Intrinsic losses of coupled-cavity waveguides in planar-photonic crystals

Coupled-cavity waveguides (CCWs) allow light propagation with strong field confinement in the cavities and small group velocity, which greatly enhances the efficiency of nonlinear effects. In addition, guided modes have zero dispersion at the central region of the transmission miniband. We show that CCWs created in planar photonic crystals, in which index guiding is required in some spatial dimensions, are intrinsically lossy in the region of zero dispersion, which strongly limits their use in nonlinear applications and devices.     

Properties of All-Solid Square-Lattice Photonic Bandgap Fibres

Properties of all-solid square-lattice photonic bandgap fibres are studied for the first time to the best of our knowledge. Using the plane-wave expansion method and finite element method, we investigate the mode, effective area, confinement loss and dispersion of such fibres. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed effective mode area of all-solid square-lattice photonic bandgap fibres is 1.25 times larger than triangular-lattice ones and the confinement loss of the fibres is no more than 0.1 dB/m within the bandgap.     

三种典型结构光子晶体光纤基本特性的比较和分析

应用多极法比较和分析了相同结构参数下的正六边形、正八边形和正十边形光子晶体光纤的色散系数、色散斜率、非线性系数和限制损耗.正六边形光子晶体光纤更适合用于色散补偿和高非线性的研究,在波长0.8 μm处的非线性系数达到了0.37 m^-1·W^-1;正十边形光子晶体光纤更适合用于色散平坦和低限制损耗的研究,在波长0.8 μm处的限制损耗相对正六边形光子晶体光纤减小了约3000个数量级,在1.4—1.65 μm波长范围内,正十边形光纤的色散系数介于-0.07—0.17 p     

New nonlinear and dispersion flattened photonic crystal fiber with low confinement loss

A new nonlinear dispersion flattened photonic crystal fiber with low confinement loss is proposed. This fiber has threefold symmetry core. The doped region in the core and the big air-holes in the 1st ring can make high nonlinearity in the PCF. And the small air-holes in the 1st ring and the radial increasing diameters air-holes rings in cladding can be used to achieve the dispersion properties of the PCF. We can achieve the optimized optical properties by carefully selecting the PCFs structure parameters. A PCF with flattened dispersion is obtained. The dispersion is less than 0.8 ps/(nm km) and is larger than −0.7 ps/(nm km) from 1.515 μm to 1.622 μm. The nonlinear coefficient is about 12.6456 W⁻¹ km⁻¹, the fundamental mode area is about 10.2579 μm². The confinement loss is 0.30641 dB/km. This work may be useful for effective design and fabrication of dispersion flattened photonic crystal fibers with high nonlinearities.     

Dispersion modified slot optical waveguides

Advent of slot waveguide structures had opened a new era where light can be confined in low index slot guarded by high index slabs. Already in use SOI slot waveguides (contrast ratio is 2.42) have two distinct properties over the conventional waveguides, i.e. high E-field amplitude, optical power, optical intensity in low index materials, and strong E-field confinement localized to nanometer-size low index regions. We hereby propose a low refractive index contrast ratio slot waveguide structure (ratio is 1.18) comprising of commercially available glass material. Novelty lies in showing high E-field amplitude, optical power, optical intensity, and strong E-field confinement in low index slot regions despite of lowest ever reported contrast ratio. A systematic numerical study on the higher order dispersion characteristics of the widely studied SOI-based slot structure and of our proposed low refractive index contrast slot structure is carried out. It has been demonstrated that low refractive index contrast ratio slot optical waveguide GVD properties are quite different than SOI slot optical waveguide. The less normal dispersion existing in this kind of waveguide could have an impact on their applications in various nonlinear or linear applications.     

Dispersion management in soft glass all-solid photonic crystal fibres

The development of all-solid photonic crystal fibres for nonlinear optics is an alternative approach to air-glass solid core photonic crystal fibres. The use of soft glasses ensures a high refractive index contrast (> 0.1) and a high nonlinear coefficient of the fibres. We report on the dispersion management capabilities in all-solid photonic crystal fibres taking into account four thermally matched glasses which can be jointly processed using the stack-and-draw fibre technique. We present structures with over 450 nm broadband flat normal dispersion and ultra-flat near zero anomalous dispersion below 5 ps/nm/km over 300 nm dedicated to supercontinuum generation with 1540 nm laser sources. The development of an all-solid photonic crystal fibre made of F2 and NC21 glasses is presented. The fibre is used to demonstrate supercontinuum generation in the range of 730?C870 nm (150 nm) with flatness below 5 dB.     

光子晶体光纤的导波模式与色散特性

利用有效折射率方法基于标量近似理论对光子晶体光纤的传播模式和色散特性进行了数值模 拟，发现通过调节光纤包层的空气填充率或包层空气穴节距及其有效芯径可以在很宽的波长 范围实现单模传播，可以设计零色散波长小于1.27μm的光子晶体光纤和在较宽的波段接近 于零色散的色散平坦光纤，以及具有较大的正常色散值的色散补偿光纤. 关键词： 光子晶体光纤 有效折射率 标量近似 导波模式     

Supercontinuum generation in ultraviolet-irradiated fibers

We demonstrate that UV exposure of highly nonlinear, germanosilicate fibers causes a strong change in their chromatic dispersion and can significantly alter the infrared supercontinuum generation in these fibers. By varying the level of UV exposure to the fiber, we show that the dispersion zero and the short-wavelength edge of the supercontinuum can be changed by more than 100 nm. A nonlinear Schr?dinger equation model of the continuum generation in the nonlinear fiber shows that the short-wavelength behavior of the continuum is primarily controlled by changes in the fiber dispersion caused by the UV-induced change in the refractive index of the fiber core.     

Improved high birefringence photonic crystal fibres with dispersion flattened and single mode operation

A kind of improved high birefringence photonic crystal fibre (PCF) is proposed in this paper. The characteristics of birefringence, dispersion and leakage loss are studied by the multipole method. Numerical results show that the improved PCF possesses the properties of a flat dispersion and single mode operation. Moreover, with the operating wavelength λ = 1.55μm, the modal birefringence increases greatly in comparison with that of the original PCF, and the leakage loss is about 10⁴ times smaller than that of the original PCF because the modification gives rise to the strong confinement of guided modes. It is expected that the improved PCF can be used as high birefringence and dispersion flattened fibres.     

Enhanced localization of light in slow wave slot photonic crystal waveguides

A flexible design of slot photonic crystal waveguide with a wide comb is investigated. Introduction of a carefully designed comb within the photonic crystal waveguide allows an accurate dispersion engineering in order to achieve slow light and increase the optical confinement within the comb. The strong light confinement results in an extremely small nonlinear effective area around 0.015 μm². We report experimental realization of a comb photonic crystal waveguide with measured group indices higher than 100 in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer configuration and extract losses limited to 3.7?dB for a 100?μm device at n_g=37.     

Dispersion properties of hollow-core photonic bandgap fibers based on a square lattice cladding

In this paper the dispersion properties and confinement loss of hollow-core photonic bandgap fibers (PBGFs) based on a square lattice (SL) with rounded square air-holes was investigated for the first time, by using a full-vector finite element method (FEM). The waveguide group velocity dispersion (GVD) curves with different core diameter D, air hole size d, rounded diameter d_c and hole pitch Λ are presented. The influence of the number of cladding rings on dispersion and confinement loss were also calculated. It was found that as Λ or d increases, the width of PBG becomes wider, and that D and the number of cladding rings have a smaller influence on waveguide GVD. The ratio between bandgap width and central wavelength in our simulation is about 38.1%, which is larger than that of hollow-core PBGFs with triangular lattice (TL) (∼25%). By simulation, the desired zero dispersion wavelength or desired dispersion slope could be obtained by properly choosing the value of d_c or Λ. Compared to TL PBGF, at least nine cladding rings is needed to achieve the confinement loss less than 0.1 dB/m for future application.     

Broadband nearly-zero ultra-flattened dispersion single mode index guiding holey fiber

This paper proposes and demonstrates a novel type of silica index guiding holey fibers (IGHFs) that has two cladding layers at the defective innermost structures. The proposed IGHFs exhibit remarkable chromatic dispersion properties such as nearly-zero and flattened dispersion over a wide spectral range and single mode guidance along with very low confinement loss. The numerical results indicate that 5 air-hole rings of nearly zero ultra-flattened dispersion single mode IGHFs can be designed with desire flattened dispersion of over a 340 nm bandwidth including the entire band of interest with low confinement loss of less than 10⁻⁶ dB/m.     

Theory of nonlinear Sagnac effect

A nonlinear wave interaction is considered as a technique to increase the rotation sensitivity of the ring laser. The gyroscopic scale factor K is calculated in an active laser gyro with a dispersive medium. K is in reverse proportion to the group index n* = n + vdn/dv of the medium. In a monolithically-integrated GaAs ring laser, the value K ∼5000 is obtainable (radius ∼1 cm) in a linear case. In the presence of a strong wave, the dynamic nonlinear anomalous dispersion can provide an increase of K by 10–100 times in the vicinity of critical points where n* passes zero. An expression of K is derived for the nonlinear Sagnac effect. The nonlinear dispersion is discussed in terms of “slow/fast” light.     

Quantum confinement in layer-by-layer deposited colloidal HgTe nanocrystals determined by spectroscopic ellipsometry

We report spectroscopic ellipsometry studies in the energy range of 0.5-5 eV on samples of 1-10 bilayers of polymer and HgTe nanocrystals, which exhibit strong transitions at higher critical points in the dispersion relation. We show that the dispersion relation for nanocrystals can be modelled with the same concepts for critical points as used in semiconductor bulk optics. We find an energy shift of up to 0.4 eV of the critical points to higher energies compared to the HgTe bulk properties, caused by quantum confinement in the nanocrystals, which increases with decreasing nanocrystal size.     

Design of zero dispersive double clad fiber for high efficiency operation of two color light

A double clad solid silica fiber is newly designed for applications which need the high efficiency operation of two colors of light. Ultrashort pulses with a central wavelength of 800?nm are delivered by the core of the double clad fiber which can realize the transmission of the optical pulses with a net chromatic dispersion of zero. This is achieved by integrating the double clad fiber with a pair of long period gratings, which allows optical pulses to propagate in a higher order mode (LP₀₂) in the middle of the fiber as well as in a fundamental mode (LP₀₁) at the beginning and end of the fiber. The index profile of the double clad fiber is engineered so that the higher order mode has high anomalous dispersion that can be used to compensate for normal dispersion of the fundamental mode. By controlling the lengths of the fiber where pulses are in a fundamental and in a higher order modes, the fiber with total zero dispersion can be realized. The double clad fiber can collect 100?% of visible light within the numerical aperture of 0.21 with a loss of the optical pulses less than 1?%. The design of this fiber is essential for applications including fiber-optic nonlinear imaging for compactness, robustness, and low optical power loss in dispersion compensation.     

Three-Wave Resonant Interaction in Optical Fibres on a Continuous-Wave Background

We predict that a three-wave resonant interaction (TWRI) for the excitations created from a continuous-wave background is possible in nonlinear optical fibres with a centro-symmetry. We show that in normal dispersion regime and near the zero-dispersion point of a single-mode optical fibre, the phase-matching condition for the TWRI can be satisfied by suitably choosing the wavevectors and frequencies of the exciting waves. The nonlinear envelope equations for the TWRI are derived by using a method of multiple-scales, and their explicit solutions for sum- and difference-frequency mixing are provided and discussed.     

Carrier-envelope phase slip of ultrashort dispersion-managed solitons

The carrier-envelope phase slip of an ultrashort pulse circulating in a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser is analyzed. The laser cavity is modeled by a dispersion- and nonlinearity-managed nonlinear Schr?dinger equation. The combined contributions to the phase slip induced by nonlinear phase and nonlinear dispersion are found to approach zero for strong dispersion maps. The dependence of the slip on third-order dispersion is found as well. The analytical results are verified using numerical simulations.     

Polarisation-sensitive four-wave mixing and soliton self-frequency shift effect in the highly birefringent photonic crystal fibre

By adjusting the polarisation state of the pump at 805 nm parallel to slow (x) and fast (y) axes of the highly birefringent photonic crystal fibre with zero dispersion wavelengths 790 nm and 750 nm, this paper demonstrates the efficient polarisation-sensitive four wave mixing involved in pump, anti-Stokes and Stokes signals and soliton self-frequency shift effects induced by the phase-matching between red-shifted solitons and blue-shifted dispersive waves. If the reduction of coupling efficiency to the circular pump laser mode or other circular fibres due to asymmetry of the core is neglected, more than 98% of the total input power is kept in a single linear polarisation. Controlled dispersion characteristic of the doublet of fundamental guided-modes results in achieving light field strongly confined in principal axes of photonic crystal fibre, and enhancing the corresponding nonlinear-optical process through the remarkable nonlinear birefringence.     

Low loss, low dispersion and highly birefringent terahertz porous fibers

We demonstrate that porous fibers in addition to low loss and high confinement, have near zero dispersion for 0.5-1 THz resulting in reduced terahertz signal degradation compared to microwires. We also show for the first time that these new fibers can be designed, introducing asymmetrical sub-wavelength airholes within the core, to achieve high birefringence ≈0.026. This opens up the potential for realization of novel polarization preserving fibers in the terahertz regime.     

Novel design of photonic crystal fibres with low confinement losses, nearly zero ultra-flatted chromatic dispersion, negative chromatic dispersion and improved effective mode area

A novel photonic crystal fibre (PCF) with a low confinement loss and nearly zero ultra-flatted chromatic dispersion and negative chromatic dispersion at a wide telecommunication window is presented. Important PCF design parameters, such as the effects of air holes and geometrical parameters on the effective index, confinement losses, chromatic dispersion and effective mode area, have been thoroughly investigated by employing the full vectorial finite element method. Significant reduction of the confinement loss and low chromatic dispersion of the PCF, with three rings of air holes, has been obtained by carefully incorporating additional air holes.