Femtosecond pulse generation using stimulated Raman scattering in integrated silicon optical waveguide device

To generate ultrafast femtosecond optical pulses, we propose a model of an integrated device consisting of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) with two symmetric 3 dB directional couplers and a straight waveguide based on the single-mode silicon-on-insulator (SOI) optical waveguide. The principle of pulse generation in the presented device is based on the strong stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) in silicon; the center wavelength of the pulse generated is tunable by changing the center wavelength of the co-propagating pump pulse. Numerical results show that, when a continuous wave (CW) with a weak power at 1670 nm wavelength and a pump pulse with a high peak power at 1550 nm wavelength are co-propagating, a narrow femtosecond pulse with a pulse width (full width at half maximum, FWHM) of ∼60 fs (FWHM of the pump pulse is 166.5 fs) can be achieved in the device proposed. In addition, when the waveguide length, pump peak power, and pump-pulse width are fixed, the properties of generated femtosecond pulse depend strongly on the incident chirp of the pump pulse and the CW power.     

Propagation of ultrafast pulses in the anomalous-dispersion regime of silicon-on-insulator strip nanowaveguides

The dynamic evolution of ultrafast high-intensity pulses with a 100 fs half-width at 1/e intensity point based on the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) strip nanowaveguides is considered and investigated numerically under the condition of anomalous group-velocity dispersion (GVD) regime. For ultrafast high-intensity pulses propagating in millimeter-long SOI nanowaveguides, the interplay between the dispersion and nonlinear effects such as the two-photon absorption, free-carrier absorption, free-carrier dispersion, and self-phase modulation has to be taken into account, which results in the significant optical wave breaking phenomenon that occurs near the pulse leading edge for an unchirped Gaussian pulse in the anomalous GVD regime. However, when the input Gaussian pulse with linear up-chirp is introduced, the position of the optical wave breaking shifts from the leading pulse edge to its trailing edge along the several millimeters-long SOI nanowaveguides.     

Optical wave breaking of high-intensity femtosecond pulses in silicon optical waveguides

We have investigated numerically the propagation of high-intensity femtosecond optical pulses with pulsewidth of 100 fs (half width at 1/e maximum) on the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) optical waveguide when the central wavelength of the pulse locates in the normal dispersion region. Results show that the combined effects of group-velocity dispersion (GVD), third-order dispersion (TOD), self-phase modulation (SPM), and free-carrier dispersion (FCD) can lead to the phenomenon of optical wave breaking that manifests as an asymmetric profile and oscillation near the trailing edge of the pulse. Moreover, the optical wave breaking will be experienced from generation to disappearance during propagation.     

Influence of the initial chirp on the supercontinuum generation in silicon-on-insulator waveguide

We propose a practical method to broaden the bandwidth of supercontinuum generated in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) waveguide by controlling the initial chirp of inputting femtosecond pulses, which has the main impact on the initial stage of the spectral broadening caused by the self-phase modulation (SPM) effect. The numerical results show that the bandwidth and flatness of the supercontinuum generated in SOI waveguide are sensitive to the initial chirp of inputting femtosecond pulses, the supercontinuum bandwidth can be remarkably enhanced by inputting positive chirp femtosecond pulses with a decreased propagation distance required by soliton fission, and the maximum bandwidth of supercontinuum can be increased to 1500 nm.     

Ultrafast tilting of the dispersion of a photonic crystal and adiabatic spectral compression of light pulses

We demonstrate, by theory and experiment, the ultrafast tilting of the dispersion curve of a photonic-crystal waveguide following the absorption of a femtosecond pump pulse. By shaping the pump-beam cross section with a nanometric shadow mask, different waveguide eigenmodes acquire different spatial overlap with the perturbing pump, leading to a local flattening of the dispersion by up to 11%. We find that such partial mode perturbation can be used to adiabatically compress the spectrum of a light pulse traveling through the waveguide.     

基于光纤中超短脉冲非线性传输机理与特定光谱选择技术的多波长飞秒激光的产生

高集成、高可靠性宽调谐飞秒激光源在超快光谱学、量子光学及生物成像等研究与应用领域具有重要价值.如在生物多光子显微成像中,具有适中能量的宽调谐飞秒激光源不仅可满足多种生物组织荧光激发所需的峰值功率与激发波长,而且也可以显著提升非线性荧光产生效率、成像分辨率以及增大成像穿透深度.采用自主研发的高可靠性全保偏光纤飞秒激光器作为抽运源,基于低色散光纤中高峰值功率飞秒激光脉冲非线性传输引起的光谱加宽机制,本文开展了多波长全光纤飞秒激光产生技术研究.通过采用中心波长在980, 1000,1050, 1070与1100 nm的带通滤波片选择性地对单模光纤输出光谱中最左边与最右边光谱旁瓣进行滤波,在上述中心波长处分别可获得203, 195, 196, 187与194 fs的激光输出.本文提出的基于全光纤飞秒激光脉冲在单模光纤中非线性传输引起的光谱加宽机制与特定光谱选择技术的实验方案为高集成、高可靠性宽调谐飞秒激光源的实现提供了新的研究途径.     

Femtosecond pump and probe measurement of all-optical modulation based on intersubband transition in n-doped quantum wells

An all-optical modulation of interband-resonant light (near-infrared signal light: 800 nm) by intersubband-resonant light (mid-infrared control light: 4–7 μm) in n-doped AlGaAs/GaAs multiple quantum wells is investigated by two-color femtosecond pump–probe experiments at room temperature. The modulation of the near-infrared signal light with an ultrafast recovery as short as 1 ps is successfully observed when the quantum wells are pumped by the mid-infrared control light pulse (4 fJ/μm²). The dependence of the modulation depth on the wavelength of the control light is also measured, which is shown to be consistent with the intersubband absorption spectrum of the quantum wells. The results indicate that the utilization of the intersubband transition is promising for the ultrafast all-optical modulation and switching.     

Ultrashort Gaussian pulse-width expansion and shape deformation induced by group velocity dispersion

Pulse-width expansion and pulse-shape deformation of an ultrashort Gaussian pulse induced by both low and high order group velocity dispersion were theoretically analyzed in terms of energy conservation and coupled equations for three wave radiations. As an example, the optical parametric interaction processes in a negative uniaxial crystal of CsLiB₆O₁₀ with 50 fs of ultrashort Gaussian pulse were simulated. The results indicate that the degree of the pulse expansion induced by low and high order group velocity dispersion is determined by both the wavelength of the incident wave and the crystal length. A pulse could be expanded to 1.41 times its initial value as a crystal length equals the dispersion length and further heavily expanded with decreasing wave-length and increasing crystal length. The pulse expansion induced by high order group velocity dispersion using an incident wavelength of 213 nm is 1.6 times that when using 532 nm in a 50 fs pulse width without chirp modulation, and the symmetry deformation and the frequency pushing phenomena of the ultrashort pulse shape are also found. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Spectrum reshaping of amplified pulse in silicon nanowaveguide

A device consisting of a cascaded semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) and silicon on insulator (SOI) optical waveguide is presented to amplify and reshape the frequency spectrum of optical pulses in the picoseconds time duration. Numerical simulations show that the output spectrum of the amplified pulse by SOA can be effectively reshaped by utilizing the SOI waveguide. The length of the SOI waveguide may be judiciously adjusted to significantly reduce the frequency chirp of the output pulse from the SOA resulting in reshaping of the output spectrum. We find that the property of pulse spectrum is sensitive to the input pulse power and its temporal width.     

高阶群速度色散引起的高斯超短脉冲宽度的展宽和形变

基于动量守恒和光参变过程中的三波耦合波方程,和负单轴非线性光学晶体CsLiB6O10的色散方程,研究了在光参变效应中超短激光脉冲由于群速度色散引起的展宽和形变。数值模拟显示,在超短脉冲波形为双曲正割形和无啁啾调制时,高阶群速度色散引起的超短脉冲为50fs时,晶体长度为10mm,紫外光213nm作为基波入射时的脉冲展宽是波长为532nm绿光在同等条件下的1.6倍。脉冲展宽程度与入射波长和晶体长度有关,波长越短和晶体长度越长则脉冲展宽和波形变化越严重,高阶色散引起的超短高斯脉冲展宽,将破坏其波形对称性并引起旁瓣现象。     

Synthesis of periodic femtosecond pulse trains in the ultraviolet by phase-locked Raman sideband generation

We demonstrate a new technique for femtosecond-pulse generation that employs ultrafast modulation of a laser field phase by impulsively excited molecular rotational or vibrational motion with subsequent temporal compression. An ultrashort pump pulse at 800 nm performs impulsive excitation of a molecular gas in a hollow waveguide, and a weak delayed probe pulse at 400 nm is scattered on the temporal oscillations of its dielectric index. The resultant sinusoidal phase modulation of the probe pulse permits probe pulse temporal compression by use of both positively and negatively dispersive elements. The potential of this new method is demonstrated by the generation of a periodic train of 5.8-fs pulses at 400 nm with positive group-delay dispersion compensation.     

Wavelength dependent ultrafast gain and phase dynamics in bulk SOAs over wide gain region

Based on the semiclassical density-matrix equations, ultrafast probe gain and phase dynamics in bulk semiconductor optical amplifiers excited by a 200 fs Gaussian pump pulse centered at 1,558 nm are numerically investigated and compared over a wide material gain region (1,460–1,650 nm). It is predicted that the recovery time of phase may be longer or shorter than that of gain depending on probe wavelengths. Besides, as functions of probe wavelength, the dynamic gain range and the dynamic phase range have different shapes. Moreover, the wavelength dependence of phase recovery overshoot is illustrated. At last, the probe chirp dynamics and the wavelength dependence of the chirp characteristics are described. These interesting features result from a restriction of the Kramers–Kronig relations and different ways of the competition or cooperation among the effects of spectral-hole burning, carrier heating and two-photon absorption on subpicosecond timescale over the whole concerned band.     

飞秒脉冲在硅波导中产生超连续谱的研究

利用非线性薛定谔方程对飞秒脉冲在硅波导中的传输以及超连续谱的产生进行了研究,计算和分析了色散参量及非线性损耗在超连续谱的产生过程中的影响.结果表明,孤子分裂是飞秒脉冲在硅波导中产生超连续谱的主要机理.飞秒脉冲中心波长与波导零色散点的相对位置对超连续谱的产生有极大影响.当中心波长位于近零色散点的反常色散区时,孤子分裂现象最明显,谱宽远大于在零色散波长及正常色散处入射时的情况,并且达到稳定展宽所需波导长度最短.其次,高阶色散的大小也会影响光谱展宽,三阶色散绝对值较小时,能够获得较大的展宽.另外,由于双光子吸收效应带来大量损耗,限制了谱宽,并且随着初始脉冲功率的逐渐增大,展宽出现饱和现象. 关键词： 超连续谱 孤子分裂 色散 硅波导     

光子晶体光纤非线性光谱特性的理论与实验研究

光子晶体光纤具有特殊的导光机制和结构可调性,可以产生奇异的色散特性及高非线性,为非线性光纤光学领域的研究提供了新的条件。受多种非线性光学效应的共同作用,在不同泵浦光脉冲参数条件下,不同结构参数及传输特性的光子晶体光纤能产生丰富的非线性光谱。利用分步傅里叶方法求解非线性薛定谔方程,模拟飞秒激光脉冲在光子晶体光纤中的传输过程,获得输出光谱与入射光脉冲参数(泵浦光峰值功率P、泵浦光波长λ、光脉冲形状、光脉冲宽度T_FWHM)、光纤结构参数(孔间距Λ、空气填充比d/Λ、光纤长度z)、传输特性(色散、非线性系数)的关系,分析拉曼孤子、色散波、自相位调制等非线性效应产生的光谱特性。利用光子晶体光纤包层节区进行非线性光学实验研究,获得了孤子波和色散波的宽带光谱输出。理论分析与实验测量的光谱中都包括了波长0.5 μm附近可见光波段的蓝移色散波、0.82 μm波段的剩余泵浦光、1.1 μm波段的孤子波、2 μm附近的红移宽带色散波。理论分析与实验测量结果一致,阐明光子晶体光纤中非线性光谱产生的物理原理,实现了对宽带光谱的可控输出,为高非线性光子晶体光纤的结构设计、制备及非线性光谱的应用研究奠定基础。     

Generation of mid-infrared supercontinuum by designing circular photonic crystal fiber

A circular photonic crystal fiber (C-PCF) based on As₂Se₃ is designed, which has three zero dispersion wavelengths and flat dispersion. Using this fiber, a wide mid-infrared supercontinuum (MIR-SC) can be generated by launching a femtosecond pulse in the first anomalous dispersion region. The simulation results show that the MIR-SC is formed by soliton self-frequency shift and direct soliton spectrum tunneling on the long wavelength side and self-phase modulation, soliton fission on the short wavelength side. Further, optical shocking and four-wave mixing (FWM) are not conducive to the long-wavelength extension of MIR-SC, while the number and intensity of fundamental solitons have a greater effect on the short-wavelength extension of MIR-SC. The generation of optical shocking waves, FWM waves and fundamental solitons can be obviously affected by changing the fiber length and input pulse parameters, so that the spectrum range and flatness can be adjusted with great freedom. Finally, under the conditions of 4000 W pulse peak power, 30 fs pulse width, 47 mm fiber length, and 0 initial chirp, a wide MIR-SC with a coverage range of 2.535 μm-16.6 μm is obtained. These numerical results are encouraging because they demonstrate that the spread of MIR-SC towards the red and blue ends can be manipulated by choosing the appropriate incident pulse and designing optimized fiber parameters, which contributes to applications in such diverse areas as spectroscopy, metrology and tomography.     

基于石墨烯的宽带全光空间调制器

提出了单层石墨烯包裹微纳光纤的全光空间调制.石墨烯作为可饱和吸收体包裹在通过二氧化碳激光器加热制备的微纳光纤上,当信号光沿着微纳光纤传输时部分光将以倏逝场的形式沿着微纳光纤表面传递,并与石墨烯产生作用被吸收.同时将波长为808 nm的抽运光从空间垂直入射到石墨烯包裹的微纳光纤处,依据石墨烯的优先吸收特性,通过抽运光控制石墨烯对信号光的吸收,实现了宽带全光空间调制.在1095 nm波长处获得最大调制深度约为6 dB,调制带宽约为50 nm,调制速率约为1.5 kHz.空间全光调制器具有输出信号光“干净”的特点.与传统石墨烯微纳光纤全光调制器相比,输出端不需要对抽运光进行光学滤波而直接获得已调信号.该复合波导全光空间调制器以更为灵活、高效的方式打开了微纳超快信号处理的大门.     

Femtosecond high-sensitivity, chirp-free transient absorption spectroscopy using kilohertz lasers

A simple method is demonstrated for high-sensitivity, chirp-free measurements of femtosecond (fs) transient absorption over the entire bandwidth of a white-light continuum probe. This technique uses phase-sensitive detection, with spectral scanning and simultaneous adjustment of the time delay between pump and probe pulses; it permits a direct measurement of spectra undistorted by chirp at all time scales, limited only by the resolution of the fs source. The method is applied to study the ultrafast relaxation dynamics of pi-conjugated oligomers and semiconductor nanocrystals.     

CS_2飞秒超快非线性特性的实验研究

采用中心波长800 nm、脉宽30 fs的超短激光脉冲,通过飞秒光开关技术对CS_2的飞秒超快非线性特性进行了实验研究.在探测光强与抽运光强比为1∶10时,得到了较理想的光克尔时间分辨曲线.通过实验测定的光克尔信号强度与激发光和探测光偏振方向夹角的依赖关系表明:30 fs的超短激光脉冲激发CS_2的克尔信号主要是源于光诱导双折射效应,而非用200 fs的超短激光脉冲时来自瞬态栅的自衍射效应.     

Generation of single intense short optical pulses by ultrafast molecular phase modulation

Pulses with durations below 4 fs have been generated using the method of ultrafast molecular phase modulation. A laser pulse shorter than the molecular vibrational or rotational period obtains spectral broadening during propagation along a hollow waveguide filled with previously impulsively excited Raman active gases. The induced time dependent phase, frequency, and frequency chirp are controllable by changing the delay between excitation and probe pulse within the molecular vibrational period.     

Direct detection of ultrafast thermal transients by use of a chirped, supercontinuum white-light pulse

An experimental technique is demonstrated that permits direct optical measurement of ultrafast material transients during a single excitation-relaxation cycle. Reflection of a linearly chirped, supercontinuum optical pulse from a gold film with changing surface temperature induced by an ultrafast pump pulse allows the thermal transients to be encoded onto the spectrum of the probe pulse. Calibrating the chirp of the probe pulse and the wavelength sensitivity of the sample permits mapping of the measured transient into the time domain. Measurements are completed over the course of 100 ps with subpicosecond time resolution. Results obtained with this technique are compared with similar measurements obtained with conventional pump-probe correlation techniques.