Del Mar Photonics - Greyhawkoptics
Del Mar Photonics manufactures custom passive photonic components for telecom research and applications (1550 nm light).
Here are just few examples of recently manufactured OEM components:
a) True Zero - order Quartz waveplates, sizes about 1.5 x 1.5 x 0.09 mm;
b) Zero - order Quartz waveplates, sizes about 2 x 2 x 2 mm;
c) TiO2 beamdisplacers, 2 x 3 x 10 mm;
d) Calcite beamdisplacers, 6 x 8 x 30 mm;
e) TiO2 plates 1.4 x 1.6 0.225 mm;
f) LiNbO3 plates 1.4 x 1.6 x 0.75 mm;
g) PbMoO4 crystals, 2.6 x 2.6 x 2.4 mm;
 
Rutile (TiO2) coupling prisms and their applications - buy online - download brochure
Del Mar Photonics offers optical elements made of high quality synthetically 
grown Rutile Titanium Dioxide crystals. Rutile’s strong birefringency, wide 
transmission range and good mechanical properties make it suitable for 
fabrication of polarizing cubes, prisms and optical isolators. Boules having 
high optical transmission and homogeneity are grown by proprietary method. 
Typical boules have 10 - 15 mm in dia. and up to 25 mm length. Optical elements 
sizes - from 2 x 2 x 1 mm to 12.7 x 12.7 x 12.7 mm. Laser grade polish quality 
is available for finished elements. So far we the largest elements that we 
manufactured are
12 x15 x 5 mm, in which optical axis is parallel to 15 mm edge, 5 mm is
along
beam path, 12 x 15 mm faces polished 20/10 S/D, one wave flatness,
parallelism < 3 arc.min. (better specs. available on request).
 
| Standard Specifications (buy 
    online): Rutile (TiO2) coupling prism  | 
    
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Research description for a Rutile coupling prism
This description will give a brief insight into our research at the 
Light Technology Institute of the University of Karlsruhe (TH), Germany. One of 
our research fields is the development of electrically pumped organic 
semiconductor thin film lasers. Due to the complex behavior of these lasers 
numerous electrical and optical characterization is necessary. One of the most 
important optical properties of these organic semiconductor laser structures is 
the attenuation coefficient of the multilayer waveguide, which has to be 
carefully optimized to reduce waveguide losses 1. The first step in the 
optimization process is the numerical simulation of the anticipated waveguide 
design. Next, the optimized sample structure is fabricated and characterized in 
our attenuation measurement setup. This measurement is done as follows:
A Rutile coupling prism is pressed onto the waveguide. A laser beam is then 
coupled into the prism so that total reflection occurs inside the prism at the 
interface to the waveguide. In the vicinity of the waveguide the overlapping 
incident and reflected beam generate a standing wave. The evanescent field of 
that standing wave penetrates into the waveguide.

Evanescent field coupling
Under a certain angle and if the phase match conditions are fulfilled, the 
evanescent field stimulates a mode that is guided by the waveguide. The phase 
match condition can only be achieved when the refractive index of the prism is 
at least as high as the effective refractive index of the waveguide. Owing to 
its high refractive index, Rutile is an ideal material for use as a coupling 
prism in such a prism-coupler waveguide attenuation measurement setup.
 

Beam coupling into waveguide
A small fraction of the guided light is scattered out of the waveguide. The 
intensity of this scattered light is assumed to be proportional to the intensity 
of the guided light. Thus the intensity distribution inside the waveguide along 
the propagation direction can be directly determined through measuring the 
intensity of the scattered light. 

Streak caused by scattering inside the waveguide
The intensity distribution is detected with a computer controlled, cooled CCD-Camera. 
Finally the attenuation coefficient is extracted from the measured data. 
 

Intensity distribution measured with CCD-Camera
The following two figures show the setup that was used for the measurements.
 

Schematic of the Setup
 

Photography of the Setup
Additionally, it is possible with our setup to measure the refractive index and 
the thickness of waveguides that support a minimum of two guided modes. These 
parameters can be extracted from the dependency between coupling angle and 
effective refractive index.
Keywords: Prism, Coupling, Thin film waveguide, Waveguide losses, scattering, 
Effective refractive index, Organic semiconductor lasers, Polymer, Small 
molecule, Evanescent field, CCD-Camera, Coupling angle
1 M. Reufer, J. Feldmann, P. Rudati, A. Ruhl, D. Müller, K. Meerholz, C. 
Karnutsch, M. Gerken, and U. Lemmer, Appl. Phys. Lett. 86, 221102 (2005).
 
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    MSc.Christian Karnutsch Lichttechnisches Institut Universität Karlsruhe (TH) Geb. 30.34 Kaiserstraße 12 D-76131 Karlsruhe Raum: 126 Telefon: +49 721 608 7742 Telefax: +49 (0)721 608 - 2590  |