Asymmetric ultra-short pulse splitting measured in air using FROG

Frequency-resolved optical gating is used to measure non-linear ultra-short pulse propagation in air over a distance of up to 4.35 m. During spatial collapse of the pulse, both pulse steepening and asymmetric pulse splitting are observed to occur at a power level of about 14 GW and at a propagation distance less than the diffraction length. Received: 10 April 2002 / Published online: 12 July 2002     

Power transfer characteristics among N parallel single-mode optical fibers

Based on the coupled-mode theory, the power transfer among “- - -” arranged parallel single-mode optical fibers has been investigated. The analysis shows that the distances between each two of the N fibers centers have effects on the coupling coefficient and power transfer. The solution of the coupled equations for three parallel single-mode optical fibers is given, and is studied for different initial conditions comparatively. Numerical simulations show that power transfer will be periodical during coupling among parallel single-mode optical fibers. These results can be extended to multi-parallel single-mode optical fibers.     

偏振门用于对散射介质成像的蒙特卡罗模拟研究

通过蒙特卡罗模拟研究偏振光在散射介质中的传播,对通过散射介质的偏振光的强度分布进行模拟,分析了偏振门和空间滤波对成像的影响.模拟结果表明,对于Rayleigh散射体,偏振门与空间滤波可以减小散射光的影响,提高图像对比度,圆偏振光入射比线偏振光具有更高的对比度.对于Mie散射粒子,偏振门的作用有限,不同偏振光的结果差别不大.对双组分的散射介质也进行了模拟,偏振门在这种体系中仍能提高图像对比度.     

21世纪的光学和光电子学讲座第三讲信息网络与半导体光电子学

文章从光信息的传输、交换与处理、存储与读出、获取与显示等重要技术领域的发展,介绍了半导体信息光电子学的现状以及在未来信息网络发展中的关键地位．     

Analysis of bit rate dependence up to 80 Gbit/s of a simple wavelength converter based on XPM in a SOA and a shifted filtering

This paper provides the analysis of wavelength converted pulses obtained with a simple semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-based wavelength conversion scheme, which exploits cross phase modulation (XPM) in an SOA in conjunction with shifted filtering. The analysis includes experimental measurements of the back-to-back system performances as well as frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG) characterisations of the wavelength converted pulses. These measurements are implemented at different bit rates up to 80 Gbit/s and for both red and blue-shifted filtering, particularly showing different patterning effect dependencies of red and blue-shifting techniques. This analysis is developed by the addition of a numerical study which corroborates the experimental results. A further understanding of the different performances of red and blue filtering techniques, presented in the literature, can thus be proposed. The placement of the filter to undertake red-shifted filtering (RSF) allows us to achieve very short pulse widths but high bit rate operation is limited by pattern effects. The blue-shifted filtering (BSF) technique shows optimum performance as regards to patterning effects even if the wavelength converted pulses can be larger.     

Beam delivery characteristics of optical fibres for carbon monoxide lasers

An experimental investigation has been conducted of the propagation characteristics of several types of optical fibres which are candidates for use in optical beam delivery systems for carbon monoxide lasers. Both solid core (chalcogenide) fibres and hollow core (with dielectric or dielectric coated metal) waveguides have been investigated. Such experiments have included an assessment of both the power transmission characteristics, and the effects of waveguide transmission on the optical quality of the beam at the exit of the fibre. The experiments indicated lowest loss for the chalcogenide solid core fibre with a value of 0.4 dB m⁻¹.     

Pump power dependence of the spatial gating properties of femtosecond optical Kerr effect measurements

The pump power dependence of the spatial gating properties of femtosecond optical Kerr gate (OKG) was investigated using coaxial two-color optical Kerr measurements in CS₂. As the pump power increased, the spatial pattern of the optical Kerr signals changed from a Gaussian spot to a ring form, and then a spot surrounded by a concentric ring, successively. By comparing the experimental data with the calculation results and measuring the pump power dependence of the OKG signal intensity, we demonstrated that the spatial variation of OKG transmittance could be attributed to the non-uniform spatially distributed phase change of the probe beam, due to the transient birefringence effect induced by pump beam with transverse mode of a Gaussian distribution.     

Applications of Nonlinear Effects in Highly Nonlinear Photonic Crystal Fiber to Optical Communications

Unique dispersion characteristics and enhanced nonlinearity make the small-core photonic crystal fiber (PCF) an ideal candidate for nonlinear optical devices to telecommunication applications. Some technical reasons behind great research interest of highly nonlinear PCFs in optical communication components are reviewed. Nonlinear effects in highly nonlinear PCFs and their research progress are presented. Several typical applications including WDM sources, optical amplification, optical switching, wavelength conversion, optical regeneration and all-optical demultiplexing etc are introduced, together with state-of-the art performances. Some new possible applications and future prospects are discussed.     

Blind frequency-resolved optical-gating pulse characterization for quantitative differential multiphoton microscopy

We use a unique multifocal multiphoton microscope to directly characterize the pulse in the focal plane of a high-NA objective using second-harmonic generation frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG). Because of the nature of the optical setup, femtosecond laser pulses of orthogonal polarization states are generated in the focal plane, each acquiring a different spectral dispersion. By applying an additional constraint on the phase extraction algorithm, we simultaneously extract both the gate and probe pulses from a single spectrogram with a FROG error of 0.016.     

非平行波导耦合理论研究

利用耦合模理论对非平行波导耦合特性进行了研究，得到了非平行波导的普遍性耦合方程及耦合系数表达式.进一步采用小角度近似，给出了几种情况下的计算结果，并与目前报道的利用其他方法计算的结果做了比较.研究表明，不同方法得到的波导中光功率虽然在远距离处都趋于稳定不变，但稳定功率的大小有明显的差别；另外由新提出方法得到的近距离处光功率随着传输距离的起伏变化更为明显.由于该方法同时考虑了非平行波导中光场相位和振幅对耦合方程和耦合系数的影响，因而所得结果能更全面地反映非平行波导的耦合特性，对实际应用更有意义. 关键词： 非平行波导 耦合方程 耦合系数     

基于磁流体热透镜效应的阈值可调光学限幅器的理论设计

理论模拟了激光束通过磁流体样品后产生的远场光斑图样,提出了一种阈值可调光学限幅器的实现方案.计算了不同光阑孔径半径和不同光阑样品距离情况下,系统的出射光功率与入射光功率的关系.得出了系统的光学限幅阈值随光阑孔径半径的增大以及光阑样品距离的减小而向高功率方向转移的结论,且限幅阈值与光阑孔径半径之间呈线性关系.定义了描述磁流体样品特征的参量f,发现了系统的光学限幅阈值随f的绝对值增加而减小.本文的结论能为实际的磁流体基可调谐光学限幅器的设计与制作提供有益的参考.     

基于瞬态光栅频率分辨光学开关法测量飞秒脉冲的研究

超宽光谱的飞秒脉冲测量一直是超快激光领域的重要研究方向之一.常规的飞秒脉冲自相关方法是通过测量自相关倍频信号来获得,而倍频信号具有波长选择性,不同中心波长的飞秒脉冲测量需要更换不同的倍频晶体,十分不方便.因此,提出了一种改进型的瞬态光栅频率分辨光学开关(TG-FROG)方法用于测量飞秒脉冲.该方法结合四波混频和频率分辨光学开关方法,其基本过程是将待测脉冲分为三束,其中两束脉冲经过精密的延时控制并聚焦在光学介质上达到时空重合,利用三阶非线性效应产生稳定的瞬态光栅作为开关光;另一束脉冲作为探测光与产生的瞬态光栅进行相互作用产生一个信号光,使用光谱仪对该信号光的光谱与延迟时间进行测量,并通过反演迭代算法处理而获取待测飞秒脉冲的光谱与电场信息.该方法只需要待测光的功率密度达到三阶非线性效应就可以实现测量,因此可以应用于任意中心波长的飞秒脉冲测量.利用该方法对中心波长分别为800 nm, 400 nm的飞秒脉冲,以及超连续亚10 fs的周期量级超宽光谱飞秒脉冲进行了测量,并与常规的干涉自相关仪器测量结果进行了比较,所得测量结果基本一致.实验结果表明,建立的基于TG-FROG方法对不同中心波长,不同脉冲宽度的飞秒脉冲测量是十分有效的.     

Optical actuation of a macroscopic mechanical oscillator

An intensity-modulated HeNe-laser beam was utilized to optically actuate the mechanical resonance of a macroscopic torsional silicon oscillator (f₀ = 67 700 Hz, Q = 42 100 at p = 1 mbar and T = 300 K). Both radiation pressure and photothermal effects may cause optical actuation of a mechanical device. Both excitation effects were studied. In actuation through radiation pressure, the actuating laser beam was focused on the high-reflectivity-coated oscillator surface. In the case where the intensity-modulated laser beam was incident on the uncoated silicon surface the photothermal effect was shown to be the dominating excitation factor. Oscillation amplitudes due to the actuation through radiation pressure and photothermal effects were Δ x_rad = 1.4 pm and Δ x_ph = 4.3 pm with the same optical power of 1.5 mW. The measured resonance frequency and quality value were not changed when purely mechanical and radiation pressure actuation mechanisms were compared. With photothermal actuation the absorbed optical power heats the oscillator, introducing a slight decrease in the resonance frequency. Our experiments demonstrate that optical actuation combined with sensitive optical interferometric measurements can be utilized to perform dynamic vibration analysis of micromechanical components. Prospects of using micromechanical devices for observing extremely weak external forces are discussed.     

Power and beam-width dependence of a BaTiO3: Ce self-pumped phase conjugator

Power and beam-width dependences of the performance of self-pumped phase conjugators using a BaTiO₃: Ce crystal have been investigated. The incident beam was permitted to enter the crystal by thea-face or the +c-face. In both cases, the phase-conjugate reflectivity was observed to vary with the power and beam width of the incident beam. In the former case, two different optical beam patterns in the crystal can be observed under different conditions. Qualitative explanations are given to some of the results observed.     

基于瞬态光克尔效应的超快光学快门技术

系统介绍了几种基于瞬态光克尔效应的超快光学快门技术,包括传统的光克尔双折射快门技术,瞬态光栅快门技术,以及利用瞬态克尔透镜效应的光学快门技术。这些技术都是在泵浦-探测的实验配置基础上,利用门控光对克尔介质折射率的瞬态调制导致的信号光的相位（偏振态）、传播方向或光束发散角等光学特性的改变实现对信号光的超快时间分辨测量。对比讨论了这些超快快门技术的工作原理和实验配置,结果表明瞬态光束偏折快门技术相比其他快门技术具有无偏振配置要求、无相位匹配条件、超宽带光谱响应范围的特点,在光与物质相互作用的超快动力学研究中具有更为广阔的应用前景。     

Transport properties of the Anderson lattice

Transport properties including electrical resistivity, thermoelectric power, Lorenz number and a.c. conductivity are evaluated in an approximate fashion for the Anderson lattice model for six-fold degenerate Ce ions. Coherence (Bloch's theorem) is explicitly included while the effects of intersite interactions which may be responsible for magnetic and superconducting instabilities are neglected. The calculations utilize the AverageT-matrix Approximation (ATA) with the self-consistent Non-Crossing Approximation (NCA) perturbation theory employed to give the single siteT-matrix estimate. The resistivity peaks near the characteristic Kondo temperatureT ₀, with high temperature logarithmic decrease and low temperatureT ² behavior. The thermoelectric power is positive and similar to the impurity result except for low temperatures; sign changes in the thermopower are in principle possible with momentum dependent hybridization. Frequency and temperature dependent optical conductivity calculations are in qualitative agreement with experimental data, although a suitably defined optical effective mass and scattering rate do not agree at least for large orbital degeneracy. The behavior of these latter quantities is qualitatively different for twofold degeneracy. Unanswered questions arising from the experimental literature are summarized.     

高能光纤激光经准直系统后的光束质量研究

应用光线光学的理论,对透镜的几何像差、热非线性等因素对光纤激光光束质量的影响进行了分析和计算,给出了激光通过多透镜光学系统后,光束质量参数M²与系统参数的一般关系. 研究了高能光纤激光通过准直系统后的光束质量. 研究结果表明,随着激光功率的增大,经准直系统后光束的光束质量存在最佳值,其对应的激光功率与准直系统参数有关,为高能光纤激光准直系统的设计提供了参考. 关键词： 高能光纤激光 光束质量 准直系统 光线光学     

Diode lasers coupled to external resonators

This tutorial revíew is concerned with the properties of injection lasers operated with passive optical feedback. Thep-n junction laser characteristics relevant for operation in external cavities are summarized. The properties of diode lasers coupled to different types of external resonators are reviewed as well as experiments that incorporate passive feedback in monolithic integrated optical structures.     

Imaging through scattering media with depth resolution by use of low-coherence gating in spatiotemporal digital holography

We demonstrate optical gating through scattering media based on low-coherence spatiotemporal digital holography. The method combines the advantages of low-coherence gating, both temporal and spatial, with the advantages of methods using heterodyning and phase-sensitive detection. Spatiotemporal data are captured on a CCD detector in a single exposure, without mechanical scans, and processed digitally. Examples of reconstructions and sectioning of objects hidden behind a ground-glass diffuser are shown.     

Experimental study on pulse propagation characteristics at normal dispersion region in dispersion flatted fibers

Pulse propagation characteristics at normal-dispersion region in dispersion-flatted-fibers are experimentally investigated by employing the second-harmonic generation frequency-resolved optical gating (SHG-FROG) method. It is found that the experimental results are consistent with the theoretical prediction. The initial optical pulse with negative chirp is compressed for nonlinear effect in the normal-dispersion fiber, and it evolves into near Gaussian pulse. Temporal width of the optical pulse decreases with the increase of the input power and propagation distance. The output pulse width for small dispersion is less than that for great dispersion at the same input power. The spectrum of the output pulse is still symmetrical about the central wavelength, and is broadened with the increase of input power. The spectral width of the output pulse is much wider than the input spectral width.