Luminescence spectra of a cholesteric photonic crystal

The transmission and luminescence spectra of a cholesteric photonic crystal doped with an organic dye are measured. The density of photon states is calculated using the material parameters obtained from the comparison of the experimental and theoretical spectra. The shape of the luminescence spectra is modified with respect to the density of photon states owing to the difference in the structure of the normal modes of the photonic crystal near the short-wavelength and long-wavelength edges of the photonic quasi-band gap upon the “pushing” of the photon states from the gap and to the nonvanishing orientation ordering of the luminescent molecules. The luminescence spectrum calculated taking into account the chiral structure of the photonic crystal agrees with the experimental spectrum.     

Semiconductor photonic crystal laser

By combing artificial micro–nano structures, photonic crystals(PCs), with traditional semiconductor laser material to realize the dynamic collaborative control of photonic states and confined electrons, the band engineering of the PC has been confirmed. This brings new development space for the semiconductor laser, such as for low threshold and high efficiency.Based on a series of works by Zheng's group, this paper has reviewed kinds of PC lasers including electrical injection PC vertical cavity and lateral cavity surface-emitting lasers, and PC high beam quality lasers, to show that the PC is vital for promoting the continuous improvement of semiconductor laser performance at present and in the future.     

Multiwavelength erbium-doped fiber laser using twin-core photonic crystal fiber

Laser Physics - We propose a novel multiwavelength erbium-doped fiber laser incorporating a twin-core photonic crystal fiber (TC-PCF) based Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI). TC-PCF based...     

Investigation of microdeformation-induced attenuation spectra in a photonic crystal fiber

We investigate both theoretically and experimentally the induced spectral attenuation in an all-silica photonic crystal fiber subjected to periodic axial microdeformations. The induced attenuation spectra show discrete attenuation peaks with a spectral position that is dependent on the period of the induced deformation. The peaks are assumed to be the result of mode coupling between the fundamental mode and a highly lossy higher-order mode. This assumption is verified through numerical calculation of the beat length between these two modes. Excellent agreement between experiment and numerical predictions of the spectral position of the attenuation peaks is obtained.     

Off-axis pumping of a photonic crystal fiber laser

We present a new method for free space pumping of double-clad photonic crystal fiber lasers and amplifiers. The method is based on off-axis injection of the pump beam, exploiting the relatively high numerical aperture of the photonic crystal fiber cladding. It prevents feedback from the laser into the pump source, does not require any special treatment to the fiber, and could lead to a more compact resonator. Experimental results with the new pumping method show improved laser performance.     

Multi-wavelength fiber laser in single-longitudinal mode operation using a photonic crystal fiber Sagnac interferometer

In this paper, we report a new configuration of a tunable multi-wavelength erbium-doped fiber laser based on the commercial optical multiplexers and a Sagnac interferometer which includes a section of a high-birefringent photonic crystal fiber. Four-wavelength laser emission lines were obtained simultaneously in single-longitudinal mode operation showing a power instability lower than 1 dB, and an optical signal-to-noise ratio higher than 65 dB for all the emitted wavelengths. This proposed configuration allows the individual control of the loss of each channel of the laser and because of it is based on the commercial ITU-grid multiplexers, the laser is adapted to the telecommunications channel’s normative.     

Switchable multi-wavelength fiber ring laser using a side-leakage photonic crystal fiber based filter

A switchable multi-wavelength fiber ring laser is proposed and experimentally demonstrated with a novel side-leakage photonic crystal fiber (SLPCF) based filter incorporated into the ring cavity at room temperature. Stable multi-wavelength laser operations can be achieved due to the spatial mode beating, polarization hole burning and spectral hole burning effects. By adjusting the polarization controller appropriately, the laser can be switched among the single-, dual- and triple-wavelength lasing oscillations whose signal-to-noise ratio is up to 50 dB. In addition, the lasing wavelength can be also tuned and switched by applying the strain to the filter.     

Q-switched thulium-doped photonic crystal fiber laser

We report a novel, Tm-doped photonic crystal fiber (PCF) actively Q-switched oscillator that provides ~8.9 kW peak power with 435 μJ, 49 ns pulses at 10 kHz repetition rate at 2 μm wavelength. This fiber has a mode-field area >1000 μm2, the largest of any flexible PCF providing diffraction-limited beam quality to the best of our knowledge. As an application, the oscillator is used as pump to generate >350 nm broadening in ~50 m of SMF-28 fiber.     

High-energy femtosecond photonic crystal fiber laser

We report the generation of high-energy high-peak power pulses in an all-normal dispersion fiber laser featuring large-mode-area photonic crystal fibers. The self-starting chirped-pulse fiber oscillator delivers 11 W of average power at 15.5 MHz repetition rate, resulting in 710 nJ of pulse energy. The output pulses are dechirped outside the cavity from 7 ps to nearly transform-limited duration of 300 fs, leading to pulse peak powers as high as 1.9 MW. Numerical simulations reveal that pulse shaping is dominated by the amplitude modulation and spectral filtering provided by a resonant semiconductor saturable absorber.     

Build-up of supercontinuum in heated and unheated photonic crystal fibers using a chirped femtosecond laser

The build-up of supercontinuum in a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) has been investigated experimentally as a function of pump power using chirped 100-fs pulses from a Ti:sapphire laser. As compared with the PCF at room temperature, a new blue-shifted spectral component is observed in the initial steps of supercontinuum (SC) generation when the central part of PCF is heated to 120 °C by a hot plate. In addition, the slope efficiency of SG is slightly improved with the slightly extension of supercontinuum spectrum in blue edge at high pump powers. The change in dispersion property as well as the effective cascading of nonlinear photonic crystal fibers for heated PCF would be the main attributions.     

Room temperature multiwavelength erbium-doped fiber ring laser using a highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber

A multiwavelength laser source is demonstrated with a high power erbium-doped fiber amplifier as the gain medium. A highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber (PCF) is inserted in the ring cavity to provide nonlinear gain by four-wave mixing. A Sagnac loop is incorporated in the ring cavity serving as a comb-like multichannel filter. The comparison between fiber ring laser without PCF and with PCF shows that the highly nonlinear PCF can generate a larger number of excited wavelengths and help stabilize the output power.     

Controlling the self-collimation characteristics of a near-infrared two-dimensional metallic photonic crystal

Self-collimation characteristics of the two-dimensional square-lattice photonic crystal(PC) consisting of metal rods immersed in silicon are studied by the finite-difference time-domain method.The Drude dispersion model is adopted to describe the metal rod,and the self-collimation behaviours of the near-infrared light through the PC are studied.The frequency region and the tolerance of incident angle for the self-collimation behaviour can be controlled by changing the shape of the metal rods.     

Controlling the resonance of a photonic crystal microcavity by a near-field probe

We demonstrate theoretically that the resonance frequencies of high-Q microcavities in two-dimensional photonic crystal membranes can be tuned over a wide range by introducing a subwavelength dielectric tip into the cavity mode. Three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain simulations show that by varying the lateral and vertical positions of the tip, it is possible to tune the resonator frequency without lowering the quality factor. Excellent agreement with a perturbative theory is obtained, showing that the tuning range is limited by the ratio of the cavity mode volume to the effective polarizability of the nanoperturber.     

Continuous wave photonic crystal laser in ultraviolet range

It is shown that photonic band-gap (PBG) structures have great potential for the development of widely tunable continues wave and/or mode-locked ultrashort-pulse all-solid-stale lasers in UV and optical ranges. The basic idea is to decrease the laser threshold via inhibition of radiative decay of an upper laser level by embedding an active medium into spatial structure having PBG at the frequency of laser transition. This technique provides favorable conditions for coherent suppression of the excited state absorption crucial for short-wavelength solid-state lasing. It also resolves the laser gain dilemma, providing combination of high emission cross-section and large population inversion. Different designs of 2D and 3D photonic crystal laser are proposed.     

Transmission and reflection spectra of a photonic crystal with a Raman defects

Features of Raman gain of probe radiation in three-level atoms placed in a defect of a one-dimensional photonic crystal in the presence of laser radiation (pump) at an adjacent high-frequency transition have been theoretically investigated. It has been shown that there is a pump intensity range where narrow peaks (resonances) simultaneously appear in the transmission and reflection spectra of the probe field. Beyond this region, the peak in the transmission spectrum is transformed to a narrow dip. The spectral position of these peaks is determined by the Raman resonance and the transmittance and reflectance can be larger than unity at pump intensities from several microwatts per square centimeter to several tens of milliwatts per square centimeter. The nature of narrow peaks is due to a sharp dispersion of a nonlinear refractive index near the Raman resonance; this dispersion is responsible for a strong decrease in the group velocity of probe radiation. The proposed scheme makes it possible to obtain controlled ultranarrow resonances in the transmission and reflection spectra of the photonic crystal.     

High-power double-clad large-mode-area photonic crystal fiber laser

A high power double-clad ytterbium-doped large-mode-area photonic crystal fiber (LMA PCF) laser was demonstrated using a unique Fabry-Perot (F-P) configuration. The pump source is a fiber coupled diode array operating at 976 nm. A continuous wave (CW) output power of 50 W at ～ 1.04 μm with a slope efficiency of 76.3% is obtained. Single transverse mode operation is achieved without any thermal-optical problems. This laser has the potential for scaling to much higher output power.     

多芯光子晶体光纤锁模激光器

实验研究了基于掺Yb多芯大模场面积光子晶体光纤的全正色散锁模激光器.增益光纤的18个纤芯呈六角阵列排布,等效的模场直径约为52 μm.激光器基于σ腔结构,腔内没有色散补偿元件,通过半导体可饱和吸收镜实现锁模的自启动.实验获得了平均功率为3.3 W,脉冲宽度为4.92 ps,重复频率为44.68 MHz的锁模脉冲输出,对应的单脉冲能量为74 nJ,脉冲经腔外光栅对压缩为780 fs. 关键词： 光子晶体光纤 多芯 光纤激光器 全正色散     

Coherent thermal antenna using a photonic crystal slab

We show that a photonic crystal film can emit coherent thermal radiation. We demonstrate the key role of leaky waves existing at the air-photonic crystal interface. The frequency and direction of emission depend on the lattice parameters. This paves the way towards the design of coherent infrared antennas.     

Reflectance spectra and photonic band gaps of a one-dimensional photonic crystal based on a silicon-air periodic structure

The reflectance spectra of a one-dimensional photonic crystal based on a silicon-air periodic structure are calculated. A map of photonic band gaps is plotted, which makes it possible to deliberately choose the geometric parameters of the structure (the thickness of silicon partitions D _Si and the period A) for different ranges of the wavelength λ. To obtain structures with a photonic band gap in the range A/λ=0.15–0.5, the main region (as rule, corresponding to the lowest frequencies) can be used, and, taking into account the secondary photonic band gaps, the range A/λ can be extended to 1 and even more. In addition, it is found that, in the range D _Si/A=0.4–0.9, the secondary band gaps may be wider than the main ones (on the frequency scale). The influence of the filling factor D _Si/A on the formation of the edges of spectral bands is revealed.