Compact optical delay line for long-range scanning

We proposed and demonstrated an optical delay line composed of all reflective components for long-range scanning without walk-off problem. The optical delay line consists of a retro-reflector, an inclined reflection mirror and a scanning mirror. The size of the optical delay line is within 2 cm × 2 cm and the scanning range can reach 2.9 mm when the beam is incident at the pivot of the scanning mirror and the vibration angle of the scanning mirror is 9.6°. The scanning range can be further increased when the pivot of the scanning mirror is laterally deviated from the incident beam. The optical delay line possesses the advantages that it is compact, easy to fabricate and can perform rapid scanning in large scanning range without walk-off problem. The optical delay line was demonstrated with a low-coherence reflectometer where the scanning rate was 400 Hz. A higher scanning rate can be achieved when a scanning component with higher scanning rate is applied.     

失调多腔镜型环形谐振腔共轭光轴位置精度分析

为了详细分析由多个反射镜构成的谐振腔内的闭合光轴(共轭光轴)的特性以及存在条件, 首先从光束传输坐标变换的角度, 分析了由多个平面镜所构成的谐振腔的共轭光轴存在条件, 得出了奇数平面镜谐振腔仅当平面镜间具有高精度的相同垂直度时才存在闭合光轴, 而偶数平面镜谐振腔总是存在闭合光轴的结论, 并给出了腔共轭轴随腔镜方向失调而产生的角度变化关系. 然后从矩阵光学的角度分析包含球面镜的谐振腔的共轭光轴在腔镜间传输时的方向变换问题, 具体分析了由两个平面镜和一个球面镜构成的三角形环形谐振腔的闭合共轭光轴存在的问题. 结果表明, 当不同的镜子出现角度偏差时, 腔内仍然存在闭合的共轭光轴, 并给出了对应的腔轴变化以及新谐振面的位置及方向. 由此表明由于球面镜的加入降低了谐振腔共轭轴存在性对平面镜间高精度平行度的要求, 为基于高品质光学无源腔的光谱测量技术的高精度装调工作提供了理论指导.     

Fast scanning transmissive delay line for optical coherence tomography

A novel Fourier domain fast scanning optical delay line is proposed in which the walk-off is eliminated by only two passes through a diffraction grating. Working in transmission, the novel delay line is ideal for balanced optical coherence tomography configurations with recirculation of the reference beam. We evaluate theoretically and experimentally its walk-off and dispersion compensation capabilities.     

Mirror-dispersion-controlled sub-10-fs optical parametric amplifier in the visible

Pulses from an optical parametric amplifier in the visible are compressed to sub-10-fs duration by a delay line made exclusively from chirped dielectric mirrors. We employ what we believe are the first ultrabroadband visible chirped mirrors, which provide negative group-delay dispersion up to the blue-green spectral region. The setup is compact and reliable, and we used it to observe, for what is to our knowledge the first time in organic molecules, coherent oscillations with periods as short as 16 fs.     

Compact photonic delay line constructed by holographic optical elements

To fully support phased-array antenna and other applications, a 3-range (long time, moderate time, and short time) delay line structures with holographic optical elements is proposed. Flexibility, light-weight, on-axis coupling, easy alignment, easy fabrication, and compactness are their advantages. When use holographic optical elements to build the photonic delay line system, all of the delay and non-delay paths in these three photonic delay lines are setting in a compact structure. They do not need any extra components, such as mirrors and optical paths in free space, and can bear stronger vibration. Therefore, the holographic optical elements are more suitable to design the photonic delay lines. In these three structures, their losses and crosstalk s are balanced. All of delay and non-delay cases in these three delay line structures, their crosstalk, signal-to-noise ratio, and loss are 1/81,000, 59.1 dB, and 3.2 dB, respectively. Finally, to support complete applications, a polarization independent photonic delay line system with holographic optical elements is proposed, too.     

All-optical microwave notch filter with flat passband based on semiconductor optical amplifier

An all-optical filter structure for interference mitigation of microwave signals is proposed and demonstrated. The structure is based on a recirculating delay line loop (RDLL) and a fiber Bragg grating. The RDLL is comprised of a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) followed by a tunable narrowband optical filter and an optical variable delay line. Negative tap is generated using wavelength conversion based on the cross-gain modulation of amplified spontaneous emission spectrum of the SOA. A negative band-pass filter and a broadband all-pass filter are synthesized to achieve a narrow notch filter with flat passband which can excise interference with minimal impact on the wanted signal over a wide microwave range. Experimental results show the notch rejection ratio of 30 dB, good shape factor and tunability.     

Rotary mirror array for high-speed optical coherence tomography

We have developed a simple, high-speed, high-duty-cycle, linear optical delay line suitable for optical coherence tomography and optical Doppler tomography. Periodic longitudinal scanning is achieved by use of a tilted mirror array rotating at a constant speed. With a typical motor speed of 4000 rpm, our system has demonstrated a 2-mm axial scanning range, a 2400-Hz repetition rate, 94% duty cycle, and less than 0.1% nonlinear errors. Much higher repetition rates can be readily achieved by use of high-speed motors.     

Ultrafast optical delay line by use of a time-prism pair

We demonstrate an all-fiber, programmable, ultrafast optical delay line based on reversible frequency conversion by use of a time-prism pair. Using electro-optic phase modulators to provide the time-prism phase profile, we show a record scanning rate of 0.5 GHz and a delay range of 19.0 ps. Computer modeling suggests that aberration correction in the time-prism system can extend the delay range to 28.0 ps. Finally, limitations and potential improvement of our techniques are discussed.     

Amplification of optical delay by use of matched linearly chirped fiber Bragg gratings

We describe the use of a matched linearly chirped fiber Bragg grating (FBG) pair as a key element in an adjustable optical delay line. This delay line has the unique property that the achievable optical group delay is orders of magnitude greater (factor of 10(2) in our experiment) than the actual physical displacement. We demonstrate operation of such an optical delay line over a delay range of 3.5 mm using a pair of matched 1300-nm chirped FBGs with a bandwidth of 20 nm each.     

Optomechanical coupling between two optical cavities: Cooling of a micro-mirror and parametric normal mode splitting

We propose a technique aimed at cooling a harmonically oscillating mirror mechanically coupled to another vibrating mirror to its quantum mechanical ground state. Our method involves optomechanical coupling between two optical cavities. We show that the cooling can be controlled by the mechanical coupling strength between the two movable mirrors, the phase difference between the mechanical modes of the two oscillating mirrors and the photon number in each cavity. We also show that both mechanical and optical cooling can be achieved by transferring energy from one cavity to the other. We also analyze the occurrence of normal-mode splitting (NMS). We find that a hybridization of the two oscillating mirrors with the fluctuations of the two driving optical fields occurs and leads to a splitting of the mechanical and optical fluctuation spectra.     

High-speed phase- and group-delay scanning with a grating-based phase control delay line

A rapid-scanning optical delay line that employs phase control has several advantages, including high speed, high duty cycle, phase- and group-delay independence, and group-velocity dispersion compensation, over existing optical delay methods for interferometric optical ranging applications. We discuss the grating-based phase-control delay line and its applications to interferometric optical ranging and measurement techniques such as optical coherence domain reflectometry and optical coherence tomography. The system performs optical ranging over an axial range of 3 mm with a scanning rate of 6m/s and a repetition rate of 2 kHz. The device is especially well suited for applications such as optical coherence tomography that require high-speed, repetitive, linear delay line scanning with a high duty cycle.     

Transmission and group delay in a double microring resonator reflector

We present a microring resonator scheme for an optical reflector in which two microrings are coupled to two bus waveguides, to produce reflected signal at the input port. In this system, a single narrow reflected peak with maximum reflectivity near 100% in a wide spectral range due to the Vernier effect are achieved. We also investigate versatile reflection, transmission spectra and group delay characteristic. These effects are useful for applications in ring resonator-based photonic devices such as all-optical single wavelength tunable laser end mirrors, reflective wavelength switching, reflective filter and dual-wavelength delay line.     

Tunable optical properties in engineered one-dimensional coupled resonator optical waveguides

In this paper, the optical properties in finite size tilted and engineered one dimensional coupled resonator optical waveguide have been investigated. The large dependence of the optical transmittance, dispersion parameter and its higher order slope such as transmittance group delay, third order dispersion and intrinsic waveguide induced loss on the oblique incidence and fraction factor, as the ratio of the optical thicknesses of two adjacent layers, have been studied. Our results showed that as a consequence of changing the fraction factor, at normal incidence, photonic band gap zone, flat portion of third order dispersion curve and maximum magnitude of the transmission group delay can be tuned in long range of wavelength (red shift) slightly. Despite of slight tuning the optical properties in one dimensional coupled resonator optical waveguide by changing the fraction factor, incidence angle has a significant large magnitude of tunability in the overall region of operational wavelength. This fact yields us by changing the incidence from 30 to 60, the operational wavelength can be tuned between two main optical communication windows, while by changing the fraction factor, dispersion and its higher order can be fine tuned in each of optical communication windows which are very useful in wavelength division multiplexing systems and planar lightwave circuits.     

Controllable optical delay line using a Brillouin optical fiber ring laser

A controllable optical delay line using a Brillouin optical fiber ring laser is demonstrated and a large timedelay is obtained by cascading two optical fiber segments. In experiment, a single-mode Brillouin opticalfiber ring laser is used to provide Stokes wave as probe wave. We achieve a maximum tunable time delayof 61 ns using two cascading optical fiber segments, about 1.5 times of the input probe pulse width of 40ns. In the meantime, a considerable pulse broadening is observed, which agrees well with the theoreticalprediction based on linear theory.     

Boundary-value problems in near-field optical microscopy and optical size resonances

We have solved a boundary-value problem for a ball probe interacting with a flat dielectric surface in an external optical radiation field. This interaction gives rise to the optical size resonance at frequencies significantly different from the natural frequencies of two-level atoms both in the medium and in the probe with allowance for the local field corrections. These resonances depend significantly on the distance from the probe center to the surface, on the ball probe size, on the concentration of two-level atoms in the probe and in the medium, on the spectral line width, and on the atomic inversion. The field strengths inside and outside the ball probe and a semiinfinite dielectric medium have been calculated in the near-field and wave zones. It is shown that the proposed electrodynamic theory of optical near-field microscopy agrees with the results of experimental measurements.     

An integrated optical system for the vacuum ultraviolet region

We use a 0.5 m Seya-Namioka monochromator and two gold plated cylindrical mirrors to set up an optical system which produces a collimated beam of plane polarized, monochromatic radiation in the vacuum ultraviolet region. The two mirrors compensate for the astigmatism of the Seya-Namioka monochromator, thereby increasing the spectral resolution drastically. The degree of linear polarization is about 0.97–1.00 in the spectral region of 6–11.5 eV.     

基于平衡光学互相关方法的超短脉冲激光相干合成技术

相干合成技术是超快光学领域的重要研究方向之一.当单路脉冲激光的连续谱超过一个倍频程时,精确控制其光谱相位(色散管理)是获得亚周期超短脉冲激光的关键.由于常见的脉冲压缩系统存在光谱带宽限制,因此多通道相干合成技术受到了广泛的关注.本文将充气空心光纤展宽后的超倍频程连续光谱分波段独立压缩,并利用平衡光学互相关方法锁定子脉冲之间的相位延迟,获得了4.1 fs的合成脉冲.实验结果表明相干合成技术在高能量亚周期超快光场调控中存在优势.     

Achromatic optical phase shifter-modulator

We propose and demonstrate, theoretically and experimentally, a novel achromatic optical phase shifter-modulator based on a frequency-domain optical delay line configured to maintain zero group delay as variable phase delay is generated by means of tilting a mirror. Compared with previously reported phase shifter-modulators, e.g., based on the Pancharatnam (geometric) phase, our device is high speed and polarization insensitive and produces a large, bounded phase delay that, uniquely, is one-to-one mapped to a measurable parameter, the tilt angle.     

摆镜扫描傅里叶变换光谱仪光程差计算

摆镜扫描傅里叶变换光谱仪利用摆动扫描方式产生光程差,减小了因动镜倾斜带来的误差影响。从摆扫干涉光谱技术原理出发,对摆镜扫描傅里叶变换光谱仪的光程差进行理论分析,给出了光程差计算表达式,实验结果表明:该光谱仪光程差近似正比于摆动角度。分析了轴外光线因不同入射角所产生的附加光程差,为傅里叶变换光谱仪的指标确定和优化设计提供了理论依据。     

Full-range tunable optical delay line based on coupled and side-coupled resonators

An optical delay line based on a new kind of structure comprising coupled resonators and side-coupled resonators has been proposed and demonstrated. The structure has unique advantages in realizing tunable optical delay lines. The tuning range has covered almost the full range of the optical delay line, from minimum delay at which only one ring of the light pulse structure requires transmission, to maximum delay at which all rings are required. In addition, the input signal delivered from the input to output port travels the structure twice, thereby providing buffer delay that is twice longer than general coupled resonators.