Government of the United States of America, As Represented by the Secretary of Commerce

University System of Maryland

Wenqi Zhu

Amit Kumar Agrawal

Henri Lezec

Shawn Divitt

Cheng Zhang

Vladimir Aksyuk

William R Mcgehee

Jabez Mcclelland

An apparatus for light delivery to magneto-optical trap (MOT) system utilizes only planar optical diffraction devices including a planar-integrated-circuit PIC and a metasurface MS. When MOT is based on the use of a diffraction grating, a grating chip is additionally employed to launch and manipulate light for laser cooling. Bridging the gap between the sub-micrometer-scale guided mode on the PIC and the centimeter-scale beam needed for laser cooling, a magnification of the mode area by about 10is demonstrated using an on-chip extreme-mode-converter to launch a Gaussian mode into free space from a PIC-waveguide and a beam-shaping, polarization-dependent MS to form a diverging laser beam with a flat-top spatial profile, which efficiently illuminates the grating chip without loss of light. Comparison to equivalent Gaussian-beam-illuminated GMOTs evidences advantageous power efficiency of operation of the proposed light delivery system as compared with conventional systems employing Gaussian distribution of illumination at the grating chip.

Planar-optics based light delivery system for magneto-optical traps and method for using the same

High-performance optical-metasurface-based components configured to at frequencies of UV light and, in particular, in deep UV range and performing multiple optical-wavefront-shaping functions (among which there are high-numerical-aperture lensing, accelerating beam generation, and hologram projection). As a representative material for such components, hafnium oxide demands creation and establishment of a novel process of manufacture that is nevertheless based on general principles of Damascene lithography, to be compatible with existing technology and yet sufficient for producing high-aspect-ratio features that currently-used materials and processes simply do not deliver. The described invention opens a way towards low-form-factor, multifunctional ultraviolet nanophotonic platforms based on flat optical components and enabling diverse applications including lithography, imaging, spectroscopy, and quantum information processing.

Low-loss metasurface optics for deep UV

A metasurface optical pulse shaper includes a metasurface with superpixels disposed on an entry side of the metasurface and a wire grid polarizer disposed on an exit surface of the metasurface for controlling a phase, amplitude, or polarization of an optical pulse, wherein the metasurface in combination with dispersers provide for optical shaping of the optical pulse. A process for optically changing a pulse shape includes dispersing a primary optical pulse; separating spatially, by frequency, primary frequency waves; changing, by superpixels, a relative phase of the primary frequency waves and producing phase waves that are separated spatially by frequency and phase; and producing a plurality of shaped frequency waves such that, from an individual phase wave, a shaped frequency wave is produced that separated spatially by frequency and phase, such that a superposition of shaped frequency waves produce a shaped optical pulse that has pulse shape that is different than the primary optical pulse.

Metasurface optical pulse shaper for shaping an optical pulse in a temporal domain

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Arlington, VA, United States of America

Wenqi Zhu