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ms-09: Does the beam deflector have a useful bandwidth?

The same six-ridge supercell from Chapter 5 is frozen throughout the wavelength sweep. The geometry figure below is its x–z section. Light arrives from air along +z, with electric field along the invariant y direction; the substrate has index 1.5. The real indices are held constant, so this experiment measures structural dispersion, not measured material dispersion. Predict: does high total transmission imply high power in the desired +1 order?

See the lab instructions. All figures are original calculated outputs. Plot labels and code are shared between editions.

Maximum target-power change, M=96 to 144: 3.5677626034180676e-05
[
  {
    "samples": 41,
    "efficiency": {
      "lower_um": 1.4569873659616925,
      "upper_um": 1.5718956899902168,
      "width_um": 0.11490832402852424,
      "fractional_wavelength_width": 0.0741344025990479,
      "frequency_width_THz": 15.041553207100442,
      "left_clipped": false,
      "right_clipped": false
    },
    "usable": {
      "lower_um": 1.5007149527453871,
      "upper_um": 1.5718956899902168,
      "width_um": 0.07118073724482965,
      "fractional_wavelength_width": 0.04592305628698687,
      "frequency_width_THz": 9.046097240395135,
      "left_clipped": false,
      "right_clipped": false
    }
  },
  {
    "samples": 81,
    "efficiency": {
      "lower_um": 1.4571204614522646,
      "upper_um": 1.5718190138581414,
      "width_um": 0.11469855240587679,
      "fractional_wavelength_width": 0.0739990660683076,
      "frequency_width_THz": 15.013454942154938,
      "left_clipped": false,
      "right_clipped": false
    },
    "usable": {
      "lower_um": 1.5007151512800505,
      "upper_um": 1.5718190138581414,
      "width_um": 0.07110386257809087,
      "fractional_wavelength_width": 0.04587345972780056,
      "frequency_width_THz": 9.036767135318351,
      "left_clipped": false,
      "right_clipped": false
    }
  },
  {
    "samples": 161,
    "efficiency": {
      "lower_um": 1.4571261212827722,
      "upper_um": 1.571812566488386,
      "width_um": 0.11468644520561377,
      "fractional_wavelength_width": 0.07399125497136372,
      "frequency_width_THz": 15.011873438204832,
      "left_clipped": false,
      "right_clipped": false
    },
    "usable": {
      "lower_um": 1.5007152507213586,
      "upper_um": 1.571812566488386,
      "width_um": 0.07109731576702738,
      "fractional_wavelength_width": 0.045869235978727343,
      "frequency_width_THz": 9.035971550258967,
      "left_clipped": false,
      "right_clipped": false
    }
  }
]

Use the connected passing interval containing 1.55 µm. Interpolate each threshold crossing, and mark any boundary that reaches the scan edge as clipped. Narrow disconnected windows must not be merged. The useful band requires both target efficiency ≥0.8 and a beam direction within 0.5° of its design direction. Compare the 41-, 81- and 161-point grids before quoting edge precision.

<Figure size 1625x475 with 3 Axes>

For exp(−iωt), the face-referenced modal group delay is d arg(t₊₁)/dω. It is not the transit time to an arbitrary detector. Differentiate against angular frequency in ascending order, not wavelength. Mask weak transmission and compare frequency derivatives from separate spectral grids. A power-converged curve need not have a converged derivative. The shaded plot above is a performance bandwidth, not a resonance FWHM.

<Figure size 1250x425 with 2 Axes>
139095

Submit: threshold and scan definition, band edges with grid sensitivity, target-order and total-power curves, and the fixed geometry. Add a causal material model only as a separately documented extension; do not call this constant-index calculation an experimentally validated achromatic device.