=10 degrees C. The crystal was operated at 17 degrees C. The switching operation was done in the g11/g12 configuration, in which the Bragg condition remains fulfilled at all levels of the applied field. As electroholography is a wavelength-selective switching method, this opens the way for implementing optical packet switching and fast wavelength addressing schemes in optical fiber networks that apply wavelength division multiplexing.

An electrooptical channel waveguide array was constructed in potassium lithium tantalate niobate substrate by the implantation of He+ ions at high energies. The array was fabricated by two successive implantation sessions at 1.6 MeV and 1.2 MeV through a comb-like stopping mask that limited the implanted ions to penetrate the substrate in 1 ?m wide stripes periodically distributed at 3.5 ?m intervals. This generated a grating of amorphized stripes with reduced refractive index. This was followed by a uniform implantation of He+ ions at 1.8 MeV which created a bottom cladding layer below the array. Wave propagation in the array was studied by focusing a light beam at 636 nm into the central channel, and observing the wavefront it created at the output plane of the array. It was found that applying an electric field across the array strongly affects the coupling between adjacent channels and governs the width of the wavefront at the output plane.

A channel waveguide constructed in potassium lithium tantalate niobate (KLTN) substrate by the implantation of He+ ions at 1.65 MeV is presented. The waveguide has a trapezoidal profile with a crystalline KLTN core surrounded by amorphized KLTN created by the implantation. The implantation was done through a 2 μm thick gold stopping mask with a trapezoidal groove. During the implantation, the contour of the groove was replicated beneath the surface of the substrate forming the trapezoidal cladding of the channel waveguide. The channel waveguide is designed as the interconnecting element in electro-optical integrated circuits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]Copyright of Applied Physics Letters is the property of American Institute of Physics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Slab waveguides were constructed in [K.sub.1-x]-[Li.sub.x][Ta.sub.1-y] [Nb.sub.y][O.sub.3] crystals by the implantation of [sup.12][C.sup.+4] ions at 30 MeV and [sup.16][O.sup.+5] ions at 30 and 40 MeV. The waveguides were characterized by a prism coupler setup. A refractive index drop of 10.9% was observed in a layer formed by the implantation of [sup.16][O.sup.+5] ions at 30 MeV. The carbon-implanted waveguides were found to be thermally stable after annealing at 450 [degrees]C. A semiempirical formula for predicting the change in the refractive index given the parameters of the implantation process was developed. It is argued that the combination of the basic implantation process with the semiempirical formula can be developed to become a generic method for constructing complex electro-optic circuits with a wave-guided architecture. OCIS codes: 160.2260, 230.7400, 220.4000, 130.3120, 350.4600.

Volume phase gratings have been fabricated by controlled generation of periodic striations during the growth of copper doped potassium lithium tantalate niobate crystals. Gratings with periods ranging from below 1 to 5 μm were fabricated. It is shown that the fabricated composition grating induces a refractive index grating which is a superposition of a fixed grating and an electrically controlled (electrooptic) grating. The electrooptic grating is produced due to the generation of a spatial modulation of the Curie temperature which is manifested as a correlated modulation of the static dielectric constant. It was also observed that when operated at the immediate vicinity of the phase transition temperature the diffraction efficiency from these gratings was bi-stable at a specific electric field due to an induced shift of the Curie temperature.

Electrically controlled Bragg gratings implemented by periodic striations that were produced during the crystal growth are demonstrated in potassium lithium tantalate niobate crystals. The striations were generated by blowing air with periodic flow at the flux surface. The gratings were investigated by measurements of the diffraction efficiency versus the applied electric field. It was found that the composition grating induced correlated gratings of the refractive index and the low frequency dielectric constant. The latter, under the application of a uniform electric field, produced an electrically controlled birefringence grating through the quadratic electro-optic effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]Copyright of Applied Physics Letters is the property of American Institute of Physics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The g(44) grating is an electroholographic transmission grating in which the applied field is perpendicular to both the grating vector and the wave vector of the incident beam. It is argued that in this configuration the incident beam traverses through a periodically rotating index ellipsoid. It is shown that in the g(44) configuration the Bragg condition is fulfilled for a specific value of the applied field and for a diffracting beam polarization that is perpendicular to that of the incident beam. Consequently, the g(44) grating can be used as an electrically controlled filter. Tunability of 7 nm is demonstrated in a 2mm thick grating.

Waveguide structures were fabricated in potassium lithium tantalate niobate crystals by the implantation of high energy C12 ions. The implantation forms an amorphous layer with a lowered index of refraction within the depth of the crystal, which serves as the cladding of the waveguides. Two amorphous layers were fabricated at 18.8 and 25.6 μm below the surface of the crystal by implantation at 30 and 40 MeV, respectively. This formed a submerged slab waveguide sandwiched between the two amorphous layers and two slab waveguides that were formed between the surface of the crystal and each of the amorphous layers. Coupling between those waveguides was observed and investigated, and confinement of the light in the sandwiched waveguide was demonstrated. © 2006 American Institute of Physics.

A slab waveguide was fabricated in a potassium lithium tantalate niobate crystal by the implantation of He2+ ions at 2.26 MeV. The waveguide profile and loss were evaluated by measuring the dark mode TE spectrum using the prism coupling method at λ=1.3 μm. The implantation generated amorphous cladding layer 5 μm below the surface of the crystal with a refractive index lower by 3.9% then that of the substrate. The propagation loss of the waveguided modes was found to be 0.1–0.2 dB/cm. Thermal stability of the waveguide was obtained by isothermal annealing at 351 and 446 °C. Following the annealing the waveguide index profile remained unchanged when subjected to annealing at 150 °C for one week. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]Copyright of Applied Physics Letters is the property of American Institute of Physics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)