Ultrafast femtosecond all-optical modulation through nondegenerate two-photon absorption in silicon-on-insulator waveguides

We present numerical investigations of ultrafast femtosecond (with time duration of 100 fs at 1/e intensity point) all-optical modulation of a pump-probe wave arrangement by using nondegenerate two-photon absorption (TPA), namely cross absorption, inside silicon-on-insulator (SOI) optical waveguides. Our results show that when a pump pulse with femtosecond duration and a continuous probe wave are co-propagating along the SOI, the probe wave can be modulated inversely by the ultrafast pump pulse, whose modulation depth depends strongly on the system parameters such as the waveguide length, the peak power and initial chirp of the pump wave, the group velocity dispersion (GVD), etc.; this means that the modulation depth can be improved by an appropriate increase of the waveguide length, the pump peak, and the initial chirp, in addition, which has a larger value for the probe wavelength in the normal dispersion regime compared with the case of abnormal dispersion when the center wavelength of the pump wave is located at the zero-dispersion wavelength.     

Modal noise in single-mode fiber-optic systems with closely spaced splices

Modal noise can be a problem in single-mode fiber-optic systems when short lengths of fiber are spliced into the system. Previous analyses have dealt only with lengths greater than 1 m. With very short lengths (< < 1 m), noise is not a problem, but modal interference can still manifest itself in the form of a time-invariant attenuation. Modal interference must be considered in the design of components that utilize very short pieces of fiber.     

Low temperature enhancement of alignment-induced spectral broadening of femtosecond laser pulses

The propagation of femtosecond laser pulses in N2-filled hollow fibers is studied both theoretically and experimentally. The laser pulse aligns the N2 molecules and changes the refractive index, which meanwhile modulates the spectrum of the pulse in turn. The dependence of the spectral modulation on the gas temperature is investigated. We find that both spectral broadening and frequency red-shift are enhanced at low temperature. The degree of enhancement is found to be dependent on the pulse duration. Based on our findings, we propose a method for femtosecond pulse spectral broadening and few-cycle pulse generation via the molecular alignment.     

Generation of 207-femtosecond pulses from a ytterbium figure-of-eight fibre laser

We report the generation of 207-fs pulses with 1.2mW average power at 1036nm directly from a passively mode-locked Yb-doped fibre laser with a nonlinear optical loop mirror for mode-locking and pairs of diffraction gratings for intracavity dispersion compensation. These results imply a 4-fold reduction in pulse duration over previously reported figure-of-eight cavity passively mode-locked Yb-doped fibre lasers. Stable pulse trains are produced at the fundamental repetition rate of the resonator, 24.0MHz. On the other hand, this laser offers a cleaner spectrum and greater stability and is completely self-starting.     

Generation of ultrafast pulse via combined effects of stimulated Raman scattering and non-degenerate two-photon absorption in silicon nanophotonic chip

A project of ultrafast pulse generation has been presented and demonstrated by utilizing the combined nonlinear effects of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) and non-degenerate two-photon absorption (TPA) based on silicon nanophotonic chip, in which a continuous wave (CW) and an ultrafast dark pulse are co-propagating in the silicon chip so that the CW will be modulated inversely by the dark pulse during the propagation. As a result, an ultrafast bright pulse is achieved using the technique. Simulation results show that an ultrafast pulse with a pulsewidth (full-width at half-maximum (FWHM)) of about 50 fs is generated at the end of a 5-mm long silicon chip, when the initial conditions, including an input maximum of 0.5 W and FWHM of ∼176 fs for dark pulse, and CW with power of 5 W, are chosen.      

双光学孤子脉冲的传输特性

本文首先指出了算法分裂步骤(split-step)Fourier法和光束传播(propagating-beam)法的等价性.利用这种算法,数字地模拟了可变等振幅孤子脉冲对在无耗光纤中的传输过程,结果证明:提高振幅可使孤子的相互作用大大减小.     

Design, fabrication and characterization of a high-performance microring resonator in silicon-on-insulator

A high-performance microring resonator in a silicon-on-insulator rib waveguide is realized by using the electron beam lithography followed by inductively coupled plasma etching. The design and the experimental realization of this device are presented in detail. In addition to improving relevant processes to minimize propagation loss, the coupling efficiency between the ring and the bus is carefully chosen to approach a critical coupling for high performance operating. We have measured a quality factor of 21,200 and an extinction ratio of 12.SdB at a resonant wavelength of 1549.32nm. Meanwhile, a low propagation loss of 0.89dB/mm in a curved waveguide with a bending radius of 40μm is demonstrated as well.     

Spatiotemporal solitons in quadratic nonlinear media

Recent developments in the study of optical spatiotemporal solitons are reviewed.     

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.     

Theoretical analysis of the electromagnetic field inside an anomalous-dispersion microresonator under synthetical pump

We study the spatiotemporal evolution of the electromagnetic field inside a microresonator showing an anomalous dispersion at the pump wavelength by using the normalized Lugiato–Lefever equation. Unlike the traditional single continuous wave(CW) pumping, an additional pump source consisting of periodical pulse train with variable repetition rate is adopted.The influences of the microresonator properties and the pump parameters on the field evolution and the electromagnetic field profile are analyzed. The simulation results indicate that, in the anomalous dispersion regime, both increases of the input pulse amplitude and the repetition frequency can result in the field profiles consisting of multiple peaks. A series of equidistant pulses can also be obtained by increasing the CW pump power. In addition, we find that a large physical detuning between the pump laser carrier and the cavity resonance frequency also causes the splitting of the inside field.     

Ultrabroadband Er:fiber lasers

The state of the art of ultrafast Er:fiber technology is reviewed. Such lasers are increasingly used for generation of ultrabroadband and widely tunable pulse trains. Er:fiber sources prove to be flexible, compact and robust with important applications in fundamental and interdisciplinary sciences. After a short overview of different oscillator and amplifier designs the discussion focuses on coherent and tailored supercontinuum generation in highly nonlinear germanosilicate fibers. This approach enables a tuning range spanning from the visible to the mid infrared, synthesis of single‐cycle light pulses and passive locking of the carrier‐envelope phase.     

Fifth-order phase-sensitive detection of ultrafast polarization beats in cascade four-level system

We study the colour-locked twin-noisy-field correlation effects in the fifth-order nonlinear susceptibility of ultrafast polarization beats in a cascade four-level system. More importantly, the fifth-order phase-sensitive heterodyne detection of ultrafast polarization beats has been exploited. The fifth-order nonlinear optical response can be controlled and modified through the colour-locked correlation of twin noisy fields. Thus, this method with the phase dispersion information is a good way to measure the real and imaginary parts of the fifth-order nonlinear susceptibility.     

Improved Design of 8-Channel Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) Arrayed Waveguide Grating (AWG) Multiplexer Using Tapered Entry into the Slab Waveguides

An improved design of silicon-on-insulator based 8 × 8 AWG multiplexer is presented using tapered entry into the slab waveguide. Our simulation result clearly shows significant enhancement of electric field from 0.44 V/m to 0.732 V/m, reduction in insertion loss from 7.13 db to 2.7 db, with bandwidth of 230 GHz and channel spacing 200 GHz while keeping other parameters within acceptable limits.     

Improved Design of 8-Channel Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) Arrayed Waveguide Grating (AWG) Multiplexer Using Tapered Entry into the Slab Waveguides

An improved design of silicon-on-insulator based 8 × 8 AWG multiplexer is presented using tapered entry into the slab waveguide. Our simulation result clearly shows significant enhancement of electric field from 0.44 V/m to 0.732 V/m, reduction in insertion loss from 7.13 db to 2.7 db, with bandwidth of 230 GHz and channel spacing 200 GHz while keeping other parameters within acceptable limits.     

Improved method for studying the propagation dynamics of ultrafast electron pulses based on mean-field models

We have studied the propagation dynamics of ultrafast electron pulses by using an improved mean-field model, in which the propagation of the electron pulses across the boundary of the acceleration region is explicitly considered. A large decrease in the speed spread of the electron pulses(we called "boundary kick") is observed and properly treated leading to a significant improvement in the simulation accuracy, particularly when the density of electrons is very large. We show that our method is consistent with the simulation by the N-particle method, while others can introduce factorial error.     

Investigation of third-order nonlinear optical properties of two azo-nickel chelate compounds

This paper investigates the third-order nonlinear optical properties of two azo-nickel chelate compounds by the optical Kerr gate method at 830 nm wavelength with pulse duration of 120 fs. Both of the two compounds exhibited large third-order optical nonlinearity. The second-order hyperpolarizability,γ, of Compound 1 is of 1.0 × 10^-31 esu. Due to the charge transfer, the γ of Compound 2 with electron donor and acceptor group is 4.9 × 10^-31 esu, which is a four-time enhancement in comparison with Compound i. The absorption spectra show that the electron push-pull effect, which induces intramolecular charge transfer, leads to the increased optical nonlinearity.     

Design of an ultrafast electron diffractometer with multiple operation modes

Directly resolving structural changes in material on the atomic scales of time and space is desired in studies of many disciplines. Ultrafast electron diffraction(UED), which combines the temporal resolution of femtosecond-pulse laser and the spatial sensitivity of electron diffraction, is an advancing methodology serving such a goal. Here we present the design of a UED apparatus with multiple operation modes for observation of collective atomic motions in solid material of various morphologies. This multi-mode UED employs a pulsed electron beam with propagation trajectory of parallel and convergent incidences, and diffraction configurations of transmission and reflection, as well utilities of preparation and characterization of cleaned surface and adsorbates. We recorded the process of electron–phonon coupling in single crystal molybdenum ditelluride following excitation of femtosecond laser pulses, and diffraction patterns of polycrystalline graphite thin film under different settings of electron optics, to demonstrate the temporal characteristics and tunable probe spot of the built UED apparatus, respectively.     

部分耗尽结构绝缘体上硅器件的低频噪声特性

针对部分耗尽结构绝缘体上硅(silicon-on-insulator, SOI)器件低频噪声特性展开实验与理论研究. 实验结果表明, 器件低频噪声主要来源于SiO₂-Si界面附近缺陷态对载流子的俘获与释放过程; 基于此理论可提取前栅和背栅氧化层界面附近缺陷态密度分别为8×10¹⁷ eV^-1·cm^-3和2.76×10¹⁷ eV^-1·cm^-3. 基于电荷隧穿机理, 在考虑隧穿削弱因子、隧穿距离与时间常数之间关系的基础上, 提取了前、背栅氧化层内缺陷态密度随空间的分布情况. 此外, SOI器件沟道电流归一化噪声功率谱密度随沟道长度的增加而线性减小, 这表明器件低频噪声主要来源于沟道的闪烁噪声. 最后, 基于电荷耦合效应, 分析了背栅电压对前栅阈值电压、沟道电流以及沟道电流噪声功率谱密度的影响.     

稀土材料的超快共振非线性光学特性研究

用抽运-探测技术测量光学响应材料非线性极化率的方法，研究了稀土材料非线性折射率的共振增强和超快响应的非线性动力学过程。测得钕玻璃的三阶非线性折射 率强度系数为10^-14cm^2/W，比其基质的非线性折射率强度系数提高了2个量级。用该方法研究了Nd:YVO4、Er:YAG等晶体的超快非线性响应过程。实验结果与理论分析表明，抽支-探测技术是测量非线性极化率的简单而又灵敏的方法。这一测量技术对研究与开发超高速光响应器件具有重要的实用价值。     

Study on the defect-related emissions in the light self-ion-implanted Si films by a silicon-on-insulator structure

This paper reports that the Si + self-ion-implantation are conducted on the silicon-on-insulator wafers with the 28 Si + doses of 7×10 12,1×10 13,4×10 13,and 3×10 14 cm 2,respectively.After the suitable annealing,these samples are characterized by using the photoluminescence technique at different recorded temperatures.Plentiful emission peaks are observed in these implanted silicon-on-insulator samples,including the unwonted intense P band which exhibits a great potential in the optoelectronic application.These results indicate that severe transformation of the interstitial clusters can be manipulated by the implanting dose at suitable annealing temperatures.The high critical temperatures for the photoluminescence intensity growth of the two signatures are well discussed based on the thermal ionization model of free exciton.