Soliton fission and supercontinuum generation in silicon waveguides

We show through numerical simulations that silicon waveguides can be used to create a supercontinuum extending over 400 nm by launching femtosecond pulses as higher-order solitons. The physical process behind continuum generation is related to soliton fission, self-phase modulation, and generation of Cherenkov radiation. In contrast with optical fibers, stimulated Raman scattering plays little role. As low-energy (approximately 1 pJ) pulses and short waveguides (<1 cm) are sufficient for continuum generation, the proposed scheme should prove useful for practical applications.     

光子晶体光纤超连续谱产生的实验研究

报道了利用掺钛蓝宝石飞秒激光器产生重复频率为80MHz,脉宽为10fs的超短激光脉冲在10cm长光子晶体光纤产生超连续谱的实验,获得展宽范围为450nm到1100nm的连续谱。实验中观察到孤子自频移和高阶孤子分裂现象,非孤子辐射与随后光谱向短波方向的拓展有密切关系。     

Nonlinear spectral cleaning effect in cross-polarized wave generation

The underlying mechanism of the spectral cleaning effect of the cross-polarized wave(XPW) generation process was theoretically investigated. This study shows that the spectral noise of an input spectrum can be removed in the XPW generation process and that the spectral cleaning effect depends on the characteristics of the input pulses, such as the chirp and Fourier-transform-limited duration of the initial pulse, and the modulation amplitude and frequency of the spectral noise. Though these factors codetermine the output spectrum of the XPW generation process, the spectral cleaning effect is mainly affected by the initial pulse chirp. The smoothing of the spectrum in the XPW generation process leads to a significant enhancement of the coherent contrast.     

Modulation control and spectral shaping of optical fiber supercontinuum generation in the picosecond regime

Numerical simulations are used to study how fiber supercontinuum generation seeded by picosecond pulses can be actively controlled through the use of input pulse modulation. By carrying out multiple simulations in the presence of noise, we show how tailored supercontinuum spectra with increased bandwidth and improved stability can be generated using an input envelope modulation of appropriate frequency and depth. The results are discussed in terms of the nonlinear propagation dynamics and pump depletion.     

光子晶体光纤耦合器中的标量调制不稳定性

从光纤耦合器的耦合模方程出发,用偶奇超模对其进行重写,讨论了当输入条件使奇偶超模其中之一被单独激发时,在光子晶体光纤耦合器中的调制不稳定性.结果表明：光子晶体光纤耦合器中在正常和反常色散区均存在调制不稳定性,并且调制不稳定性与三阶色散项无关、与四阶色散项有关,给出了增益谱在不同色散区随输入功率的变化关系;当满足一定条件时,在光子晶体光纤耦合器中传播的准连续波可以分解成脉冲序列,由此可以分离和提取超短脉冲. 关键词： 光子晶体光纤耦合器 偶次超模 奇次超模 标量调制不稳定性     

Nonlinear focusing of picosecond baseband pulses in paraelectric crystals

The nonlinear baseband electromagnetic pulses of a wide spectrum that lies in terahertz (THz) range are investigated theoretically in the paraelectric crystals like SrTiO₃ at the temperatures ~ 77 K. The frequency dispersion is important in THz range there. The dominating nonlinearity of the crystal is cubic. The frequency dispersion and nonlinearity correspond to existence of envelope solitons and the modulation instability of long input envelope pulses, whereas in the transverse direction the modulation instability is absent. When the nonlinear wave is uniform in the transverse direction, the existence of soliton-like baseband pulses without a carrier frequency has been demonstrated. There exists a possibility to generate the regular sequences of short baseband pulses due to the nonlinearity in the paraelectric crystals. The nonlinear focusing of input long baseband pulses by the exciting antenna results in the formation of extremely short baseband pulses localized both in the longitudinal and transverse directions.     

保偏光纤中相近频率传输区域的调制不稳定性

利用激光脉冲在光纤中传播时所遵守的相干非线性薛定谔耦合方程,研究了保偏光纤中两相近频率的线偏振光，其偏振方向相互正交且平行于光纤的双折射轴，且偏振方向沿两个双折射轴的分量强度相等时，在同为反常色散区和正常色散区所产生的调制不稳定性.结果表明在反常色散区和正常色散区都能产生调制不稳定性；在正常色散区存在不同的调制不稳定性功率区域，对应不同的功率区域，导致增益谱表现出明显的不同，并且当输入功率一定时，波长差(或频率差)的变化导致增益谱的变化. 关键词： 相近频率传输区域 双折射 保偏光纤 调制不稳定性     

Generation of pulses upon nonresonant acousto-electromagnetic interaction

New mechanisms of generation of acoustic and electromagnetic soliton-like pulses in an optoelastic medium upon nonlinear nonresonant interaction of the polarization components of an electromagnetic field with acoustic oscillations in the medium are considered. It is shown that the acousto-electromagnetic interaction in such a system may lead to the formation of coherent soliton excitations in a thin crystal plate. It is found that a modulation instability occurs in an extended medium, which is caused by the spatial effects and leads to the generation of transverse sound waves. The evolution of a light field in a one-dimensional extended periodic optoelastic medium is also considered. It is shown that acoustic and electromagnetic solitons can be generated due to the mixing of direct and backward optical waves and their nonresonant interaction with a sound wave.     

Continuous-wave pumping in the anomalous- and normal-dispersion regimes of nonlinear fibers for supercontinuum generation

Supercontinuum (SC) growth in highly nonlinear fibers is compared for cw pumping in the anomalous- and normal-dispersion regimes. For anomalous-dispersion pumping, the combined effects of modulation instability (MI) and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) contribute to spectral broadening. Furthermore, breakup of the cw light into ultrashort pulses by MI leads to the formation of a Raman pulse that evolves into a soliton, as evidenced by the observation of soliton self-frequency shift. Blueshifted, nonsolitonic radiation associated with the fission of higher-order solitons is also present in the SC spectra. For normal-dispersion pumping, SRS seeds the SC growth by generating several cascaded Stokes orders. When the Stokes orders are shifted into the anomalous-dispersion regime at higher launch powers, MI again causes soliton formation. Broadband continua are generated when the laser is positioned as far away as 191 nm from the zero-dispersion wavelength in normal dispersion.     

Evolution of spatial modulation of broadband laser pulses with different pulse durations in medium with non-instantaneous Kerr nonlinearity

We experimentally investigate the evolution of spatial modulation of broadband laser pulses with different pulse durations through a medium with non-instantaneous Kerr nonlinearity. By modifying the input laser pulse width, we observe the nonlinear growth of the spatial stripes that arise from interference with different modulation frequencies, and then obtain the gain spectra of the spatial modulation which clearly reveal the influence of relaxation effect on spatiotemporal modulation instability. We find that all gain spectra have the similar fastest growing frequency, but they have tails at higher frequency region in which the growth rate of gain is bigger for shorter pulse duration. The experimental results are confirmed by the perturbational analysis.     

Picosecond steps and dark pulses through nonlinear single mode fibers

We experimentally observed transmission of “negative pulses” through a single mode optical fiber in conditions where self-phase modulation, due to self induced variations of silica refractive index, may be balanced by the positive group velocity dispersion (dV_g/dδ#62;0). Soliton propagation could be expected at power levels where exact compensation of these two distorsions arises. The duration of the output dark pulses, determined by SHG correlation techniques, decreases when the launched power is increased, as predicted by computer simulation. For an input peak power of 0.2 W, corresponding to the theoretical soliton peak power, the emerging dark pulse looks like the input one.     

自陡对光纤耦合器调制不稳定性的影响

当考虑自陡效应时,从光纤耦合器的耦合模方程出发,用偶奇超模对其进行了重写。讨论了当输入条件使奇偶超模的其中之一被单独激发时光纤耦合器中的自陡效应对调制不稳定性的影响。结果表明:在光纤耦合器中不论是正常色散区还是反常色散区,当输入功率一定时,随着自陡参数的增大,调制不稳定性增益谱较多地显示出了强度变弱和宽度变窄,最终导致光纤耦合器的超模发生畸变。     

强双折射光纤中单一频率传输区域的调制不稳定性

利用光脉冲在光纤中传播时所遵守的相干非线性薛定谔耦合方程,研究了单一频率的线偏振光,且偏振方向沿两个双折射轴的分量强度相等时,在反常色散区和正常色散区所产生的调制不稳定性.结果表明在反常色散区和正常色散区,对应不同的功率区域输入脉冲有不同的增益谱,并且当输入脉冲功率一定时,双折射性质变化导致增益谱表现出明显的不同.     

在色散渐减光子晶体光纤中产生超连续谱的实验研究

本文利用非线性偏振锁模激光器产生的重复频率50 MHz, 脉宽为1.8 ps的脉冲分别抽运外径均匀和色散渐减两种高非线性光子晶体光纤, 在三阶非线性效应 (自相位调制、交叉相位调制、四波混频和受激拉曼散效应等) 和色散共同作用下得到扩展至蓝光部分的超连续谱. 模拟了光谱在色散渐减光纤和均匀光纤中的展宽过程, 通过对比均匀光纤发现色散渐减光纤在调控色散, 加强拉曼孤子和色散波的群速度匹配条件, 产生超带宽光谱方面具有很大优势. 实验利用20 m长的色散渐减光纤, 得到了406.1至671.8 nm的可见光波段增强的较为平坦的超连续谱. 关键词： 超连续谱 色散渐减光子晶体光纤 群速度匹配 非线性效应     

高斯变迹布拉格光纤光栅中的调制不稳定性

利用激光脉冲在光纤光栅中传播时所遵守的相干耦合非线性薛定谔方程,研究了激光脉冲在高斯变迹布拉格光纤光栅中传输时，在反常色散区和正常色散区所产生的调制不稳定性.结果表明在反常色散区和正常色散区都能产生调制不稳定性；在反常色散区，当输入功率达到一定数值时，产生明显的有规律的增益谱；在正常色散区，在产生调制不稳定性功率区域，调制不稳定性存在并从给定值一直持续到无穷；并且，在反常色散区和在正常色散区，增益谱都受到高斯变迹函数的制约. 关键词： 高斯变迹 布拉格光栅 调制不稳定性 增益     

局部高斯变迹布拉格光纤光栅中的调制不稳定性

利用激光脉冲在光纤光栅中传播时所遵守的相干耦合非线性薛定谔方程,研究了激光脉冲在局部高斯变迹布拉格光纤光栅中传输时,在反常色散区和正常色散区所产生的调制不稳定性。结果表明在反常色散区和正常色散区都能产生调制不稳定性;在反常色散区,当输入功率达到一定数值、传输距离一定时,当f=-1禁带之上能带底时,调制不稳定性增益的强度最强、宽度最窄;当远离能带底时强度减弱、宽度变宽;在正常色散区,在产生调制不稳定性功率区域,调制不稳定性存在并从给定值一直持续到无穷;并且,在反常色散区和在正常色散区,增益谱都受到局部高斯变迹函数的制约。     

强双折射光纤中任意偏振方向矢量调制不稳定性

利用光脉冲在非线性双折射光纤中传播时所遵循的相干耦合非线性薛定谔方程,研究了偏振方向与双折射轴成任意角度时，在反常色散区和正常色散区所产生的调制不稳定性.结果表明，在反常色散区和正常色散区存在不稳定偏振区域和稳定偏振区域，对应不同的不稳定偏振区域，输入临界功率不同，脉冲有不同的增益谱. 关键词： 任意偏振方向 矢量调制不稳定性 非线性光纤 双折射     

Kilowatt-peak-power, single-frequency, pulsed fiber laser near 2 μm

We generated single-frequency pulses at kilowatt peak power from an all-fiber Tm-doped master oscillator power amplifier system, which is the first report of this kind (to the best of our knowledge) of a laser in the 2 μm region. Compared with the laser linewidth of seed pulses, spectral broadening by a factor of 3 was observed with the amplified pulses. This was attributed to self-phase modulation in passive pigtail fibers of the components (isolator and wavelength division multiplexing) that were placed after the fiber amplifier. The short pulse width (~7 ns) of the kilowatt-level pulses prevents an onset of stimulated Brillouin scattering in the long fiber. When launching the pulses into several-meter single-mode fiber, significant nonlinear spectral broadening occurs due to modulation instability in the fiber. This reaction is beneficial for generation of a mid- and long-wavelength IR supercontinuum in nonlinear IR fibers.     

色散平坦渐减光纤中超连续谱的产生

对双正交偏振光脉冲在色散平坦渐减光纤中传输时超连续谱的产生进行了计算和分析。结果表明，由于交叉相位调制效应的作用，双光脉冲可以产生比单光脉冲明显展宽且更为平坦的超连续谱。对于双基孤子脉冲，可以得到-20dB谱宽达388nm的平坦宽带超连续谱，比单基孤子脉冲产生的超连续谱谱宽增加72nm，交叉相位调制效应对超连续谱的产生起到增强的效果。当输入脉冲的抽运功率较低时，交叉相位调制效应对超连续谱的产生的增强效果更为显著，它极大地提高了超连续谱的产生的效率。数值计算的结果还表明，与其他高阶非线性效应相比，拉曼自频率移效应对超连续谱产生的影响更为明显。     

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.