Spontaneous emission coupling factors in planar micro-cavity lasers with distributed Bragg reflectors

In this article, a considerable value of spontaneous emission factor is estimated based on the spontaneous emission radiation patterns in micro-cavity lasers. After the spontaneous emission for a dipole in the micro-cavity is studied, the confinements of vacuum fields and electrons are considered together for a quantum well in the micro-cavity laser. The TE mode and TM mode spontaneous emission spectra are presented for a single quantum well embedded in a planar micro-cavity laser at 300 K. The results show that the TE mode spontaneous emission spectrum is enhanced, whereas the TM mode spontaneous emission is suppressed greatly. The maximum values obtained for the spontaneous emission coupling factors are 0.2 and 0.0055 for a dipole and a quantum well planar micro-cavity laser with distributed Bragg reflectors, respectively.     

雪崩倍增GaAs光电导太赫兹辐射源研究进展

在飞秒激光激励下用GaAs光电导开关作为太赫兹(THz)辐射天线, 已经广泛用于太赫兹时域光谱系统, 但目前国际上都是使用GaAs光电导开关的线性工作模式, 而GaAs光电导开关的雪崩倍增工作模式所输出的超快电脉冲功率容量远大于其线性工作模式, 迄今为止, 还没有人提出用雪崩倍增机理的GaAs 光电导开关作为辐射源产生THz电磁辐射. 本文探讨了用 雪崩倍增工作模式的GaAs光电导开关作为光电导天线产生THz电磁波的可能性及研究进展. 通过理论分析及实验研究, 在实验上实现了: 1) 利用nJ量级飞秒激光触发GaAs光电导天线, 可以进入雪崩倍增工作模式; 2) 利用光激发电荷畴的猝灭模式, 可以使GaAs光电导天线载流子雪崩倍增模式的延续时间(lock-on 时间)变短. 这为利用具有雪崩倍增机理的GaAs光电导天线产生强THz辐射奠定了基础.     

2.5维模拟中时域有限差分近-远场变换方法

为进行从高功率微波源到天线辐射整个系统的2.5维模拟,在近场模拟的基础上对2.5维模拟中时域有限差分(FDTD)的近-远场变换方法进行了研究。先将2.5维近场模拟区的输出边界绕对称轴旋转一周,得到封闭的3维圆柱面;然后根据等效原理由该封闭面上的FDTD近场求得等效电磁流;再根据自由空间中电流及磁流的时域辐射场公式计算出电磁流的远区辐射场。给出了2.5维模拟中TM01模式及TE01模式激励下圆锥喇叭远区辐射算例,所得计算结果与3维全电磁模拟软件CST的计算结果符合较好。     

亚波长尺度下混合等离子泄漏模式激光

由于光存在衍射极限,因此传统方法不能实现亚波长尺度下的激光激射.为了打破这一衍射极限,本文设计了金属-介电层-半导体堆叠结构来实现深亚波长尺度下的激光激射,并讨论了相关结构对模式传播的影响.结构设计上,采用低介电常数金属银作为衬底、10?nm厚的LiF作为介电层、具有六边形截面的半导体纳米线ZnO作为高介电常数层,采用...     

Catalyst-free synthesis of vertically-aligned ZnO nanowires by?nanoparticle-assisted pulsed laser deposition

Vertically aligned ZnO nanowires have been successfully synthesized on c-cut sapphire substrates by a catalyst-free nanoparticle-assisted pulsed-laser ablation deposition (NAPLD) in Ar and N₂ background gases. In NAPLD, the nanoparticles formed in the background gas by laser ablation are used for the growth of the nanowires. The surface density of the nanowires can be controlled by varying the density of nanoparticles, which is in turn achieved by varying ablation laser parameters such as the energy and the repetition rate. When single ZnO nanowire synthesized in a N₂ background gas was excited by 355 nm laser-pulse with a pulse-width of 8 ns, stimulated emission was clearly observed, indicating high quality of the nanowire.     

Aligned growth of ZnO nanowires by NAPLD and their optical characterizations

Not only vertically aligned ZnO nanowires but also horizontally aligned ZnO nanowires have been successfully grown on the annealed (0 0 0 1) c-cut and (1 1 2 0) a-cut sapphire substrates, respectively using catalyst-free nanoparticle-assisted pulsed-laser ablation deposition (NAPLD). The as-synthesized ZnO nanowires exhibit an ultraviolet emission at around 390 nm and the absent green emission under room temperature. The single ZnO nanowire was collected in the electrode gap by dielectrophoresis (DEP). Under the optical pumping, the single ZnO nanowire exhibited UV emission at around 390 nm with several sharp peaks whose energy spacings are almost constant, which greatly differs from the broad UV emission of the film with many nanowires, suggesting ZnO nanowires as candidates for laser media. The single ZnO nanowire showed polarized photoluminescence (PL). The as-synthesized ZnO nanowires could find many interesting applications in short-wavelength light-emitting diode (LED), laser diode and gas sensor.     

Generation of cylindrical vector beams in a mode-locked fiber laser using a mode-selective coupler

We experimentally obtain cylindrical vector beams(CVBs) in a passively mode-locked fiber laser based on nonlinear polarization rotation. A mode-selective coupler composed of both a single-mode fiber(SMF) and a twomode fiber(TMF) is incorporated into the cavity to act as a mode converter from LP01 mode to LP11 mode with broad spectral bandwidth. CVBs in different mode-locked states including single-pulse, multi-pulse, and bound pulse are obtained, for the first time to our best knowledge. The ultrafast CVBs with different operation states have potential applications in many fields such as laser beam machining, nanoparticle manipulation, and so on.     

Emission of electromagnetic pulses from laser wakefields through linear mode conversion

Powerful coherent emission around the plasma oscillation frequency can be produced from a laser wakefield through linear mode conversion. This occurs when the laser pulse is incident obliquely to the density gradient of inhomogeneous plasmas. The emission spectrum and conversion efficiency are obtained analytically, which are in agreement with particle-in-cell simulations. The emission can be tuned to be a radiation source in the terahertz region and with field strengths as large as a few GV/m, suitable for high-field applications. The emission also provides a simple way to measure the wakefield produced for particle acceleration.     

Strong laser fields as a probe for fundamental physics

Upcoming high-intensity laser systems will be able to probe the quantum-induced nonlinear regime of electrodynamics. So far unobserved QED phenomena such as the discovery of a nonlinear response of the quantum vacuum to macroscopic electromagnetic fields can become accessible. In addition, such laser systems provide for a flexible tool for investigating fundamental physics. Primary goals consist in verifying so far unobserved QED phenomena. Moreover, strong-field experiments can search for new light but weakly interacting degrees of freedom and are thus complementary to accelerator-driven experiments. I review recent developments in this field, focusing on photon experiments in strong electromagnetic fields. The interaction of particle-physics candidates with photons and external fields can be parameterized by low-energy effective actions and typically predict characteristic optical signatures. I perform first estimates of the accessible new-physics parameter space of high-intensity laser facilities such as POLARIS and ELI.     

金属微结构纳米线中等离激元传播和分光特性

本文从理论和实验两方面探讨了具有微结构的金属纳米线系统中表面等离激元传播规律和分光特性. 我们由麦克斯韦方程组出发, 利用严格耦合波近似和有限元差分等方法首先从理论上给出了金属纳米线系统中等离激元的色散关系和能带特征, 然后基于微结构的银纳米线及其等离激元能带结构, 设计并制备出等离激元分光原型器件, 实验展示其将不同频率的光在微小空间分离的特性. 该研究结果是我们前期相关工作的延续和补充, 可应用于构造多功能集成的光子芯片和新型亚波长光电材料和器件.     

Coherence and beam geometry of a superradiant dye laser

This paper reports the observation of a well defined radiation mode emitted from a superradiant dye laser pumped by a pulsed nitrogen laser. Beam geometry and spatial coherence of the dye laser are studied in connection with the pumping geometry. It is shown that under favorable pumping conditions most of the excited molecules radiate into the same spatial mode by stimulated emission. The associated mode structure is also calculated based on a model of a properly phased dipole distribution. The calculated emission pattern reproduces the observed far field pattern closely. Work supported in part by CNPq and FINEP.     

Lasers without photons — or should it be lasers with too many photons?

Expanding the fields of a laser cavity in a set of orthonormal modes is a standard technique in laser theory. Expansion in a normal mode set is also the basis of the concept of photons. A substantial number of practical lasers do not, however, support any kind of normal or orthogonal cavity modes, and thus, their fields cannot be represented (at least not easily) in terms of normal modes, or photons. This leads to a number of unusual results, including situations in which the lowest-order mode of a cavity can contain substantially more energy than the total energy in the cavity, as well as enhanced quantum spontaneous emission far stronger than the single extra photon level characteristic of an ordinary laser oscillator. We review the theoretical origins of these unusual effects and present experimental confirmation of greatly enhanced Schawlow-Townes fluctuations in an unstable-resonator laser with a Petermann-noise enhancement factor of several hundred times.Dedicated to H. Walther on the occasion on his 60th birthday     

High power semiconductor laser array with single-mode emission

The semiconductor laser array with single-mode emission is presented in this paper. The 6-μ m-wide ridge waveguides (RWGs) are fabricated to select the lateral mode. Thus the fundamental mode of laser array can be obtained by the RWGs. And the maximum output power of single-mode emission can reach 36 W at an injection current of 43 A, after that, a kink will appear. The slow axis (SA) far-field divergence angle of the unit is 13.65°. The beam quality factor M² of the units determined by the second-order moment (SOM) method, is 1.2. This single-mode emission laser array can be used for laser processing.     

Double-pulse LIBS of gadolinium oxide ablated by femto- and nano-second laser pulses

Emission characteristics of gadolinium (Gd) oxide are studied, using ns and fs laser pulses for ablation in double-pulse laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). In the current conditions of pulse energy and signal detection timing, emission intensity enhancement in the reheating mode is 25-fold, but little effect can be observed in a pre-pulse mode. It is shown that the optimum focus position of the ablation pulse is about 5 mm apart from the sample surface in the reheating mode. Although little emission can be observed in the single-pulse configuration with fs ablation pulses, the intense emission can be observed in the reheating mode in the double-pulse configuration.     

深亚波长约束的表面等离子体纳米激光器研究

本文提出了一种新颖的基于半导体纳米线/空气间隙/金属薄膜 复合结构的表面等离子体纳米激光器, 并给出了理论研究和仿真分析. 这种结构通过金属界面的表面等离子体模式与高增益介质纳米线波导模式耦合, 从而使场增强效应得到显著提高. 同时通过数值仿真研究, 得到该混合波导结构的模式特性和增益阈值随空气槽宽度、纳米线半径的变化规律, 表明它可以实现对输出光场的深亚波长约束, 同时保持低损耗传输和高场强限制能力. 通过最优化选择, 最终得到纳米等离子体激光器的最优结构尺寸. 关键词： 表面等离子体 混合等离子体波导 纳米激光器     

金属-介质-金属渔网超表面结构调控的荧光辐射：空间选择性激发和双增强

增强荧光辐射在生物成像、高灵敏探测、集成光源等方面都具有重要的应用价值.金属纳米颗粒的周围或者金属纳米结构的间隙都可以产生强的电磁场,相应的,这些结构附近的局域态密度也被极大地增强.虽然增强荧光辐射已经在多种金属纳米颗粒和颗粒对中被证明,但是利用金属纳米结构对荧光分子的吸收和辐射过程同时进行调制仍然是一个有挑战的问题.本文研究了金属-介质-金属超表面对荧光辐射的调控,其中局域表面等离激元(LSP)和磁等离激元(MPP)分別与于分子的吸收和辐射过程发中耦合相互作用.对于吸收过程,LSP的耦合作用使得可以通过旋转泵浦激光的偏振态来实现荧光分子的空间选择激发.此外,MPP模式的偏振依赖特性使得矩形渔网结构中的荧光分子的辐射波长和偏振态也受到调控.实验观测结果经过了时域有限差分模拟的验证.本文报道的纳米结构在光辐射器件和纳米尺度集成光源等方面都具有潜在的应用价值.     

超强频率梳激光场驱动下多光子共振谐波辐射的相位突变研究

本文从理论上研究了在双色频率梳激光场驱动下多光子谐波辐射光谱中的相位突变现象。我们利用Floquet理论非微扰地模拟了频率梳激光场与原子分子等量子系统的相互作用过程。谐波辐射信号是多光子偶极跃迁相干叠加的结果,通过调节频率梳激光场间的相对相位,可以相干地控制谐波辐射信号的强度。通过对谐波信号进行傅里叶变换,可以提取不同跃迁路径的相对相位信息。我们通过改变频率梳组激光场的强度和频率组分实现多光子跃迁频率,让其跨越共振跃迁频率时,谐波相位会发生突变。从而可以观测超强激光场驱动下量子系统共振跃迁频率的斯塔克能移。     

Atom waveguide and 1D optical lattice using a two-color evanescent light field around an optical micro/nano-fiber

We propose a two-color scheme of atom waveguides and one-dimensional （1D） optical lattices using evanescent wave fields of different transverse modes around an optical micro/nano-fiber. The atom guide potential can be produced when the optical fiber carries a red-detuned light with TE01 mode and a blue-detuned light with HEll mode, and the 1D optical lattice potential can be produced when the red-detuned light is transformed to the superposition of the TE01 mode and HE11 mode. The two trapping potentials can be transformed to each other for accurately controlling mode transformation for the red-detuned light. This might provide a new approach to realize flexible transition between the guiding and trapping states of atoms.     

混合表面等离子体激元的纳米激光器设计

为了实现纳米激光器的性能优化,设计了一种基于纳米线、半圆形氟化镁、三角形空气槽和金属脊结构的纳米激光器模型。模型中耦合在低折射率电介质层中的SPP模式和纳米线波导可以在低折射率间隙下像电容器那样存储光能,从而使低折射率的空气槽场强明显增大。应用有限元法在COMSOL Multiphysics软件下,分析了该纳米激光器模型的电场分布、模式特性、品质因数和增益阈值随着设计结构几何参数变化的规律,通过各部分折线图的综合分析来得出模型性能的数据。分析表明：该模型的光场约束能力较强且传播损耗较低,其中归一化面积最小可达到0.004 8,有效传输损耗最小可达到0.002。波导模场区域和限制因素表明,该激光器模型可以实现输出光场的亚波长约束。该模型基本实现了低增益阈值、低传输损耗和高品质因数的要求。