Optical fibre-grating pulse compression

Numerical simulation is used to consider non-linear pulse propagation in fibres and subsequent pulse compression in a dispersive delay line. It is shown that for small initial pulse powers the conventional non-linear Schrödinger equation (NSE) is quite accurate to describe the process of pulse propagation in fibres. In this case initially symmetrical pulses undergo squaring and spectral broadening in fibres, and frequency chirp is linearized over most of the pulse, while shapes of the pulse, spectrum and frequency chirp remain symmetrical at the output of the fibre. There is a certain optimum fibre lengthZ _opt which is determined by the initial pulse parameters and fibre characteristics for pulse compression in the dispersive delay line. When the fibre lengthZ>Z _opt the optical wave breaking effect distorts the linearity of the frequency chirp and thus deteriorates the quality of the compressed pulse. The region of NSE approximation accuracy is determined. It is demonstrated that at increase of the initial pulse power (initial pulse width makes no difference) the NSE approximation becomes inaccurate. So the pulse dynamics in the fibre were described by the modified NSE derived in the higher-order approximation of the method of slowly varying amplitudes from Maxwell's equations. In this case the shock wave appears at the trailing edge of the pulse, which accelerates the wave breaking process. This results in a decrease of the optimum fibre length and deterioration of compressed pulse parameters, compared with the NSE case. Spectral windowing of the extreme Stokes components of the pulse spectrum permits significant improvement in the quality of the compressed pulse. The main features of the compression of pulses with asymmetrical initial shape are also considered.     

Enhanced pulse compression induced by the interaction between the third—order dispersion and the cross—phase modulation in birefringent fibres

In this paper,we report on the enhanced pulse compression due to the interaction between the positive third-order dispersion (TOD) and the nonlinear effect (cross-phase modulation effect) in birefringent fibres.Polarization soliton compression along the slow axis can be enhanced in a birefringent fibre with positive third-order dispersion,while the polarization soliton compression along the fast axis can be enhanced in the fibre with negative third-order dispersion.Moreover,there is an optimal third-order dispersion parameter for obtaining the optimal pulse compression.Redshifted initial chirp is helpful to the pulse compression,while blueshifted chirp is detrimental to the pulse compression.There is also an optimal chirp parameter to reach maximum pulse compression.The optimal pulse compression for TOD parameters under different N-order solitons is also found.     

Pulse generation and compression using an asymmetrical porous silicon-based Mach–Zehnder interferometer configuration

We propose an asymmetrical Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) for efficient pulse generation and compression using porous silicon (PS) waveguide, fibre delay line and couplers. We show a pulse compression of about 0.4 ns at the output port with third-order super-Gaussian input pulse in ～2 ns time duration and ～40.3 W peak power level. Also, we show the possibility of obtaining compressed single- or double-pulse with judicious choice of various parameters like input peak power, delay time and input pulse width.     

Non-linear applications of microstructured optical fibres

The enhancement of different non-linear processes in microstructured optical fibres can be achieved through manipulation of the dispersion characteristics of the fibre. This is demonstrated by extending the region of short wavelength operation of high power supercontinuum generation through four wave mixing in a cascaded fibre geometry where the dispersion of each fibre decreased on propagation. The technique is further refined in a demonstration utilizing long lengths of dispersion decreasing tapered microstructured fibres, where the supercontinuum extends to around 300 nm with spectral power densities in excess of 2 mW/nm in the uv. These long length tapers can also be utilized for adiabatic soliton pulse compression in new spectral regions, allowing the compression of 655 fs pulses to 45 fs.     

Pulse Evolution Characteristics in Self-Similar Mode-locked Fibre Laser

A self-similar mode locked fibre laser is studied based on a numerical model. By introducing a dimensionless factor k to characterize the pulse shape, the self-similar pulse evolution, formation and the temporal and spectral shape changes due to the elements in the cavity are investigated throughout the laser cavity. The results show that in the self-similar mode locked fibre laser, self-similar pulse is first formed in the single-mode fibre, which is then amplified in the gain fibre. Gain bandwidth has a small influence on pulse shape, so high energy self-similar pulse can be obtained after amplification. Because net cavity dispersion directly influences the pulse width as well as peak power after compression by a pair of gratings, which can determine the pulse self-similar evolution, it is very important to control the net cavity dispersion to a certain range to obtain self-similar pulses.     

Efficient compression of fundamental solitons in fibres with decreasing dispersion

A theoretical model of the propagation and compression of femtosecond fundamental solitons in optical fibres with varying dispersion, is developed. Simple analytical expressions describing pulse duration and carrier frequency changes in optical fibre of constant and varying diameter are obtained. Fibre profile, which allows maximum pulse compression to be achieved, is determined.     

Optical pulse compression and breaking in nonlinear fibre couplers

The analysis of a curved, fibre coupler with a Kerr-type nonlinear medium between the fibres is presented. The nonlinear fibre coupler is seen to produce compression of optical pulses. A new feature, that of optical pulse breaking, is presented as well.     

Hollow-core photonic crystal fibres for delivery and compression of ultrashort optical pulses

We describe the use of tapered hollow-core photonic crystal fibres for delivery and compression of ultrashort optical pulses. We demonstrate delivery of transform-limited pulses with less than 100 fs pulse length and above 50 nJ energy through 8 m of fibre, in a single transverse mode.     

Highly nonlinear chalcogenide fibres for all-optical signal processing

Chalcogenide glasses offer many attractive properties for all-optical signal processing including large Kerr nonlinearity (up to 500 × silica glass), an intrinsic ultrafast response time and low to moderate two-photon absorption (TPA). These properties together with the convenience of a fibre format allow us to achieve all-optical signal processing at low peak power and in a very compact form. In this paper, several nonlinear processing functions will be demonstrated including: femto-second pedestal free, pulse compression; all-optic wavelength conversion; and all-optical regenerator. In addition, we show enhanced nonlinearity for more efficient signal processing by tapering the As₂Se₃ fibre. These applications show chalcogenide glass fibres are very promising candidate materials for nonlinear all-optic signal processing.     

Highly nonlinear optical fibre loop mirror for reshaping femtosecond pulses from a soliton-compressed electro-absorption modulator source over a wide repetition rate and wavelength range

Highly nonlinear fibre (HNF) applied to a nonlinear optical fibre-loop mirror (NOLM) proves very effective for high quality femtosecond pulses shaping. The HNF exhibiting about four times larger nonlinearity than either dispersion flattened fibre or dispersion-shifted fibre excites higher-order soliton propagation enabling significant pulse compression, while shortening the loop length required for efficient switching, which advantageously reduces both the detrimental higher-order chromatic dispersion effects and sensitivity to environmental perturbations. A short NOLM consisting of a 60 m HNF demonstrates effective reshaping and compression of 254–394 fs pulses from a fibre-soliton compressed electro-absorption modulator source to produce pedestal-free and transform-limited 186–243 fs pulses over a wide wavelength (1550–1570 nm) and repetition-rate (6.8–18 GHz) range.     

Study on pulse compression in tapered holey fibres

This paper proposes three kinds of tapered holey fibres with a multi-layer of holes whose pitch of air holes at the end of untapered and tapered are 5.8 μm and 1.8 μm. The central wavelength which locates in the anomalous dispersion region is 1.55 μm. An adaptive split-step Fourier method is numerically used to study the pulse propagation in tapered holey fibres. For the considered convex tapered holey fibre, at a wavelength of 1.55 μm, a compression factor of 136.7 can be achieved by initial width of 800 fs propagation through a length of 0.8 m. It demonstrates that in anomalous dispersion region, pulse can be compressed with the increase of nonlinearity coefficient and the decrease of dispersion coefficient.     

Spectral and temporal study of picosecond-pulse propagation in a single-mode optical fibre

The power-dependent pulsewidth variations for input 85 ps pulses from a cw mode-locked Nd: YAG laser propagating through 125 m of single-mode optical fibre have been examined using a Synchroscan streak camera. Simultaneous spectral and temporal measurements provide information as to the optimum parameters for pulse compression in fibres.     

Easily tuneable nonlinear optical loop mirror including low-birefringence,highly twisted fibre with invariant output polarisation

We investigate theoretically the operation of a versatile nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) structure to be used in optical communication systems. The proposed device is a fibre Sagnac interferometer that includes a low-birefringence, highly twisted fibre and a quarter-wave plate retarder in the loop. We study, both analytically and numerically, the evolution of the intensity-dependent NOLM transmission for both output polarisation components, using different models for the NOLM. From this analysis, we propose an easy way to adjust the position of the NOLM maximum transmission, simply by tuning the angle of the retarder. This procedure is particularly useful for amplitude regularisation of an optical signal. We also demonstrate that, if a tuneable optical attenuator is inserted in the loop, the positions of both maximum and minimum transmission can be tuned separately, using a perfectly reproducible procedure. It is therefore possible to optimise the NOLM transmission for both pedestal and amplitude fluctuations removal in an optical pulse train. For a circular input polarisation, this procedure ensures the highest possible contrast between minimum and maximum transmission, and an output polarisation state that is linear and independent of the input power. Finally, we demonstrate that the transmission characteristic of this NOLM is robust to environmentally induced changes in the fibre birefringence. Thanks to its versatility, robustness and polarisation invariance, this device is thought to be of primary interest for applications such as passive mode locking, pulse compression and pedestal suppression, amplitude regularisation in harmonically mode-locked, rational-harmonically mode-locked or subharmonic synchronous mode-locked lasers, as well as damping of relaxation oscillations.     

Investigation on pulse compression based on stimulated Brillouin scattering and optical breakdown

Pulse compression based on the combination of stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) and optical breakdown is investigated in this paper. The first pulse compression based on SBS features a sharp rising edge while the second based on optical breakdown is characterized by a sharp falling edge, therefore a symmetrical narrow pulse can be produced with this approach. In the experiment, FC-72 is used as the Brillouin medium in the first pulse compression, while HT-270 is chosen as the solvent for optical breakdown in the second pulse compression. A 12-ns pump pulse is first compressed to 6 ns by SBS and then further to about 2 ns with comparatively symmetrical edges after optical breakdown.     

Micromechanical analysis of transverse damage of fibre-reinforced composites

The mechanical behaviour of fibre-reinforced composites under transverse tension, compression and shear is studied using computational micromechanics. The representative volume element is constructed for fibre’s random distribution. The Drucker–Prager model and cohesive zone model are used to simulate the matrix damage and interfacial debonding, respectively. The stress distribution along the interface is studied using the model with only one fibre embedded in the matrix. It is found that the interface tensile failure at the equators of fibre firstly occurs under transverse tension; the interface shear failure firstly occurs under transverse compression; both the interface tensile failure and shear failure occur under transverse shear. The direction of fracture plane is perpendicular to the loading direction under transverse tension, 52.5° with the perpendicular direction under compression and 7.5° with the perpendicular or vertical direction under shear, respectively.     

新型全光纤高能量飞秒光脉冲源的数值模拟

数值模拟了自相似脉冲的产生与压缩,得到一种产生高能量飞秒光脉冲的新方法.结果表明:利用掺铒光纤对光脉冲进行自相似传输,可得到含线性频率啁啾的高能量自相似光脉冲;自相似光脉冲经过空芯光子带隙光纤的一级线性压缩和高非线性光纤的二级非线性压缩,可获得高峰值功率的飞秒光脉冲;压缩过程中存在最佳光纤长度;喇曼自频移和自陡效应对脉冲压缩产生不利影响.     

Characteristics of perfluorinated amine media for stimulated Brillouin scattering in hundreds of picoseconds pulse compression at 532 nm

The characteristics of stimulated Brillouin scattering(SBS) in perfluorinated amine media and the experimental structure used in hundreds of picoseconds pulse compression at 532 nm are demonstrated. A two-stage SBS pulse compression structure is adopted for this work. The compact double-cell SBS compression structure and the scattering media FC-70 are chosen to compress the incident light from 9.5 to about 1 ns in the first stage. Then,the light is used as the pumping source for the second pulse compression. In the second stage, using a single-cell SBS structure in a pulse compression system, perfluorinated amine media with different phonon lifetimes, such as FC-3283, FC-40, FC-43, and FC-70, are chosen to run the comparative experimental study. The narrowest compressed pulse times obtained are 294, 274, 277, and 194 ps; they respectively correspond to the above listed media. The average width of the compressed pulse width is 320 ps for FC-3283, with a fluctuation range of87 ps. For FC-40, the average pulse width is 320 ps, with a fluctuation range of 72 ps. And for FC-43, the average pulse width is 335 ps, with a fluctuation range of 88 ps. However, the average pulse width is only 280 ps for FC-70, with a fluctuation range of 57 ps. The highest energy reflectivity is more than 80% for all of the media. The experimental results show that a two-stage SBS pulse compression system has lower pump energy requirements, thus making it easier to achieve a compressed pulse waveform. The results also show that the shorter the phonon lifetime of the medium, the narrower the obtained compressed pulse width.     

基于脉冲形成线充电的脉冲压缩技术

利用脉冲压缩技术,将具有一定初始电压的高阻抗长脉冲形成线对低阻抗短脉冲形成线充电到一定值时,其输出开关导通,在其后的传输线上可以产生高功率短脉冲。给出了脉冲压缩理论分析;前级脉冲驱动源采用GW级纳秒脉冲形成线,其特性阻抗为40Ω、电长度为3.9ns,输出脉冲宽度约8ns;研制了与前级脉冲驱动源匹配的脉冲压缩装置和变阻抗传输线,考虑到脉冲压缩装置低阻抗形成线绝缘击穿和开关导通限制,选取脉压装置形成线特性阻抗6.5Ω、电长度0.5ns。利用GW级纳秒脉冲驱动源开展了脉冲压缩实验,得到了输出功率增益达4倍左右的脉宽1.5ns高功率短脉冲,输出脉冲功率增益与理论值基本相符。     

Possibility of X‐ray pulse compression using an asymmetric or inclined double‐crystal monochromator

It is shown theoretically that the asymmetric or inclined double‐crystal X‐ray monochromator may be used for X‐ray pulse compression if the pulse is properly chirped. By adjusting the mutual distance of the two asymmetric or inclined crystals it should be possible to achieve even a sub‐femtosecond compression of a chirped free‐electron laser pulse. The small d‐spacing of the crystal enables a more compact scheme compared with the currently used grating compression scheme. The asymmetric cut of the crystal enables the acceptance of a larger bandwidth. The inclined cut has larger tunability.     

基于脉冲对的交叉相位调制脉冲压缩中离散效应的抑制

提出一种新的抑制离散效应的方法——非对称脉冲对法，并对采用该方法和采用非同步耦合法在基于脉冲对交叉相位调制对脉冲进行压缩过程中，对离散效应影响的抑制效果进行了研究.数值模拟的结果显示：对于峰值功率为10mW、半极大全宽度为5ps的高斯入射脉冲，采用非对称脉冲对法，可以获得压缩比为137、基座能量比为0122、峰值功率为116mW的压缩脉冲. 关键词： 交叉相位调制 离散效应 非同步耦合法 非对称脉冲对法