Post-compression of long-wave infrared 2 picosecond sub-terawatt pulses in bulk materials.

We have experimentally demonstrated the post-compression of a long-wave infrared (9.2 μm) 150 GW peak power pulse from 2 ps to less than 500 fs using a sequence of two bulk materials with negative group velocity dispersion (GVD). The compression resulted in up to 1.

Single-shot measurement of the nonlinear refractive index of air at 9.2 µm with a picosecond terawatt CO laser.

We developed a simple, accurate single-shot method to determine the nonlinear refractive index of air by measuring the evolution of the spatial shape of a laser beam propagating through the atmosphere. A distinctive feature of this new method, which relies on a modified Fresnel propagation model for data analysis, is the use of a hard aperture for producing a well-defined, high-quality beam from a comparatively non-uniform quasi-flat-top beam, which is typical for high-peak-power lasers. The nonlinear refractive index of air for a very short (2 ps) long-wave infrared (LWIR) laser pulse was measured for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, yielding =3.

Self-referenced octave-wide subharmonic GaP optical parametric oscillator centered at 3 μm and pumped by an Er-fiber laser: erratum.

This erratum reports a correction to the labeling of Figs. 2(b) and 3(b) in the original manuscript, Opt. Lett.

Self-referenced octave-wide subharmonic GaP optical parametric oscillator centered at 3 μm and pumped by an Er-fiber laser.

We report an octave-wide mid-IR spectrum (2.3-4.8 μm) obtained from a subharmonic optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on a newly developed nonlinear crystal, orientation-patterned gallium phosphide (OP-GaP), which was synchronously pumped by a femtosecond 1560 nm fiber laser.

Mid-wave infrared beam steering based on high-efficiency liquid crystal diffractive waveplates.

We demonstrated two liquid crystal diffractive waveplates: one optimized for near-infrared (1.06 µm), and another for mid-wave infrared (MWIR, 3~5 µm). By employing a low loss liquid crystal mixture UCF-M3, whose absorption loss is below 2% in the 4~5 µm spectral region, the grating achieves over 98% diffraction efficiency in a broad MWIR range.

Performance estimation of dual-comb spectroscopy in different frequency-control schemes.

Dual-comb spectroscopy (DCS) has shown unparalleled advantages but at the cost of highly mutual coherence between comb lasers. Here, we investigate spectral degradation induced by laser frequency instabilities and improvement benefited from active laser stabilization. Mathematical models of DCS in the cases of direct radio-frequency (RF) locking and optical phase stabilization were separately established first.

Midinfrared frequency combs from coherent supercontinuum in chalcogenide and optical parametric oscillation.

We observe the coherence of the supercontinuum generated in a nanospike chalcogenide-silica hybrid waveguide pumped at 2 μm. The supercontinuum is shown to be coherent with the pump by interfering it with a doubly resonant optical parametric oscillator (OPO) that is itself coherent with the shared pump laser. This enables coherent locking of the OPO to the optically referenced pump frequency comb, resulting in a composite frequency comb with wavelengths from 1 to 6 μm.

Fractional-length sync-pumped degenerate optical parametric oscillator for 500-MHz 3-μm mid-infrared frequency comb generation.

We demonstrate a mid-IR frequency comb centered at 3120 nm with 650-nm (20-THz) bandwidth at a comb-teeth spacing of 500 MHz. The generated comb is based on a compact ring-type synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillator (SPOPO) operating at degeneracy and pumped by a mode-locked Er-doped 1560 nm fiber laser at a repetition rate of 100 MHz. We achieve high-repetition rate by using a fractional-length cavity with a roundtrip length of 60 cm, which is one-fifth of the length dictated by conventional synchronous pumping.

Octave-spanning supercontinuum generation in in situ tapered As₂S₃ fiber pumped by a thulium-doped fiber laser.

We report a supercontinuum spanning well over an octave of measurable bandwidth from about 1 to 3.7 μm in a 2.1 mm long As₂S₃ fiber taper using the in situ tapering method.

In-situ tapering of chalcogenide fiber for mid-infrared supercontinuum generation.

Supercontinuum generation (SCG) in a tapered chalcogenide fiber is desirable for broadening mid-infrared (or mid-IR, roughly the 2-20 μm wavelength range) frequency combs(1, 2) for applications such as molecular fingerprinting, (3) trace gas detection, (4) laser-driven particle acceleration, (5) and x-ray production via high harmonic generation. (6) Achieving efficient SCG in a tapered optical fiber requires precise control of the group velocity dispersion (GVD) and the temporal properties of the optical pulses at the beginning of the fiber, (7) which depend strongly on the geometry of the taper. (8) Due to variations in the tapering setup and procedure for successive SCG experiments-such as fiber length, tapering environment temperature, or power coupled into the fiber, in-situ spectral monitoring of the SCG is necessary to optimize the output spectrum for a single experiment.

Carrier envelope offset frequency of a doubly resonant, nondegenerate, mid-infrared GaAs optical parametric oscillator.

We measure the carrier envelope offset (CEO) frequency of the mid-infrared frequency comb (wavelength tunable between 3 and 6 μm) from a doubly resonant nondegenerate synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillator (SPOPO) as a function of the CEO frequency of the Tm-fiber pump laser. We show that the CEO frequency of the SPOPO signal wave is a linear function of the CEO frequency of the pump laser, with a slope determined by the signal to pump center-frequency ratio.

Sub-50 fs pulses around 2070 nm from a synchronously-pumped, degenerate OPO.

We report generation of 48 fs pulses at a center wavelength of 2070 nm using a degenerate optical parametric oscillator (OPO) synchronously-pumped with a commercially available 36-MHz, femtosecond, mode-locked, Yb-doped fiber laser. The spectral bandwidth of the output is ~137 nm, corresponding to a theoretical, transform-limited pulse width of 33 fs. The threshold of the OPO is less than 10 mW of average pump power.

Mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in tapered chalcogenide fiber for producing octave-spanning frequency comb around 3 μm.

We demonstrate mid-infrared (mid-IR) supercontinuum generation (SCG) with instantaneous bandwidth from 2.2 to 5 μm at 40 dB below the peak, covering the wavelength range desirable for molecular spectroscopy and numerous other applications. The SCG occurs in a tapered As(2)S(3) fiber prepared by in-situ tapering and is pumped by femtosecond pulses from the subharmonic of a mode-locked Er-doped fiber laser.

All-optical quantum random bit generation from intrinsically binary phase of parametric oscillators.

We demonstrate a novel all-optical quantum random number generator (RNG) based on above-threshold binary phase state selection in a degenerate optical parametric oscillator (OPO). Photodetection is not a part of the random process, and no post processing is required for the generated bit sequence. We show that the outcome is statistically random with 99% confidence, and verify that the randomness is due to the phase of initiating photons generated through spontaneous parametric down conversion of the pump, with negligible contribution of classical noise sources.

Coherence properties of a broadband femtosecond mid-IR optical parametric oscillator operating at degeneracy.

We study coherence properties of a χ(²) optical parametric oscillator (OPO), which produces 2/3-octave-wide spectrum centered at the subharmonic (3120 nm) of the femtosecond pump laser. Our method consists of interfering the outputs of two identical, but independent OPOs pumped by the same laser. We demonstrate that the two OPOs show stable spatial and temporal interference and are mutually locked in frequency and in phase.

Octave-spanning ultrafast OPO with 2.6-6.1 µm instantaneous bandwidth pumped by femtosecond Tm-fiber laser.

We report the extension of broadband degenerate OPO operation further into mid-infrared. A femtosecond thulium fiber laser with output centered at 2050 nm synchronously pumps a 500-μm-long crystal of orientation patterned GaAs providing broadband gain centered at 4.1 µm.

Broadband degenerate OPO for mid-infrared frequency comb generation.

We present a new technique suitable for generating broadband phase- and frequency-locked frequency combs in the mid-infrared. Our source is based on a degenerate optical parametric oscillator (OPO) which rigorously both down-converts and augments the spectrum of a pump frequency comb provided by a commercial mode-locked near-IR laser. Low intracavity dispersion, combined with extensive cross-mixing of comb components, results in extremely broad instantaneous mid-IR bandwidths.

Characterization and control of pulse shapes in a doubly resonant synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillator.

The intracavity signal and idler pulses of a low-loss synchronously pumped doubly resonant optical parametric oscillator were characterized experimentally and simulated numerically versus cavity-length detuning. At operation several hundreds of times above threshold, the detunings that maximize the intracavity average power do not necessarily maximize the temporal overlap of the signal and idler pulses, as is desirable for devices making use of intracavity mixing. Independent control of the signal and idler cavity lengths allowed control of the widths and temporal positioning of the pulses.

Enhancement of optics-to-THz conversion efficiency by metallic slot waveguides.

A metallic slot waveguide, with a dielectric strip embedded within, is investigated for the purpose of enhancing the optics-to-THz conversion efficiency using the difference-frequency generation (DFG) process. To describe the frequency conversion process in such lossy waveguides, a fully-vectorial coupled-mode theory is developed. Using the coupled-mode theory, we outline the basic theoretical requirements for efficient frequency conversion, which include the needs to achieve large coupling coefficients, phase matching, and low propagation loss for both the optical and THz waves.

Self-phase-locked degenerate femtosecond optical parametric oscillator.

We demonstrated a stable degenerate synchronously pumped femtosecond optical parametric oscillator (SPOPO) as a divide-by-2 subharmonic generator. The SPOPO exhibited passive all-optical self-phase-locking between the pump and signal/idler and thus required no external electronic feedback to produce the phase-locked subharmonic. We employed a type I phase-matched, 1-mm-long, periodically poled MgO:LiNbO3 crystal as the nonlinear gain element and an 80 MHz mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser with 180 fs pulses tuned at 775 nm as the pump.

Tunable mid-infrared MHz-rate picosecond pulses generated by optical parametric amplification of white-light continuum in GaSe.

The output of a long-cavity 2 MHz all-solid-state Nd:YVO(4) picosecond oscillator with nonlinear optical mirror mode locking is used for direct pumping of an optical parametric amplifier seeded with white-light continuum generated in optical fiber by the same laser to generate tunable (5-12 microm) mid-IR radiation.

Optical generation of narrow-band terahertz packets in periodically inverted electro-optic crystals: conversion efficiency and optimal laser pulse format.

We explore optical-to-terahertz conversion efficiencies which can be achieved with femto- and picosecond optical pulses in electro-optic crystals with periodically inverted sign of second-order susceptibility. Optimal crystal lengths, pulse durations, pulse formats and focusing are regarded. We show that for sufficiently short (femtosecond) optical pulses, with a pulsewidth much shorter than the inverse terahertz frequency, conversion efficiency does not depend on pulse duration.