All-optical circulator based on cross phase modulation in a nonlinear Mach-Zehnder interferometer

We show that by exploiting unequal magnitude of cross phase modulation (XPM) in co-propagating and counter-propagating beams, an all-optical circulator (AOC) using a nonlinear Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) could be constructed. The proposed circulator is novel, simple and polarization independent.     

Switching behaviour of a nonlinear Mach-Zehnder interferometer

In the present paper, a detailed investigation on the switching behaviour of a nonlinear Mach-Zehnder interferometer (NMZI) has been carried out using beam propagation method (BPM). A thorough investigation on input vs. output characteristic has been carried out by varying different parameters like length of the arms, refractive index of the linear/nonlinear arm, wavelength of the input beams and nonlinear coefficient of the material of the nonlinear arm. The input vs. output characteristic has also been investigated by shifting the balance point of the NMZI. The present paper provides a physically intuitive understanding of the effect of change in different parameters of the NMZI on its switching behaviour.     

探测器对量子增强马赫-曾德尔干涉仪相位测量灵敏度的影响

研究了强度差测量方案下,探测器量子效率对光子数态、关联数态、压缩真空态三种量子光源注入的马赫-曾德尔干涉仪相位测量灵敏度的影响.获得了相位测量灵敏度与效率的定量关系,比较了探测效率对不同量子态注入的干涉仪相位灵敏度的影响.研究表明：光子数态注入时,相位测量灵敏度始终不能超越标准量子极限;关联数态注入时,无论多大的光子数,要获得相位测量的量子增强,探测效率不得小于75%;对于压缩真空态,只要有压缩存在就可以获得一定的相位测量的量子增强;关联数态、压缩真空态的注入,相位灵敏度皆随探测效率的增大而不同程度的提高,且压缩真空态比关联数态具有更好的量子增强效果.给出了在量子增强的精密测量实验中对探测效率的要求,并结合实际应用说明了探测效率的提高有助于提高干涉仪探测的灵敏度.     

Mach-Zehnder interferometer with a uniform wavelength period

We have realized a first optical filter composed of optical delay lines and couplers that has a periodic response with respect to wavelength, whereas a conventional optical filter is known to have a periodic response to relative optical frequency. This new filter can be constructed by using a phase-generating coupler (PGC) that supplies the optical delay lines with a wavelength-dependent nonlinear phase. The PGC, which is also composed of optical delay lines and couplers, can simultaneously provide a desired phase and an arbitrary amplitude coupling ratio. We applied our transformation method to a conventional Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) as an example of an optical frequency filter and converted it to an optical wavelength filter. We fabricated the designed MZI on a silica-based planar lightwave circuit and successfully realized what is believed to be the first MZI with a uniform wavelength period.     

Stable single-photon interference in a 1 km fiber-optic Mach-Zehnder interferometer with continuous phase adjustment

We experimentally demonstrate stable and user-adjustable single-photon interference in a 1 km long fiber-optic Mach-Zehnder interferometer, using an active phase control system with the feedback provided by a classical laser. We are able to continuously tune the single-photon phase difference between the interferometer arms using a phase modulator, which is synchronized with the gate window of the single-photon detectors. The phase control system employs a piezoelectric fiber stretcher to stabilize the phase drift in the interferometer. A single-photon net visibility of 0.97 is obtained, yielding future possibilities for experimental realizations of quantum repeaters in optical fibers and violation of Bell's inequalities using genuine energy-time entanglement.     

Error analysis for a Mach-Zehnder type speckle interferometer

A phase shifting speckle interferometer based on a Mach-Zehnder geometry is presented. The displacement field is measured using an electro-optic phase shifting technique. An analytical investigation of the accuracy of the interferometer is performed by considering the most contributing error sources. It is shown that in the case of the use of a low power laser source, the geometrical aberration of the optical component is the main contribution to the systematic errors. The case of the sampling of a full measurement is investigated. It is demonstrated that the systematic error of the full measurement has the same statistics as those given by a simple acquisition. Experimental results are reported in the case of the measurement of the deformation of industrial connectors submitted to a crushing test. It is found that for a peak to valley of 32 μm, the trueness of the measurement appears higher than 160 nm.     

Dynamical resurrection of the visibility in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer

We study a single-electron pulse injected into the chiral edge state of a quantum Hall device and subject it to a capacitive Coulomb interaction. We find that the scattered multiparticle state remains unentangled and hence can be created itself by a suitable classical voltage pulse. The application of an appropriate inverse pulse corrects for the shakeup due to the interaction and resurrects the original injected wave packet. We suggest an experiment with an asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer where the application of such pulses manifests itself in an improved visibility.     

Photonic microwave phase shifter/modulator based on a nonlinear optical loop mirror incorporating a Mach-Zehnder interferometer

We realize a novel photonic microwave phase shifter/modulator based on a nonlinear optical loop mirror incorporating a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. A near-linear phase shifter exceeding 180 degrees and a phase modulation with 2.5 Gbit/s baseband signal are obtained for a 10 GHz microwave signal by this proposed device.     

Wavelength shift determination using a dual-path heterodyne Mach-Zehnder interferometer

This paper introduces a dual-path heterodyne Mach-Zehnder interferometer adopted for wavelength shift determinations. In this interferometer, two parallel incident beams are separated into two interference pairs which are then recombined to generate two interference signals. A parallel plate is placed on the path of one wave of an interference pair, so the phase difference of the interference signals is a function of the plate and beam wavelength, and the interferometer is thus able to determine the wavelength shift of the incident beam. A setup constructed to realize the proposed interferometer is described, it shows that the interferometer has a resolution up to 1.1 × 10⁻¹⁰ (λ²/nm), and the experimental results of applying this setup not only agree the validity of the interferometer but also indicate that the interferometer has a stability of 6.5 × 10⁻¹⁰ (λ²/nm).     

Distributed fiber-optic vibration sensor using a ring Mach-Zehnder interferometer

A novel distributed fiber-optic vibration sensing system is proposed and demonstrated. By employing a ring Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) structure as the sensing section, both position and frequency can be determined by combining two phase signals from the ring configuration. A spatial resolution better than 38 m is successfully verified in a 1.01 km prototype system of single vibration. Moreover, the feasibility of separately locating multiple vibrations is also theoretically simulated and experimentally investigated.     

First-order ether drift experiment with a Mach-Zehnder fiber interferometer

The recently proposed first-order ether drift experiment with an asymmetrix Mach-Zehnder interferometer could be used to detect anisotropy in the speed of light. The experiment has been performed, and no effect was detected within the measurement accuracy.     

Observation of Gouy phase anomaly with an interferometer

The intensity variation of bright and dark fringes in Young's double slit experiment shows that a light beam propagating through the focus of a lens experiences a phase shift (called the Gouy phase shift [Gouy CR. Acad Sci Paris 1890;110:1251]) with respect to its plane wave counterpart. The additional phase change of π introduced on focusing the light beam and then further propagating it in one arm of the interferometer changes a bright fringe into a dark fringe and vice-versa. We have, thus, made direct visualization of the Gouy phase shift by a simple experiment.     

All-optical sampling with a monolithically integrated Mach-Zehnder interferometer gate

An all-optical sampler consisting of a polarization-independent monolithic Mach-Zehnder interferometer with integrated semiconductor optical amplifiers and a temporal resolution of 1 ps is presented. As an example, a simple 320-Gbit/s pattern has been successfully sampled, demonstrating the functionality of this scheme for high-bit-rate waveform characterizations in light-wave systems.     

Single-shot tomography by means of VIPA and spatial phase modulator installed optical interferometer

A VIPA (virtually imaged phased array) installed optical interferometer has been proposed for scanless tomography. Also, a spatial phase modulator and a line-image sensor were installed into the interferometer to realize single-shot measurement by displaying the delay time on a line-image sensor. The correlation peak function was observed on the line-sensor at same time. The envelope of the peak was given by the inverse Fourier transformation of the light source spectrum. The peak position on the image-sensor reflects the sample structure. Furthermore, the correlation peaks are appeared repeatedly along the delay time of the interferometer. The repeated correlation function raise an alignment flexibility of the sample set position, which has been limited in the traditional time-domain interferometry involving the delay time to be zero. The flexibility was experimentally confirmed at 25 mm related to the VIPA coherency. The resolution was experimentally 52.5 μm when the ASE (amplified spontaneous emission) light source of the optical fiber amplifier was used. The single-shot measurement was realized by a line-image sensor of the 30 frames per second. The repeatability of the interfered peak position was 5 μm by the tunable mirror position. The one-dimensional scanless measurement was demonstrated by use of 3-layer glass plates.     

马赫曾德尔单频干涉仪非线性误差分析

 研究了马赫曾德尔单频干涉仪对可调谐激光器进行频率监测时非理想1/4波片和偏振分光镜引入的非线性误差。借助琼斯矩阵对干涉仪建模,理论推导了系统误差公式。理论分析和数值仿真发现：系统的非线性误差为一次谐波误差和二次谐波误差的线性叠加;系统中2个偏振分光镜倾斜角度的非对称主要导致一次谐波误差;波片倾斜角度误差、偏振分光镜倾斜角度误差以及波片相位延迟误差主要导致二次谐波误差,总二次谐波误差近似表现为此3类误差源独立产生的误差的线性叠加;当偏振分光镜消偏比较大时,其产生的误差可忽略。     

Switching behavior of a nonlinear Mach-Zehnder interferometer: Saturating nonlinearity

This paper uses the Beam Propagation Method to investigate numerically the switching behavior of a Nonlinear Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (NMZI). A saturating-type nonlinearity has been considered for the present investigations. It is shown that the input versus output characteristics change drastically when a Kerr type nonlinear medium is replaced by a saturating type nonlinear medium. In contrast to an NMZI with Kerr nonlinearity, where only quantitative behavior changes with NMZI length, quantitative as well as qualitative behaviors change in the case of a saturating nonlinearity. We propose an all-optical stabilizer and MZI with stable “ON” and “OFF” states on the basis of our investigation.