Effects of Pumping Sizes on THz Radiation Based on Ultrashort Light Pulse Optical Rectification for High Spatial Resolution T-Ray Imaging

We present our experimental studies on the effects of the pumping sizes on THz radiation based on ultrashort light pulse optical rectification for high spatial resolution T-Ray imaging. Our experiments show that high spatial resolution T-ray imaging requires both thin THz emitter and sample, and rigorous tolerance of the gap between the sample and the emitter, as well as small pumping size which usually much smaller compared with THz wavelength. Such a small pumping size results in dramatic decrease of the THz wave power, which originates from strong diffraction of THz wave, the depolarization of the focused tightly pumping beam, the spatial filtering of the emitter exit-surface, and the strong phase-mismatching between the pumping and the high spatial Fourier components of the THz signal, rather than two-photon absorption.     

A Sensor-on-Chip Based on Second-Order Optical Effect of ZnO Nanowires

Strong second-order nonlinear effect of ZnO nanowires on a silicon wafer are demonstrated by using the hyper- Rayleigh scattering （FIRS） measurement. The large nonlinear effect can be attributed to the following two factors： （1） the large total dipole moment caused by high surface defect density and electrostatic potential gradient, （2） coherent effect due to high crystal quality of single nanowire. Moreover, the second-order nonlinear effect is found to become weaker when the chip is put into organic solvent due to modification of surface defect caused by organic molecules. The variation of second-order signal in the solvent indicated the potential applications of ZnO nanowires as a sensor-on-chip （SoC）.     

Long Optical Delay Lines Enhanced by Ring Configuration in Optical Fibres

A long optically controlled delay line enhanced by ring configuration is demonstrated by using the group-velocity control of signal pulses based on stimulated Brillouin scattering. In experiment, two optical fibre ring cavities are used： one is used as the Brillouin laser, providing single-mode Stokes wave as probe wave; the other is used as the Brillouin amplifier, working as slow light medium. We achieve a maximum time delay of 215ns using the ring Brillouin amplifier, five times larger than the input probe pulse width of 40ns. In the meantime, a considerable pulse broadening is observed, which agrees well with the theoretical prediction based on linear theory.     

Optimization of Pulse Temporal Contrast in Optical Parametric Chirped Pulse Amplification

In optical parametric chirped pulse amplification （OPCPA）, the degradation of temporal contrast of the compressed signal pulse mainly results from spectral clipping in the grating stretcher with finite size of the optics, parametric fluorescence （PF） and the spectral variations transferred from temporal fluctuation of the pump pulse. The temporal contrast of the recompressed amplified pulse in the OPCPA system is studied numerically and a number of solutions are considered and optimized to achieve the highest temporal contrast.     

Third-Order Optical Nonlinearity in Novel Porphyrin Dimers

We investigate the third-order optical nonlinearities in four novel porphyrin dimers （dimers A to D） and a monomeric porphyrin H2 CPTPP measured by using the single-beam z-scan technique with a pulsed Q-switched Nd：YAG nanosecond laser at 532nm. All the samples show strong excited state absorption （ESA） and high value of Х^（3） in the ns domain at this wavelength. We perform a comparison between dimer A and its monomer H2 CPTPP in their third-order optical nonlinearity, and discuss the relationships between the values of Х^（3） and the different bridging groups for all the dimers.     

Optical limiting in cobalt-doped polyvinylpyrrolidone

The results of optical limiting investigations of cobalt-doped polyvinylpyrrolidone solutions are presented. The optical limiting studies have shown that this process is due to self-defocusing at the wavelength of 1064 nm and also due to reverse saturable absorption and self-defocusing at the wavelength of 532 nm. The results of measurements on the non-linear optical characteristics of organometallic complexes are presented. Received: 10 July 2001 / Revised version: 15 October 2001 / Published online: 29 November 2001     

Large and Ultrafast Third-Order Nonlinear Optical Properties of Ge-S Based Chalcogenide Glasses

We report ultrafast third-order nonlinear optical （NLO） properties of several chalcogenide glasses GeSx （x = 1.8, 2.0, 2.5） measured by femtosecond time-resolved optical Kerr gate technique at 82Ohm. The third-order nonlinear susceptibility of GeS1.8 glass is determined to be as large as 1.41 ×10^-12 esu, which is the maximum value of the third order nonlinear susceptibility Х^（3） for the three compositions investigated. The symmetric Gauss profiles of optical Kerr signals reveal the nature of ultrafast nonlinear response of these samples, which are originated from the ultrafast polarization of the electron clouds. By detailed microstructural analysis of these glasses based on the chain-crossing model （CCM） and the random-covalent-network model （RCNM）, it can be concluded that Х^（3） value of GeSx glasses can be enhanced greatly by S-S covalent bonds or S3 Ge-GeS3 ethane-l＆e units.     

Effect of Ag Nanoparticles on Optical Properties of R6G Doped PMMA Films

The composite PMMA films containing Ag nanoparticles and rhodamine 6G are prepared. We investigate the fluorescence properties and nonlinear optical properties of R6G/PMMA films influenced by Ag nanoparticles. The fluorescence enhancement factor is about 3.3. The corresponding nonlinear refractive index is measured to be -2.423 ×10^-8 esu using the Z-scan technique, which is much enhanced compared with the R6G/PMMA film. The results indicate that these enhancements are attributed to surface plasmon resonance of Ag nanoparticles.     

Optical poling in a crosslinkable polymer system

Received: 30 September 1998 / Published online: 24 February 1999     

Intensity and resonance effects on the three-photon resonant third-harmonic generation in hg

The possible mechanism for the generation of near three photon resonant third-harmonic in the low energy side of the 6² P ₁ state of Hg is described. It is shown that the existence of strong ac Stark effect, due to the presence of the additional resonance 6¹ P ₁–6¹ D ₂ via the fundamental photon, results in a spatially dependent phase mismatch, which can lead to nonzero radiation in the k>0 region. Additionally, the influence of the ac Stark effect as a saturation mechanism with increased incoming radiation power is described.     

Optical Nonlinear Properties of CdSeS/ZnS Core/Shell Quantum Dots

The optical nonlinear properties of CdSeS/ZnS quantum dots (QDs) areinvestigated by Z-scan technique using fundamental harmonic generation(1064nm) of mode-locked Nd:YAG laser for the first time. The experimental results show that two photon absorptions (TPA) occur at input intensity up to 12.5GW/cm². CdSeS/ZnS QDs have an average TPA cross section of 13710GM and large nonlinear refractive index on order of 10^-7esu. The large optical nonlinearities perhaps allow the CdSeS/ZnS QDs to be one kind of candidate material for bioimaging and fluorescence label, optical limiting and all-optical switching.     

All-Optical RZ to NRZ Format Conversion Using Single SOA Assisted by Optical Band-Pass Filter

We propose a novel all-optical format conversion from the return-to-zero （RZ） to the non-return-to-zero （NRZ） based on single semiconductor optical amplifier （SOA） and optical band-pass filter （OBE）. We demonstrate the proof of the principle experiment at 10 Gbps by using the test SOA and OBF converter. The format conversion can be achieved with output extinction ratio of 11.51 dB. The BER is 5.5×10^-9 when the power of NRZ is - 10 dBm. The proposed scheme is robust and potential for applications in optical networks.     

Optical Performance and Nonlinear Scattering of Soluble Polystyrene Grafted Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Three soluble polystyrene grafted multi-walled carbon nanotube （MWNT） samples are synthesized, and their optical performance and nonlinear scattering properties are investigated by z-scan method using nanosecond pulses of 532 nm from a frequency-doubled Q-switched Nd： YLF laser. Analysis of the experimental results shows that other than nonlinear scattering, nonlinear absorption plays a major role in optical limiting performance of these stable and well-dispersed suspensions. These new synthesized materials which can be better dispersed in common organic solvents than MWNT itself can be considered as potential sources for further optical applications.     

Stimulated brillouin scattering in SF6 with a free-running XeCl laser as pump

A XeCl laser system without dispersive elements is used to investigate near threshold reflectivity and phase-conjugation (PC) fidelity of stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) mirrors with SF₆ as the active medium. Using different focal-length lenses to focus the broadband laser radiation into the Brillouin medium, it was found that at threshold the effective interaction length for SBS is equal to the confocal parameter and that the SBS gain is equal to its steady-state value for monochromatic pumping. High PC-fidelity values ranging from 0.8–1.0 were found under most of the experimental conditions investigated.     

Optical Limiting Properties of Two Soluble Polymer/Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube Composites

Two soluble polymer grafted multi-walled carbon nanotubes （MWNTs）, including poly（N-vinylcarbazole）-MWNTs and poly（methyl methacrylate）-MWNTs, are synthesized. Their nonlinear optical properties and opticaJ limiting （OL） performances are investigated by z-scan method with 527nm nanosecond laser pulses. These grafted MWNTs dissolved in chloroform show much better optical limiting performance than those of MWNTs and C60 in toluene solution. Nonlinear absorption and nonlinear scattering mechanism are taken into consideration for explaining the observed results. The comparison of the experimental results shows that nonlinear absorption is the dominant mechanism for OL performance of these new samples.     

Optimized Second Harmonic Generation of Femtosecond Pulse by Phase-Blanking Effect in Aperiodically Optical Superlattice

In order to minimize the effect of the unconsidered frequency components on the generated compression pulse, the phasing-blanking effect is taken into account of designing the one~dimensionai aperiodic domain reversal structure. Hierarchic genetic algorithm for the design of a domain reversal grating to modulate the spectrum and phase of the generated SH pulse simultaneously are presented. Our simulation shows that the quality of an output pulse is fairly improved.     

Investigation on the output energy characteristic of optical limiting based on stimulated Brillouin scattering

Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) featuring sub-nanosecond response time takes place at a high power threshold, which enables its application at a high power density. When the intensity of input light excesses the SBS threshold, strong SBS process takes place through SBS medium, leading to a quick energy transfer from pump to the Stokes and thereby an optical limiting characteristic in the output energy. In this paper, the correlation between SBS output energy and input power density is numerically simulated and validated in the Nd: YAG Q-switch laser system. The results indicate that not only the output energy exhibits an optical limiting characteristic, but also the clamped value of output energy can be controlled by changing the medium or the focal length.     

Period Doubling in a Fabry-Perot Laser Diode Subject to Optical Pulse Injection

Experimental study and numerical simulations of the period doubling of injected optical pulses in Fabry-Perot laser diodes are presented. In our experiments, the period doubling is achieved within a wide input frequency range and the period doubling of the injected optical pulses with 6.32 GHz repetition rate is investigated in detail. The obtained experimental results indicate that period doubling occurs at an appropriate injected optical power level when the bias current of the Fabry-Perot laser diode is located in lower ranges. Moreover, the experimental observed features have been numerically demonstrated by using a coupled rate-equation model. Numerical simulations are consistent with the experimental results.     

Optical Absorption Spectra and Intraband Dynamics in Terahertz-Driven Semiconductor Superlattice

We have theoretically investigated the optical absorption spectrum and intraband dynamics by subjecting a superlattice to both a terahertz (THz)-frequency driving field and an optical pulse by using an excitonic basis.In the presence of a THz dc field, the satellite structures in the absorption spectra are presented. The satellite structure is a result from the THz nonlinear dynamics of Wannier-Stark ladder excitons. On the other hand, the coherent intraband polarization is investigated. We find that the excitonic Bloch oscillation is driven by the THz field and yields an intraband polarization that continues to oscillate at times much longer than the intraband dephasing time. The temporal evolution of the slowly varying components of the intraband polarization is dependent on the THz frequency.     

Enhancement of Second- and Third-Order Nonlinear Optical Susceptibilities in Magnetized Semiconductors

Using electromagnetic treatment, an expression of effective nonlinear optical susceptibility χe [= χe^（2） ＋ χe^（3） E] is obtained for Ⅲ-Ⅴ semiconducting crystals in an applied transverse dc magnetic fieM under off-resonant transition regime. The origin of nonlinear interaction lies in nonlinear polarization arising from the crystal properties such as piezoelectricity and electrostriction. Numerical estimates have been made by a representative n-InSb crystal at 77K duly irradiated by a pulsed 10.6-μm CO2 laser under off-resonant transition regime. Efforts are dedicated to optimizing doping level and externally applied dc magnetic field to achieve maximum χe^（2） and χ3^（3）. The results are found to be in good agreement with the available literature. The analysis shows that χe^（2） and χe^（3） can be significantly enhanced in doped Ⅲ-Ⅴ semiconductors by the proper selection of doping concentration and dc magnetic field, which confirms its potential as a candidate material for the fabrication of nonlinear optical devices.