Hysteresis and nonlinear thermooptic waves in a semiconductor Fabry-Perot interferometer

We propose and demonstrate the existence of temperature hysteresis phenomena in a Fabry-Perot interferometer, resulting from a change in the refractive index of the interferometer material when heated by laser radiation. We also demonstrated theoretically that temperature multistability in the distributed interferometric system may cause the emergence of nonlinear thermooptic switching waves and found an approximate expression for the propagation velocity of such waves. We present the results of experimental observations of temperature multistability and thermooptic switching waves in a germanium Fabry-Perot interferometer illuminated by CO₂-laser radiation.     

Amplitude and Phase Retrieval of Ultrashort Optical Pulse Using Optical Spectrogram Scope

We demonstrate the retrieval of the amplitude and phase of an ultrashort optical pulse from an optical spectrogram obtained by optical spectrogram scope (OSS). OSS is an interferometric method of obtaining a single-shot optical spectrogram without nonlinear optical effects. Since the optical spectrogram obtained by OSS retains information on the amplitude and phase of a signal pulse, we can retrieve this information without an iterative inversion algorithm from the spectrogram. In our demonstration, we retrieved the quadratic variation of a spectral phase of a linear chirped ultrashort laser pulse from a mode-locked Ti: sapphire laser.     

First step toward a benchtop model of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna

A technique for simulating large optical path lengths by use of digital delay buffers is presented. This technique is used to generate a synthetic interferometer with one arm having an arbitrary length. The response of the interferometer to phase and frequency modulation is measured and found to be in agreement with predictions. This technique could be used to simulate long-baseline interferometric space missions such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna.     

Highly sensitive interferometric system for optical surface contouring

In the present work we demonstrate a highly sensitive system for optical surface contouring constructed by combining phase conjugation and digital phase shifting interferometry. The phase conjugating mirror in the modified phase conjugate Michelson interferometer is based on degenerate four wave mixing in a photorefractive BTO crystal. Digital phase shifting interferometry is used to decode the interference fringe pattern. An increase in sensitivity and high measurement accuracy are achieved through this new combination due to the interferometric scheme and the phase shifting. Experimental results are presented. The interferometric system is flexible and undergoes further improvement.     

40-Gbit/s all-optical circulating shift register with an inverter

We report what is believed to be the first demonstration of an all-optical circulating shift register using an ultrafast nonlinear interferometer with a polarization-insensitive semiconductor optical amplifier as the nonlinear switching element. The device operates at 40 Gbits/s, to our knowledge the highest speed demonstrated to date. Also, the demonstration proves the cascadability of the ultrafast nonlinear interferometric switch.     

Comparative study between interferometric and Z-scan techniques for thermal lensing characterization

This work presents an original, comparative study between two optical techniques for the analysis of thermal lensing induced by a low-power, cw laser beam focused onto a sample cell containing a weak absorbing medium. It deals with an interferometric technique and a Z-scan technique in real time. The interferometric method permits the determination of the spatial profile of the thermal lens. The development of the work puts in evidence the high sensitivity of both techniques for the detection and measurement of low absorption coefficients and refractive index changes in dye solutions at very low concentrations. Improvements in the sensitivity of both methods can make possible the measurement of very small phase shift distortions of the wavefront. One shows also the mutual complementary character of two techniques for the characterization and measurement of linear and nonlinear properties of materials.     

The quantum stellar interferometer

In this paper we propose a new interferometric scheme using photon entanglement. The two main limitations of stellar interferometry are (a) the small sensitivity and (b) the need for long delay-lines to compensate the path difference between the telescopes during observing runs. Entangled-photon pairs, generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion, open the way to measuring quantum states correlation in the near infrared between two spatially separated telescopes and at very high sensitivities (down to a few stellar photons), thanks to a new interferometric layout which does not make use of complex long delay-lines. A femtosecond laser coupled to a nonlinear crystal is used as a local oscillator to perform the double homodyne measurements. This new quantum interferometer allows to measure astronomical objet sizes with very high angular resolution down to μas level.     

A description of the quantised nonlinearinterferometer

A formalism is presented which describes in an elegant way the general output field of the nonlinear interferometer as two-mode entangled coherent states. We also show that entangled coherent states can also be produced for product coherent states without the need for the interferometric configuration.     

Nonlinear modulation technique for NDE with air-coupled ultrasound

The present study is aimed at expanding flexibility and application area of nonlinear acoustic modulation (NAM-) technique by combining the benefits of noncontact ultrasound excitation (remote locating and imaging of defects) with sensitivity of nonlinear methods in a new air-coupled NAM-version. A pair of focused air-coupled transducers was used to generate and receive (high-frequency) longitudinal or flexural waves in plate-like samples. Low-frequency (LF-) vibrations were excited with a shaker or a loudspeaker. Temporal and spectral analysis of the output signal revealed an extremely efficient nonlinear amplitude modulation and multiple frequency side-bands for sound transmission and flexural wave propagation through cracked defects. On the contrary, a negligible modulation was observed for large and medium scale inclusions and material inhomogeneities (linear defects). A new subharmonic mode of the NAM was observed at high excitation levels. It was also shown for the first time that nonlinear vibrations of cracks resulted in radiation of a very high-order harmonics (well above 100) of the driving excitation in air that enabled imaging of cracks remotely by registration their highly nonlinear "acoustic emission" with air-coupled transducers.     

Electric Voltage Tuning of an All-fiber Mach-Zehnder Interferometer

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Electric Voltage Tuning of an All-fiber Mach-Zehnder Interferometer

The electric voltage tuning performance of an all-fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer which has unequal arm-length is studied in this paper. This interferometer consists of two 3 dB fiber directional couplers, with one arm is affixed to a piezoelectric translators (PZT). When the voltage applied on the PZT changes, the output interferometric pattern will shift accordingly. The transmission period of the interferometer is 2.24 nm. When the direct current electric voltage changes from 28.7 volt to -28.7 volt, the pattern will shift for nearly one of its own period. The tuning sensitivity is about 0.038 nm/volt, and the linearity is 0.9991. Also, the relationship between the physical path length difference of the two arms and the interval of adjacent interferometric peaks is discussed. This component has potential important applications in electric sensing measurement and optical fiber communication field.     

Angular Momentum Effects in Michelson–Morley Type Experiments

The effect of the angular momentum density of a gravitational source on the times of flight of light rays in an interferometer is analyzed. The calculation is made imagining that the interferometer is at the equator of an axisymmetric steadily rotating gravity source. In order to evaluate the size of the effect in the case of the Earth a weak field approximation for the metric elements is introduced. For laboratory scales and non-geodesic paths the correction due to the angular momentum turns out to be comparable with the sensitivity expected in gravitational waves interferometric detectors, whereas it drops under the threshold of detectability when using free (geodesic) light rays.     

机器视觉在激光干涉测量d31中的应用

提出一种应用机器视觉技术的激光干涉法, 可以研究压电材料的逆压电系数. 在传统干涉测量法中引入机器视觉实现干涉图像灰度最佳估计, 使用数字图像处理技术, 一方面应用降噪算法有效去除激光干涉图样中的噪声, 从而确定激光干涉场的光强分布, 另一方面将干涉图样的明暗变化进一步转化为可量度的灰度变化以提高测量分辨力. 通过合理设计算法, 该方法中对位移的理论测量分辨力可以提高达一个数量级, 为干涉光波长的1/1024, 因此在逆压电系数d₃₁ 的实验测量中可以有效提高分辨力. 关键词： 机器视觉 逆压电系数 双光束干涉 数字图像处理     

Flip-flop operation in opto-thermal bistable devices with localized absorption

We consider nonlinear interferometric devices based on opto-thermal bistability with localized absorption and show how the introduction of composite structures within the interferometer makes feasible its setting and resetting between stable outputs by applying positive light pulses on different parts of the bistable device. Experimental demonstration of all-optical flip-flop operation is reported for two interferometric configurations, one of them being extremely simple and well suited for parallel processing.     

Enhanced phase sensitivity with a nonconventional interferometer and nonlinear phase shifter

We propose a theoretical scheme of an enhanced phase sensitivity by introducing a nonlinear phase shifter to the nonconventional interferometer consisting of a balanced beam splitter (BBS) and an optical parameter amplifier (OPA), a modified nonlinear interferometer (MNI). Then we use coherent state and even coherent state as inputs and homodyne detection at one output port of the MNI for phase sensitivity, both without and with photon losses. We find that the nonlinear phase shifter can not only improve phase sensitivity, but also significantly resist the decoherence from photon losses. In comparison to both the BBS+OPA scheme with linear phase shifter and the traditional Mach–Zehnder interferometer with nonlinear one, the phase sensitivity of the MNI scheme shows the best performance. It is interesting that the nonlinear phase shifter can stimulate potential of the OPA, although there is no improvement in signal-to-noise ratio beyond standard quantum limit for the BBS+OPA scheme with a linear phase shifter.     

Interference detection of flaws in periodic objects in real time with adjustable sensitivity

A technique of interferometric testing for macroscopic defects in periodic objects is proposed which works in real time and with an adjustable measurement sensitivity. The possibility of compensating the aberrations of the interferometer by using a reference hologram is demonstrated. Interference patterns with different measurement sensitivity are presented which visualize flaws in a metal screen consisting of two overlapping grids. Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 69, 126–130 (October 1999)     

First demonstration of a temporal coherence analysis through a parametric interferometer

We analyze the temporal coherence of an optical infrared radiation in the visible domain by using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and a wavelength conversion stage in each arm. We exploit a sum frequency generation process in bulk PPLN crystal to convert the infrared radiation at 1.55 μm into 0.63 μm before the interferometric mixing. The applicability of the Wiener-Kintchine theorem through up-conversion processes is here demonstrated by direct comparisons among visible and infrared measurements.     

Gravitational wave detection using dual input Michelson interferometer

We propose a new scheme for interferometric gravitational wave detection using a dual input Michelson interferometer. The scheme allows us to put a phase modulator outside the interferometer without requiring arm-length unbalance. Moreover, the scheme can realize sub-shot-noise sensitivity using an amplitude squeezed state of light as one of the dual inputs.     

X-ray interferometric Fresnel holography

The X-ray interferometric Fresnel holography was proposed and theoretically investigated. It was shown that under definite conditions the recorded interference pattern formed at the output surface ofthe analyzer crystal (the third block of interferometer) is the X-ray interferometric hologram (generally the Fresnel one) of the object under investigation. Further reconstruction of an image is performed with the help of visible light or a numerical method. As an example the recording of a Fresnel hologram of the simplest case of one-dimensional object, a narrow slit, and the reconstruction of an image by means of visible light were considered. This method may be used in X-ray microscopy and realized using synchrotron sources ofX-ray radiation, as well as X-ray free electron lasers.     

Nonlinearity management in a dispersion-managed system

We propose using a nonlinear phase-shift interferometric converter (NPSIC), a new device, for lumped compensation for nonlinearity in optical fibers. The NPSIC is a nonlinear analog of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer and provides a way to control the sign of the nonlinear phase shift. We investigate a potential use of the NPSIC for compensation for nonlinearity to develop a dispersion-managed system that is closer to an ideal linear system. More importantly, the NPSIC can be used to essentially improve single-channel capacity in the nonlinear regime.