Polarization Filter Research Articles

Linear Polarization Characteristics Within the Rosh HaNikra Mid-Littoral Cave, Israel

Light polarization characteristics, i.e., degree of linear polarization (DoLP) and angle of linear polarization (AoLP)E- vector angle, including annual and daily patterns, were documented in the depth of the littoral cave system of Rosh HaNikra on the northern Mediterranean shore of Israel (33° 5′ 35.24″ N, 35° 6′ 17.16″ E), based on light intensity sampled through polarizing filters at different hours of the day on different days of the year. . This is the first study to investigate the state of light polarization in such a unique habitat in which photosynthetic organisms, such as cyanobacteria, microalgae and macroalgae thrive. Such organisms play an essential ecological role as the energy base for the cave’s fauna. .Using these two methods, we found unique winter polarization characteristics within the cave, including high values of DoLP in the morning and at noon, reaching 50%, and nearly constant AoLP throughout the day. Given the low levels of light intensity that typically exist within the cave in the winter months, the relatively high DoLP and the nearly constant AoLP throughout the day may play a significant role in improving the ability of photosynthetic organisms within the cave to harvest light by orienting their light-harvesting receptors with respect to the AoLP. Using the polarization photograph analysis method, we were able to determine the polarization characteristics originating from the sky, reflection off of the far sea surface, and reflection off of (including refraction into followed by refraction out of) the cave wall separately. The maximum DoLP values originating from the sky, far ocean, and cave walls were found to be 27%, 50%, and 35%, respectively. The lowest daily variation in AoLP was that of light reflecting off the cave walls. The present pioneering study lays the foundation for any subsequent study of the role of light polarization in the distribution of the algal flora on the cave walls in and out of the water in the Rosh HanNikra cave and in sea caves in general.

Surface plasmon induced dual-wavelength photonic crystal fiber polarizing filter based on coupling between core mode and SPP mode

A dual communication band photonic crystal fiber polarizing filter based on coupling between core mode and SPP mode is proposed in this paper. By optimizing the parameters of the fiber structure, the resonant points can be tuned to the communication band. Numerical simulation results demonstrate that the resonance strength of x- and y-polarized direction can simultaneously reach 729.47 and 542.78dB⋅cm−1 at the communication wavelength of 1.55 and 1.31 μm. By filling liquid analyte the confinement loss of x- and y-polarized direction can simultaneously reach 580.55 and 714.48dB⋅cm−1 at the wavelength of 1.55 and 1.31 μm. Furthermore, when the fiber length of L is equal to 700 μm, the peak value of the crosstalk can reach 421.89 and −322.34 dB at the same time at the wavelength of 1.31 and 1.55μm, and when the length of the fiber L is 400 μm, the bandwidths of the crosstalk better than 20 dB and less than −20 dB are about 170 and 220 nm, respectively. These properties make it an ideal candidate for designing dual-band polarization filter equipment.

Surface plasmon resonance induced tunable ultra-wideband polarization filters based on gold film coated photonic crystal fibers

Surface plasmon resonance induced tunable broadband polarization filters based on photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) were designed and investigated. The characteristics of the designed PCF were calculated by using the finite element method (FEM). The air holes in the PCFs which were arranged in hexagonal lattice were of the same size except one big air hole. The big air hole which was located on the right side of the fiber core was designed to be coated with gold film in the inner wall. Because of the arrangement of the big air hole, the surface plasmon resonance inspired on the surface of gold film was quite different for the two orthogonal polarized incident lights. As the edge of the big air hole approaching the adjacent air holes, the plasmon modes were influenced strongly by the adjacent air holes and as a results the cascaded resonances appeared. The index-matching liquid infilling in the big air hole was used to adjust the resonant wavelengths and strength. Numerical simulation results showed that the bandwidth of the polarization filter was 1200 nm covering the wavelengths from 1.0 μm to 2.2 μm with high extinction ratio (ER).

A tunable single-polarization photonic crystal fiber filter based on surface plasmon resonance

A tunable single polarizing filter is proposed by selectively coating gold film on the air holes of photonic crystal fiber (PCF). The polarization properties of the PCF filter are evaluated by the finite-element method. Simulation results show that the loss of y-polarized core mode at 1250 and 1550 nm is 136.23 and 839.73 dB/cm, respectively. Furthermore, we innovatively combine stable modulation with flexible modulation. To be specific, the resonance wavelengths are slowly controlled in a small wavelength range by altering the diameter of the air-hole-coated gold film, while the resonance wavelengths are flexibly controlled in a wide wavelength range by altering the thickness of the gold film or the diameter of the small air holes. When the length of the PCF is 500 µm, the bandwidth of extinction ratio greater than − 20 dB is only 60 nm at the communication window of 1550 nm. It is beneficial to fabricate a narrow-band polarization filter.

Intrinsic bias in Fisher information calculations for multi-mode image registration.

To address the need for the analysis of image processing and optical requirements in multi-mode imaging systems, such as multi-spectral and polarimetric imagers, I have developed a Fisher information matrix to quantify errors in estimating the shift between images with non-transformational feature differences. If images of the same field have differences not attributable to a geometric transformation, as is common for images acquired using different spectral or polarization filters, uncertainty in estimating the parameters of the transformation will be increased by intrinsic bias, or bias inherent in the data itself, as opposed to bias originating in the estimation algorithm. The approach to shift-estimation error analysis described in this Letter accounts for intrinsic bias, has intuitively expected properties and, given planned system sensitivity and operating conditions, can be used with simulated multi-mode imagery to estimate image registration error and develop realistic requirements.

Noise Attenuation Based on Wave Vector Characteristics

Polarization filtering has been widely used to enhance signal-to-noise ratios for multicomponent seismic data. Polarization filters routinely depend on the ellipticity and directionality of spatial particle motions. However, factors such as noise and formation heterogeneity often make the polarization characteristics of body waves hard to distinguish. Here, we introduce a technique in the time domain for the separation of valid body waves and noise based on wave vector characteristics. First, we characterise the ground-roll polarization by the median wave vectors derived in large-scale moving time windows. For the suppression of ground roll, we fit the particle trajectory of ground roll by the least square method using all components simultaneously. Second, we apply three-stage smoothing to the ground-roll-removed multicomponent records. In each stage, we use mean or median vectors derived in small-scale moving-time or moving-trace windows to attenuate random noise and other non-ground-roll related coherent noise. The filter in the proposed method is not devised according to ellipticity and directionality. Instead, we use the wave vector decomposition to distinguish between noise and valid signals. Synthetic data and field data examples confirm that the proposed method can effectively suppress noise without damaging the high and low frequencies of a valid signal.

Ultra-wide bandwidth polarization filter based on gold-coated photonic crystal fiber around the wavelength of 1.55 µm

A novel ultra-wide bandwidth photonic crystal fiber (PCF) polarization filter based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is proposed. The PCF has two large cladding air holes in the direction of y-axis that are selectively coated with gold films to create resonance. There are two small holes in the direction of x-axis, which provides high birefringence. The polarization characteristics of PCF are studied by finite element method (FEM). The numerical simulation results indicate that the loss of y-polarized core mode is 718.87 dB/cm, while the loss of x-polarized core mode is only 0.95 dB/cm at the resonant wavelength of 1.55 µm. The extinction ratio is better than 20 dB at the wavelength ranging from 1.43 to 1.79 µm, the corresponding bandwidth is 360 nm.

Narrowband diode laser pump module for pumping alkali vapors.

We describe a method of line narrowing and frequency-locking a diode laser stack to an alkali atomic line for use as a pump module for Diode Pumped Alkali Lasers. The pump module consists of a 600 W antireflection coated diode laser stack configured to lase using an external cavity. The line narrowing and frequency locking is accomplished by introducing a narrowband polarization filter based on magneto-optical Faraday effect into the external cavity, which selectively transmits only the frequencies that are in resonance with the 62S1/2 → 62P3/2 transition of Cs atoms. The resulting pump module has demonstrated that a diode laser stack, which lases with a line width of 3 THz without narrowbanding, can be narrowed to 10 GHz. The line narrowed pump module produced 518 Watts that is 80% of the power generated by the original broadband diode laser stack.

Method for Polarization-Resolved Measurement of Electroabsorption

Photonic integrated circuits often use semiconductor components such as amplifiers, detectors, and electroabsorption modulators. For a proper circuit design, it is important to know the absorption spectrum of these semiconductor optical components and how it depends on an applied electric field. We propose a fast and accurate method that uses a compact segmented contact structure to measure the absorption characteristics. The method is based on measuring the transmission of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) from a single forward-biased section through a varying number of reversely biased absorbing sections. Provided the ASE source emits light in both polarizations, the method measures the absorption spectra for both polarization modes simultaneously, without the need for a polarization filter in the measurement setup.

Is That a Polarimeter in Your Pocket? A Zero-Cost, Technology-Enabled Demonstration of Optical Rotation

A polarimeter can be constructed using a document camera as a visualizer and a standard smartphone screen as a source of polarized light. A pair of 3D glasses can be used as a polarizing filter, and the optical rotation angle of liquids can be measured using any free compass app. Consequently, a demonstration of optical rotation can be conducted with no preparation time or specialized equipment.

Broadband core shift photonic crystal fiber polarization filter at 1.55 μm based on surface plasmon resonance

A broadband core shift photonic crystal fiber (PCF) polarization filter based on surface plasmon resonance is proposed in this paper. The fiber is consisted of an asymmetric hexagonal lattice of holes in which a small air hole is coated with gold film and another one large air hole destroyed the structure around the core. The loss of y-polarized core mode is 2232.61 dB/cm at the communication wavelength of 1.55 μm, however, the loss of x-polarized core mode is very weak. When the PCF length is 300 μm, the bandwidth of exceeding 420 nm with extinction ratio better than −20 dB is achieved. To our best knowledge, the bandwidth is the widest. As a consequence, this special fiber filter has a wider range of applications.

Plasma dual-wavelength single polarizing filter with gold film and liquid-filled air hole based on photonic crystal fiber

A square structure of dual communication band single polarizing plasma photonic crystal fiber filter is presented in this paper. The resonance point can be adjusted to the communication band by optimizing the parameters of fiber structure. High birefringence can be produced by changing the refractive index of the filled liquid, the thickness of the metal film, and the diameter of the air holes near the core. Numerical simulation results demonstrate that the resonance strength of x- and y-polarized direction can simultaneously reach 781.87 and 463.04 dB cm−1 at the communication wavelength of 1.31 and 1.55 μm. By filling liquid analyte the confinement loss of x- and y-polarized direction can simultaneously reach 804.71 and 451.69 dB cm−1 at the wavelength of 1.31 and 1.55 μm. Furthermore, when the fiber length of L is equal to 700 μm, the peak value of the crosstalk can reach 474.63 and −243.61 dB at the same time at the wavelength of 1.31 and 1.55 μm, and when the length of the fiber L is 400 μm, the bandwidths of the crosstalk better than 20 dB and less than −20 dB are about 160 and 220 nm, respectively. These features make it an ideal candidate for the design of a dual band polarization filter device.

An application of waveform denoising for microseismic data using polarization–linearity and time–frequency thresholding

ABSTRACTNoise suppression or signal‐to‐noise ratio enhancement is often desired for better processing results from a microseismic dataset. In this paper, a polarization–linearity and time–frequency‐thresholding‐based approach is used for denoising waveforms. A polarization–linearity filter is initially applied to preserve the signal intervals and suppress the noise amplitudes. This is followed by time–frequency thresholding for further signal‐to‐noise ratio enhancement in the S transform domain. The parameterisation for both polarization filter and time–frequency thresholding is also discussed. Finally, real microseismic data examples are shown to demonstrate the improvements in processing results when denoised waveforms are considered in the workflow. The results indicate that current denoising approach effectively suppresses the background noise and preserves the vector fidelity of signal waveform. Consequently, the quality of event detection, arrival‐time picking, and hypocenter location improves.

Polarization filtering in the visible wavelength range using surface plasmon resonance and a sunflower-type photonic quasi-crystal fiber

A novel polarization filter based on a sunflower-type photonic quasi-crystal fiber (PQF) is proposed in this paper. We also discuss different methods to tune the filter wavelength. The proposed filter can efficiently produce polarized light with visible wavelengths by using the resonance between the second-order surface plasmon polariton mode and the core mode of the PQF. The filtered wavelength can be tuned between 0.55 µm and 0.68 µm by adjusting the thickness of the gold film. When the thickness of the gold film is 25.3 nm, the resonance loss in the y-polarized direction reaches 11707 dB m−1 for a wavelength of 0.6326 µm, and the full width at half maximum is only 5 nm. Due to the flexible design and absence of both polarization coupling and polarization dispersion, this polarization filter can be used in devices that require narrow-band filtering.

A twofold mission to the moon: Objectives and payloads

Ukraine has scientific and technical potential to construct a spacecraft and payloads for exploration of the Moon in collaboration with other interested countries. In this paper we propose a double mission that consists of two parts: (1) orbiter exploration from an elongated orbit with a pericenter over the north pole (100 km above the surface) and the apocenter over the south pole (altitude about 3000 km), and (2) exploration with a lander located on the lunar farside near the south pole in the surroundings of the crater Braude. The lander carries five antennas for radio astronomy observations from hundreds of KHz to 40 MHz. The farside landing is necessary to provide effective shielding electromagnetic noises from the Earth, including aurora and lighting radiation. The lander communicates with the relay satellite in a high portion of the orbit; the orbiter is equipped with scientific payloads for investigation of the lunar surface. In the mode of a radio spectrometer, the radio antennas may study solar flares of various types, coronal mass ejections, Jupiter radio emission (L and S bursts), and Saturn (lightning and kilometer radio emission). Overlapping frequencies in the range of 10–40 MHz will allow coordination with terrestrial radio telescopes of IRA NAS, Ukraine (UTR-2, GURT), whose operation is limited by the Earth ionosphere. The absence of terrestrial noise allows us to approach the solution of the problem of searching for cosmological effects associated with the line of neutral hydrogen at Z = 50 … 100. The lander panoramic camera equipped with color and polarization filters provides important observations of horizon glow caused by the effect of electrostatic levitation of the lunar dust. For the orbital module we suggest remote-sensing instruments, which had not previously been used in space exploration of the Moon. The expected spatial resolution of the data will be about 100 m for the northern hemisphere. The equipment should include instruments, prototypes of which are already available in science organizations of Ukraine. These include an infrared spectrometer to map the abundance of OH/H2O compounds in the lunar soil. A HiRes camera operating in two spectral bands is suggested for mapping structural and mineralogical characteristics of young surface formations. The 3-mm radar, working in a squint mode, will not only map the radio brightness of the surface, which characterizes its roughness, but also improve the lunar topographic model with a spatial resolution of 100 m.

Tunable ultra-broadband polarization filter based on three-core resonance of the fluid-infiltrated and gold-coated photonic crystal fiber**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61505175 and 61475134) and the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province (Grant Nos. F2017203110 and F2017203193).

We propose a tunable ultra-broadband polarization filter based on three-core resonance of the fluid-infiltrated and gold-coated high birefringent photonic crystal fiber (HB-PCF). Gold film was applied to the inner walls of two cladding air holes and surface plasmon polaritons were generated on its surface. The two gold-coated cladding air holes acted as two defective cores. As the phase matching condition was satisfied, light transmitted in the fiber core and coupled to the two defective cores. The three-core PCF supported three super modes in two orthogonal polarization directions. The coupling characteristics among these modes were investigated using the finite-element method. We found that the coupling wavelengths and strength between these guided modes can be tuned by altering the structural parameters of the designed HB-PCF, such as the size of the voids, thickness of the gold-films and liquid infilling pattern. Under the optimized structural parameters, a tunable broadband polarization filter was realized. For one liquid infilling pattern, we obtained a broadband polarization filter which filtered out the light in y-polarization direction at the wavelength of 1550 nm. For another liquid infilling pattern, we filtered out light in the x-polarization direction at the wavelength of 1310 nm. Our studies on the designed HB-PCF made contributions to the further devising of tunable broadband polarization filters, which are extensively used in telecommunication and sensor systems.

Broad bandwidth and 600 μm length photonic crystal fiber polarization filter at the communication window of 1.55 μm

A broad bandwidth and 600-μm length photonic crystal fiber polarization filter at the communication window of 1.55 μm is proposed. The physical parameters are analyzed by the finite element method. In the structure, the loss is 705.81 dB/cm for y-polarized mode and 24.06 dB/cm for x-polarized mode at the wavelength of 1.55 μm; the y-polarized mode will be filtered out because of this property. The bandwidth of an extinction ratio (ER) better than −20 dB is 65 nm when the filter length is 600 μm, and the ER is −41 dB at the communication wavelength of 1.55 μm. The filter structure is simple and easy to produce, and it can be used to produce a single-polarization filter.

Low-loss polarization filter at 1.55 μm based on photonic crystal fiber

In this paper, a photonic crystal fiber with the gold layer is simulated by finite element method. Due to birefringence, surface plasmon resonance only occurs in the y-polarization direction. The loss of y-polarization mode is much larger than that of x-polarization mode. The photonic crystal fiber is suitable for the polarization filter. The polarization filter has the short length and high extinction ratio. Furthermore, the insertion loss of the x-polarization mode is only 0.07 dB, which is the smallest as far as we know.

Playing with Quantum Toys: Julian Schwinger’s Measurement Algebra and the Material Culture of Quantum Mechanics Pedagogy at Harvard in the 1960s

In the early 1960s, a PhD student in physics, Costas Papaliolios, designed a simple—and playful—system of Polaroid polarizer filters with a specific goal in mind: explaining the core principles behind Julian Schwinger’s quantum mechanical measurement algebra, developed at Harvard in the late 1940s and based on the Stern-Gerlach experiment confirming the quantization of electron spin. Papaliolios dubbed his invention “quantum toys.” This article looks at the origins and function of this amusing pedagogical device, which landed half a century later in the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments at Harvard University. Rendering the abstract tangible was one of Papaliolios’s demonstration tactics in reforming basic teaching of quantum mechanics. This article contends that Papaliolios’s motivation in creating the quantum toys came from a renowned endeavor aimed, inter alia, at reforming high-school physics training in the United States: Harvard Project Physics. The pedagogical study of these quantum toys, finally, compels us to revisit the central role playful discovery performs in pedagogy, at all levels of training and in all fields of knowledge.

Computation at a coordinate singularity

Coordinate singularities are sometimes encountered in computational problems. An important example involves global atmospheric models used for climate and weather prediction. Classical spherical coordinates can be used to parameterize the manifold – that is, generate a grid for the computational spherical shell domain. This particular parameterization offers significant benefits such as orthogonality and exact representation of curvature and connection (Christoffel) coefficients. But it also exhibits two polar singularities and at or near these points typical continuity/integral constraints on dependent fields and their derivatives are generally inadequate and lead to poor model performance and erroneous results. Other parameterizations have been developed that eliminate polar singularities, but problems of weaker singularities and enhanced grid noise compared to spherical coordinates (away from the poles) persist. In this study reparameterization invariance of geometric objects (scalars, vectors and the forms generated by their covariant derivatives) is utilized to generate asymptotic forms for dependent fields of interest valid in the neighborhood of a pole. The central concept is that such objects cannot be altered by the metric structure of a parameterization.The new boundary conditions enforce symmetries that are required for transformations of geometric objects. They are implemented in an implicit polar filter of a structured grid, nonhydrostatic global atmospheric model that is simulating idealized Held–Suarez flows. A series of test simulations using different configurations of the asymptotic boundary conditions are made, along with control simulations that use the default model numerics with no absorber, at three different grid sizes. Typically the test simulations are ∼20% faster in wall clock time than the control—resulting from a decrease in noise at the poles in all cases. In the control simulations adverse numerical effects from the polar singularity are observed to increase with grid resolution. In contrast, test simulations demonstrate robust polar behavior independent of grid resolution.