Del Mar Photonics - Newsletter

Rutile (TiO2) coupling prisms Del Mar Photonics offers optical elements made of high quality synthetically grown Rutile Titanium Dioxide crystals. Rutile’s strong birefringency, wide transmission range and good mechanical properties make it suitable for fabrication of polarizing cubes, prisms and optical isolators. Boules having high optical transmission and homogeneity are grown by proprietary method. Typical boules have 10 - 15 mm in dia. and up to 25 mm length. Optical elements sizes - from 2 x 2 x 1 mm to 12.7 x 12.7 x 12.7 mm. Laser grade polish quality is available for finished elements. So far we the largest elements that we manufactured are 12 x15 x 5 mm, in which optical axis is parallel to 15 mm edge, 5 mm is along beam path, 12 x 15 mm faces polished 20/10 S/D, one wave flatness, parallelism < 3 arc.min. (better specs. available on request). more details - download brochure - request a quote

Refractive Index of Rutile (TiO₂)

Rutile (TiO₂)
Rutile coupling prisms - download brochure - request a quote - properties incl. refractive index - buy online
Rutile (TiO2) coupling prism, 10x10x8 mm - in stock!
Rutile (TiO2) coupling prism, 5x5x5 mm - in stock!
Cylindrical and hemispherical lenses from rutile TiO2
Rutile retroreflectors - PBS
Rutile windows
Rutile prisms in production: Brewster angle rutile (TiO2) prism - applications

P-TiO2-10-10-10	Rutile (TiO2) coupling prism, 10x10x10 mm
P-TiO2-10-10-10	Rutile (TiO2) coupling prism, 10x10x10 mm
P-TiO2-10-10-8	Rutile (TiO2) coupling prism, 10x10x8 mm
P-TiO2-12-12-12	Rutile (TiO2) coupling prism, 12x12x12 mm
P-TiO2-15-15-15	Rutile (TiO2) coupling prism, 15x15x15 mm
P-TiO2-2-2-1	Rutile (TiO2) coupling prism, 2x2x1 mm
P-TiO2-5-5-5	Rutile (TiO2) coupling prism, 5x5x5 mm
W-TiO2-15-2	Rutile (TiO2) window, 15x2 mm

Examples of research done or proposed to be done using rutile coupling prisms

Nonlinear Optics in Whispering Gallery Mode Resonators

By Irina Novikova, Matt Simons and David Gribbin, the College of William and Mary

The reliable and efficient generation of an electromagnetic field with non-classical statistics, such as "squeezed" light or single-photon wave-packets, is important for a number of applications from reduced measurement uncertainty to new secure quantum information protocols. Nonlinear processes in optical crystals, such as second-harmonic generation and spontaneous parametric down-conversion, are currently the best and the most common ways to produce non-classical light. However, traditional experimental arrangements with bulk nonlinear crystals are rather involved and usually require high-power lasers and high-quality optical cavities.
Our research group explores the potential for using high-Q crystalline whispering gallery mode resonators (WGMRs) to accomplish low-threshold nonlinear frequency conversion. Such cavities support the modes of light traveling along the circumference of a polished disk (or sphere) through total internal reflection (TIR). Because no actual mirror is used, extremely high quality factors can be achieved in WGMR. Theoretically, the lifetime of a photon inside the cavity is limited by the scattering on the impurities. This limit depends on a crystal, but generally the quality factor ranges from 109 in LiNbO3 to over 1013 in CaF2. More realistically, the Q-factor of a microresonator is limited by the quality of surface polishing. The efficient coupling of laser radiation in a WGM in a crystalline disc is possible by means of frustrated total internal reflection in a coupling prism, as shown in Figure 1. If the rim of a disk is close enough to the reflecting surface of the prism, an evanescent wave tunnels across the gap and that light excites one or several WGMs. It is crucial that the index of refraction of the prism is higher than that of the disc, and thereby the optical coupling is achieved at the critical angle. Rutile with its high refractive index makes a perfect material for coupling to most nonlinear crystals.

The quality factor is a measure of the lifetime of energy stored in the cavity - the longer the lifetime, the more energy can build up in the cavity. For a very high-Q cavity even a low input light intensity can turn into a very intense field in the resonator. For example, a WGM cavity with a Q-factor of 1010 will support a photon for a millisecond (10-3 s), and that is significantly higher than the round trip time (typically in nanosecond scale). In our experiments we have achieved the quality factor of 107 as shown in Figure 2.
Significantly higher values will be achieved with improved polishing. This long cavity lifetime combined with small mode volume makes the crystalline WGMR attractive for the quantum optics applications. In particular, we are interested in observing narrow-band low-threshold second-harmonic generation as a first step toward the generation of heralded single photons. Our ultimate goal is to produce high-quality WGM discs that convert a laser light at 795nm to 397nm and vice versa, since 795nm is the wavelength of the D1 spectral line in Rubidium. Such nonclassical light will be organically integrated with the atomic quantum memory and slow light experiments conducted by our group. However, as the first step we are practicing polishing LiNbO3 disks and observing nonlinear conversion of 1064 nm pump laser light into 532nm second harmonic, as shown in Figure 3. Efficient frequency conversion can be achieved since the non-critical phase-matching (i.e. the matching of the refractive indices for the fundamental and doubled optical frequencies) is possible by tuning the temperature of the nonlinear material. The pump and generated fields are orthogonally polarized, and thus the dichroic rutile prism offers additional benefit for separating them, as they couple out of the WGM disc at significantly different angles.

Irina Novikova Telephone: (757) 221-3693 FAX: (757) 221-3540 Office: Millington 249 Address: Department of Physics College of William&Mary P.O. Box 8795 Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795 Research group web-site http://physics.wm.edu/~inovikova/group.html

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Rutile (TiO2) coupling prisms - buy online - download brochure

Del Mar Photonics offers optical elements made of high quality synthetically grown Rutile Titanium Dioxide crystals. Rutile’s strong birefringency, wide transmission range and good mechanical properties make it suitable for fabrication of polarizing cubes, prisms and optical isolators. Boules having high optical transmission and homogeneity are grown by proprietary method. Typical boules have 10 - 15 mm in dia. and up to 25 mm length. Optical elements sizes - from 2 x 2 x 1 mm to 12.7 x 12.7 x 12.7 mm. Laser grade polish quality is available for finished elements. So far we the largest elements that we manufactured are 12 x15 x 5 mm, in which optical axis is parallel to 15 mm edge, 5 mm is along beam path, 12 x 15 mm faces polished 20/10 S/D, one wave flatness, parallelism < 3 arc.min. (better specs. available on request).
 

Standard Specifications (buy online): Rutile (TiO2) coupling prism Material: single crystal TiO2 Sizes: 5x5x5 mm +/- 0.2 mm Angles:45-45-90 deg.+/-10 arcmin Polish quality: 20/10Scratch/Dig Surface flatness: lambda @ 633nm Parallelism: <5arcmins Orientation: Z-axis along prism thickness +/- 15 arcmin

Research description for a Rutile coupling prism in the development of electrically pumped organic semiconductor thin film lasers.

This description will give a brief insight into our research at the Light Technology Institute of the University of Karlsruhe (TH), Germany. One of our research fields is the development of electrically pumped organic semiconductor thin film lasers. Due to the complex behavior of these lasers numerous electrical and optical characterization is necessary. One of the most important optical properties of these organic semiconductor laser structures is the attenuation coefficient of the multilayer waveguide, which has to be carefully optimized to reduce waveguide losses 1. The first step in the optimization process is the numerical simulation of the anticipated waveguide design. Next, the optimized sample structure is fabricated and characterized in our attenuation measurement setup. This measurement is done as follows:
A Rutile coupling prism is pressed onto the waveguide. A laser beam is then coupled into the prism so that total reflection occurs inside the prism at the interface to the waveguide. In the vicinity of the waveguide the overlapping incident and reflected beam generate a standing wave. The evanescent field of that standing wave penetrates into the waveguide.

Evanescent field coupling

Under a certain angle and if the phase match conditions are fulfilled, the evanescent field stimulates a mode that is guided by the waveguide. The phase match condition can only be achieved when the refractive index of the prism is at least as high as the effective refractive index of the waveguide. Owing to its high refractive index, Rutile is an ideal material for use as a coupling prism in such a prism-coupler waveguide attenuation measurement setup.
 

Beam coupling into waveguide

A small fraction of the guided light is scattered out of the waveguide. The intensity of this scattered light is assumed to be proportional to the intensity of the guided light. Thus the intensity distribution inside the waveguide along the propagation direction can be directly determined through measuring the intensity of the scattered light.

Streak caused by scattering inside the waveguide

The intensity distribution is detected with a computer controlled, cooled CCD-Camera. Finally the attenuation coefficient is extracted from the measured data.

Intensity distribution measured with CCD-Camera

The following two figures show the setup that was used for the measurements.
 

Schematic of the Setup
 

Photography of the Setup

Additionally, it is possible with our setup to measure the refractive index and the thickness of waveguides that support a minimum of two guided modes. These parameters can be extracted from the dependency between coupling angle and effective refractive index.

Keywords: Prism, Coupling, Thin film waveguide, Waveguide losses, scattering, Effective refractive index, Organic semiconductor lasers, Polymer, Small molecule, Evanescent field, CCD-Camera, Coupling angle

1 M. Reufer, J. Feldmann, P. Rudati, A. Ruhl, D. Müller, K. Meerholz, C. Karnutsch, M. Gerken, and U. Lemmer, Appl. Phys. Lett. 86, 221102 (2005).

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MSc.Christian Karnutsch Lichttechnisches Institut Universität Karlsruhe (TH) Geb. 30.34 Kaiserstraße 12 D-76131 Karlsruhe Raum: 126 Telefon: +49 721 608 7742 Telefax: +49 (0)721 608 - 2590

Optical Waveguiding in Ferroelectric Na_0.5K_0.5NbO₃ Thin Films

Prism coupling as a non destructive tool for optical characterization of (Al,Ga) nitride compounds

Inter-laboratory Measurements of the optical losses in Ferroelectric thin films by prism coupling method

rutile Brewster prism