Time domain bidirectional beam propagation method for second harmonic generation in multilayers

We propose a time domain bidirectional beam propagation method based on scattering operators for wide band pulse propagation in nonlinear multilayers. The reported numerical examples demonstrate the applicability of the algorithm for the analysis of temporal effects related to the process of second harmonic generation.     

Computation of higher-order waveguide modes by imaginary-distance beam propagation method

Abstact Yevick and Hermansson presented an efficient numerical method for calculating fundamental modes of optical waveguides. We extend their technique to higher-order eigenmodes. Using a finite-difference beam propagation method, we obtain propagation constants and field profiles for the three lowest-order TE modes in an asymmetric rib waveguide.     

Time structure of bistatic reverberation in the long-range propagation of explosion-generated signals

In experiments on the long-range propagation of explosion-generated signals, a noise background accompanying the classical signal quartets are repeatedly observed. The background smoothly increases before the arrival of the first signal of the quartet, then decreases, and completely vanishes after the arrival of the last signal of the same quartet. The data of an experiment performed in winter in a deep-water region of the northwestern Pacific are considered. These data are used to demonstrate the phenomenon at hand and to show that the noise background of the quartets is the manifestation of the bistatic reverberation caused by sound scattering by the rough ocean surface towards the receiver located a long distance from the source. An easy-to-use technique is proposed for calculating the time relations between the direct signal and the surface-reverberation one. Calculations are performed for the time structure of the bistatic surface reverberation to explain the observed features of the phenomenon.     

Slow-light optical bullets in arrays of nonlinear Bragg-grating waveguides

We demonstrate that propagation direction and velocity of optical pulses can be controlled independently in the structures with multiscale modulation of the refractive index in transverse and longitudinal directions. We reveal that, in arrays of waveguides with phase-shifted Bragg gratings, the refraction angle does not depend on the speed of light, allowing for efficient spatial steering of slow light. In this system, both spatial diffraction and temporal dispersion can be designed independently, and we identify the possibility for self-collimation of slow light when spatial diffraction is suppressed for certain propagation directions. We also show that broadening of pulses in space and time can be eliminated in nonlinear media, supporting the formation of slow-light optical bullets that remain localized irrespective of propagation direction.     

Dynamic control of light propagation and optical switching through an RF-driven cascade-type atomic medium

We study nonlinear optical behaviors in pulse propagation through a medium consisting of four-level cascade-type cold atoms, where a radio-frequency (RF) field couples upper two-folded levels and double-dark resonances (DDRs) can arise. By numerically solving the coupled Bloch-Maxwell equations for atom and field simultaneously in space and time, we demonstrate dynamic control of light propagation and optical switching in such a four-level atomic medium. The proposed scheme may have potential applications in the design of optical switching and optical storage devices.     

Delay in light transmission through small apertures

We demonstrate a technique for measuring pulse propagation time delays with 0.5-fs resolution by use of a widely available 100-fs pulsed laser. Using this technique, we measured the time delay of a light pulse transiting through subwavelength apertures placed on a 0.3-mum metallic film. We measured a 7-fs total transit time, corresponding to an effective group velocity of c/7 . The experimental result yielded additional evidence that light interacts resonantly with oscillators formed by the surface modes near the small apertures.     

On the method for calculating the reflection function

We consider the problem of calculating the reflection function for the case of radio-wave propagation in a stratified inhomogeneous absorbing ionosphere. A stable method for calculating the reflection function is proposed. Examples of calculations by the proposed method are shown for symmetric and parabolic ionospheric layers. __________ Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 50, No. 9, pp. 766–772, September 2007.     

Fast initial decay of molecular excitations at insulator surfaces

We investigate the initial decay of electron-hole excitations in a molecular layer after adsorption on an insulator substrate surface. This is done within ab initio many-body perturbation theory by calculating the time propagation of excited two-particle states. For a CO monolayer adsorbed on the MgO(001) surface we find very fast decay processes with lifetimes that are about 5 times shorter than the transfer of single charge carriers. This is due to a strong coupling of the molecular excitations to charge-transfer-exciton states between the adlayer and the substrate.     

Investigation of odd-order nonlinear susceptibilities in atomic vapors

We theoretically deduce the macroscopic symmetry constraints for arbitrary odd-order nonlinear susceptibilities in homogeneous media including atomic vapors for the first time. After theoretically calculating the expressions using a semiclassical method, we demonstrate that the expressions for third- and fifth-order nonlinear susceptibilities for undressed and dressed four- and six-wave mixing (FWM and SWM) in atomic vapors satisfy the macroscopic symmetry constraints. We experimentally demonstrate consistence between the macroscopic symmetry constraints and the semiclassical expressions for atomic vapors by observing polarization control of FWM and SWM processes. The experimental results are in reasonable agreement with our theoretical calculations.     

Design of an ultra-broadband all-optical fractional differentiator with a long-period fiber grating

We propose an all-optical in-fiber ultra-broadband fractional differentiator. We numerically demonstrate that a long-period grating inherently performs the temporal fractional differentiation on an optical pulse propagating in the fundamental fiber mode, within a certain spectral bandwidth around the resonance frequency. The device shows a good accuracy calculating the fractional time derivatives of the complex field of THz-bandwidth optical pulses.     

Equations of motion from chaotic data: A driven optical fiber ring resonator

We apply a recently proposed method for the reconstruction of equations of motion from a time series to experimental chaotic optical data and find the theoretically expected Ikeda model. In contrast to phase space reconstruction methods, it is based on nonlinear regression and maximal correlation, and the resulting model can be investigated further. We demonstrate the retrieval of physical parameters by calculating the experimentally not accessible phase evolution of a non-stationary data set.     

Calculated out-of-plane transmission loss for photonic-crystal slab waveguides

A fully three-dimensional finite-difference time domain numerical model is presented for calculating the out-of-plane radiation loss in photonic-crystal slab waveguides. The propagation loss of a single-line defect waveguide in triangular-lattice photonic crystals is calculated for suspended-membrane, oxidized-lower-cladding, and deeply etched structures. The results show that low-loss waveguides are achievable for sufficiently suspended membranes and oxidized-lower-cladding structures.     

Scaling,propagation, and kinetic roughening of flame fronts in random media

We introduce a model of two coupled reaction-diffusion equations to describe the dynamics and propagation of flame fronts in random media. The model incorporates heat diffusion, its dissipation, and its production through coupling to the background reactant density. We first show analytically and numerically that there is a finite critical value of the background density below which the front associated with the temperature field stops propagating. The critical exponents associated with this transition are shown to be consistent with meanfield theory of percolation. Second, we study the kinetic roughening associated with a moving planar flame front above the critical density. By numerically calculating the time-dependent width and equal-time height correlation function of the front, we demonstrate that the roughening process belongs to the universality class of the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang interface equation. Finally, we show how this interface equation can be analytically derived from our model in the limit of almost uniform background density.     

Evaluating the topological charge density with the symmetricmulti-probing method

We evaluate the topological charge density of SU(3) gauge fields on a lattice by calculating the trace of the overlap Dirac matrix employing the symmetric multi-probing(SMP) method in 3 modes. Since the topological charge Q for a given lattice configuration must be an integer number, it is easy to estimate the systematic error(the deviation of Q to the nearest integer). The results demonstrate a high efficiency and accuracy in calculating the trace of the inverse of a large sparse matrix with locality by using the SMP sources when compared to using point sources.We also show the correlation between the errors and probing scheme parameter r_(min), as well as lattice volume N_L and lattice spacing a. It is found that the computational time for calculating the trace by employing the SMP sources is less dependent on N_L than by using point sources. Therefore, the SMP method is very suitable for calculations on large lattices.     

Toward low-loss photonic crystal waveguides in InP/InGaAsP heterostructures

Line-defect photonic crystal waveguides exhibit severe propagation losses if they are implemented in semiconductor heterostructures with a weak refractive index contrast. We present, for what we believe is the first time, experimental structures for which we have evidence that fabrication imperfections are not the limiting factor in terms of propagation losses. We demonstrate a loss figure of 335±5 dB/cm, which is an improvement by a factor of about 2 with respect to state-of-the-art values. Simulations show that even lower losses can be obtained with different waveguide geometries. In other words, the dominant loss mechanism is related to the waveguide design, and losses are not expected to decrease upon further optimization of the fabrication process.     

Initial dynamics of supercontinuum generation in highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber

We present a theoretical and experimental analysis of supercontinuum generation in very short lengths of high-nonlinearity photonic crystal fibers. The Raman response function for Schott SF6 glass is presented for what is believed to be the first time and used for numerical modeling of pulse propagation. Simulation and experiments are in excellent agreement and demonstrate the rapid transition to regimes of spectral complexity due to higher-order nonlinear effects.     

Time-resolved single-photon detection by femtosecond upconversion

We demonstrate a time-resolved single-photon detection technique based on ultrafast sum-frequency generation, providing femtosecond measurement capability for single photons in photonic quantum information processing. Noncollinear broadband upconversion in periodically poled MgO-doped stoichiometric lithium tantalate with an ultrafast pump and detection with a Si single-photon counter enable efficient detection of IR photons and temporal resolution of ~150 fs. We utilize the timing resolution to map the generation efficiency profile along the propagation axis of a periodically poled KTiOPO(4) crystal, revealing its local grating quality with millimeter resolution. We also apply the technique to two-photon coincidence measurements and directly demonstrate time anticorrelation between coincident-frequency entangled photons that are parametrically generated under extended phase-matching conditions.     

Real-time in vivo blood-flow imaging by moving-scatterer-sensitive spectral-domain optical Doppler tomography

We present a moving-scatterer-sensitive optical Doppler tomography (MSS-ODT) technique for in vivo blood flow imaging in real time by using a spectral-domain optical coherence tomography system. In MSS-ODT the influence of stationary scatterers is suppressed by subtracting adjacent complex axial scans before calculating the Doppler frequency shift. We demonstrate that MSS-ODT is a useful technique for accurate determination of blood vessel size by imaging flow in a small capillary tube with a 75 microm inner diameter. The flow profile obtained with MSS-ODT yields a substantially more accurate tube diameter than that obtained with the conventional phase-resolved method, which underestimates the diameter by about 23%. We also demonstrate that MSS-ODT provides improved sensitivity over the conventional phase-resolved method for imaging in vivo blood flow in small vessels in a mouse ear.     

3D-solitons in a strongly magnetized plasma: Transition from flat to spherical waves of the Zakharov-Kuznetsov equation

The Zakharov-Kuznetsov equation has been used to describe ion-acoustic wave propagation in a strong magnetic plasma. An initial-value problem has been solved for this equation on the basis of a numerical method that uses the fast Fourier transform technique for calculating space derivatives and a fourth order Runge-Kutta method for the time scheme. Numerical simulations have shown that the disturbed flat solitary waves can break up into spherical ones.     

Time domain approach to semiclassical dynamics: Breaking the log time barrier

The presence of chaos in the classical dynamics is not necessarily the destructive element it was thought to be for semiclassical approximations in the time domain. The method of calculating the semiclassical propagation of initial states and correlation functions for nonlinear and chaotic dynamics is shown, and the excellent accuracy is noted for rather long times. The breakdown timescale is much longer than the infamous "log time" for the cases investigated here.