Optical Glucose Monitoring Based on Femtosecond Two-Color Pulse Interferometry

We demonstrate the potential of femtosecond two-color pulse interferometry for in vitro optical glucose monitoring, by dispersion of the group refractive index in a glucose solution sample with respect to a red-color light and a blue-color light. By comparison with femtosecond one-color pulse interferometry, the basic performance of the present system with regard to sensitivity, quantitativeness, and tolerance to surrounding disturbances, is evaluated. The resulting accuracy and precision of glucose determination are 77 and 118mg/dl for 10-mm-sample-thickness, respectively. This near-common-path configuration of the two-color pulse light provides good stability to fluctuations of sample temperature, which is important in clinical applications. Considering the performance of femtosecond two-color pulse interferometry as an optical glucose sensor, a suitable measurement site for in vivo optical glucose monitoring is discussed.     

Zonal model of nonstationary self-focusing of femtosecond laser radiation in air: effective beam characteristics evolution

The generic scenario of intense femtosecond laser pulse propagation in the air from the viewpoint of evolution of its integral effective parameters (energy transfer coefficient, effective radius, effective duration, limiting angular divergence) is considered. The analysis of variation of the effective parameters along the propagation path in the single and multiply filamentation scenarios based on numerical calculations is presented. It is shown that the process of self-action of the ultrashort radiation is characterized by the formation in a medium of the nonlinearity layer, after which optical pulse propagates quasi-linearly with the limiting angular divergence that depends mainly on initial pulse power. The effective pulse temporal duration and the effective beam radius increase after the passage through the nonlinearity layer, and their values are mostly determined by the initial beam power also. The coefficient of energy transmission of femtosecond laser radiation is lower than in the linear medium and has a tendency to decrease with the increase of the pulse power.     

Femtosecond third-harmonic generation:. self-phase matching through a transient. Kerr grating and the way to ultrafast computing

The third harmonic of 810-nm 100-fs pulses at 130 μJ is generated very efficiently when ultrashort pulses from two noncollinear beams interfere in an optical medium to create an instantaneous transient grating via the optical Kerr effect. The grating couples two pathways for third-harmonic generation, each taking two photons from one beam and one photon from the other beam, respectively. The coupling enables self-phase matching in the complete process, resulting in a conversion efficiency of ≈3%. Scattering an independent beam at the transient grating confirms a lifetime limited by the pulse duration, with a reaction on the order of one optical cycle. Using the second harmonic of a Ti-sapphire laser at 405 nm, it is shown that the generation of the transient Kerr grating is a general feature, requiring less than 20 μJ/pulse. By introducing a third femtosecond beam we are able to emulate various digital logic units with femtosecond response. Received: 16 October 2001 / Published online: 6 June 2002     

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.     

Measurements of femtosecond temporal speckle field of a random medium

The femtosecond temporal speckle field of a random medium is studied theoretically and experimentally. Femtosecond temporal speckle arises from the interference of multiple randomly scattered electric fields. The femtosecond temporal speckle field is measured with a cross-correlation frequency-resolved optical gating method. The spatial average of the speckle field yields a smooth transmitted profile. The speckle field is a circular complex Gaussian variable because the scattered light beams from different trajectories have no correlation with each other. The field and the intensity profiles of individual speckle spots fluctuate randomly in time. The ensemble average of the temporal intensity profiles converges, thereby yielding the photon travel time probability distribution function.     

飞秒光孤立波解传输的稳定性分析

针对高阶非线性薛定谔方程任意参量下的飞秒光孤立波解，用数值演化方法考察了该光脉冲在受到各种初始扰动时的稳定性。结果表明：当飞秒光脉冲受到振幅及波形扰动时可以稳定传输，对于随机噪声及啁啾的扰动，在一定范围内也可传输，这有可能为进一步实现飞秒光脉冲在光纤中的无畸变传输提供一定的理论依据。     

中红外可调谐大能量飞秒脉冲激光产生

可调谐中红外飞秒光纤激光器具有非常普遍的应用,从而引起了人们的广泛关注。目前,非线性光纤中的拉曼孤子自频移效应是实现大范围可调谐飞秒脉冲激光的理想方法之一。然而,非线性光纤中其他高阶非线性效应的产生通常会限制拉曼孤子脉冲的能量提升。本文提出了利用有源掺杂光纤作为非线性介质和增益介质实现可调谐大能量中红外飞秒激光脉冲的方法。在理论上研究了有源掺杂非线性光纤中高阶孤子劈裂和孤子自频移效应的产生,以及线性增益对波长移动拉曼孤子能量、脉宽、光谱的影响。结果表明,通过为波长红移的低能量拉曼孤子提供线性增益,孤子脉冲的能量得到了显著提升且保持了其单脉冲特性,脉冲宽度为45 fs,且孤子脉冲的波长可通过所提供的增益进行大范围调谐。因此,利用有源掺杂光纤作为非线性介质是实现大能量可调谐中红外飞秒脉冲激光的一种有效方法。     

Electric-field reconstruction of femtosecond laser pulses from interferometric autocorrelation using an evolutionary algorithm

We present an evolutionary algorithm for reconstructing a femtosecond laser pulse from its interferometric autocorrelation trace and laser spectrum. The algorithm is optimized for the intensity and phase characterization of several-cycle optical pulses. We tested this algorithm with numerically-generated femtosecond pulses and then applied it to experimental data. In the experiment, a negatively chirped 31-fs pulse and a sub-10-fs pulse containing high-order phase distortion were characterized. Frequency-resolved optical gating measurements, performed for comparison, confirm the reliability of our technique.     

Talbot effect of a high-density grating under femtosecond laser illumination

The Talbot effect of a high-density grating under femtosecond laser illumination is analyzed with rigorous electromagnetic theory which is based on the Fourier decomposition and the rigorous coupled-wave analysis (RCWA). Numerical simulations show that the contrast of the Talbot images steadily decreases as the transmitted femtosecond laser pulses propagate forward and with wider spectrum width of the femtosecond laser pulses. The Talbot images of high-density gratings have much higher sensitivity of the spectrum widths of the incident laser pulses than those of the traditional low-density gratings. In experiments, the spectrums and the pulse widths of the incident pulses are measured with a frequency-resolved optical grating (FROG) apparatus. The Talbot images are detected by using a Talbot scanning near-field optical microscopy (Talbot-SNOM) technique, which are in coincidence with the numerical simulations. This effect should be useful for developing new femtosecond laser techniques and devices.     

Femtosecond time-resolved optical polarigraphy: imaging of the propagation dynamics of intense light in a medium

A time-resolved imaging technique for visualizing ultrafast propagation dynamics of intense light pulses in a medium has been demonstrated. The method probes the instantaneous birefringence induced by a pulse in the medium. Through consecutive femtosecond snapshot images of intense femtosecond laser pulses propagating in air, ultrafast temporal changes in the two-dimensional spatial distribution of the optical pulse intensity were clearly seen.     

Theoretical and experimental study of blurring of a femtosecond laser pulse in a turbid medium

We propose an analytical model of the spatio-temporal structure of a short laser pulse transmitted through a layer of an optically inhomogeneous medium with high anisotropy of scattering. The light-field brightness in the medium is represented as a finite series in terms of multiplicities of the small-angle scattering, while the contribution from the higher-order scattering is allowed for as a quasi-diffuse component. The scattered-pulse structure is calculated on the basis of solving the radiative-transfer equation in the small-angle approximation with allowance for the effect of multipath light propagation. Compared with the first approximation of the multiple-scattering theory (attenuated nonscattered light plus the diffuse component), this approach makes it possible to describe more correctly the transformation of the spatio-angular distribution of light in the medium when passing from the single-scattering to multiple-scattering regime, as well as specify the temporal profile of the scattered pulse. The temporal profile of the femtosecond pulse transmitted through a layer of model scattering medium with various concentrations of scatterers is studied experimentally. The blurred-pulse structure is studied with the help of nonlinear optical gating in the case of noncollinear generation of the second harmonic. Good agreement between the theoretical and experimental time profiles of the scattered pulse is shown for the optical-thickness intervals corresponding to both the predominantly low multiplicity scattering and multiple small-angle scattering, which allows us to use the proposed analytical model for solving the inverse problem of the pulse sounding of a homogeneous turbid medium. __________ Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 51, No. 4, pp. 333–348, April 2008.     

Random deflection of the white light beam during self-focusing and filamentation of a femtosecond laser pulse in water

Ti:sapphire femtosecond laser pulse filamentation in competition with optical breakdown in condensed matter is studied both experimentally and numerically using water as an example. Strong random deflection and modulation of the supercontinuum under tight focusing conditions were observed. They manifest the beginning of the filamentation process near the highly disordered plasma created by optical breakdown at the geometrical focus. Received: 13 June 2002 / Revised version: 16 August 2002 / Published online: 25 October 2002 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +1-418/656-2623, E-mail: wliu@phy.ulaval.ca     

Amplitude fluctuations and femtosecond pulse train noise in fibers

The results of numerical investigations of the femtosecond mode-locked laser radiation spectrum broadened in an optical fiber with the effect of incoming radiation noise are presented. It was found that the pulse train intensity stability, i.e., fluctuations of incoming radiation, strongly affect output spectral characteristics such as the spectral envelope and amplitudes of equidistant components in a femtosecond comb. Thus, intensity instability of about 1–10% or less can be critical for predictable and high amplitudes of spectral components; moreover, in this case, experimental measurements of spectral envelope dissemble the real femtosecond comb amplitudes.     

Fiber-delivered picosecond source for coherent Raman scattering imaging

We demonstrate a two-color, fiber-delivered picosecond source for coherent Raman scattering (CRS) imaging. The wavelength-tunable picosecond pump is generated by nonlinear spectral compression of a prechirped femtosecond pulse from a mode-locked titanium:sapphire (Ti:S) laser. The 1064?nm picosecond Stokes pulse is generated by an all-fiber time-lens source that is synchronized to the Ti:S laser. The pump and Stokes beams are combined in an optical fiber coupler, which serves not only as the delivery fiber but also as the nonlinear medium for spectral compression of the femtosecond pulse. CRS imaging of mouse skin is performed to demonstrate the practicality of this source.     

飞秒互相关时间选通技术用于光学层析成像的实验研究

利用飞秒互相关二次谐波信号时间选通技术。实现了对埋藏在高度散射介质中物体的透射成像和反射以析成像。互相关选通门有效地选出携带物体信息的弹道光子和蛇行光子，排除了给成像带来背景噪声的温射光子，分别获得了散射介质中物体的二次谐波一维和二维图像。     

Amplitude and phase measurements of femtosecond pulse splitting in nonlinear dispersive media

Frequency-resolved optical gating is used to characterize the propagation of intense femtosecond pulses in a nonlinear, dispersive medium. The combined effects of diffraction, normal dispersion, and cubic nonlinearity lead to pulse splitting. The role of the phase of the input pulse is studied. The results are compared with the predictions of a three-dimensional nonlinear Schr?dinger equation.     

Femtosecond laser pulse filamentation versus optical breakdown in H<Subscript>2</Subscript>O

The competition between femtosecond laser pulse induced optical breakdown and femtosecond laser pulse filamentation in condensed matter is studied both experimentally and numerically using water as an example. The coexistence of filamentation and breakdown is observed under tight focusing conditions. The development of the filamentation process from the creation of a single filament to the formation of many filaments at higher pulse energy is characterized systematically. In addition, strong deflection and modulation of the supercontinuum is observed. They manifest themselves at the beginning of the filamentation process, near the highly disordered plasma created by optical breakdown at the geometrical focus. Received: 9 July 2002 / Revised version: 15 November 2002 / Published online: 19 March 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +1-418/6562-623, E-mail: wliu@phy.ulaval.ca     

On the generation of terahertz radiation by a phase-modulated optical pulse

The problem of terahertz radiation generation in a quadratic nonlinear medium by a nanosecond phase-modulated optical pulse possessing the properties of supercontinuum has been investigated. The possibility of generating both broadband and quasi-monochromatic terahertz signals has been demonstrated. The conditions have been revealed under which the generation efficiency of a phase-modulated nanosecond optical pulse is greater than that of a spectrally confined femtosecond signal.     

单次飞秒激光脉冲在玻璃内部产生多次微爆的研究

在入射能量不同的情况下，用近红外飞秒激光脉冲在重钡火石玻璃（ZBaF15）内部产生了色心和微爆，在熔融石英的内部产生了多次微爆现象.实验表明：入射能量较高时，色心的中间会产生微爆；在松聚焦条件下，一个飞秒激光脉冲在透明介质内会激发多次微爆.基于飞秒激光脉冲在透明介质内的自聚焦效应和自由电子等离子体的自散焦效应，理论分析了多次微爆产生的原因；也讨论了飞秒激光脉冲诱导玻璃折射率改变的机理.     

具有几个光振荡周期长度的飞秒激光脉冲在线性色散介质中的传输

给出了描写具有几个光振荡周期长度的飞秒激光脉冲在线性色散介质中传输方程的解。对脉冲的传输特性进行了数值摸拟 ,分别考察了来源于电子和晶格的正常和反常群速色散对脉冲展宽和脉冲形状畸变的影响。