Generation of frequency shifted picosecond pulses with low temporal jitter

Transient stimulated Raman scattering is used for the generation of a frequency shifted picosecond light pulse; part of this Raman shifted pulse is subsequently coherently scattered at a material excitation of a second Raman cell. Starting with the second harmonic pulse (t_p = 4 ps) of a mode-locked Nd : glass laser system, both the stimulated and the coherently produced pulses have durations of 2.3 ps at different wavelengths. By the appropriate choice of the Raman medium pulses between 13 000 and 21 000 cm^-1 can be generated. The coherent generation process minimizes the temporal jitter between the two pulses and allows to obtain a high time resolution of better than 0.3 ps in excite and probe experiments.     

Localized optical subcycle pulses in dispersive media

The conditions for creation of broadband localized optical fields (Bessel X pulses and focus wave modes) in dispersive media are analyzed. It is shown that transmission of focus wave modes with subcycle pulse durations through fused silica is possible.     

Quantum noise limits on frequency and timing for optical pulses in a linear high-gain amplifier

Frequency and timing noise added in a linear optical amplifier of gain G grows as (G-1)/G. Provided that the pulse is initially in a coherent state, the output frequency and timing noise cannot exceed twice the input value. It is also shown that, in a transmission line with zero net gain and loss, the frequency and timing noise added in the lossy medium is equal to or larger than the noise added in the amplifier.     

Ultraviolet-induced absorption losses in hydrogen-loaded optical fibers and in presensitized optical fibers

Reduced hydroxyl formation in presensitized fibers exposed to cw 244-nm light after hydrogen outdiffusion is reported. The OH band in the presensitized fiber shifts toward 1390 nm. In the fully hydrogen-loaded fiber the OH band is centered at 1397 nm and does not shift with fluence.     

Confinement losses in microstructured optical fibers

We describe a multipole formulation that can be used for high-accuracy calculations of the full complex propagation constant of a microstructured optical fiber with a finite number of holes. We show how the imaginary part of the microstructure, which describes confinement losses not associated with absorption, varies with hole size, the number of rings of holes, and wavelength, and give the minimum number of rings of holes required for a specific loss for given parameters.     

Dynamics of optical pulses in a dispersive chiral medium

The dynamics of frequency-modulated pulses in an isotropic nonreciprocal chiral medium is studied. It is shown that the discrepancy between the group velocities and carrier frequencies of the circular components of the pulse causes it to split up both along the fiber and in the spectral domain. The strong dependence of the material parameters on the pulse frequency may lead to the asymmetric dynamics of the electric and magnetic fields of the pulse in different frequency intervals. For both components of the wave field, envelopes moving with a supraluminal speed may arise.     

Average energy flow of optical pulses in dispersive media

The arrival time of a light pulse at a point in space is defined using a time expectation integral over the Poynting vector. The delay between pulse arrival times at two distinct points is shown to consist of two parts: a spectral superposition of group delays (inverse of group velocity) and a delay due to spectral reshaping via absorption or amplification. The result provides a context wherein group velocity is always meaningful even for broad band pulses and when the group velocity is superluminal or negative. The result imposes luminality on sharply defined pulses.     

Few-mode step-index optical fibers with ultra-low bending losses

We propose a few-mode optical fiber for low-bending-loss applications. We demonstrate ultra-lowbending-loss operation in the fiber by tailoring the core radius and index contrast of step-index optical fibers. In addition, we investigate numerically splicing losses in single-mode optical fibers and demonstrate experimentally the ultra-low-bending-loss operation characteristics. The optical fiber elaborated provides a simple technique to realize the low-bending-loss operation.     

Measurement of net group and reshaping delays for optical pulses in dispersive media

We experimentally demonstrate the direct measurement of net group and reshaping delays for arbitrary optical pulses in dispersive media, verifying the earlier prediction of Peatross et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 2370 (2000)]. Incoherent pulse propagation in an absorptionless system is well described by net group delay; even the medium causes a great deal of deformation in the transmitted pulse. However, in the case of phase modulated chirping pulses in a resonant absorber, the so-called superluminal or subluminal propagation velocity is strongly influenced by the reshaping delay.     

Anomalous pulse spreading in birefringent optical fibers with polarization-dependent losses

A combination of polarization-mode dispersion and polarization-dependent losses in optical fibers may lead to anomalous pulse spreading. We both calculate this effect and confirm its existence by an experimental demonstration.     

Analytical description of cross-phase modulation in dispersive optical fibers

The effect of intensity distortion induced by cross-phase modulation in dispersive optical fibers is studied. It is shown that, in most configurations in which distortions that are due to cross-phase modulation can become significant to optical communications, the effect of cross-phase modulation can be described with excellent accuracy by simple analytical expressions. The presented analysis also suggests that intensity distortions owing to cross-phase modulation can be efficiently reduced by linear dispersion compensation.     

Generation of optical soliton pulses smoothly tunable in a wide frequency range in silica fibers with variable dispersion

The possibility of the efficient conversion of the frequency of an optical soliton pulse in fibers with length-variable dispersion is physically analyzed and experimentally investigated. The effect is based on the Raman transformation of the frequency of an ultrashort pulse, which can be varied with high efficiency due to the compression mechanism of maintaining a high intensity of the pulse in a medium with monotonically decreasing anomalous dispersion. A smooth rearrangement of the spectrum of the soliton pulse 90 fs in duration in the range 1.58–1.75 μm is demonstrated.     

Propagation of optical pulses in periodic nonlinear fibers

We study the conditions of formation and propagation of soliton pulses in a periodic two-mode nonlinear fiber with allowance for dispersion of the fiber material and intermode dispersion of interacting modes under the condition of their phase synchronism. State University, Ul’yanovsk, Russia. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 41, No. 8, pp. 1032–1042, August, 1998.     

大芯径石英光纤中皮秒脉冲激光的自聚焦

本文报道了对大芯径石英光纤中皮秒脉冲激光自聚焦现象的实验研究和理论分析.文中测量了自聚焦先场的近场光强轮廓,研究了自聚焦光场的时域和频域性质,并对环形自聚焦光场的成因进行了解释.     

Dynamics of optical pulses in periodic nonlinear fibers

Dynamics of a two-mode wave packet with strong linear and nonlinear (cross-modulation) coupling is investigated. The effect of the initial conditions of the pulse excitation on its further transformation is considered. The possibility to control the dispersion parameters of the wave packet by varying the initial conditions of its input is pointed out. The effective parameters of the dispersion and nonlinearity that govern the dynamics of an optical pulse in a periodic nonlinear fiber light guide are obtained.     

Reverse propagation of femtosecond pulses in optical fibers

We present a numerical technique for reversing femtosecond pulse propagation in an optical fiber, such that given any output pulse it is possible to obtain the input pulse shape by numerically undoing all dispersion and nonlinear effects. The technique is tested against experimental results, and it is shown that it can be used for fiber output pulse optimization in both the anomalous and normal dispersion regimes.     

Greater than 20%-efficient frequency doubling of 1532-nm nanosecond pulses in quasi-phase-matched germanosilicate optical fibers

We fabricated second-order nonlinear gratings in D-shaped germanosilicate fibers, using thermal poling and periodic electrodes defined by standard photolithography. These gratings, which are up to 75 mm long, were used for efficient quasi-phase-matched frequency doubling of 1.532-mum nanosecond pulses from a high-power erbium-doped fiber amplifier. Average second-harmonic powers as high as 6.8 mW and peak powers greater than 1.2 kW at 766 nm were generated, with average and peak conversion efficiencies as high as 21% and 30%, respectively.     

Nonlinear control of the propagation of optical pulses in doped optical fibers

Results of study of nonlinear processes occurring during the propagation of light pulses in optical fibers doped with atoms of rare-earth elements under conditions of atomic coherence and interference are presented. For a three-level Λ scheme of interaction, the linear (χ⁽¹⁾) and nonlinear (χ⁽³⁾) susceptibilities of such a medium are calculated. It is shown that the coefficients of Kerr nonlinearity and nonlinear absorption can reach extremely large values and can be negative. The competition between linear and nonlinear processes in the Λ scheme allows one to obtain compensation regimes when the coefficients of dispersion or absorption of the optical fiber material vanish. The efficient control of the optical properties of such a system over wide limits proves to be possible owing to variations in the parameters of light pulses at the input of the medium. The necessary conditions for realizing regimes with “slow” light, as well as for self-compression of a probing pulse on ultimately small spatial scales in a doped optical fiber, were obtained.     

Measurement of mode-locked laser timing jitter by use of phase-encoded optical sampling

The phase-noise characteristics of a harmonically mode-locked fiber laser are investigated with a new measurement technique called phase-encoded optical sampling. A polarization-maintaining ring laser is mode locked by use of the short-pulse electrical output of a resonant-tunneling diode oscillator, enabling it to produce 30-ps pulses at a 208-MHz repetition rate. The interferometric phase-encoded sampling technique provides 60-dB suppression of amplitude-jitter noise and allows supermode phase noise to be observed and quantified. The white-noise pulse-to-pulse timing jitter and the rms supermode timing jitter of the laser are measured to be less than 50 and 70 fs, respectively.     

Mode-locked laser pulse trains with subfemtosecond timing jitter synchronized to an optical reference oscillator

We independently phase lock the repetition rates of two femtosecond lasers at their approximately 456, 000th harmonic to a common optical oscillator. The timing jitter of each individual laser relative to the optical reference is only 0.45 fs in a 100-Hz bandwidth. Our method takes advantage of the tremendous leverage that is possible when stability is transferred from the optical to the microwave domain. The low timing jitter is commensurate with the independently measured fractional frequency instability in the repetition rates of < or = 2.3 x 10(-15) in 1-s averaging time, limited by the measurement system. The microwave signals at 1 GHz that are extracted by photodetection of the pulse trains have a 10-times-greater instability, confirming the presence of excess noise in the photodetection.