Angular aperture

About: Angular aperture is a(n) research topic. Over the lifetime, 1771 publication(s) have been published within this topic receiving 27257 citation(s).

Beaming light from a subwavelength aperture.

Abstract: Light usually diffracts in all directions when it emerges from a subwavelength aperture, which puts a lower limit on the size of features that can be used in photonics. This limitation can be overcome by creating a periodic texture on the exit side of a single aperture in a metal film. The transmitted light emerges from the aperture as a beam with a small angular divergence (approximately ±3°) whose directionality can be controlled. This finding is especially surprising, considering that the radiating region is mainly confined to an area with lateral dimensions comparable to the wavelength of the light. The device occupies no more than one cubic micrometer and, when combined with enhanced transmission, suggests that a wide range of photonic applications is possible.

Focusing of high numerical aperture cylindrical-vector beams.

Abstract: Cylindrical-vector beams are of increasing recent interest for their role in novel laser resonators and their applications to electron acceleration and scanning microscopy. In this paper, we calculate cylindrical-vector fields, near the focal region of an aplanatic lens, and briefly discuss some applications. We show that, in the particular case of a tightly focused, radially polarized beam, the polarization shows large inhomogeneities in the focal region, while the azimuthally polarized beam is purely transverse even at very high numerical apertures.

Infrared and optical masers

Abstract: The extension of maser techniques to the infrared and optical region is considered. It is shown that by using a resonant cavity of centimeter dimensions, having many resonant modes, maser oscillation at these wavelengths can be achieved by pumping with reasonable amounts of incoherent light. For wavelengths much shorter than those of the ultraviolet region, maser-type amplification appears to be quite impractical. Although use of a multimode cavity is suggested, a single mode may be selected by making only the end walls highly reflecting, and defining a suitably small angular aperture. Then extremely monochromatic and coherent light is produced. The design principles are illustrated by reference to a system using potassium vapor.

Long Optical Paths of Large Aperture

Abstract: THE measurement of the vapor phase spectra T of compounds having high boiling points presents an experimental problem that may be solved either by heating the absorption cells or by making them very long. In the infra-red region radiation from the hot gases in heated cells decreases the accuracy of absorption measurements. If only a small amount of sample is available, the only possibility is to use an optical system in which the radiation goes back and forth through the same volume a large number of times. Several designs for such systems have been published recently1' 2 but none of them permits the use of large angular apertures at points off the optic axis. In this paper an absorption cell is described in which the light traverses a small volume a large and arbitrarily variable number of times, and in which the angular aperture of the mirrors is not occulted either on or off the optical axis. The design gives very high light transmission and can be used for observing spectra that are very weak, or that belong to high boiling point compounds or to compounds obtainable only in very low concentrations. It can be used for any liquids or gases that do not injure the mirror surfaces, with which they are directly in contact. The essential parts of the equipment are three spherical, concave mirrors that all have the same radius of curvature. These are set up as shown in Fig. 1 with two mirrors A and A' close together at one end of the absorption cell, and the third mirror B at the other end. The centers of curvature of A and A' are on the front surface of B, and the center of curvature of B is halfway between A and A'. This arrangement establishes a system of conjugate foci on the reflecting surfaces of the mirrors, by which all the light leaving any point on A is brought to a focus by B at the corresponding point on A', and all the light leaving this point on A' is focused back again to the

Electromagnetic Diffraction in Optical Systems. I. An Integral Representation of the Image Field

Abstract: An integral representation is obtained for the electromagnetic field in the image space of an optical system . This representation, which is not restricted to systems of low angular aperture, is in the form of an angular spectrum of plane waves, and is closely related to that introduced by Luneberg (1944) as a vector generalization of well-known formulae of Debye (1909) and Picht (1925). It is shown that the representation has a simple physical interpretation in terms of a modified Huygens—Fresnel principle which operates with secondary plane waves rather than with secondary spherical waves.