5.2 - In-Lab Exercises - Engineering LibreTexts
5.2 - In-Lab Exercises - Engineering LibreTexts
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1. Find the c axis of the barium titanate crystal by carrying out the procedures described above. Convince the TA or LA
that you have found the c-axis.
2. Why does light with its k vector parallel to the c-axis of the Barium Titanate crystal remain extinguished as the crystal is
rotated about the c-axis between crossed polarizers?
3. Why is light with its k vector parallel to the a-axis of the crystal extinguished every time the barium titanate crystal is
rotated between crossed polarizers by 90± about the a-axis? In your answer, be sure to explain what happens at
intermediate angles of rotation.
4. From your answers in (1), (2) and (3), what are the possible crystal symmetries (e.g., cubic, monoclinic, etc.) that would
give the same result?
5. What are the actual crystal symmetries of Calcite and BaTiO3? What are their permitivity (NOT electro-optic) tensors
(this may require a little bit of outside research)?
CAUTION: THE HIGH VOLTAGES APPLIED TO THE MODULATOR CAN BE LETHAL; ALWAYS TURN OFF THE
HIGH-VOLTAGE POWER SUPPLY BEFORE TOUCHING MODULATOR OR ATTEMPTING TO DISCONNECT
THE WIRES.
5.2.1. Please answer the following questions relating the transverse LiNbO3 Modulator
1. What are the approximate numerical values of the refractive indices of the LiNbO3 crystal in the region of the spectrum
close to the He-Ne laser wavelength of 633 nm? (You can find this information in Yariv)
2. Is it a negative uniaxial or a positive uniaxial crystal?
3. Write down the form of the electro-optic tensor for the LiNbO3 crystal clearly showing which tensor elements are zero.
4. The crystal cut and readout configuration for your modulator is as shown in Fig. 4. Derive the expression for the phase
retardation G = fy - fz.
5. The LiNbO3 crystal in your setup is about 2 cm long, what is the calculated half-wave voltage?
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5.2.3 Modulator Transmission Versus Applied Voltage
Rotate the polarizer/analyzer pair so that your reference line makes an angle of 45± with the axes of the polarizers. Turn
on the chopper, and record the transmitted light with the detector and the oscilloscope as shown in Figure 1. Now connect
the reversible high-voltage DC power supply to the modulator input, and record the intensity of the output light as a
function of applied voltage. Do not apply more than 1000V to the modulator. Suggested voltages to apply are 0, 50, 100,
150, etc...
Now turn off the power supply, reverse the polarity of the input and repeat the experiment. Record your data in tabular
form in your notebook (similar to the table shown below). Plot the results graphically and paste your graph into the your
notebook.
50
100
150
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950
TA or LA of your answer with a demonstration. Explain in your lab notebook why the plate you have chosen works
better and why the other plate is not as effective?
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2. Use your data to calculate the speed of sound, va, in the crystal. By comparison with known material parameters, as
may be found, for example, in Yariv's book, what are some possible materials that the deflector may be made of?
The Crystals
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Three crystals are provided: A, B (both barium titanate, BaTiO3) and C is a bismuth silicon oxide crystal (Bi12SiO20).
Crystal A has a roughly square cross-section and all six sides are polished. Crystal A is to be used for the experiment 5.11
and 5.5. Crystal B has a rectangular cross-section and only two sides are polished. Crystal B is to be used for this
experiment (5.4).
5.4.1 Hologram Recording, Storage, Readout and Erasure in BaTiO3
In this experiment, a green argon laser beam (λ = 514 nm) is split into two portions and then the two beams are
recombined in the BaTiO3 crystal so as to write a phase grating (the blue line of the argon laser at 488 nm could also be
used, but it is less efficient than the green line for this experiment). A halfangle θ of about 10± degrees between the two
beams is typical. The grating is read out at the Bragg angle with a weak He-Ne laser beam (λ = 633 nm) and the diffracted
beam intensity is recorded with the aid of a photodetector. The set up is as shown in Figure 7.
You should find the system already set up with the c-axis of the crystal in the plane of incidence of the argon laser beams
as shown above. The angle of incidence of the He-Ne laser beam has been preadjusted so that the Bragg condition is
satisfied. A fiber-optic coupled detector placed in the path of the diffracted He-Ne beam in conjunction with the BNC 210
National Instruments connector block and the computer is used to monitor the diffracted beam (alternatively, one could
use a large-area photodetector and mask off the active area with a piece of black tape or cardboard to leave only a small
opening roughly the size of the diffracted beam). The polarizer P1 in front of the unpolarized He-Ne laser serves to alter
the polarization of the red He-Ne readout laser beam incident on the crystal.
Rotate the polarizer so that the He-Ne laser light is polarized in the plane of incidence. Place the screen in front of the
photodetector, so that the transmitted Argon laser beams, as well as the transmitted and diffracted He-Ne Laser beam can
be seen on the screen.
To make sure that the system is functioning properly, first erase the grating in the crystal. This is accomplished by blocking
one of the arms of the argon-laser-beam-writing system using the electronic shutter so that the crystal is flooded uniformly
with the light from the second arm for about 60 seconds. The intensity of the diffracted He-Ne Laser beam on the screen
should slowly disappear. Now open the shutter so as to record a phase grating in the crystal. The diffracted intensity on
the screen should rise quickly to its saturation level.
5.4.2 Bragg Readout
1. With respect to the BaTiO3 crystal, is the He-Ne laser beam an ordinary beam or an extraordinary beam?
2. Measure the polarization of the Argon laser beam. Is it ordinary or extraordinary polarized?
3. By measuring the actual separation between the transmitted Ar laser beams on the screen, determine the angle between
the two writing beams. (Do not touch the crystal when making these measurements).
4. Calculate the period of the sinusoidal refractive index modulation that exists in the crystal using the results of part (3).
5. Calculate the Bragg angle for He-Ne laser readout from your result in part (4). Compare this result with the measured
Bragg angle, and explain any discrepancy between the two results.
6. To experimentally find the Bragg angle, θB, we first calculated it to get an approximate value. Then an incremental
search was performed about the calculated value (by changing the angle of incidence of the He-Ne laser beam on the
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crystal) until the maximum diffracted He-Ne beam intensity was obtained. Ask the TA or LA to demonstrate how
extremely strict the conditions are for Bragg matching.
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Beam fanning and two-beam coupling are essential to the mechanism involved in the self-pumped phaseconjugate
process. These effects are stronger in BaTiO3 for extraordinary polarized light (polarization along the c axis) than for
ordinary polarized light.
To explore the phase conjugate property of the barium titanate crystal, we will make the following changes to the setup of
Figure 7.
Use crystal A. Place the crystal on the stand so that the chip on the long edge is at the bottom, the chipped corners are
on the back, and the reflected beams from the front face of the crystal make an angle of about 30° with the incoming
beam.
Change the wavelength of the argon laser light to the blue line at 488 nm (TA will do this), and
Modify the set-up of Figure 7 to that of Figure 8 without the lens. This is accomplished by closing the shutter in Figure 7
so as to get a single beam, and using the given halfwave plate to rotate the polarization of the argon laser beam into the
plane of incidence (which contains the caxis of the crystal). The key feature of this setup is a single extraordinary
polarized writing beam interacting with the crystal.
1. With the approximately-collimated laser beam entering one of the square faces of the crystal, rotate and translate the
crystal as necessary until the phase-conjugate beam appears on the screen. You will have to wait about two to three
minutes before the phase-conjugate beam is visible. Beam fanning within the crystal (see Figure 8) should be visible as
the phase-conjugate beam builds up. Note that the phase-conjugate beam is approximately collimated even one meter
away from the setup. Convince the TA or LA that you have observed the phase conjugate beam.
2. A second optional demonstration involves placing a weakly focusing lens (one that does not significantly overfill the
crystal) in the argon laser beam as shown in Figure 8. The focused spot S before the beam splitter serves as the input-
object for this demonstration. The phaseconjugate beam should appear as a focused spot of light at the same distance
from the beam splitter as S is in front the beam splitter. Move the screen about one meter away from the setup and note
that the phase-conjugate beam is divergent, as expected.
3. A third optional experiment involves removing the lens from the system, and placing the given aberrator in region B of
the beam path. Describe and explain your observations.
4. Remove the aberrator after steady state has been reached. Describe and explain the response due to the removal of the
aberrator.
APPENDIX
Computer operating instructions
VI folder
Advanced data logger
Advanced data logger Device 1 (computer channel)
Digits of precision: 5
Channel: 0
Run
Save
Enter header text
(Use matlab script to read VI file.)
5.2: In-lab Exercises is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by David Dunmeyer (MIT
OpenCourseWare) .
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