The single-longitudinal-mode operation of a ridge waveguide laser based on two-dimensional photonic crystals

An electrically driven, single-longitudinal-mode GaAs based photonic crystal (PC) ridge waveguide (RWG) laser emitting at around 850 nm is demonstrated. The single-longitudinal-mode lasing characteristic is achieved by introducing the PC to the RWG laser. The triangle PC is etched on both sides of the ridge by photolithography and inductive coupled plasma (ICP) etching. The lasing spectra of the RWG lasers with and without the PC are studied, and the result shows that the PC purifies the longitudinal mode. The power per facet versus current and current-voltage characteristics have also been studied and compared.     

Tunneling effect in cavity-resonator-coupled arrays

The quantum tunneling effect (QTE) in a cavity-resonator-coupled (CRC) array was analytically and numerically investigated. The underlying mechanism was interpreted by treating electromagnetic waves as photons, and then was generalized to acoustic waves and matter waves. It is indicated that for the three kinds of waves, the QTE can be excited by cavity resonance in a CRC array, resulting in sub-wavelength transparency through the narrow splits between cavities. This opens up opportunities for designing new types of crystals based on CRC arrays, which may find potential applications such as quantum devices, micro-optic transmission, and acoustic manipulation.     

Comparison of entanglement trapping among different photonic band gap models

We investigate the roles of different qubit-environment decoherence models on the entanglement trapping of two qubits. By considering three environmental models （the single photonic band gap model, the common photonic band gap model, and the two independent photonic band gaps model）, we note that the final values of entanglement trapping are determined by these different models. We also give the conditions of obtaining the larger entanglement trapping by comparing two-qubit entanglement dynamics in different decoherence models. Moreover, the comparison of entanglement trapping between two Bell-like states in the same decoherence model are also carried out.     

Integrated microwave photonics

Microwave photonics (MWP) is an emerging field in which radio frequency (RF) signals are generated, distributed, processed and analyzed using the strength of photonic techniques. It is a technology that enables various functionalities which are not feasible to achieve only in the microwave domain. A particular aspect that recently gains significant interests is the use of photonic integrated circuit (PIC) technology in the MWP field for enhanced functionalities and robustness as well as the reduction of size, weight, cost and power consumption. This article reviews the recent advances in this emerging field which is dubbed as integrated microwave photonics. Key integrated MWP technologies are reviewed and the prospective of the field is discussed.     

Nanowire plasmonic waveguides,circuits and devices

As typical one‐dimensional nanostructures for waveguiding tightly confined optical fields beyond the diffraction limit, metal nanowires have been used as versatile nanoscale building blocks for functional plasmonic and photonic structures and devices. Metal nanowires, especially those fabricated by bottom‐up synthesis such as Ag and Au nanowires, usually exhibit excellent diameter uniformity and surface smoothness with diameters down to tens of nanometers, which offers great opportunities for plasmonic waveguiding of optical fields with deep‐subwavelength confinement, coherence maintenance and low scattering losses. Based on nanowire plasmonic waveguides, a variety of applications ranging from plasmonic couplers, interferometers, resonators to photon emitters have been reported in recent years. In this article, significant progresses in these nanowire plasmonic waveguides, circuits and devices are reviewed. Future outlook and challenges are also discussed.     

Review of optical fiber couplers

The present trends are toward implementation of fiber optics in data-distribution networks such as data buses, community antenna television, and local area networks. The thrust is, therefore, on high-volume and economical production of good quality optical fiber couplers. This paper reviews the various techniques for making fiber couplers. Important characteristics of various constructions and configurations together with their merits and demerits are discussed.     

New Criterion for Designing Silica Multimode Interference Power Splitters

We introduce a new criterion for designing 1 × N silica multimode interference power splitters using overlapping-image multimode interference analysis. This criterion requires that widths of multimode waveguides in the devices should be greater than 2 times the product of port number N and effective widths of output waveguides. Better device uniformity can be achieved when the new criterion is satisfied.     

Proposal for a New Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing Filter Based on Two-Dimensional Photonic Crystal Ring Resonator

Abstract

A new optical filter design based on a two-dimensional photonic crystal ring resonator structure with an N-channel model is proposed in this article. This study also shows that modifying the scatter radius and the waveguide width can significantly improve the performance of the original structure, which can solve the mode mismatch problem for output waveguide. Here, an example of a 16-channel photonic crystal ring resonator is provided; wavelength spacing of 1.6 nm and a high quality factor Q of 6,000 were achieved. The optical filter would be a potential key component in the application of dense wavelength division multiplexer devices.     

Low-Loss Many-to-One Fiber Couplers with Few or Single-Moded Inputs and a Multi-Mode Output

The coupling of light from a number of few or single-moded fibers into a single multi-mode fiber is analyzed using geometric optics, and simple results demonstrating mode conservation are derived. Coupling from multiple single-mode fibers into a multi-mode fiber is investigated in detail using the overlap integral to determine coupling into each mode of the output fiber as a function of the light phase in the inputs. As well as results with practical relevance to fiber tapped delay-line filters and optical CDMA, the analysis provides pedagogic insight into light propagation and the light-gathering properties of fiber.     

Microwave Photonic Phase Shifter Based on an Integrated Dual-polarization Dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder Modulator without Optical Filter

ABSTRACT

A frequency-doubled microwave photonic phase shifter (MPPS) without optical filter is proposed. The MPPS is based on an integrated dual-polarization dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator (DP-DPMZM) and a polarization modulator (PolM). The DP-DPMZM with a 90° polarization rotator in one arm is used to generate an optical carrier suppressed double sideband (OCS-DSB) signal with orthogonal polarization, and the PolM with two modes opposite phase modulation is used to introduce the optical phase shift between the two orthogonally polarized tones. Simulations show that the MPPS can realize a continuously tunable phase shift of 360° with only one DC bias voltage, and is not sensitive to the optical carrier wavelength and microwave signal frequency since no optical filter is used.