24th Annual Student Research Conference
Power Absorption in Diffraction Gratings
Anne M. Ahlvers
Dr. Michael Goggin, Faculty Mentor
Power losses and power redistribution at the surface of diffraction gratings are not widely known. The power losses occur when the incident light wave couples with a guided wave along the surface of a grating, causing surface plasmon oscillations. These surface plasmon oscillations are analogous to electromagnetic radiation generation on a diffraction grating. Power redistribution occurs around the emergence or disappearance of diffraction orders as a result of Woods anomaly. In our work, we investigated this phenomenon by measuring the overall efficiency of diffraction gratings as a function of incidence angle and polarization. We isolated the effects of surface plasmon oscillations using transverse electric and transverse magnetic polarizations. We performed the experiment using different models of diffraction gratings with various surface profiles. We confirmed the maximum power loss coincided with the predicted anomalies from the surface plasmon oscillation theory.
Keywords: power, absorption, diffraction, gratings, plasmon, oscillation, laser
Topic(s):Physics
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 27-4
Location: MG 1096
Time: 2:00