Control of localized structures in an optical feedback interferometer

We report a detailed experimental investigation of the dependence of localized structures, observed in a nonlinear optical device, on several control parameters. A first step of the study consists in the determination of the region of existence of localized states as a function of the system variables. Subsequently, we show how different control parameters can be used to the aim of tuning several localized structures properties; among these, of particular relevance are the contrast and the amplitude and frequency of the oscillations appearing on the tails of the structures. A discussion of the relation between the localized states here studied and the one predicted by general model for pattern forming systems is also given.     

Localized optical structures in the scheme of a nonlinear layer with a feedback mirror

An analysis is made of the dynamics of the transverse structure of the field in the scheme of a layer of a medium with nonlinear amplitude-phase transmittance and a feedback mirror separated from it by a linear spacing. For the case of small field changes in a single passage, an approximate equation is derived, which is close in form to the equation used in the average-field approximation for nonlinear interferometers excited with external emission. For the nonlinearity of threshold type, an analytical form is presented for the field distribution corresponding to localized dissipative structures (dissitons).     

A laser feedback interferometer with an oscillating feedback mirror

A method is proposed to solve the problem of direction discrimination for laser feedback interferometers.By vibrating the feedback mirror with a small-amplitude and high-frequency sine wave,laser intensity is modulated accordingly.The modulation amplitude can be extracted using a phase sensitive detector(PSD).When the feedback mirror moves,the PSD output shows a quasi-sine waveform similar to a laser intensity interference fringe but with a phase difference of approximately ±π/2.If the movement direction of the feedback mirror changes,the phase difference sign reverses.Therefore,the laser feedback interferometer offers a potential application in displacement measurement with a resolution of 1/8 wavelength and in-time direction discrimination.Without using optical components such as polarization beam splitters and wave plates,the interferometer is very simple,easy to align,and less costly.     

Sensitive interferometer for determination of optical and thermal properties

A very sensitive interferometric technique is presented. It allows direct measurement of optical and thermal properties. The experimental set-up is very simple and acts essentially as an unfocused Fabry-Perot interferometer giving rise only to a central fringe. Measurement of (∂n/∂T)_p up to 10^-7 K^-1 is possible. Determination of (∂n/∂T)_p for some liquids, particularly for water and deuterium oxide, has been already performed and others, for ionic crystals, are under way.     

Observation of subcellular structures of neurons by an illumination mode near-field optical microscope under an optical feedback control

We propose an illumination mode near-field optical microscope operated under an optical feedback for imaging biological specimens in their natural environment. For feedback control, rapidly varying evanescent signal has been generated over the sample surface. It has been found that evanescent signal can be profitably used as a control signal by utilizing its sample feature dependent discrimination sensitivity. Neurons have been successfully observed both in air and in liquid with a resolution well beyond the diffraction limit.     

Transverse interactions in 2-D feedback non-linear optical systems

The new dynamic phenomena in 2-D feedback non-linear optical systems are investigated theoretically. Typical numerical results for phase-switching waves and suppression of phase distortions phenomenon are shown.     

Boundary-induced localized structures in a nonlinear optical feedback experiment

Experimental and numerical evidence of symmetry-breaking bifurcations of a circular dissipative soliton with additional boundary conditions in the feedback of a liquid crystal light valve are reported. By tuning the strength of the nonlinearity or the size of the additional boundaries, the circular structure breaks up into polygonal symmetries and the system exhibits multistability. The experimental results are confirmed by numerical simulations with different configurations of the polarizers thus demonstrating the universality of the phenomenon.     

On-chip optical filters with designable characteristics based on an interferometer with embedded silicon photonic structures

We demonstrate chip-scale flat-top filters at near-IR wavelengths using negative index photonic crystal based Mach-Zehnder interferometers. Supported by full three-dimensional numerical simulations, we experimentally demonstrate a new approach for engineering high-pass, low-pass, bandpass, and band-reject filters, based on designing the photonic band diagram both within the bandgap frequency region and away from it. We further show that our approach can be used to design filters that have tunable multilevel response for different sections of the spectrum and for different polarizations. This configuration enables deterministic control of the bandwidth and the rejection ratio of filters for integrated photonic circuits.     

Hexagonal optical structures in photorefractive crystals with a feedback mirror

A nonlinear theory is presented for the formation of hexagonal optical structures in a photorefractive medium equipped with a feedback mirror. Oppositely directed beams in photorefractive crystals are unstable against the excitation of sideband waves. It is shown here that as this instability evolves to its nonlinear stage, the three-wave interaction between weak sideband beams does not stabilize it, but rather leads to explosive growth of the amplitudes of beams whose transverse wave vectors form angles that are multiples of π/3. As a result, sideband beams at these angles are found to be correlated. A range of parameters is found in which four-wave interactions saturate the explosive instability, which explains the appearance of stable hexagons in the experiment. Outside this region, nonlinearities of higher order saturate the explosive instability, and the process of hexagon generation must be studied numerically. Matrix elements are obtained for the three-and four-wave interactions as functions of the distance to the feedback mirror, and an equation for the time evolution of the sideband wave amplitudes is derived that describes the hexagon generation. A comparison is made with experimental results for the photorefractive crystals KNbO₃ and BaTiO₃. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 113, 1122–1146 (March 1998)     

Surface-profile measurement by means of a polarization Sagnac interferometer with parallel optical feedback

We describe a novel feedback interferometer for real-time, unambiguous measurement of surface profiles that consists of a polarization Sagnac interferometer and an optically addressed phase-only spatial light modulator. In this system the output intensity from the Sagnac interferometer is optically fed back to the phase modulator placed in one arm of the interferometer, which produces a sawtooth fringe intensity profile (instead of the conventional cosinusoidal one) that is directly and unambiguously related to the surface profile. Preliminary experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of applying this system to surface-profile measurement.     

Modulated optical lattice as an atomic fabry-perot interferometer

We propose to engineer the atomic band structure in optical lattices in order to design a Fabry-Perot interferometer with large mode spacing and strong nonlinear coupling to be employed in atom optics. The use of an optical lattice allows for a significant reduction of the atomic effective mass, while the slow modulation of its parameters spatially confines the matter waves on a length scale of a few dozen optical wavelengths. As a consequence, the mode spacing in such a cavity would be as high as one-tenth of the recoil energy, allowing for a very efficient filter action, while the nonlinear coupling due to interatomic interactions could lead to bistability and limiting effects in the transmission of the atomic beam.     

Mutual spatiotemporal coherence of optical fields in an amplitude-splitting interferometer

We have considered cross correlations of wave perturbations formed by optical fields at different points of space at the exit of an interferometer with the splitting of the amplitude of the initial wave field. Expressions for the longitudinal spatiotemporal cross-correlation function of perturbations on the optical axis of a Michelson interferometer have been obtained and analyzed. We have determined spatial and temporal intervals in which the wave fields excite mutually coherent perturbations in the exit channel of the interferometer in the free space and in the image space of the lens system. We have found that, in the free space, mutually correlated perturbations arise simultaneously in identical longitudinal intervals, whereas, in the image space, they arise at different times in spatial and temporal intervals varying along the optical axis of the lens. The influence of cross correlations of the wave fields on the interferometer signal has been analyzed.

     

Localized states of flattened quantum elliptic rings and their optical properties

A flattened elliptic ring containing an electron is studied. The emphasis is placed on clarifying the effect of the flattening. The localized states are classified into four types according to their inherent nodes. When the ring becomes more flattened, the total probability of dipole absorption of each state is found to be reduced. Furthermore, each spectral line of absorption is found to shift towards red and may split into a few lines, and these lines as a whole become more diffusive.     

Ga掺杂ZnS的电子结构和光学性质简

本文基于第一性原理平面波赝势(PWP)和广义梯度近似(GGA)方法,对ZnS闪锌矿结构掺入杂质Ga体系进行结构优化处理.计算了该体系下ZnS材料的电子结构和光学性质.详细分析了其平衡晶格常数、能带结构、电子态密度分布和光学性质.结果表明:由于杂质Ga的引入,ZnS体系体积略有膨胀,并在费米面附近出现了深施主能级,单纯的通过Ga掺杂来实现低阻n型ZnS材料较为困难;由于杂质能级的引入,整个介电峰向低能方向偏移,电子在可见光区的跃迁显著增强.     

Ga掺杂ZnS的电子结构和光学性质

本文基于第一性原理平面波赝势（PWP）和广义梯度近似（GGA）方法,对ZnS闪锌矿结构掺入杂质Ga体系进行结构优化处理. 计算了该体系下ZnS材料的电子结构和光学性质. 详细分析了其平衡晶格常数、能带结构、电子态密度分布和光学性质．结果表明：由于杂质Ga的引入,ZnS体系体积略有膨胀,并在在费米面附近出现了深施主能级,单纯的通过Ga掺杂来实现低阻ｎ型ZnS材料较为困难;由于杂质能级的引入,整个介电峰向低能方向偏移,电子在可见光区的跃迁显著增强．     

Localized structures in dryland vegetation: forms and functions

Vegetation patches in drylands are localized structures of biomass and water. We study these structures using a mathematical modeling approach that captures biomass-water feedbacks. Biomass-water structures are found to differ in their spatial forms and ecological functions, depending on species type, soil conditions, precipitation range, and other environmental factors. Asymptotic spot structures can destabilize to form ring structures, expanding in the radial direction, or crescent structures, migrating uphill. Stable spot structures can differ in their soil-water distributions, forming water-enriched patches or water-deprived patches. The various biomass-water structures are expected to function differently in the context of a plant community, forming landscapes of varying species diversity.     

Effective optical constants and effective optical properties of ultrathin trilayer structures

This work presents an extension of the characteristic effective medium approximation (CEMA) to ultrathin trilayer systems. The extension has been carried out analytically and is supported by corresponding calculations of the effective optical constants of Cu-Au-Cu and Ag-SiO-Ag trilayer systems using the CEMA approximation. This work is in essence a generalization of the characteristic effective medium approximation introduced earlier for ultrathin bilayer structures. This method is used to derive the effective optical constants of a trilayer system, consisting of three thin layers with each constituent layer of thickness much less than the wavelength of the incident radiation. Within this regime a trilayer system is viewed as one effective layer referred to as an effective stack (ES) with well defined effective optical constants, which can be used to calculate the optical properties of the trilayer stack within a specified wavelength range. The CEMA based calculations of the effective optical constants are applied to two trilayer systems with a total of five stacks. Three are Cu-Au-Cu and two are Ag-SiO-Ag stacks. The thicknesses of the parent layers in the Cu-Au-Cu stack range from 3 to 30 nm for Cu and 4 to 40 nm for Au; in the Ag-SiO-Ag stack the constituent layers are 6 nm for Ag, but range from 5 to 10 nm for SiO. This study is for normal or near normal incidence spectroscopy in a wavelength range that extends from visible to near infrared. The agreement between CEMA based ES stack results and those of the standard CMT technique is very satisfactory.     

Localized structures in convective experiments

In this work we review localized structures appearing in thermo-convective experiments performed in extended (large “aspect ratio”) fluid layers. After a brief general review (not exhaustive), we focus on some results obtained in pure fluids in a Bénard-Marangoni system with non-homogeneous heating where some structures of this kind appear. The experimental results are compared in reference to the most classical observed in binary mixtures experiments or simulations. In the Bénard-Marangoni experiment we present the stability diagram where localized structures appear and the typical situations where these local mechanisms have been studied experimentally. Some new experimental results are also included. The authors want to honor Prof. H. Brand in his 60th. birthday and to thank him for helpful discussions.     

Improved dispersion tolerance of an optical duobinary transmitter based on a Mach-Zehnder modulator and an optical delay interferometer

We present a method for improving the dispersion tolerance of an optical duobinary transmitter based on a dual-arm Mach-Zehnder (MZ) modulator and an optical delay interferometer without electrical low-pass filters. Since such a duobinary modulator using a standard 1-bit delay cannot provide high dispersion tolerance, we investigated the impact of the modulator driving voltages and the bit delay in the interferometer to improve the transmitter’s dispersion tolerance.