Near-field self-induced hollow spot through localized heating of polycarbonate/ZnS stack layer

We have found an alternative way of achieving a doughnutlike focused spot by simply melting a subwavelength scatterer in a polycarbonate/ZnS sample. The near-field microscopy technique is used to directly measure the induced doughnut spot in the near-field regime. A numerical model based on rigorous solution of the Maxwell’s equations is...

Submicron hollow spot generation by solid immersion lens and structured illumination

We report on the experimental and numerical demonstration of immersed submicron-size hollow focused spots, generated by structuring the polarization state of an incident light beam impinging on a micro-size solid immersion lens (?-SIL) made of SiO2. Such structured focal spots are characterized by a doughnut-shaped intensity distribution, whose...

Direct measurement of the near-field super resolved focused spot in InSb

Under appropriate laser exposure, a thin film of InSb exhibits a sub-wavelength thermally modified area that can be used to focus light beyond the diffraction limit. This technique, called Super-Resolution Near-Field Structure, is a potential candidate for ultrahigh density optical data storage and many other high-resolution applications. We...

Efficient optimization method for the light extraction from periodically modulated LEDs using reciprocity

The incoherent emission of periodically structured Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) can be computed at relatively low computational cost by applying the reciprocity method. We show that by another application of the reciprocity principle, the structure of the LED can be optimized to obtain a high emission. We demonstrate the method by optimizing one...

Photoanisotropic polarization gratings beyond the small recording angle regime

Polarization gratings can be realized by polarization holographic recording in photoanisotropic materials. In this paper, we study two types of polarization gratings. One is recorded with two orthogonally circularly (OC) polarized beams and the other one with two orthogonally linearly (OL) polarized beams. The interference of both cases is...

Characterization of the diffraction efficiency of polymer-liquid-crystal-polymer-slices gratings at all incidence angles

Recently, a novel holographic diffraction grating made of polymer slices alternated to homogeneous films of nematic liquid crystal (POLICRYPS) was realized. We study the optical performance of the POLICRYPS gratings by both numerical simulations and experiments. Characterization of the grating at normal and conical reading mount are performed....

Finite-element model for three-dimensional optical scattering problems

We present a three-dimensional model based on the finite-element method for solving the time harmonic Maxwell equation in optics. It applies to isotropic or anisotropic dielectrics and metals and to many configurations such as an isolated scatterer in a multilayer, bi-gratings, and crystals. We discuss the application of the model to near-field...