Optimization of supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fibers for pulse compression

A theoretical study of super generation in photonic crystal fiber and its application to pulse compression is presented. The evolution of the spectrum can be divided into three stages: initial broadening below a certain threshold propagation distance, dramatic broadening to a supercontinuum at a threshold distance, and, finally, saturation of the spectral width on propagation. It is found that the group delay and group-delay dispersion of the supercontinum are sensitive to the input pulse peak power after further propagation at the third stage. Fluctuations from the input pulse are amplified and translated into fluctuations and time shift of the compressed pulses. There exists an optimum compressed distance at which compressed pulses with negligible fluctuation and time shift can be obtained.     

Subpicosecond pulse compression in nonlinear photonic crystal waveguides based on the formation of high-order optical solitons

We investigate by numerical simulation the compression of subpicosecond pulses in two-dimensional nonlinear photonic crystal (PC) waveguides. The compression originates from the generation of high-order optical solitons through the interplay of the huge group-velocity dispersion and the enhanced self-phase modulation in nonlinear PC waveguides.Both the formation of Bragg grating solitons and gap solitons can lead to efficient pulse compression. The compression factors under different excitation power densities and the optimum length for subpicosecond pulse compression have been determined. As a compressor, the total length of the nonlinear PC waveguide is only ten micrometres and therefore can be easily incorporated into PC integrated circuits.     

Chalcogenide glasses as a medium for controlling parameters of ultrashort IR pulses: II

The propagation of ultrashort optical pulses in planar chalcogenide glass waveguides with uniform or periodic claddings is considered. In comparison with silica waveguides a structure based on chalcogenide glass provides higher nonlinearity. This material has a high normal dispersion in the wavelength range of 1.5–3.5 μm. Periodic waveguide structures can be used to compensate for this dispersion. High-intensity laser pulses propagating in these structures undergo spectral broadening. The influence of the phase self-modulation of a pulse on its spectrum and width is analyzed using numerical simulations.     

Slow light pulse propagation in dispersive media

We present a theoretical and numerical analysis of pulse propagation in a semiconductor photonic crystal waveguide with embedded quantum dots in a regime where the pulse is subjected to both waveguide and material dispersion. The group index and the transmission are investigated by finite-difference-time-domain Maxwell–Bloch simulations and compared to analytic results. For long pulses the group index (transmission) for the combined system is significantly enhanced (reduced) relative to slow light based on purely material or waveguide dispersion. Shorter pulses are strongly distorted and depending on parameters broadening or break-up of the pulse may be observed. The transition from linear to nonlinear pulse propagation is quantified in terms of the spectral width of the pulse. To cite this article: T.R. Nielsen et al., C. R. Physique 10 (2009).     

超短脉冲在光子晶体中传播时的色散参量

利用最小二乘拟合法分析了光子晶体的能带结构,定量分析了二维光子晶体的色散参量.为了考虑脉冲各频率的作用,通过引入与频率分量相关的权重因子,从而解析了群速度和平均群速度色散,进而解析出脉冲波络渐变的理论结果.通过FDTD数值模拟后,发现数值模拟结果与理论解析结果完全相吻合.本文处理光子晶体的色散参量的方法,为制作光子晶体色散器件如光子晶体色散补偿器、脉冲展宽和压缩器有一定的借鉴作用.     

超短脉冲在光子晶体中传播时的色散参量(英文)

利用最小二乘拟合法分析了光子晶体的能带结构,定量分析了二维光子晶体的色散参量.为了考虑脉冲各频率的作用,通过引入与频率分量相关的权重因子,从而解析了群速度和平均群速度色散,进而解析出脉冲波络渐变的理论结果.通过FDTD数值模拟后,发现数值模拟结果与理论解析结果完全相吻合.本文处理光子晶体的色散参量的方法,为制作光子晶体色散器件如光子晶体色散补偿器、脉冲展宽和压缩器有一定的借鉴作用.     

Dynamical Bragg diffraction of optical pulses in photonic crystals in the Laue geometry: Diffraction-induced splitting, selective compression, and focusing of pulses

A theory for the dynamical Bragg diffraction of a spatially confined laser pulse in a linear photonic crystal with a significant modulation of the refractive index in the Laue geometry has been developed. The diffraction-induced splitting of a spatially confined pulse into the Borrmann and anti-Borrmann pulses localized in different regions of the photonic crystal and characterized by different dispersion laws is predicted. The selective compression or focusing of one of these pulses with the simultaneous broadening or defocusing of the other pulse is shown to be possible.     

Bright spatially coherent wavelength-tunable deep-UV laser source using an Ar-filled photonic crystal fiber

We report on the spectral broadening of ~1 μJ 30 fs pulses propagating in an Ar-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fiber. In contrast with supercontinuum generation in a solid-core photonic crystal fiber, the absence of Raman and unique pressure-controlled dispersion results in efficient emission of dispersive waves in the deep-UV region. The UV light emerges in the single-lobed fundamental mode and is tunable from 200 to 320 nm by varying the pulse energy and gas pressure. The setup is extremely simple, involving <1 m of a gas-filled photonic crystal fiber, and the UV signal is stable and bright, with experimental IR to deep-UV conversion efficiencies as high as 8%. The source is of immediate interest in applications demanding high spatial coherence, such as laser lithography or confocal microscopy.     

Ultra-short pulse compression using photonic crystal fibre

A short section of photonic crystal fibre has been used for ultra-short pulse compression. The unique optical properties of this novel medium in terms of high non-linearity and relatively small group velocity dispersion are shown to provide an ideal platform for the standard fibre pulse compression technique used directly on the nano-Joule output pulses from a commercial laser system. We report an order of magnitude reduction of the pulse width to 25 fs FWHM but predict a substantially improved performance with a dedicated fibre design. Good agreement is obtained with a simple model for the spectral broadening in the fibre. PACS 42.65.Re; 42.70.Qs; 42.81.Cn     

Influences of supercell termination and lateral row number on the determination of slow light properties of photonic crystal waveguides

We systematically analyze the effects of the use of an inaccurate supercell termination and an insufficient supercell size of plane-wave expansion method on the dispersion and the slow light properties of the photonic crystal waveguides. The inattentive use of supercells of photonic crystal waveguides appeared in the literature is found to be yielding errors in the dispersion and slow light characteristics of the fundamental guided mode of photonic crystal waveguides. In addition, extra modes appear in the photonic band gap of the photonic crystal waveguide due to inaccurate supercell termination. By examining the field distribution of the modes, the extra modes can be determined and removed from the band diagram. The dispersion, group index and bandwidth characteristics are observed to be less affecting from inaccurate supercell termination as the number of rows adjacent to the waveguide increases. Moreover, the dispersion and the group index-frequency curves of the fundamental guided mode of correctly terminated supercells are found to be converging as the lateral row number along the line-defect is increased.     

石英光子晶体光纤中高功率中红外超连续谱的产生

非石英光纤在产生大功率超连续谱方面存在难以克服的局限性.本文首次报道了采用石英光纤产生大功率中红外超连续谱.精心设计光纤结构使色散有利于超连续谱向中红外波段展宽,同时保证相对较大的芯径以承受较高的泵浦功率.合理选择光纤长度,在保证光谱展宽到3.4 μm的情况下使光纤损耗的影响降低到最小限度.研究表明,在1.95 μm皮秒脉冲泵浦下,采用色散适宜的石英光子晶体光纤可以产生20 dB带宽覆盖1 550~3 420 nm的超连续谱.超连续谱的平均功率可达56.6 W.     

双折射光子晶体光纤中基于孤子分裂的超连续光谱产生

利用亚纳焦量级、脉冲宽度为100 fs的激光脉冲在双折射光子晶体光纤中获得了450—1050 nm 的超连续光谱,且超连续光谱具有明显的分立峰状结构.分析了光谱中分立峰状结构产生的物理机制,抽运光波长处于接近零色散波长的反常色散区,形成高阶光孤子,由于高阶非线性和高阶色散的影响,高阶孤子分裂成多个基孤子,使初始光谱上演化出红移的光孤子成分和蓝移的色散波成分.理论模拟了飞秒激光脉冲在光纤中的色散特性和传输特性,较好地解释了实验结果. 关键词： 光子晶体光纤 超连续光谱产生 孤子分裂 脉冲俘获     

Optimizing input and output chirps up to the third-order for sub-nanojoule,ultra-short pulse compression in small core area PCF

Compression of sub-nanojoule laser pulses using a commercially available photonic crystal fiber (PCF) with zero dispersion wavelength of 860 nm is discussed. A twofold pulse compression starting from 24 fs transform limited seed pulses around 800 nm is experimentally demonstrated as a verification of our simulations. Theory shows that by the optimization of input and output chirp parameters up to the third order, high quality, 5.7 fs pulses can be generated from a cost efficient experimental setup. Further calculations show that 1 ps pulses with central wavelength of 800 nm can be compressed down to 50 fs in the normal dispersion regime of the fiber with proper dispersion compensation. Calculations also show that dispersion flattened fibers can improve both the quality and the duration of compressed pulses. PACS 42.65.Re     

Enhanced red-shifted radiation by pulse trapping in photonic crystal fibers with two zero-dispersion wavelengths

A theoretical investigation on the two pulses copropagation and the red-shifted radiation generation in a photonic crystal fiber with two zero-dispersion wavelengths are presented. It is found the intensity of the red-shifted radiation components can be enhanced when the fiber is pumped with two pulses and the pulse trapping occurs. As the input peak power of the pump pulse is increased under the phenomenon of pulse trapping, the intensity of the red-shift radiation can be further enhanced. The above effects can be explained by the energy transfer from the Raman soliton to the red-shifted radiation components due to the effect of pulse trapping and the effect of higher-order dispersion.     

超短光脉冲在双折射光子晶体光纤中产生超连续谱的偏振特性数值分析

采用矢量耦合非线性薛定谔方程描述了超短光脉冲在双折射光子晶体光纤中的传输过程,并利用分步傅里叶方法求解该方程。数值模拟了中心波长为1550nm的超短光脉冲在不同色散参量的双折射光子晶体光纤中超连续谱的产生及其偏振特性。分析了光纤在不同色散区时,高阶色散和非线性效应对超连续谱及其偏振态的影响。结果表明,当超短光脉冲波长位于近光纤零色散点的反常色散区时,比其在光纤正常色散区和远离光纤零色散点的反常色散区更容易产生宽且平坦的超连续谱,所得到的光谱显示出了复杂的偏振态特性。     

高非线性光子晶体光纤中飞秒脉冲的传输特性和超连续谱产生机制的实验研究及模拟分析

用实验和数值模拟两种方法研究了高非线性光子晶体光纤中飞秒激光脉冲的传输特性和超连续谱的产生机理，给出了抽运脉冲在三种不同中心波长情况下输出光谱展宽并形成超连续谱的实际测量及理论模拟结果.研究表明：在零色散波长抽运时，光谱展宽以自相位调制为主，同时三阶色散的影响明显，传输脉冲在时域内出现振荡次峰.而在反常色散区抽运时，光谱展宽的初期以自相位调制为主，随后根据抽运功率的不同孤子自频移、高阶光孤子的裂变和四波混频效应会逐渐增强，进而成为光谱展宽的主要原因.与此相应，在时域中能明显看到孤子的形成和红移，飞秒传输脉 关键词： 光子晶体光纤 高非线性光子晶体光纤 飞秒脉冲激光 超连续谱     

Active phase control and frequency chirp effects on supercontinuum generation in high birefringence photonic crystal fiber

An acoustic-optics programmable dispersive filter (AOPDF) was first employed to actively control the linearly polarized femtosecond pump pulse frequency chirp for supercontinuum (SC) generation in a high birefringence photonic crystal fiber (PCF). By accurately controlling the second order phase distortion and polarization direction of incident pulses, the output SC spectrum can be tuned to various spectral energy distributions and bandwidths. The pump pulse energy and bandwidth are preserved in our experiment. It is found that SC with broader bandwidth can be generated with positive chirped pump pulses except when the chirp value is larger than the optimal value, and the same optimal value exists for the pump pulses polarized along the two principal axes. With optimal positive chirp, more than 78% of the pump energy can be transferred to below 750 nm. Otherwise, negative chirp will weaken the blue-shift broadening and the SC bandwidth.     

Tailoring dispersion properties of photonic crystal waveguides by topology optimization

The paper describes a systematic method for the tailoring of dispersion properties of slab-based photonic crystal waveguides. The method is based on the topology optimization method which consists in repeated finite element frequency domain analyzes, analytical sensitivity analyzes and gradient based design updates. The goal of the optimization process is to come up with slow light, zero group velocity dispersion photonic waveguides or photonic waveguides with tailored dispersion properties for dispersion compensation purposes. Two examples concerning reproduction of a specific dispersion curve and design of a wide bandwidth, constant low group velocity waveguide demonstrate the efficiency of the method.     

An FDTD Analysis of Nonlinear Photonic Crystal Waveguides

We present a modelling technique for analyzing dispersion characteristics of nonlinear photonic crystal waveguides. This technique combines the nonlinear finite-difference time-domain method, based on the numerical simulation of oscillating dipole radiation, with the super cell approach and the periodic boundary conditions. The technique presented makes it possible to calculate the dispersion characteristics of Kerr-like nonlinear photonic crystals waveguides made by removing some scatterers. A numerical tool based on this technique can be used to design various components for integrated optical circuits.     

Distortion-free delivery of nanojoule femtosecond pulses from a Ti:sapphire laser through a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber

We demonstrate propagation of femtosecond pulses in the 800-nm range through a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber with preserved temporal and spectral profiles for pulse energies up to 4.6 nJ. Without the use of a prechirping unit, 170-fs pulses were transmitted essentially undistorted at 812 nm, near the zero-dispersion wavelength. Because of the air guidance of pulses, intensity-dependent nonlinear effects were minimal, with only 15% pulse broadening occurring at 350-mW average output power. This fiber thus is excellently suited for applications that require single-mode delivery of high-energy ultrashort pulses to the fiber output face such as, for example, miniaturized multiphoton microscopes.