Keyword: Waveguides

Application Briefs: Materials

Micro-optics and nanostructures are key technologies for the latest optoelectronic components in smartphones, smart glasses and vehicles. Some examples used in consumer...

Feature Image
Briefs: Transportation

A new composition of germanosili-cate glass created by adding zinc oxide has properties good for lens applications. The new family of zinc germanosilicate glass has a high refractive index comparable...

Feature Image
Briefs: Lighting
Polymer cores redirect light from any source to solar cells.
Feature Image
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
This work could lead to much more robust devices that continue to operate in spite of damage.
Feature Image
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Sensors in the hand can actually detect forces being transmitted through the thickness of the robot.
Feature Image
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
A team is exploring new materials for telecommunications and LIDAR applications.
Feature Image
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
All-Fiber, Optically Controlled Optical Switch

An optical switch is a device where information-bearing light may be directed to one of several outputs. Prior art optical switches have mainly been integrated optical waveguide structures such as titanium-diffused (Ti) waveguides in lithium-niobate (LiNbO3) or gallium-arsenide (GaAs)...

Briefs: Materials

Researchers have developed a method to simultaneously control diverse optical properties of dielectric waveguides by using a two-layer coating, each layer with a...

Feature Image
Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Researchers have developed an inkjet printing technique that can be used to print optical components such as waveguides. Because the printing approach can also fabricate...

Feature Image
Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Moving from electrical communication to optical communication is attractive to chip manufacturers because it could significantly increase chips’ speed and reduce power consumption,...

Feature Image
Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Photonic choke-joint (PCJ) structures for dual-polarization waveguides have been investigated at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center for use in device and component packaging. This...

Feature Image
Briefs: Electronics & Computers

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has developed a low-loss dielectric waveguide that provides a simple, versatile, and flexible transmission medium. Dielectric waveguides — long, solid pieces of...

Feature Image
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Advanced, Ultra-Low-Loss, High-Frequency Package Module

As electronic circuits approach submillimeter wavelength frequencies (300 GHz) and higher, the traditional low-loss method of packaging electronic circuits in waveguide modules for guiding the signal requires more attention. The reasons are that circuits at higher frequencies have lower...

Briefs: Test & Measurement
Vector Network Analyzer Calibration for Quasi-Optical Dual Ports

It is desirable to measure the electromagnetic properties of devices and materials in the millimeter part of the spectrum. For guided wave-based devices and materials (waveguides, coaxial devices), a vector network analyzer (VNA) is an excellent tool for this purpose since it...

Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Domain-Engineered Magnesium-Oxide-Doped Lithium Niobate for Lidar-Based Remote Sensing

There are several frequency conversion applications associated with lidar-based remote sensing that would benefit from the use of high-quality, complex (i.e., chirped, multi-section, or otherwise modulated) domain-engineered magnesiumoxide- doped lithium...

Briefs: Test & Measurement
Cryogenic and Non-Cryogenic Optical Liquid Level Instrument for Stratified Conditions

Typical cryogenic tank metering systems use a series of thermocouple, RTD, or other temperature or resistive devices in a rake or array configurations. Since these operate using the thermal change between the liquid and gas fluid phases, they are limited by...

Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Multimode, Fiber-Coupled, Tungsten Silicide, Superconducting Nanowire Single-Photon Detector Array

The superconducting nanowire single-photon detector (SNSPD) arrays created in this innovation were fabricated using a WSi nanowire process. A gold mirror layer is deposited on an oxidized silicon wafer, and amorphous-state WSi is sputtered from a...

Briefs: Physical Sciences
Multimode Directional Coupler for Utilization of Harmonic Frequencies From TWTAs

A novel waveguide multimode directional coupler (MDC) intended for the measurement and potential utilization of the second and higher order harmonic frequencies from high-power traveling wave tube amplifiers (TWTAs) has been successfully designed, fabricated, and...

Briefs: Physical Sciences
High-Power, High-Speed Electro-Optic Pockels Cell Modulator

Electro-optic modulators rely on a change in the index of refraction for the optical wave as a function of an applied voltage. The corresponding change in index acts to delay the wavefront in the waveguide. The goal of this work was to develop a high-speed, high-power waveguide-based...

Briefs: Lighting

If you want to create a moving light source, you have a few possibilities. One is to mount a light emitter in some kind of mechanical housing — the approach used in, for example, theatrical spotlights, which...

Feature Image
Briefs: Electronics & Computers

A 1.6-THz power-combined Schottky frequency tripler was designed to handle approximately 30 mW input power. The design of Schottky-based triplers at this...

Feature Image
Briefs: Materials
Adjusting Permittivity by Blending Varying Ratios of SWNTs

A new composite material of singlewalled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) displays radio frequency (0 to 1 GHz) permittivity properties that can be adjusted based upon the nanotube composition. When varying ratios of raw to functionalized SWNTs are blended into the silicone elastomer matrix at a...

Briefs: Information Technology
Theory of a Traveling Wave Feed for a Planar Slot Array Antenna

Planar arrays of waveguide-fed slots have been employed in many radar and remote sensing applications. Such arrays are designed in the standing wave configuration because of high efficiency. Traveling wave arrays can produce greater bandwidth at the expense of efficiency due to...

Briefs: Physical Sciences
Mid- and Long-IR Broadband Quantum Well Photodetector

A single-stack broadband quantum well infrared photodetector (QWIP) has been developed that consists of stacked layers of GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells with absorption peaks centered at various wavelengths spanning across the 9-to-11-μm spectral regions. The correct design of broadband QWIPs was...

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

This innovation will replace a beam combiner, a phase shifter, and a mode conditioner, thus simplifying the system design and alignment, and saving weight and space in future...

Feature Image
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Excitation of a Parallel Plate Waveguide by an Array of Rectangular Waveguides

This work addresses the problem of excitation of a parallel plate waveguide by an array of rectangular waveguides that arises in applications such as the continuous transverse stub (CTS) antenna and dual-polarized parabolic cylindrical reflector antennas excited by a...

Briefs: Software

Microwave heating is an important process for many commercial, industrial, and household applications. Industrial microwave ovens are widely used for chemical processing, agri-food, medical products, and...

Feature Image
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Ridge Waveguide Structures in Magnesium-Doped Lithium Niobate

This work proposes to establish the feasibility of fabricating isolated ridge waveguides in 5% MgO:LN. Ridge waveguides in MgO:LN will significantly improve power handling and conversion efficiency, increase photonic component integration, and be well suited to space-based...

Briefs: Physical Sciences

Most optical systems require antennas with directive patterns. This means that the physical area of the antenna will be large in terms of the wavelength....

Feature Image