Efficient homodyne measurement of picosecond squeezed pulses with pulse shaping technique

We report on the detection of picosecond pulsed squeezed light generated by an optical parametric amplification in a periodically poled MgO:LiNbO(3) waveguide. By using a temporally shaped local oscillator in a balanced homodyne detection, we obverved the squeezing of -5.0 dB below the shot noise level. The squeezing level at the exit of the waveguide was estimated to be -9.7±0.8 dB.     

All-optical pulse shaping for ultrawideband doublet pulses using nonlinear optical loop mirror with optical parametric amplification

We propose and experimentally demonstrate an alternative photonic scheme for the generation of ultrawideband (UWB) doublet pulses, which is based on an optical fiber-based nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) incorporating the optical parametric amplification (OPA) effect. The proposed scheme uses both cross-phase modulation and OPA within an optical fiber-based NOLM to produce an ideal transfer function for the shaping of input soliton pulses into doublet pulses. Using the proposed scheme, a successful conversion of input soliton pulses into doublet pulses is readily demonstrated. The system performance of UWB doublet pulses is also assessed by propagating the 1.25?Gbit/s doublet pulses over a fiber link. Error-free UWB doublet signal transmission is demonstrated.     

Multilayer optical disc system using homodyne detection

A write/read system using high-productivity multilayer optical discs was developed. The recording medium used in the system consists of planar recording layers and a separated guide layer, and is fabricated by web coating and lamination process. The recording layers in the medium are made of one-photon-absorption material, on which data can be recorded with a normal laser diode. The developed system is capable of focusing and tracking on the medium and amplifying readout signals by using phase-diversity homodyne detection. A highly layer-selective focusing method using homodyne detection was also proposed. This method obtains stable focus-error signals with clearly separated S-shaped curves even when layer spacing is quite narrow, causing large interlayer crosstalk. Writing on the medium and reading with the signal amplification effect of homodyne detection was demonstrated. In addition, the effectiveness of the method was experimentally evaluated.     

Ultra-short optical pulse shaping using semiconductor optical amplifier

Optical ultra-short pulse compression and amplification using semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is presented. Using pump-probe pulse configuration, we present an SOA model which includes the nonlinear effects such as, spectral hole burning (SHB), carrier heating (CH), two-photon absorption (TPA) and group velocity dispersion (GVD) taking into account gain spectrum effect. Then by adjusting time delay between the pump pulse and probe pulse we use the model for simultaneous compression and amplification of probe pulse. We also analyze the four wave mixing (FWM) signal during pulse compression process. It is shown that dispersive effect of GVD on output probe pulse becomes more important for larger cavity length and probe-pump pulses relative time delays.     

Nanosecond optical pulse shaping in cadmium-sulfide-selenide glasses

Transmission characteristics of a nonlinear Fabry-Perot interferometer containing Cd(S, Se)-glasses were measured using laser pulses of 10 ns duration. The interferometer functioned as an optical limiter and optical discriminator. Optical bistability has not been observed, probably because of the finite relaxation time of the nonlinear effects.     

Photochromic polymers for the optical homodyne detection of ultrasonic surface displacements

We present a novel scheme with which to detect small ultrasonic surface displacements by use of a photochromic polymer instead of a photorefractive material as an adaptive beam combiner in a two-wave mixing geometry. Poly(methyl methacrylate) is doped with a derivative of zinc tetrabenzoporphyrin that possesses a long-lived triplet state that can be efficiently populated in a reversible manner. The resulting dynamic hologram consists of local absorption and refractive-index gratings, which can process speckled beams reflected from rough surfaces. We believe that this is the first use of a local nonlinear medium for adaptive homodyne detection of ultrasonic surface displacements.     

Optimization of pulse shaping using nonlinear polarization rotation

Pulse shaping using nonlinear polarization rotation has been analyzed in detail. It is found that there is an optimal, power-dependent polarization ellipticity for the maximum nonlinear transmission. It is also found that the polarization ellipticity should be kept smaller than 0.414 so that higher nonlinear transmission can be obtained. Compared to the well-known scheme of Stolen et al., the peak transmission can be increased more than three times, from 7% to 24%, for an incident power that generates self-phase modulation (φ_spm) of π.     

Quadrature spectral interferometric detection and pulse shaping

We introduce a new variant of spectral interferometry, using spectrally dispersed ultrafast laser pulses and quadrature detection to measure optical thickness variations related to surface structure. We can resolve surface features with depths of 3 mm to 25 nm, using a lateral resolution of ~100mum . Quadrature detection gives a larger dynamic range and solves the sign ambiguity problem. This method has potential applications in device manufacture, optical communications, and error compensation in pulse shaping.     

Ultrafast optical pulse shaping: A tutorial review

This paper presents a tutorial on the field of femtosecond pulse shaping, a technology that enables generation of nearly arbitrary, user defined, ultrafast optical waveforms, with control of phase, amplitude, and polarization. The emphasis is on Fourier transform pulse shaping, the most widely applied technique. Selected pulse shaping applications are described, with specific discussion of coherent control of quantum and nonlinear processes and of lightwave communications. Two new areas of pulse shaping research, namely, hyperfine spectral resolution pulse shaping and pulse shaping applications in ultrabroadband RF photonics, are discussed and illustrated with examples taken from the author's laboratory.     

利用自相关方法实现光脉冲时间延迟精确测量

为了满足在高精度波分复用/时分复用光采样系统中,采样光脉冲时间抖动低于100 fs的要求,开发了一套基于自相关法测量时间延迟的系统。通过光纤耦合器连接一路参考光路将光脉冲在时域上进行"复制",并使初始光脉冲和"复制"光脉冲相关,得到参考光路和被测光路的精确光程差,进而固定参考光路并接入不同被测光路从而得到多路被测光路之间相对延时。实验结果表明,利用自相关法测量脉冲时间间隔精度优于50 fs,满足波分复用/时分复用光采样系统研究需要。     

Femtosecond synchronization of radio frequency signals with optical pulse trains

A synchronization scheme for extraction of low-jitter rf signals from optical pulse trains, which is robust against photodetector nonlinearities, is described. The scheme is based on a transfer of timing information into an intensity imbalance of the two output beams from a Sagnac loop. Sub-100-fs timing jitter between the extracted 2-GHz rf signal and the 100-MHz optical pulse train from a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser is demonstrated.     

Laser detection of optical signals

A scheme is proposed for detecting optical signals in which electrons bound in atoms, molecules, or ions are used as a sensitive element rather than free electrons, as in conventional detectors (photoelements, photomultipliers, etc.). It is shown that such a scheme has a high sensitivity and a reduced shot-noise level.     

Retrodiction for coherent communication with homodyne or heterodyne detection

Previous work on the retrodictive theory of direct detection is extended to cover the homodyne detection of coherent optical signal states and . The retrodictive input state probabilities are obtained by the application of Bayes' theorem to the corresponding predictive distributions, based on the probability operator measure (POM) elements for the homodyne process. Results are derived for the retrodictive information on the complex amplitude of the signal field obtainable from the difference photocount statistics of both 4-port and 8-port balanced homodyne detection schemes. The local oscillator is usually assumed much stronger than the signal but the case of equal strengths in 4-port detection is also considered. The calculated probability distributions and error rates are illustrated numerically for values of signal and local oscillator strengths that extend from the classical to the quantum regimes.     

An improved nonlinear optical pulse propagation equation

A new equation for self-focusing of extremely focused short-duration intense pulses is derived using a method that treats diffraction and dispersion to all orders with nonlinearity present, and self-consistently determines the nonlinear derivative terms present in the propagation equation. It generalizes both the previous formulation of linear optical pulse propagation to the nonlinear regime, and the cw nonlinear regime propagation to the pulsed regime by including temporal characteristics of the pulse. We apply the new equation and propagate a tightly focused picosecond pulse in silica and explicitly show the effects of spatial-derivative nonlinear coupling terms.     

The use of balanced homodyne and squeezed states for detecting weak optical signals in a Michelson interferometer

The possibility of using squeezed states and balanced homodyne detection of optical signals in a Michelson interferometer is discussed. The present analysis describes photon statistics measurements effects related to quadrature balanced homodyne detection showing the advantage of using this scheme for detecting weak optical signals.     

Femtosecond pulse shaping using counter-propagating pulses in a semiconductor optical amplifier

An efficient pulse shaping method using counter-propagating pulses in the femtosecond regime is proposed and investigated. The effects of pump pulse power and pulsewidth on probe pulse are studied in counter-propagation scheme. It is shown that, with the proposed method, output probe pulse temporal and spectral peak shift due to femtosecond nonlinearities can be compensated, while the output pulse is amplified sufficiently. Furthermore, in relatively high power regime, the probe pulsewidth and time-bandwidth product are improved using counter-propagating pump pulse.     

Diagnostic value of nonlinear optical signals from collagen matrix in the detection of epithelial precancer

During precancer development in epithelium, neoplastic cells remodel the underlying stroma, for example, the basement membrane, capillaries, fibroblasts, and extracellular matrix. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the nonlinear optical signals from the collagen matrix in stroma and the progression of early epithelial carcinogenesis. Two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) and second harmonic generation (SHG) signals were measured from the stroma of hamster oral cheek pouch in vivo. We found that three features, including the intensity ratio of TPEF over SHG, the spatial frequency distribution, and the texture feature of SHG images, provide the quantitative identification of epithelial precancer at different pathologic stages. We demonstrated that the combination of all three features by using a support vector machine algorithm can significantly improve the accuracy in the detection of epithelial precancer.