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We present a setup for time-resolved spectroscopic ellipsometry in a pump-probe scheme using femtosecond laser pulses. As a probe, the system deploys supercontinuum white light pulses that are delayed with respect to single-wavelength pump pulses. A polarizer-sample-compensator-analyzer configuration allows ellipsometric measurements by scanning the compensator azimuthal angle. The transient ellip
We present latest progress and experimental capabilities of user-oriented XUV beamline based on high harmonic generation (HHG). The focal length of the HHG was recently extended to 5 meters, upscaling the overall XUV photon flux.
Many linked processes occur concurrently in strongly excited semiconductors, such as interband and intraband absorption, scattering of electrons and holes by the heated lattice, Pauli blocking, bandgap renormalization and the formation of Mahan excitons. In this work, we disentangle their dynamics and contributions to the optical response of a ZnO thin film. Using broadband pump-probe ellipsometry
For polarization-resolved reflection experiments such as ellipsometry, not only is high reflectivity in a wide spectral range required for mirrors but also the quality of their polarization response is important. Furthermore, for VUV ellipsometry, optimal angles of incidence at the sample are between 45° and 60° with respect to the surface normal. In the best case, a setup should even allow variab
ZnO and vanadium-doped ZnO (0.7–4.1 at.%) thin films were deposited onto corning glass substrates by the pulsed laser deposition technique using a KrF excimer laser (λ = 248 nm). The films were deposited at 500 °C under an oxygen pressure of 1 Pa with a laser fluence of 2 J/cm2. The structural, morphological, optical and electrical properties as a function of the dopant atomic concentration were i
In this paper, the authors present the characterization experiments of a 20 fs vacuum ultraviolet beam from a high harmonic generation source. The beam hits a silicon sample and passes a triple reflection gold polarizer located inside an ultrahigh vacuum chamber. The polarizer's Malus curve was obtained; the total acquisition time for each point of the curve was 30 s. This aims to be the first vac
Voigt points represent propagation directions in anisotropic crystals along which optical modes degenerate, leading to a single circularly polarized eigenmode. They are a particular class of exceptional points. Here, we report the fabrication and characterization of a dielectric, anisotropic optical microcavity based on nonpolar ZnO that implements a non-Hermitian system and mimics the behavior of
The agricultural sector is responsible for about 30% of greenhouse gas emissions, and thus there is a need to develop new plant-based proteins with lower climate impact. Rapeseed press cake, a by-product from rapeseed oil production, contains 30% high-quality protein. The purpose of this study was to recover protein from cold-pressed rapeseed press cakes on a pilot scale using a decanter and inves
Three main paths are being developed within the ELI research program for transforming driving laser pulses into bursts of bright short wavelength radiation: high-order harmonic generation in gases, plasma X-ray sources and sources based on relativistic electron beams accelerated in laser plasma. For each of these research areas, dedicated beamlines are built to provide a unique combination of X-ra
Transient dielectric functions with a 120 fs time resolution of Ge, Si, and InP were acquired from 1.7 to 3.5 eV with a femtosecond pump-probe rotating-compensator ellipsometer. The intensity of the pump laser (with 1.55, 3.10, or 4.65 eV photon energy) was adjusted to create an initial near-surface carrier density of 1020 cm-3. In Ge, there is a significant (∼15%) decrease in the E1 and E1 + Δ1 c
The insulator-to-metal transition (IMT) in vanadium dioxide (VO2) can enable a variety of optics applications, including switching and modulation, optical limiting, and tuning of optical resonators. Despite the widespread interest in VO2 for optics, the wavelength-dependent optical properties across its IMT are scattered throughout the literature, are sometimes contradictory, and are not available
When incorporating anisotropic materials, planar microcavities can give rise to exceptional points, i.e. propagation directions along which two otherwise polarization-split photonic modes degenerate in energy and broadening. They are non-Hermitian degeneracies revealing complex-square-root topology and chiral eigenstates. We show computations and experiments on ZnO-based microcavities.
Efficient suppression of reflection is a key requirement for perfect absorption of light. Recently, it has been shown that reflection can be effectively suppressed utilizing a single ultrathin film deposited on metals or polar materials featuring phonon resonances. The wavelength at which reflection can be fully suppressed is primarily determined by the nature of these substrates and is pinned to
We demonstrate that exceptional points exist in fully transparent, optically "effectively" biaxial, anisotropic micro-cavities, fabricated using an uniaxial cavity material with its axis inclined to the Bragg mirror growth direction. This is similar to the existence of singular (optic) axes in absorbing biaxial crystals, but the lack of time reversal symmetry is mediated by the mode broadening, i.
Planar microcavities allow the control and manipulation of spin polarization, manifested in phenomena like the optical spin Hall effect due to the intrinsic polarization mode splitting. Here, we study a transparent microcavity with broken rotational symmetry, realized by aligning the optic axis of a uniaxial cavity material in the cavity plane, giving rise to exceptional points in the dispersion r
(Figure presented.). Six out of seven crystal systems are optically anisotropic and birefringent. We review recent insight that biaxial crystals generally exhibit four singular axes (or exceptional points) which can pairwise degenerate for special cases. Planar anisotropic microcavities are discussed as effectively biaxial systems and we predict exceptional points and demonstrate experimentally pa
We studied the doping efficiency of Al and Ga dopants in (Mg,Zn)O alloys as a function of the growth temperature and post growth annealing times. High-temperature growth results in the highest structural quality and highest electron mobility; the doping efficiency is limited by the dopant's solubility. It was investigated in detail that a low growth temperature is needed to achieve free carrier de
The dielectric function of heteroepitaxial YBiO3 grown on a-Al2O3 single crystals via pulsed laser deposition is determined in the spectral range from 0.03 eV to 4.5 eV by a simultaneous modeling of the spectroscopic ellipsometry and optical transmission data of YBiO3 films of different thicknesses. The (111)-oriented YBiO3 films are nominally unstrained and crystallize in a defective fluorite-typ
Cell-based therapies hold great promise in re-establishing organ function for many diseases, including untreatable lung diseases such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). However, many hurdles still remain, in part due to our lack of knowledge about the disease-driving mechanisms that may affect the cellular niche and thereby possibly hinder the function of any transplanted cells by imposing th
We address the problem of the correct description of light-matter coupling for excitons and cavity photons in the case of systems with multiple photon modes or excitons, respectively. In the literature, two different approaches for the phenomenological coupling Hamiltonian can be found: Either one single Hamiltonian with a basis whose dimension equals the sum of photonic modes and excitonic resona
