SearcharxivSearch

arXiv subjects

Thomas Siefke

Publications and source records attributed to Thomas Siefke.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

Fabrication-Aware Design of a Hybrid Metasurface-Bragg Mirror for Low-Noise Precision Optics

High-reflectivity coatings for precision interferometry must simultaneously minimize optical losses and thermally driven displacement noise. Dielectric Bragg mirrors provide robust high reflectance but rely on thick multilayer coatings, whereas metasurface mirrors provide high reflectance and low noise but are sensitive to fabrication-induced deviations. A fabrication-aware hybrid mirror concept is introduced that combines a resonant single-layer metasurface, an etch-stop layer, an antiresonant spacer, and a reduced Bragg reflector. Fabrication effects, including geometric tolerances and line-edge roughness, are explicitly considered in the optical design. Full-wave electromagnetic simulations are combined with a truncated-Gaussian Monte Carlo analysis to determine the performance distribution under the assumed fabrication conditions. The ideal metasurface design exceeds $99.999\%$ reflectance. After roughness-aware reoptimization, the modeled non-reflected power remains below $2.88\cdot10^{-4}$ at $95\%$ fabrication yield. For the cryogenic ETpathfinder gravitational-wave testbed, three Bragg layer pairs reduce the non-reflected power of the complete stack to approximately $6.4\,\mathrm{ppm}$. The estimated thermal displacement-noise amplitude spectral density is $8.4\cdot10^{-21}\,\mathrm{m\,Hz^{-1/2}}$ at $100\,\mathrm{Hz}$. The architecture connects fabrication robustness, optical performance, and thermal-noise reduction within a single design framework.

physics.optics

Measuring the dipole phase of Bloch-trajectory harmonics using a monolithic interferometer

Uncovering the dipole phase of gas-phase high harmonic generation was instrumental to understanding the recollision physics underlying attosecond pulse generation. Corresponding measurements in the condensed phase have not yet yielded a consistent picture. Here, we present a compact and inherently stable approach to high-harmonic interferometry in thin-film solids. We employ it to reveal the dipole phase of high-harmonic generation in polycrystalline ZnO, driven by broadband mid-IR laser pulses. We demonstrate that, under the conditions of our experiments, recollisions facilitated by Bloch oscillations represent the dominant contribution to high-harmonic generation just above the bandgap.

physics.optics

Beyond Bragg-Mirrors for Gravitational Wave Telescopes: A Fabrication Tolerant Hybrid Metasurface-Bragg Mirror Design

Coating thermal noise in high-reflectivity test-mass mirrors is a major limitation for future gravitational-wave detectors, especially in the 10--300 Hz band. ET-Pathfinder therefore requires mirror coatings that combine very high reflectance at 1.55 micrometer with low thermal noise under cryogenic conditions. Conventional dielectric Bragg mirrors provide high reflectance but require thick coatings, whereas metasurface mirrors can reduce coating-related noise but are limited by fabrication tolerances and line-edge roughness. We present a hybrid metasurface--Bragg mirror concept tailored to ET-Pathfinder. The design combines a fabrication-tolerant one-layer metasurface, an anti-resonant Fabry--Perot spacer, and a reduced dielectric Bragg stack. Optical performance is evaluated using full-wave electromagnetic simulations, while fabrication robustness is assessed with a truncated-Gaussian Monte Carlo analysis. Line-edge roughness is included as a systematic edge-smoothing effect. The resulting reflectance distributions are used to determine the minimum Bragg-stack support required to meet system-level specifications. The ideal metasurface exceeds 99.999% reflectance. When fabrication uncertainties and line-edge roughness are included, the metasurface reflectance is limited to about 99.9% at the 95% yield level. The remaining transmission can be compensated by a supporting Bragg stack with as few as seven layer pairs. For this configuration, the hybrid mirror achieves a total thermal displacement noise about one order of magnitude below the projected ET-Pathfinder coating-noise budget. These results show that fabrication-limited metasurface reflectance can be compensated within a hybrid architecture, enabling reduced coating thickness and thermal noise for next-generation gravitational-wave detectors.

astro-ph.IM

Inverse designed metasurfaces for multi-wavelength full-Stokes polarisation imaging

Multispectral full-Stokes polarisation imaging has a broad range of applications, from biological cell imaging to agricultural remote surveying. For such applications, especially involving lightweight unmanned aerial vehicles like drones, it is necessary to have compact, single-shot, efficient optical systems. We present a topology-optimised metasurface design that diffractively separates a scene into spectral and polarimetric measurements, operating for 532 nm and 700 nm in a single-shot imaging system. The polarisation imaging performance of the design is shown in simulation to be robust to critical performance metrics, matching both spectral and angular bandwidth requirements. We fabricated our metasurface design by nanopatterning a TiO$_2$ thin film, and experimentally demonstrate polarisation reconstruction for two wavelengths with a single metasurface structure.

physics.optics

Ultra-shallow EUV and soft X-ray gratings fabricated by broad-beam nitrogen ion irradiation

Controlled and precise fabrication of structures with heights in the range of single digit nanometres is one of the challenges for diffraction gratings operating near-normal incidence in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and soft X-ray range. Here, we expand on previous research utilizing swelling of silicon after irradiation with ions as alternative to conventional dry etching. By irradiating silicon through a mask with a broad beam of nitrogen ions, we realized lamellar gratings in a precise and well controlled process. We were able to fabricate gratings with structure heights between (1.00 +/- 0.05) nm to (10.0 +/- 0.5) nm and a pitch of 1 micrometre, which is suitable for both EUV and soft X-ray applications. A variation of ion energy from 20 keV to 40 keV further expands the foundations of this process and yielded an additional parameter to control the resulting structure height and shape.

physics.app-ph

Long Living Hot and Dense Plasma from Relativistic Laser-Nanowire Array Interaction

Long-living, hot and dense plasmas generated by ultra-intense laser beams are of critical importance for laser-driven nuclear physics, bright hard X-ray sources, and laboratory astrophysics. We report the experimental observation of plasmas with nanosecond-scale lifetimes, near-solid density, and keV-level temperatures, produced by irradiating periodic arrays of composite nanowires with ultra-high contrast, relativistically intense femtosecond laser pulses. Jet-like plasma structures extending up to 1~mm from the nanowire surface were observed, emitting K-shell radiation from He-like Ti$^{20+}$ ions. High-resolution X-ray spectra were analyzed using 3D Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulations of the laser-plasma interaction combined with collisional--radiative modeling (FLYCHK). The results indicate that the jets consist of plasma with densities of $10^{20}$-$10^{22}$ cm$^{-3}$ and keV-scale temperatures, persisting for several nanoseconds. We attribute the formation of these jets to the generation of kiloTesla-scale global magnetic fields during the laser interaction, as predicted by PIC simulations. These fields may drive long-timescale current instabilities that sustain magnetic fields of several hundred tesla, sufficient to confine hot, dense plasma over nanosecond durations.

physics.plasm-ph

Laser-driven high-flux source of coherent quasi-monochromatic extreme ultraviolet radiation for coincidence spectroscopy

We present a source of coherent extreme ultraviolet (XUV) radiation with a flux of 10$^{13}$ photons per second at 26.5 eV. The source is based on high-harmonic generation (HHG) in argon and pumped by a frequency-doubled 100 kHz repetition rate fiber laser providing 30 fs pulses centered at 515 nm. We report on the characterization of the source and the generated XUV radiation using optical imaging and photoelectron spectroscopy. The generated radiation is quasi-monochromatized using a suitably coated XUV mirror and used for coincidence spectroscopy of ions and electrons generated from a cold gas target. The high intensity of the focused XUV pulses is confirmed by the observation of two-photon double ionization in argon. Moreover, we demonstrate the capability to perform pump-probe experiments using XUV and visible laser pulses.

physics.atom-ph

Tabletop Lensless Imaging in the Extreme Ultraviolet with Reduced Radiation Dose

High-resolution extreme ultraviolet (XUV) imaging remains limited by conventional approaches that require complex optics such as multilayer mirrors and zone plates. These methods are expensive, suffer from chromatic aberrations and narrow fields of view, and demand highly stable, coherent beam sources typically found only at large-scale facilities. Critically, the high photon flux they require often damages sensitive biological and soft-matter samples. We present a new solution: a lensless XUV microscopy platform combining a compact tabletop high-harmonic generation source with correlation-based ghost imaging. Our approach eliminates the need for complex optics, lowering system cost and dramatically improving resilience against lab-scale instabilities. Leveraging Hadamard patterns and compressive sensing algorithms, we achieve high-fidelity imaging even in low-photon environments, with a 400\% improvement in structural similarity index compared to baseline methods. This confirms the feasibility of broadband, low-dose XUV imaging, enabling damage-minimized, non-destructive inspection for advanced materials and biological specimens, and establishes a new paradigm for accessible XUV microscopy.

physics.optics

Fabrication of low-loss lithium niobate on insulator waveguides on the wafer scale

We report on the wafer scale fabrication of single mode low-loss lithium niobate on insulator waveguides utilizing a chemically amplified resist and an optimized dry etching method. The fabricated single mode waveguides are free of residuals and re-deposition, with measured losses for straight waveguides around 2 dB/m (0.02 dB/cm). We present on a method offering advantages for large-scale production due to its cost-effectiveness, faster writing time, and simplified processes. This work holds promise for advancing integrated photonics and optical communication technologies.

physics.optics

Nonlocal quantum differentiation between polarization objects using entanglement

For a wide range of applications a fast, non-destructive, remote, and sensitive identification of samples with predefined characteristics is preferred instead of their full characterization. Here, we report on the experimental implementation of a nonlocal quantum measurement scheme enabling to distinguish different transparent and birefringent samples by means of polarization-entangled photon pairs and remote state preparation. On an example set of more than 80 objects with varying Mueller matrices we show that only two coincidence measurements are already sufficient for successful discrimination in contrast to at least 8 required for a comprehensive inspection. The decreased number of measurements and the sample set significantly exceeding a typical set size for various problems demonstrate the high potential of the method for applications aiming at biomedical diagnostics, remote sensing, and other classification/detection tasks.

quant-ph

Tailoring Nanowire Lasing Modes via Coupling to Metal Gratings

Tailoring the emission of plasmonic nanowire-based lasers represents one of the major challenges in the field of nanoplasmonics, given the envisaged integration of such devices into on-chip all-optical circuits. In this study, we proposed a mode selection scheme based on distributed feedback, achieved via the external coupling of single zinc oxide nanowires to an aluminum grating, which enabled a quasi-single mode lasing action. The nano-manipulation of a single nanowire allowed for a reliable comparison of the lasing emission characteristics in both planar (i.e. nanowire on the metallic substrate) and on-grating configurations. We found that, by varying the orientation of the nanowire on the grating, only when the nano-cavity was perpendicular to the ridge direction, an additional peak emerged in the emission spectrum on the low-energy side of the gain envelope. As a consequence of the fulfillment of the Bragg condition, such a peak was attributed to a hybrid mode dominating the mode competition. Simulation results showed that the hybrid mode could be efficiently waveguided along the nanowire cavity and supported by localized plasmon polaritons building up at the raised features ("fences") on top of the metal grating ridges. Moreover, the hybrid mode was found to experience an extra reflectance of nearly 50% across the grating periods, in addition to that provided by the nanowire end facets.

physics.optics

Materials Pushing the Application Limits of Wire Grid Polarizers further into the Deep Ultraviolet Spectral Range

Wire grid polarizers (WGPs), periodic nano-optical meta-surfaces, are convenient polarizing elements for many optical applications. However, they are still inadequate in the deep ultraviolet spectral range. We show that to achieve high performance ultraviolet WGPs a material with large absolute value of the complex permittivity and extinction coefficient at the wavelength of interest has to be utilized. This requirement is compared to refractive index models considering intraband and interband absorption processes. We elucidate why the extinction ratio of metallic WGPs intrinsically humble in the deep ultraviolet, whereas wide bandgap semiconductors are superior material candidates in this spectral range. To demonstrate this, we present the design, fabrication and optical characterization of a titanium dioxide WGP. At a wavelength of 193 nm an unprecedented extinction ratio of 384 and a transmittance of 10 % is achieved.

physics.optics