All-optical regeneration of polarization division multiplexing signals in polarization nonlinear loop mirror

All-optical regeneration of 2 × 10-Gb/s RZ-OOK polarization-division-multiplexed (PDM) signals is demonstrated through a single polarization nonlinear loop mirror configuration. PDM signals with orthogonal polarization states are regenerated simultaneously and reassembled automatically. Up to 3.0-dB eye-diagram-based signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) improvement is achieved for both channels with the input SNR of 6.7 dB. Such scheme is also capable of mitigating the polarization-mode-dispersion (PMD) effect for PDM signals in the presence of up to 6.3-ps DGD.     

All-optical switch and limiter based on nonlinear polarization in Mach-Zehnder interferometer coupled with a polarization-maintaining fiber-ring resonator

A novel all-optical switch based on nonlinear polarization mechanism using polarization-maintaining fiber ring with a polarization rotator is proposed. Optical switching with low threshold of mW order and optical limiting with broader limiting range, less fluctuation, higher damage threshold and response speed are demonstrated numerically. The deterioration of switching and the improvement of limiting originating from losses are also studied. Considering the tradeoff between switching power and bandwidth, the way to increase bandwidth is discussed.     

All-optical pulse shaping for ultrawideband doublet pulses using nonlinear optical loop mirror with optical parametric amplification

We propose and experimentally demonstrate an alternative photonic scheme for the generation of ultrawideband (UWB) doublet pulses, which is based on an optical fiber-based nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) incorporating the optical parametric amplification (OPA) effect. The proposed scheme uses both cross-phase modulation and OPA within an optical fiber-based NOLM to produce an ideal transfer function for the shaping of input soliton pulses into doublet pulses. Using the proposed scheme, a successful conversion of input soliton pulses into doublet pulses is readily demonstrated. The system performance of UWB doublet pulses is also assessed by propagating the 1.25?Gbit/s doublet pulses over a fiber link. Error-free UWB doublet signal transmission is demonstrated.     

Q-factor assessment of SOA-based ultrafast nonlinear interferometer

The performance of the semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-based ultrafast nonlinear interferometer (UNI) gated by an ultra high speed pseudorandom binary sequence is theoretically analyzed. For this purpose, a comprehensive model formed by a set of equations that describe the gain and phase evolution inside a SOA deployed as the nonlinear element in an interferometric switch is appropriately applied to this particular configuration. By undertaking a detailed numerical simulation, the impact of the SOA and input data key parameters on the Q-factor is thoroughly investigated and assessed enabling to extract useful design rules for their proper selection so as to optimize this metric. The calculations confirm the experimental evidence that the main technical limitation is imposed by the SOA carrier lifetime, which must be reduced below the bit period in order to avoid the deleterious consequences of the pattern effect on the switched-out pulses. Provided that this condition is satisfied and the rest of the parameters fulfill their specified requirements, the output amplitude fluctuations can be effectively eliminated resulting in a high quality eye diagram and error-free operation. The adopted model can be exploited for studying more sophisticated all-optical circuits and subsystems of enhanced functionality that rely critically on the SOA-based UNI as switching module.     

All-optical quantization and coding scheme for ultrafast analog-to-digital conversion exploiting polarization switches based on nonlinear polarization rotation in semiconductor optical amplifiers

A novel all-optical quantization and coding scheme for ultrafast analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion exploiting polarization switches (PSWs) based on nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) is proposed. In addition, a theoretical model for the polarization switch based on NPR is presented. Through cascading two PSWs, a 2-period transfer function for 3-bit long all-optical quantization and coding is realized numerically for the first time to the authors’ knowledge. The effective number of bits (ENOB), the limitation of bandwidth and conversion speed and the scalability are also investigated. The proposed all-optical quantization and coding scheme, combined with existing all-optical sampling techniques, will enable ultrafast A/D conversion at operating speed of hundreds of Gs/s with at least 3 bit resolution, and allows low optical power requirements, photonic integration, and easy scalability.     

Tomographic retrieval of the polarization state of an ultrafast laser pulse

We introduce a self-referenced method for determining the complete polarization state of an ultrafast pulse field. The algorithm is based on any well-established technique that measures both the intensity and phase of a single polarization, such as frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG). We demonstrate the retrieval of nontrivial fields generated using a polarization-amplitude-phase ultrafast pulse shaper using four standard FROG measurements.     

All-optical ultrafast polarization switching of terahertz radiation by impulsive molecular alignment

We experimentally demonstrate ultrafast polarization switching of terahertz (THz) radiation generated by dual-color driving pulses composed of orthogonally polarized fundamental and second-harmonic waves, which can be controlled by field-free molecular alignment in air by modulating the relative phase between the two field components as a transient dynamic wave plate. By fine-tuning the time delay to properly match the molecular alignment revivals, a significant polarization modulation of the THz radiation is observed and both linearly and elliptically polarized THz radiations can be obtained.     

基于高非线性光纤中非线性偏振旋转效应的全光逻辑门研究

提出了一种新型的基于高非线性光纤(HNLF)中非线性 偏振旋转(NPR)效应的全光逻辑门实现方案. 将两路非归零码数据信号A和B以及一路直流光同时注入HNLF, 光功率变化导致的非线性双折射在两个偏振分量上引入非线性相对相移, 从而导致光信号的偏振态旋转. 在HNLF输出端, 通过波分解复用器和偏振分束器同时滤出数据信号和直流光的正交偏振态, 从而同时实现多种基础组合逻辑, 并可以在同一段HNLF中实现较为复杂的半加器、半减器逻辑功能. 理论分析了信号光在HNLF中的偏振态演化, 以及利用HNLF中的NPR效应同时实现多种全光逻辑门的原理. 并在实验中得到了10 Gbit/s全光信号"与”、"非”、"或”、"同或”、"异或”、"A· B”、"A·B”、半加器、半减器等逻辑功能, 验证了方案的可行性.     

All-optical optomechanics: an optical spring mirror

The dominant hurdle to the operation of optomechanical systems in the quantum regime is the coupling of the vibrating element to a thermal reservoir via mechanical supports. Here we propose a scheme that uses an optical spring to replace the mechanical support. We show that the resolved-sideband regime of cooling can be reached in a configuration using a high-reflectivity disk mirror held by an optical tweezer as one of the end mirrors of a Fabry-Perot cavity. We find a final phonon occupation number of the trapped mirror n=0.56 for reasonable parameters, the limit being set by our approximations, and not any fundamental physics. This demonstrates the promise of dielectric disks attached to optical springs for the observation of quantum effects in macroscopic objects.     

All-optical circulator based on cross phase modulation in a nonlinear Mach-Zehnder interferometer

We show that by exploiting unequal magnitude of cross phase modulation (XPM) in co-propagating and counter-propagating beams, an all-optical circulator (AOC) using a nonlinear Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) could be constructed. The proposed circulator is novel, simple and polarization independent.     

All-optical regeneration based on a nonlinear long period grating

We theoretically investigate a nonlinear all-optical switching scheme based on a long period grating written in a highly nonlinear chalcogenide fiber. We investigate the impact of two-photon absorption on the device and show that the influence of a modest amount of two photon absorption is actually beneficial to device performance as quantified by the power transfer function and improvement of the Q-factor of an incident signal.     

Ultrashort pulse measurements using a nonlinear mirror

The use of nonlinear optical phenomena at the boundary of a nonlinear medium for measuring the duration and the pulse shape of ultrashort light pulses are considered. Two different schemes are discussed.     

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.     

Self-induced transparency and self-induced darkening with a nonlinear frequency-doubling polarization interferometer

It is shown that the system polarizer-frequency-doubling crystal(s)-analyzer has a nonlinear transmission for the fundamental wave. The intensity-dependent transmission of this device is due to the nonlinear phase shift that the fundamental beam obtains in the nonlinear crystal as a result of cascaded second-order processes. Depending on the mutual orientation of the polarizer and the analyzer such effects as self-induced transparency and self-induced darkening can be realized.     

Generation and stabilization of ultrafast optical pulse trains with monolithic mode-locked laser diodes

In this paper, we report on the generation and the stabilization of ultrafast optical pulse trains exceeding 100 GHz from monolithic mode-locked laser diodes (MLLDs) combined with some new techniques such as subharmonic synchronous mode-locking (SSML) and repetition-frequency multiplication (RFM) method. Key subjects to increase the pulse repetition frequencies of the MLLDs such as fast absorption recovery and harmonic mode-locking operation are discussed. 500 GHz optical pulse generation from a short-cavity, graded-index separated confinement heterostructure MLLD and THz-rate pulse generation by harmonic mode-locking are reported. We also demonstrate the stabilization of a 160 GHz MLLD by the SSML with subharmonic-frequency optical pulse injection and reveal that the SSML is very promising as a stabilization technique of the ultrafast MLLD beyond the limitations by the electronic device speed. A method to accurately measure the timing jitter of such ultrafast optical pulse train, all-optical down converting using a nonlinear optical device, is also presented. We also mention another choice for ultrafast optical pulse generation using the MLLD combined with a dispersive medium such as an optical fiber. We demonstrate here the generations of stable 84–256 GHz optical pulse trains by the RFM method of the MLLD stabilized by the SSML.     

All-optical flip-flop based on an active Mach-Zehnder interferometer with a feedback loop

A novel architecture for an all-optical flip-flop is validated experimentally. The architecture comprises a single semiconductor optical amplifier-based Mach-Zehnder interferometer with an external feedback loop. The experimental results show optical bistable operation for a latching device with an on-off contrast ratio of 11 dB that employs set and reset pulses of less than 250 pJ, although the energy of these pulses could be greatly reduced by optical integration of the whole device.     

All-optical sampling exploiting nonlinear polarization rotation in a single semiconductor optical amplifier

An all-optical sampling scheme using a single semiconductor optical amplifier is proposed for analog signal processing. The analog optical signal is sampled by the probe pulse train through the nonlinear polarization rotation arising in the semiconductor optical amplifier. Conversion efficiency and total harmonic distortion are presented to evaluate the sampling linearity. In the experiment, 40 GSa/s all-optical sampling for 2.5 GHz analog optical signal is successfully demonstrated with commercially available fiber-pigtailed components. The results show that the fundamental conversion efficiency and the total harmonic distortion are 1.35 and 2.01% at the operating power of 5 mW, respectively. The proposed all-optical sampling requires only one semiconductor optical amplifier and has low power consumption, which is simple and has potential for photonic integration.     

Fiber laser mode locked by a Sagnac interferometer with nonlinear polarization rotation

We describe a new fiber laser configuration based on a nonlinear optical loop mirror with a symmetrical coupler, a quarter-wave retarder, and highly twisted, birefringent fiber in the loop. The nonlinear optical loop mirror configuration operates by nonlinear polarization rotation. We have achieved stable generation of subpicosecond pulses with milliwatts of average output power.     

Analysis on the effect of nonlinear polarization evolution in nonlinear amplifying loop mirror

By considering the cross phase modulation (XPM) between the two orthogonal poparization components,the nonlinear birefringence and nonlinear polarization evolution (NPE) in highly-nonlinear fiber (HNLF),as well as the unequal evolutions of the state of polarization (SOP) between the clockwise (CW) and counter-clockwise (CCW) waves in a nonlinear amplifying loop mirror (NALM) are analyzed. It is pointed out that the traditional cosine expression is no longer valid for the power transmission of NALM due to uncompleted interference under the high power condition. The analytical expression considering NPE effect is derived, and the experimental result is presented.     

非线性光纤环形镜的脉冲透过特性研究

研究了光纤反常色散区非线性环形镜（NOLM）的脉冲透过特性，得到NOLM周期性透过率函数 第一极大值处透过率、压缩比和对应的孤子阶数与环长之间的函数关系图.通过比较长环和 短环NOLM对无啁啾、啁啾脉冲的透过率和压缩比特性，得出了长环有利于脉冲整形而短环有 利于脉冲压缩的结论. 关键词： 非线性环形镜 透过率 压缩比 孤子阶数