The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 09, 1999
Filed:
Jun. 13, 1997
Mark S Braiman, Charlottesville, VA (US);
Susan E Plunkett, Richmond, VA (US);
James J Stone, Charlottesville, VA (US);
Other;
Abstract
We have fabricated miniature planar IR waveguides of thickness 30-50 .mu.m, consisting of 12-mm long, 2-mm wide strips of Ge supported on ZnS substrates. Evidence for efficient propagation of broadband IR light through these waveguides is provided by the presence of characteristic high and low frequency optical cut-offs of Ge; by the observation of an oscillatory interference pattern in the transmittance spectrum, which exhibits a dependence on waveguide thickness and propagation angle closely matching waveguide theory; and by the detection of strong evanescent-wave absorption from small (2 mm.sup.2) droplets of liquid, e.g. water, on the waveguide surface. As also predicted by theory, the surface sensitivity (detected light absorbance per unit area of sample-waveguide contact) was shown to increase as a function of incidence or bevel angle.