Polarization mode conversion in an optical microdisk resonator vertically coupled to a waveguide bus

Due to the existence of non-zero, and asymmetrics cross-polarization coupling coefficients between a microdisk and a waveguide bus, high Q (∼10,000) overcoupled microdisks with minimal internal losses and sharp bending curvature (small radii) vertically coupled to a narrow-width ridge waveguide can be engineered as a proper candidate for a narrow-band polarization rotator. A semi-analytical calculation method is presented to realize microdisk-waveguide system as a polarization rotator.     

Infrared optical modulators for missile testing

The continued proliferation of imaging infrared (I²R) missile systems has created the need for fully representative infrared scene generators. In order to test these I²R systems correctly a very large dynamic range is required of the scene generator. This cannot easily be produced by the standard approach of an array of suspended resistor heater elements. This paper therefore describes the fabrication of infrared optical modulators for use in high dynamic range and high frame rate scene generation. Modulation is produced by the heating of a variable reflectivity coating. This is achieved by coating a suitable substrate with a thin film of vanadium dioxide (VO₂) via a reactive sputtering process. VO₂ undergoes a semiconductor to metal phase transition at approximately 68°C and the associated change in reflectivity is exploited to create the modulator. The correct stoichiometry of the thin film of VO₂ is critical in producing high frame rate devices. Both transmissive and reflective modulators are described.     

Theoretical Analysis of Silicon-Based Integrated-Optic Mach-Zehnder Pressure Sensors

Silicon-based Mach–Zehnder integrated-optic pressure sensors are investigated in this article. Several structures proposed in the literature are examined and performance parameters such as power leakage towards the Si substrate, radiation loss as a function of the Y-junction aperture angle, and halfwave pressure are analyzed. Modeling of the material deformation characteristics and refractive index change as a function of the applied pressure is carried out by using the finite-difference technique. The sensor optical characteristics and waveguiding properties are computed by using the finite-difference beam-propagation method (FD-BPM) and the extended effective index method (EEIM). Guidelines for performance optimization are proposed.     

Fractal generation using optical feedback with incoherent gain

We present an optical system for the spontaneous generation of self-similar fractal patterns. The system configuration is that of a ring cavity containing a lens array to form multiple, but laterally displaced, images. An image intensifier provides optical gain to overcome the round trip loss. The fractal properties of the intensity distributions both in and near the image planes are examined using a box counting technique.     

Design and analysis of coplanar waveguide optical modulator using finite element method

An analysis is given on the finite element method (FEM) for calculating the various parameters of optical modulators and a computer program is written to solve the finite element equation. Based on this method, a Mach-Zehnder type electro-optic modulator with coplanar waveguide (CPW) electrode is designed and fabricated. When compared with the Fourier series method, small differences on the 3-dB bandwidth, characteristic impedance and half-wave voltage, etc. are obtained.     

Theoretical study of polymeric metal clad optical waveguide polarizer

Planar optical waveguides consisting of thin dielectric films and buffer layers with metal cladding have been investigated theoretically. A computer program was written to calculate the exact zeroes of complex eigenvalue equation for TE and TM modes in multilayer metal clad waveguide polarizer. Numerical results and illustrations are given for Polycarbonate waveguide with other polymers as buffer and Al, Ag and Au as cladding metals at . It is also shown that, using thin (finite) films of metal produce more efficient polarizers as compared to semi-infinite metal films. Effect of low index buffer layer on attenuation of TM/TE modes is also investigated.     

High-power multi-mode laser to single-mode pump conversion

A novel pump-sharing module for multi-channel amplifiers based on integration of high-power multimode semiconductor lasers and planar waveguide circuits is proposed. The feedback-free modules are designed for optimum coupling, throughput and power uniformity on silicon using BPM method and fabricated via the sol-gel process of photo patternable precursors. Modal properties of the multimode lasers are considered by studying spectrum and spatial distribution of laser output power at different temperatures. Employing an 1500 mW 980 nm multimode laser (TE polarized), via lens and Butt coupling up to 1250 mW of laser output is coupled into the multimode channel waveguides, which are tapered and branched to four single mode waveguides. The measured pump power from splitter outputs, randomly polarized, exceeds 600 mW. At constant temperatures ranging from 22 °C to 30 °C, the pump-sharing modules exhibit good stability with a power uniformity of <0.5 dB over hours.     

Piecewise linear integrated optical device as an optical isolator using two-port nonlinear ring resonators

A nonlinear (piecewise linear) optical transfer function for optical applications generally and isolator especially is introduced and a realization method for the introduced block based on array of two-port nonlinear ring resonators is proposed. The effect of system parameters on the transfer function is studied. The characteristics of the introduced nonlinear device such as the threshold value and the slope of linear part can be controlled using the coupling coefficients and ring lengths. We show that using our proposed idea, easily more than 30-dB isolation well over 3 THz can be obtained only with similar two rings. Also, insertion loss less than 1 dB can be obtained using optical amplifier between rings. The proposed circuit is compact (0.2 mm²) and easily can be integrated with semiconductor lasers as well as other integrated devices and systems. Finally, the analytical result for approximation of the threshold and slope of linear part is presented.     

What spatial light modulators can do for optical microscopy

With the availability of high‐resolution miniature spatial light modulators (SLMs) new methods in optical microscopy have become feasible. The SLMs discussed in this review consist of miniature liquid crystal displays with micron‐sized pixels that can modulate the phase and/or amplitude of an optical wavefront. In microscopy they can be used to control and shape the sample illumination, or they can act as spatial Fourier filters in the imaging path. Some of these applications are reviewed in this article. One of them, called spiral phase contrast, generates isotropic edge enhancement of thin phase samples or spiral‐shaped interference fringes for thicker phase samples, which can be used to reconstruct the phase topography from a single on‐axis interferogram. If SLMs are used for both illumination control and spatial Fourier filtering, this combination for instance allows for the generalization of the Zernike phase contrast principle. The new SLM‐based approach improves the effective resolution and avoids some shortcomings and artifacts of the traditional method. The main advantage of SLMs in microscopy is their flexibility, as one can realize various operation modes in the same setup, without the need for changing any hardware components, simply by electronically switching the phase pattern displayed on the SLMs.     

Microdisk resonator filters made of dielectric-loaded plasmonic waveguides

Microdisk resonator filters, an alternative to microring resonator filters, are studied by means of vectorial three dimensional finite element method simulations. Their performance characteristics are highlighted for different microdisk radii, and compared with those of the respective, footprint-wise, microring filters. We show that microdisk filters are advantageous, as the resonator involved exhibits smaller radiation losses. Extinction ratios as high as 30 dB are possible by properly tuning the gap separating the waveguide from the microdisk in each case. Transmission dips due to higher-radial-order modes that drastically change the transmission picture appear only for very large microdisk radii.     

Measurement of subpicosecond optical waveforms using a resonator-based phase modulator

We propose a method for the measurement of periodic optical waveforms based on the use of an electrooptic phase modulator placed in an optical Fabry-Perot or ring resonator. Significant broadening of the modulation spectrum extends the recently developed method of periodic modulation for pulse characterization into femtosecond scales. We numerically demonstrate the characterization of a 300-fs optical pulse. We also present a technique based on the temporal fractional Talbot effect for restoration of the pulse phase profile. After fast linear processing, subpicosecond pulses will be observed on the screen of a real-time oscilloscope. This complete characterization of optical pulses is entirely linear and therefore highly sensitive and simple in implementation.     

Theoretical Analysis of Silicon-Based Integrated-Optic Mach-Zehnder Pressure Sensors

Silicon-based Mach-Zehnder integrated-optic pressure sensors are investigated in this article. Several structures proposed in the literature are examined and performance parameters such as power leakage towards the Si substrate, radiation loss as a function of the Y-junction aperture angle, and halfwave pressure are analyzed. Modeling of the material deformation characteristics and refractive index change as a function of the applied pressure is carried out by using the finite-difference technique. The sensor optical characteristics and waveguiding properties are computed by using the finite-difference beam-propagation method (FD-BPM) and the extended effective index method (EEIM). Guidelines for performance optimization are proposed.     

Accurate optical wavefront reconstruction based on reciprocity of an optical path using low resolution spatial light modulators

A method for high precision optical wavefront reconstruction using low resolution spatial light modulators (SLMs) was proposed. It utilizes an adiabatic waveguide taper consisting of a plurality of single-mode waveguides to decompose an incident light field into simple fundamental modes of the single-mode waveguides. By digital generation of the conjugate fields of those simple fundamental modes a field proportional to the original incident light field might be reconstructed accurately based on reciprocity. Devices based on the method using transparent and reflective SLMs possess no aberration like that of a conventional optic lens and are able to achieve diffraction limited resolution. Specifically on the surface of the narrow end of a taper a resolution much higher than half of the wavelength is attainable. The device may work in linear mode and possesses unlimited theoretical 3D space-bandwidth product (SBP). The SBP of a real device is limited by the accuracy of SLMs. A pair of 8-bit SLMs with 1000 × 1000 = 10⁶ pixels could provide a SBP of about 5 × 10⁴. The SBP may expand by 16 times if 10-bit SLMs with the same number of pixels are employed or 16 successive frames are used to display one scene. The device might be used as high precision optical tweezers, or employed for continuous or discrete real-time 3D display, 3D measurement, machine vision, etc.     

Frequency dependence of the phase shift in optical-fibre thermal modulators

The optical phase shift as a function of frequency was determined in the range from DC to >10 kHz for some single-mode optical-fibre phase modulators, formed by depositing a metal layer on the cladding surface by vacuum evaporation. A thermal analysis is presented in which the fibre surface and core temperatures are determined as a function of the frequency of the heating due to an electric current passing through the coating. The phase modulation arises from a combination of the temperature change at the core (predominant at low frequencies) and strains produced by the thermal expansion of the metal coating (predominant at the high frequencies). Applications include phase and birefringence control in optical-fibre interferometers.     

Pattern dependency comparison of four different 40-Gb/s optical duobinary transmitters using low-bandwidth modulators

We investigate the pattern dependency of the 40-Gb/s optical duobinary signals generated by a 10-Gb/s-rated Mach-Zehnder modulator with four different configurations. These configurations correspond to all possible combinations of a 15-GHz-bandwidth low-pass filter and a 0.24-nm bandwidth optical filter used to shape up the duobinary signals. We compare through experiment the back-to-back sensitivities and transmission performances of the duobinary signals for pseudorandom bit sequence lengths of 2⁷-1 and 2³¹-1. The results show that the combination of the 10-Gb/s-rated modulator and the 0.24-nm optical filter exhibits the best performance in terms of both the receiver sensitivity and pattern dependency owing to the good frequency response of the optical filter.     

Transient and steady state analysis of micro ring resonator array based photodetector in optical communication wavelength (linear and nonlinear operation)

Array of micro ring resonators based optical photodetectors is introduced and evaluated in this paper to operate in optical communication windows for broad band situation. In this work, we introduced an array of resonators to engineer the transfer function of the detector for broad band operation as well as very sharp edges. The electron and photon transport in the proposed structure is modeled based on rate equation and then transient and steady state behavior are extracted. Finally nonlinear operation added to the model and its effect on spectral behavior as well as transient operation is investigated.     

Strip-Loaded Sol-Gel Waveguides: Design and Fabrication

Sol-gel is one of the most attractive techniques for production of silica-on-silicon integrated optical devices. In fact, it combines low cost with flexibility and ease of doping; thus, nonlinear and active compounds can be effectively included in the silica matrix. Here, the feasibility of applying the sol-gel technique to the realization of an erbium-doped optical amplifier is reported on, operating in the third telecommunication window. In particular, the development of an optimum strategy for the design and fabrication of a guiding structure in the strip-loaded configuration is described. Design optimization results, as well as fabrication results and measured characteristics, are described and discussed.     

Solvent detection using porous silicon optical waveguides

Since the first report on the use of porous silicon as an optical waveguide medium in 1995, significant development has been made towards the understanding and applicability of such material. Here, the introduction of solvents (acetone, methanol, and propan-2-ol) into the pores is shown to dramatically reduce the loss of the waveguides, in a reversible manner. Both the magnitude and duration of this effect are sensitive to the solvent introduced. In some waveguides, for example, the measured loss (at 0.633 μm) falls by as much as 34 dB cm⁻¹ on the introduction of acetone. Theoretical estimates of the effect of solvents on the interfacial scattering loss confirm this as the origin of the observed reductions. These results, combined with the fact that a substantial portion of the guided-mode field interacts with the solvent, indicate an enhanced sensitivity for sensor applications may be achievable.     

Optical wave breaking of high-intensity femtosecond pulses in silicon optical waveguides

We have investigated numerically the propagation of high-intensity femtosecond optical pulses with pulsewidth of 100 fs (half width at 1/e maximum) on the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) optical waveguide when the central wavelength of the pulse locates in the normal dispersion region. Results show that the combined effects of group-velocity dispersion (GVD), third-order dispersion (TOD), self-phase modulation (SPM), and free-carrier dispersion (FCD) can lead to the phenomenon of optical wave breaking that manifests as an asymmetric profile and oscillation near the trailing edge of the pulse. Moreover, the optical wave breaking will be experienced from generation to disappearance during propagation.