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Conventional optical components shape the wavefront of propagating light by adjusting the optical path length, which requires the use of rather thick lenses, especially for the adjustment of terahertz (THz) radiation due to its long…
Broadband coherent light sources are becoming increasingly important for sensing and spectroscopic applications, especially in the mid-infrared and terahertz (THz) spectral regions, where the unique absorption characteristics of a whole…
Terahertz microscopy has attracted attention owing to distinctive characteristics of the THz frequency region, particularly non-ionizing photon energy, spectral fingerprint, and transparency to most nonpolar materials. Nevertheless, the…
An ongoing limitation of terahertz spectroscopy is that the technique is generally limited to the study of relatively large samples of order 4 mm across due to the generally large size of the focal beam spot. We present a nested concentric…
Various methods have been introduced to measure the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light, from fork holograms to Dove prism interferometers, from tilted lenses to triangular apertures - each with their own benefits and limitations. Here…
The reflection of an optical wave from a metal, arising from strong interactions between the optical electric field and the free carriers of the metal, is accompanied by a phase reversal of the reflected electric field. A far less common…
Terahertz (THz) generation by optical rectification (OR) using tilted-pulse-fronts is studied. One-dimensional (1-D) and 2-D spatial models, which simultaneously account for (i) the nonlinear coupled interaction of the THz and optical…
A Deformable Mirror (DM) is an important component of an Adaptive Optics system. It is known that an on-axis spherical/parabolic optical component, placed at an angle to the incident beam introduces defocus as well as astigmatism in the…
Phase-induced amplitude apodization (PIAA) coronagraphs are a promising technology for imaging exoplanets, with the potential to detect Earth-like planets around Sun-like stars. A PIAA system nominally consists of a pair of mirrors which…
In this text, results of a 0.35 terahertz (THz) dynamic aperture imaging approach are presented. The experiments use an optical modulation approach and a single pixel detector at a stand-off imaging distance of approx 1 meter. The optical…
In astronomy and microscopy, distortions in the wavefront affect the dynamic range of a high contrast imaging system. These aberrations are either imposed by a turbulent medium such as the atmosphere, by static or thermal aberrations in the…
Terahertz (THz) metamaterials have been developed for THz sensing, detection, imaging, and many other functions due to their unusual absorbers. However, the unusual absorption spectra change with different incident angles. Thus, we designed…
Diffractive lenses have recently been applied to the domain of multispectral imaging in the X-ray and UV regimes where they can achieve very high resolution as compared to reflective and refractive optics. Conventionally, spectral…
Ellipsometry is a technique whereby the measurement of the two orthogonal polarization components of light reflected at glancing incidence allows a characterization of the optical properties of a material at a particular frequency.…
We have designed and fabricated a new type of terahertz (THz) emitter that radiates THz waves along the surface-normal direction because of the lateral distributions of the transient electric dipoles. The excitation and measurements were…
For more than twenty years, Ray Tracing methods have continued to improve on both accuracy and computational time aspects. However, most state-of-the-art image-based ray tracers still rely on a description of the environment that only…
High-angular-resolution imaging is crucial for many applications in modern astronomy and astrophysics. The fundamental diffraction limit constrains the resolving power of both ground-based and spaceborne telescopes. The recent idea of a…
Many adaptive optics systems operate by measuring the distortion of the wavefront in one wavelength range and performing the scientific observations in a second, different wavelength range. One common technique is to measure wavefront…
We derive a formula for the light field of a monochromatic plane wave that is truncated and reflected by a spherical mirror. Our formula is valid even for deep mirrors, where the aperture radius approaches the radius of curvature. We apply…
As we read this text, our eyes dynamically adjust the focal length to keep the line image in focus on the retina. Similarly, in many optics applications the focal length must be dynamically tunable. In the quest for compactness and…