Generation of wide-bandwidth pulse with graphene saturable absorber based on tapered fiber

Wide-bandwidth pulses were generated with a dispersion-managed erbium-doped passively mode-locked fiber laser based on a graphene saturable absorber. The graphene saturable absorber was composed of a tapered fiber deposited with graphene fabricated by liquid-phase exfoliation. The output pulse had a 3-dB bandwidth of 13.6 nm, which is the widest spectrum ever achieved with graphene-tapered-fiber saturable absorbers.     

Chirping effects accompanying light pulse shortening by nonlinear amplification and saturable absorption

This paper studies theoretically several mechanisms responsible for light pulse compression in femtosecond dye amplification chains. Compression arising from reshaping of both the intensity profile and the phase of the propagating pulse is investigated. A compression factor of the order of 2 can be achieved only in the case of combined interaction with an amplifier and an absorber.     

A Bragg-like chirped clad all-solid microstructured optical fiber with ultra-wide bandwidth for short pulse delivery and pulse reshaping

Chirped cladding is proposed as a novel tailoring tool to simultaneously attain wider transmission window and reduced temporal dispersion in an all-solid Bragg-like microstructured optical fiber as compared to its perfectly periodic cladding counterpart. This design route for photonic bandgap microstructured fibers could be exploited as an additional degree of freedom for bandgap engineering. A suitably chirped clad fiber could be gainfully exploited to deliver femto-second pulse with ultra wide bandwidth. Further, generation of self-similar parabolic profile pulse is demonstrated by simulating propagation of an input Gaussian pulse through a 2 m long sample of such a linearly tapered Bragg like fiber.     

Zinc-oxide/PDMS-clad tapered fiber saturable absorber for passively mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser

We propose and demonstrate a passively mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser(EDFL) based on zincoxide/polydimethylsiloxane(Zn O/PDMS) saturable absorber(SA) that evanescently interacts with the light on a tapered fiber. The Zn O/PDMS composite is coated on the whole surface of the tapered fiber to guarantee the maximum efficiency of the SA device, with a measured insertion loss of 0.87 d B and a modulation depth of 6.4%. The proposed laser can generate soliton mode-locking operation at a threshold power of 33.07 m W. The generated output pulse yields a repetition rate and pulse width of 9.77 MHz and 1.03 ps, respectively. These results indicate that the proposed Zn O/PDMS-clad tapered fiber could be useful as an efficient, compatible, and low-cost SA device for ultrafast laser applications.     

Ultrashort optical pulse monitoring using asynchronous optical sampling technique in highly nonlinear fiber

An asynchronous optical sampling scheme based on four-wave mixing （FWM） in highly nonlinear fiber （HNLF） is experimentally demonstrated. Based on this scheme, 10-GHz input pulse train with 1.8-ps pulse width is successfully sampled in 100-m HNLF. A single pulse at 10 GHz with 2.3-ps pulse width is rebuilt by using a 50-MHz frequency tunable free-running fiber laser as the sampling pulse source （SPS）. 40-GHz pulse train is used as the input signal. The rebuilt waveforms, together with the low-jitter eye diagram, are also presented.     

Millimeter-wave pulse generation based on pulse reshaping using superstructure fiber Bragg grating

A novel optical approach is proposed to generate millimeter wave (MMW) pulse signal based on the pulse reshaping of superstructure fiber Bragg grating (SSFBG). In our scheme, one input pico-second Gaussian pulse is transformed into n Gaussian pulses by the SSFBG reshaping firstly, and then the pulse train is replicated to form a required frequency modulation MMW optical pulse envelope by the linear chirped fiber Bragg grating (LCFBG) or other highly dispersive element. The high-speed photodetector (PD) and band-pass filter can transform the MMW optical pulse into an MMW pulse signal ultimately. Depending on this scheme, MMW signals with frequency up to 10 GHz can be easily generated by the completed fiber components.     

Theory of parabolic pulse generation in tapered fiber

We examine similarities and differences between high-power parabolic pulse generation in an active medium and in tapered fiber with decreasing normal dispersion. Using a realistic tapered fiber design, we demonstrate the possibility of parabolic pulse generation without an external pump and determine the limitations of this approach.     

Short optical pulse polarization dynamics in a nonlinear birefringent doped fiber

Numerical solutions are obtained of the full self-consistent system of equations for the counter, rotating polarization components of the field of a short optical pulse propagating in a nonlinear birefringent fiber and in the ensemble of the energy-level degenerate doped resonance atoms implanted in the fiber material. In every cross section of the fiber, the ellipticity of the polarized wave experiences a complex evolution in time accompanied by rapid changes of the azimuthal angle due to the interplay of the dispersion and the Kerr nonlinear self-and cross-phase modulation. The reciprocal effect of the impurities on the traveling pulse causes oscillations of the pulse envelope that can completely distort the shape of the input signal, while the resonance absorption can drive the birefringence process from the nonlinear regime back to the linear one.     

Pulsed erbium fiber laser with an acetylene-filled photonic crystal fiber for saturable absorption

We investigate the dynamics of an erbium-doped fiber ring laser that is equipped with an intracavity hollow core photonic crystal fiber gas cell. The cell is filled with acetylene as a saturable absorber. We observe cw operation at low pressures, Q switching at intermediate pressure levels, and mode locking at high pressures applied. Moreover, we show that the transition from the cw to the pulsed mode may be exploited for sensitive gas detection.     

Reverse saturable absorption and optical limiting in indanthrone dyes

Fluence dependence of transmission in three dyes, viz. indanthrone, dichloroindanthrone and violanthrone, is reported at 532 nm as well as at 1.06 µm. These dyes show optical limiting at both these wavelengths for nanosecond pulses. The limiting is due to the combined effect of reverse saturable absorption from the triplet state and thermal defocussing in the dye solutions.     

Combined frequency conversion and pulse compression in nonlinear tapered waveguides

We suggest an application of pump-degenerate four-wave mixing process in tapered waveguides for generation of ultrashort pulses with central frequency tunable over the material transparency range. Our method can produce strongly compressed frequency-converted pulses in presence of group-velocity mismatch and group-velocity dispersion. Additionally, the proposed technique does not require pulse phase synchronization and effectively operates for strongly chirped pump pulses, thus enabling the use of longer nonlinear media for high conversion efficiency.     

Energy transfer coupling of two-photon absorption and reverse saturable absorption for enhanced optical power limiting

We introduce a new approach to enhancing the optical power-limiting function at near-IR wavelength (~800 nm) by coupling effective two-photon absorption in one molecule with excited-state absorption in another molecule. We experimentally demonstrate this approach by using a strong two-photon absorbing dye, AF-380, and a strong reverse saturable absorber, C(60) . A nanosecond time-resolved experiment is used to show that energy transfer from AF-380 to C(60) generates triplet excitation in C(60) that further absorbs the pump beam to enhance the power-limiting function.     

足球烯分子C_(60)及C_(70)的反饱和吸收性质与光限制效应

报道了对足球烯分子纯C_60及纯C_70的光限制效应的研究结果,讨论了样品的浓度及三重态寿命对光限制阈值的影响.首次报道在足球稀分子中发现的三重态吸收饱和现象,并阐述了其产生的原因及对光限制效应的影响.     

微米级锥形光纤的近场光镊

分别从理论和实验上分析了光纤表面倏逝场强度的分布(z=10 nm, 100 nm, 500 nm,1 000 nm),研究了微米级光纤光镊对微球的操纵。实验中把直径为125 m的普通单模光纤拉制成锥腰直径为2 m的锥形光纤。当光纤通光时,在光纤锥区倏逝场的作用下,直径3 m的聚苯乙烯微球保持平衡状态,并且光纤附近的微球被吸引到光纤表面,以5.3 m /s的速度沿着光束的传播方向运动。这个实验不仅实现了对微球的成功捕获,而且验证了光纤光镊的力学作用。光纤光镊对微球的无接触、无损伤操纵,将在生物传感领域有潜在的应用。     

High speed ultra short pulse fiber ring laser using photonic crystal fiber nonlinear optical loop mirror

A scheme to generate high speed optical pulse train with ultra short pulse width is proposed and experimentally studied. Two-step compression is used in the scheme: 20 GHz and 40 GHz pulse trains generated from a rational harmonic actively mode-locked fiber ring laser is compressed to a full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of ~ 1.5 ps using adiabatic soliton compression with dispersion shifted fibers (DSF). The pulse trains then undergo a pedestal removal process by transmission through a cascaded two photonic crystal fiber (PCF)-nonlinear optical loop mirrors (NOLM) realized using a double-ring structure. The shortest output pulse width obtained was ~ 610 fs for 20 GHz pulse train and ~ 570 fs for 40 GHz pulse train. The signal to noise ratio of the RF spectrum of the output pulse train is larger than 30 dB. Theoretical simulation of the NOLM transmission is conducted using split-step Fourier method. The results show that two cascaded NOLMs can improve the compression result compared to that for a single NOLM transmission.     

Temporal response of nonlinear transmission in optically thick saturable absorbers and determination of saturable absorption parameters

The temporal response of nonlinear transmission in saturable absorbers is theoretically investigated on the basis of a four-energy-level model including an excited-state absorption, and is experimentally employed for determining saturable absorption parameters in saturable-dye-doped films. The approximation of optically thin absorbers is shown to be inadequate to this end. In theoretical calculations, optically thick saturable absorbers are treated by a set of simultaneous partial differential equations: a rate equation governing the dynamics of population densities of energy levels and a propagation equation governing the propagation of optical fields in the optically thick absorbers. By comparing experimental results with numerical ones, the saturable absorption parameters can be determined on the basis of the intensity dependence of response time. In numerical calculations, the effect of random orientation is also considered for optically anisotropic molecules rigidly fixed in saturable absorbing media. The characterization of the saturable absorption parameters is conducted by using uranine-doped poly(vinyl alcohol) films.     

Studies on third-order nonlinear optical properties and reverse saturable absorption in polythiophene/poly (methylmethacrylate) composites

We report here the studies on third-order nonlinear optical properties of two novel polythiophene composite films investigated using the Z-scan technique. The measurements were carried out using a Q-switched, frequency doubled Nd:YAG laser producing 7 nanosecond laser pulses at 532 nm. Z-scan results reveal that the composite films exhibit self-defocusing nonlinearity. The real and imaginary parts of the third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility were of the order 10⁻¹² esu. The effective excited-state absorption cross section was found to be larger than the ground state absorption cross section, indicating that the operating nonlinear mechanism is reverse saturable absorption (RSA). The polythiophene composite films also exhibit good optical power limiting of the nanosecond laser pulses. The nonlinear optical parameters are found to increase on increasing the strength of the electron-donor group, indicating the dependence of χ ⁽³⁾ on the electron-donor/acceptor units of polythiophenes.     

A model for short pulse absorption in a real SF6 saturable absorber

This paper describes a rate equation model that has been formulated for an SF₆ saturable absorber. The model includes three transitions in the ₃ ladder and one hot band transition along with intramolecular V-V relaxation to the bath states. The coupled differential equations were solved using the Runge-Kutta method. The transmission characteristics have been calculated for several combinations of pulse length, cell length and SF₆ pressure. Theoretical values of transmission are compared with the experimental data of Haglund et al., Taylor et al. and Daido et al., and it is found that the model explains the absorption behaviour more closely.     

拉锥光纤中光传输模场的矢量分析

采用二维矢量时域有限差分法(FDTD),考虑了拉锥光纤芯层的折射率分布和光纤芯层直径等参数,详细分析了拉锥光纤的锥度、拉锥后纳米光纤半径等对拉锥光纤中光波模场分布和传输特性的影响。计算结果表明,单模光纤芯层的折射率分布函数对光纤中光传输模场分布影响较小;拉锥光纤锥度越大光波的能量损耗越大;当拉锥后纳米光纤半径逐渐变小时,纳米光纤的光传输模场中心光强先逐渐增强然后又逐渐减小。     

Transformation of an optical pulse in a periodically nonuniform fiber with amplification or absorption

Two-mode optical fibers in which the refractive index varies periodically along the axis are considered. The effect of the imaginary part of a complex refractive index on the transformation and dispersion of a propagating optical pulse is studied theoretically. It is demonstrated that the pulse can be compressed with no phase modulation at the fiber input.