Browsing by Author "Giessen, Harald"

Now showing 1 - 20 of 42

Open Access
3D direct laser writing of highly absorptive photoresist for miniature optical apertures
(2022) Schmid, Michael D.; Toulouse, Andrea; Thiele, Simon; Mangold, Simon; Herkommer, Alois; Giessen, Harald
The importance of 3D direct laser writing as an enabling technology increased rapidly in recent years. Complex micro-optics and optical devices with various functionalities are now feasible. Different possibilities to increase the optical performance are demonstrated, for example, multi-lens objectives, a combination of different photoresists, or diffractive optical elements. It is still challenging to create fitting apertures for these micro optics. In this work, a novel and simple way to create 3D-printed opaque structures with a highly absorptive photoresist is introduced, which can be used to fabricate microscopic apertures increasing the contrast of 3D-printed micro optics and enabling new optical designs. Both hybrid printing by combining clear and opaque resists, as well as printing transparent optical elements and their surrounding opaque apertures solely from a single black resist by using different printing thicknesses are demonstrated.
Open Access
3D printed micro-optics for quantum technology: Optimised coupling of single quantum dot emission into a single-mode fibre
(2021) Sartison, Marc; Weber, Ksenia; Thiele, Simon; Bremer, Lucas; Fischbach, Sarah; Herzog, Thomas; Kolatschek, Sascha; Jetter, Michael; Reitzenstein, Stephan; Herkommer, Alois; Michler, Peter; Portalupi, Simone Luca; Giessen, Harald
Open Access
3D printed stacked diffractive microlenses
(2019) Thiele, Simon; Pruss, Christof; Herkommer, Alois; Giessen, Harald
Open Access
3D printing of colored micro-optics
(2023) Aslani, Valese; Toulouse, Andrea; Schmid, Michael; Giessen, Harald; Haist, Tobias; Herkommer, Alois
Open Access
3D stimulated Raman spectral imaging of water dynamics associated with pectin-glycocalyceal entanglement
(2023) Floess, Moritz; Steinle, Tobias; Werner, Florian; Wang, Yunshan; Wagner, Willi Linus; Steinle, Verena; Liu, Betty; Zheng, Yifan; Chen, Zi; Ackermann, Maximilian; Mentzer, Steven J.; Giessen, Harald
Open Access
3D-printed miniature spectrometer for the visible range with a 100 × 100 μm2 footprint
(2021) Toulouse, Andrea; Drozella, Johannes; Thiele, Simon; Giessen, Harald; Herkommer, Alois
Open Access
Adaptive method for quantitative estimation of glucose and fructose concentrations in aqueous solutions based on infrared nanoantenna optics
(2019) Schuler, Benjamin; Kühner, Lucca; Hentschel, Mario; Giessen, Harald; Tarín, Cristina
In life science and health research one observes a continuous need for new concepts and methods to detect and quantify the presence and concentration of certain biomolecules-preferably even in vivo or aqueous solutions. One prominent example, among many others, is the blood glucose level, which is highly important in the treatment of, e.g., diabetes mellitus. Detecting and, in particular, quantifying the amount of such molecular species in a complex sensing environment, such as human body fluids, constitutes a significant challenge. Surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) spectroscopy has proven to be uniquely able to differentiate even very similar molecular species in very small concentrations. We are thus employing SEIRA to gather the vibrational response of aqueous glucose and fructose solutions in the mid-infrared spectral range with varying concentration levels down to 10 g/l. In contrast to previous work, we further demonstrate that it is possible to not only extract the presence of the analyte molecules but to determine the quantitative concentrations in a reliable and automated way. For this, a baseline correction method is applied to pre-process the measurement data in order to extract the characteristic vibrational information. Afterwards, a set of basis functions is fitted to capture the characteristic features of the two examined monosaccharides and a potential contribution of the solvent itself. The reconstruction of the actual concentration levels is then performed by superposition of the different basis functions to approximate the measured data. This software-based enhancement of the employed optical sensors leads to an accurate quantitative estimate of glucose and fructose concentrations in aqueous solutions.
Open Access
Alignment-free difference frequency light source tunable from 5 to 20 µm by mixing two independently tunable OPOs
(2020) Mörz, Florian; Steinle, Tobias; Linnenbank, Heiko; Steinmann, Andy; Giessen, Harald
Tunable mid-infrared ultrashort lasers have become an essential tool in vibrational spectroscopy in recent years. They enabled and pushed a variety of spectroscopic applications due to their high brilliance, beam quality, low noise, and accessible wavelength range up to 20 µm. Many state-of-the-art devices apply difference frequency generation (DFG) to reach the mid-infrared spectral region. Here, birefringent phase-matching is typically employed, resulting in a significant crystal rotation during wavelength tuning. This causes a beam offset, which needs to be compensated to maintain stable beam pointing. This is crucial for any application. In this work, we present a DFG concept, which avoids crystal rotation and eliminates beam pointing variations over a broad wavelength range. It is based on two independently tunable input beams, provided by synchronously pumped parametric seeding units. We compare our concept to the more common DFG approach of mixing the signal and idler beams from a single optical parametric amplifier (OPA) or oscillator (OPO). In comparison, our concept enhances the photon efficiency of wavelengths exceeding 11 µm more than a factor of 10 and we still achieve milliwatts of output power up to 20 µm. This concept enhances DFG setups for beam-pointing-sensitive spectroscopic applications and can enable research at the border between the mid- and far-IR range due to its highly efficient performance.
Open Access
Arrays of individually controllable optical tweezers based on 3D-printed microlens arrays
(2020) Schäffner, Dominik; Preuschoff, Tilman; Ristok, Simon; Brozio, Lukas; Schlosser, Malte; Giessen, Harald; Birkl, Gerhard
Open Access
Broadly tunable femtosecond near- and mid-IR source by direct pumping of an OPA with a 41.7 MHz Yb:KGW oscillator
(2013) Krauth, Joachim; Steinmann, Andy; Hegenbarth, Robin; Conforti, Matteo; Giessen, Harald
We generate over half a watt of tunable near-IR (1380-1830 nm) and several hundred milliwatts in the mid-IR (2.4-4.2 µm) as well as milliwatt level mid-IR (4.85-9.33 µm) femtosecond radiation by pumping an optical parametric amplifier directly with a 7.4 W Yb:KGW oscillator at 41.7 MHz repetition rate. We use 5 mm PPLN and 2 mm GaSe as downconversion crystals and seed this process by a supercontinuum from a tapered fiber. The system is extremely simple and very stable and could replace more complex OPOs as tunable light sources.
Open Access
Characterization of harmonic modes and parasitic resonances in multi-mode superconducting coplanar resonators
(2023) Beydeda, Cenk; Nikolaou, Konstantin; Tochtermann, Marius; Ebensperger, Nikolaj G.; Untereiner, Gabriele; Farag, Ahmed; Karl, Philipp; Ubl, Monika; Giessen, Harald; Dressel, Martin; Scheffler, Marc
Open Access
Compact harmonic cavity optical parametric oscillator for optical parametric amplifier seeding
(2020) Nägele, Marco; Steinle, Tobias; Mörz, Florian; Linnenbank, Heiko; Steinmann, Andy; Giessen, Harald
We present a broadly tunable highly efficient frequency conversion scheme, based on a low-threshold harmonic cavity optical parametric oscillator (OPO) followed by an idler-seeded power amplifier. By choosing the cavity length of the OPO equal to the 10th harmonic of its 41 MHz Yb:KGW solid-state pump laser, a very compact optical setup is achieved. A singly-resonant cavity without output coupler results in a low oscillation threshold of only 28-100 mW in the entire signal tuning range of 1.37-1.8 µm. The 2.4-4.15 µm idler radiation is coupled out at the 41 MHz pump frequency and employed to seed a post amplifier with nearly Watt-level output power. In addition, the seeder plus power amplifier concept results in clean signal and idler pulses at the fundamental repetition rate of 41 MHz with a time-bandwidth product below 0.4 and a relative intensity noise 10 dB lower compared to the solid-state pump laser.
Open Access
Coupling strength of complex plasmonic structures in the multiple dipole approximation
(2011) Langguth, Lutz; Giessen, Harald
We present a simple model to calculate the spatial dependence of the interaction strength between two plasmonic objects. Our approach is based on a multiple dipole approximation and utilizes the current distributions at the resonances in single objects. To obtain the interaction strength, we compute the potential energy of discrete weighted dipoles associated with the current distributions of the plasmonic modes in the scattered fields of their mutual partners. We investigate in detail coupled stacked plasmonic wires, stereometamaterials and plasmon-induced transparency materials. Our calculation scheme includes retardation and can be carried out in seconds on a standard PC.
Open Access
Dielectric Mie voids : confining light in air
(2023) Hentschel, Mario; Koshelev, Kirill; Sterl, Florian; Both, Steffen; Karst, Julian; Shamsafar, Lida; Weiss, Thomas; Kivshar, Yuri; Giessen, Harald
Manipulating light on the nanoscale has become a central challenge in metadevices, resonant surfaces, nanoscale optical sensors, and many more, and it is largely based on resonant light confinement in dispersive and lossy metals and dielectrics. Here, we experimentally implement a novel strategy for dielectric nanophotonics: Resonant subwavelength localized confinement of light in air. We demonstrate that voids created in high-index dielectric host materials support localized resonant modes with exceptional optical properties. Due to the confinement in air, the modes do not suffer from the loss and dispersion of the dielectric host medium. We experimentally realize these resonant Mie voids by focused ion beam milling into bulk silicon wafers and experimentally demonstrate resonant light confinement down to the UV spectral range at 265 nm (4.68 eV). Furthermore, we utilize the bright, intense, and naturalistic colours for nanoscale colour printing. Mie voids will thus push the operation of functional high-index metasurfaces into the blue and UV spectral range. The combination of resonant dielectric Mie voids with dielectric nanoparticles will more than double the parameter space for the future design of metasurfaces and other micro- and nanoscale optical elements. In particular, this extension will enable novel antenna and structure designs which benefit from the full access to the modal field inside the void as well as the nearly free choice of the high-index material for novel sensing and active manipulation strategies.
Open Access
Distortion-free multi-element Hypergon wide-angle micro-objective by femtosecond 3D printing
(2020) Weber, Ksenia; Wang, Zhen; Thiele, Simon; Herkommer, Alois; Giessen, Harald
Open Access
Effects of high-power laser radiation on polymers for 3D printing micro-optics
(2023) Klein, Sebastian; Ruchka, Pavel; Klumpp, Thomas; Bartels, Nils; Steinle, Tobias; Giessen, Harald
Open Access
Electro-active metaobjective from metalenses-on-demand
(2022) Karst, Julian; Lee, Yohan; Floess, Moritz; Ubl, Monika; Ludwigs, Sabine; Hentschel, Mario; Giessen, Harald
Switchable metasurfaces can actively control the functionality of integrated metadevices with high efficiency and on ultra-small length scales. Such metadevices include active lenses, dynamic diffractive optical elements, or switchable holograms. Especially, for applications in emerging technologies such as AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) devices, sophisticated metaoptics with unique functionalities are crucially important. In particular, metaoptics which can be switched electrically on or off will allow to change the routing, focusing, or functionality in general of miniaturized optical components on demand. Here, we demonstrate metalenses-on-demand made from metallic polymer plasmonic nanoantennas which are electrically switchable at CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) compatible voltages of ±1 V. The nanoantennas exhibit plasmonic resonances which can be reversibly switched ON and OFF via the applied voltage, utilizing the optical metal-to-insulator transition of the metallic polymer. Ultimately, we realize an electro-active non-volatile multi-functional metaobjective composed of two metalenses, whose unique optical states can be set on demand. Overall, our work opens up the possibility for a new level of electro-optical elements for ultra-compact photonic integration.
Open Access
Focused surface plasmon polaritons coherently couple to electronic states in above-threshold electron emission
(2023) Dreher, Pascal; Janoschka, David; Frank, Bettina; Giessen, Harald; Meyer zu Heringdorf, Frank-J.
When an intense light field strongly interacts with the band structure of a solid, the formation of hybrid light-matter quantum states becomes possible. Examples of such Floquet-Bloch states have been reported, but engineering of the band structure using Floquet states can suffer from dissipation and decoherence. Sustaining the necessary quantum coherence of the light-matter interactions requires robust electronic states in combination with strong fields of suitable polarization and frequency. Here, we explore the quantum coherent coupling of nano-focused surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) to distinct electronic states in the band structure of a solid. We observe above-threshold electron emission from the Au(111) Shockley surface state by the absorption of up to seven SPP quanta. Using time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy the coherence of the interaction of the SPPs with the surface state during electron emission is investigated and the process is shown to be similar to light-driven above threshold electron emission. Ultimately, our work could render SPP-based Floquet engineering in nano-optical systems feasible.
Open Access
Formation of chiral fields in a symmetric environment
(2012) Schäferling, Martin; Yin, Xinghui; Giessen, Harald
Chiral fields, i. e., electromagnetic fields with nonvanishing optical chirality, can occur next to symmetric nanostructures without geometrical chirality illuminated with linearly polarized light at normal incidence. A simple dipole model is utilized to explain this behavior theoretically. Illuminated with circularly polarized light, the chiral near-fields are still dominated by the distributions found for the linear polarization but show additional features due to the optical chirality of the incident light. Rotating the angle of linear polarization introduces more subtle changes to the distribution of optical chirality. Using our findings, we propose a novel scheme to obtain chiroptical far-field response using linearly polarized light, which could be utilized for applications such as optical enantiomer sensing.
Open Access
Hybrid fiber-solid-state laser with 3D-printed intracavity lenses
(2023) Angstenberger, Simon; Ruchka, Pavel; Hentschel, Mario; Steinle, Tobias; Giessen, Harald