Four-wave mixing in a triple-core microstructure fiber.

We experimentally demonstrate four-wave mixing (FWM) in a triple-core microstructure fiber for a pump wavelength of 1064 nm. We study the transition between the case where FWM happens primarily in a single core and the case where FWM is distributed among multiple cores. The effective nonlinear coefficient is reduced by a factor of 3 (the number of cores) for distributed-core FWM compared with that for single-core FWM.

Stability and instability for low refractive-index-contrast particle trapping in a dual-beam optical trap.

A dual-beam optical trap is used to trap and manipulate dielectric particles. When the refractive index of these particles is comparable to that of the surrounding medium, equilibrium trapping locations within the system shift from stable to unstable depending on fiber separation and particle size. This is due to to the relationship between gradient and scattering forces.

Fiber-optic trap-on-a-chip platform for probing low refractive index contrast biomaterials.

Dual-beam fiber trapping is a versatile technique for manipulating microparticles. We fabricate and evaluate the performance of a compact trap-on-a-chip design and demonstrate, for what we believe is the first time, trapping of low-contrast (m<1.005) lipid vesicles in solution.

Demonstration of nondegenerate spectrum reversal in optical-frequency regime.

This Letter reports theoretical and experimental studies of spectrum reversal with tunable wavelength offset in the optical-frequency regime-two widely separated spectral sidebands can always behave as mirror images of one another with respect to the center frequency of the controlling pump pulse. We call this interesting physical phenomenon "spectral mirror imaging."

Multimodal coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopic imaging with a fiber optical parametric oscillator.

We report on multimodal coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) imaging with a source composed of a femtosecond fiber laser and a photonic crystal fiber (PCF)-based optical parametric oscillator (FOPO). By switching between two PCFs with different zero dispersion wavelengths, a tunable signal beam from the FOPO covering the range from 840 to 930 nm was produced. By combining the femtosecond fiber laser and the FOPO output, simultaneous CARS imaging of a myelin sheath and two-photon excitation fluorescence imaging of a labeled axons in rat spinal cord have been demonstrated at the speed of 20 μs per pixel.

Cross-phase-modulation-induced spectral effects in high-efficiency picosecond fiber optical parametric oscillators.

We explore the spectral effects due to cross-phase modulation and walk-off in picosecond fiber optical parametric oscillators. The output spectrum exhibits pump-power-dependent broadening, which can be quite asymmetric associated with a redshift or a blueshift depending on pump synchronization. By slightly increasing the cavity length, one obtains a blueshifted spectrum and a conversion efficiency as high as 15%.

Fiber optical parametric oscillator for sub-50 fs pulse generation: optimization of fiber length.

We demonstrate generation of 48fs pulses with linear chirp using a short (27mm) fiber optical parametric oscillator (FOPO), which is synchronously pumped by a mode-locked ytterbium-doped fiber laser. We also study the pulse quality for both the short- and long-wavelength operation where the fiber length inside of the oscillator varies from 17 to 61mm. The optimal pulse duration is observed only in the short-wavelength operation.

Design and optimization of fiber optical parametric oscillators for femtosecond pulse generation.

In this paper, we use a genetic algorithm and pulse-propagation analysis to design and optimize optical parametric oscillators based on soft-glass microstructured optical fibers. The maximum parametric gain, phase-match, walk-off between pump (1560 nm) and signal (880 nm) pulses, signal feedback ratio and signal-pump synchronization of the cavity are optimized. Pulse propagation analysis suggests that one can implement a fiber optical parametric oscillator capable of generating approximately 200-fs pulses at 880 nm with 43% peak-power conversion, high output pulse quality (time-bandwidth product approximately 0.

Microstructure fiber optical parametric oscillator with femtosecond output in the 1200 to 1350 nm wavelength range.

We describe an ultrafast fiber optical parametric oscillator operating in the 1210 nm to 1340 nm wavelength range. The system consists of a microstructure fiber placed in a Fabry-Perot cavity which is optically pumped with 1030-nm light from an Ytterbium mode-locked fiber laser. The output wavelength is tunable over a 130-nm span by adjusting the position of one cavity mirror.

Generation of sub-100-fs pulses from a microstructure-fiber-based optical parametric oscillator.

We report on the generation of 70-fs pulses at a center wavelength of 880 nm using a microstructure-fiber-based optical parametric oscillator pumped by a fiber laser operating at 1032 nm. We present optical spectra and autocorrelation measurements that illustrate the generation of ultrashort pulses and the onset of saturation at sufficiently high pump powers. Generation of ultrafast pulses with nanojoule energies provides new opportunities for extending the functionality of mode-locked fiber lasers.

Terahertz time-domain measurement of ballistic electron resonance in a single-walled carbon nanotube.

Understanding the physics of low-dimensional systems and the operation of next-generation electronics will depend on our ability to measure the electrical properties of nanomaterials at terahertz frequencies ( approximately 100 GHz to 10 THz). Single-walled carbon nanotubes are prototypical one-dimensional nanomaterials because of their unique band structure and long carrier mean free path. Although nanotube transistors have been studied at microwave frequencies (100 MHz to 50 GHz), no techniques currently exist to probe their terahertz response.

Four-wave mixing in microstructure fiber.

We report what we believe to be the first experimental demonstration of nondegenerate four-wave mixing in a microstructure fiber. The effect of the chi((3)) nonlinearity is enhanced in such a fiber because of the small core area, and we achieve phase matching by operating near the zero-dispersion wavelength (?750 nm) . We have observed parametric gains of more than 13 dB in 6.

Observation of twin-beam-type quantum correlation in optical fiber.

We report generation of pulsed twin beams of light through optical parametric amplification in a fiber Sagnac loop. By pumping the Sagnac loop with picosecond pulses at a wavelength near the zero-dispersion wavelength of the fiber, we achieve phase-matched nondegenerate four-wave mixing with gain. For a gain of 2.

Optical parametric oscillator based on four-wave mixing in microstructure fiber.

We demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, optical parametric oscillation based on four-wave mixing in microstructure fiber. The measured wavelength-tunability range of the device (40 nm) and the threshold-pump peak power (34.4 W) are in good agreement with the theory of four-wave mixing in optical fibers.

Soliton squeezing in microstructure fiber.

We demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, the generation of squeezed light by means of soliton self-phase modulation in microstructure fiber. We observe and characterize the formation of solitons in the microstructure fiber at 1550 nm. A maximum squeezing of 2.

Octave-spanning, high-power microstructure-fiber-based optical parametric oscillators.

We investigate femtosecond optical parametric oscillators (OPO's) based on short pieces of microstructure fiber that generate sub-picosecond pulses with record average output power (50 mW) and >200 nm of wavelength tunability (yellow to near-IR). Signal and conjugate (idler)fields spanning an octave are also demonstrated. These systems can operate with a wide range of microstructure fibers, pump laser wavelengths and pulse durations, and our analysis shows that in terms of wavelength tunability and output power using short (less than a few cm's) optical fibers leads to performance that is superior to that with longer lengths.

Generation of correlated photons in nanoscale silicon waveguides.

.We experimentally study the generation of correlated pairs of photons through four-wave mixing (FWM) in embedded silicon waveguides. The waveguides, which are designed to exhibit anomalous group-velocity dispersion at wavelengths near 1555 nm, allow phase matched FWM and thus efficient pair-wise generation of non-degenerate signal and idler photons.

Large tunable optical delays via self-phase modulation and dispersion.

We demonstrate all-optically tunable delays in optical fiber via a dispersive stage and two stages of nonlinear spectral broadening and filtering. With this scheme, we achieve continuously tunable delays of 3.5- ps pulses and advancements over a total range of more than 1200 pulsewidths.

Broad-band optical parametric gain on a silicon photonic chip.

Developing an optical amplifier on silicon is essential for the success of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) photonic integrated circuits. Recently, optical gain with a 1-nm bandwidth was demonstrated using the Raman effect, which led to the demonstration of a Raman oscillator, lossless optical modulation and optically tunable slow light. A key strength of optical communications is the parallelism of information transfer and processing onto multiple wavelength channels.

Tailored anomalous group-velocity dispersion in silicon channel waveguides.

We present the first experimental demonstration of anomalous group-velocity dispersion (GVD) in silicon waveguides across the telecommunication bands. We show that the GVD in such waveguides can be tuned from -2000 to 1000 ps/(nm*km) by tailoring the cross-sectional size and shape of the waveguide.

All-optical slow-light on a photonic chip.

We demonstrate optically tunable delays in a silicon-on-insulator planar waveguide based on slow light induced by stimulated Raman scattering (SRS). Inside an 8-mm-long nanoscale waveguide, we produce a group-index change of 0.15 and generate controllable delays as large as 4 ps for signal pulses as short as 3 ps.

All-optical, wavelength and bandwidth preserving, pulse delay based on parametric wavelength conversion and dispersion.

We demonstrate an all-optical tunable delay in fiber based on wavelength conversion, group-velocity dispersion, and wavelength reconversion. The device operates near 1550 nm and generates delays greater than 800 ps. Our delay technique has the combined advantages of continuous control of a wide range of delays from picoseconds to nanoseconds, for a wide range of signal pulse durations (ps to 10 ns), and an output signal wavelength and bandwidth that are the same as that of the input.

Wide bandwidth slow light using a Raman fiber amplifier.

We demonstrate an all-optical tunable pulse delay scheme that utilizes the power-dependent variation of the refractive index that accompanies stimulated Raman scattering in an optical fiber. Using this technique, we delay 430-fs pulses by up to 85% of a pulse width. The ability to accommodate the bandwidth of pulses shorter than 1 ps in a fiber-based system makes this technique potentially viable for producing controllable delays in ultra-high bandwidth telecommunication systems.

Storage and long-distance distribution of telecommunications-band polarization entanglement generated in an optical fiber.

We demonstrate storage of polarization-entangled photons for 125 micros, a record storage time to date, in a 25-km-long fiber spool, using a telecommunications-band fiber-based source of entanglement. With this source we also demonstrate distribution of polarization entanglement over 50 km by separating the two photons of an entangled pair and transmitting them individually over separate 25-km fibers. The measured two-photon fringe visibilities were 82% in the storage experiment and 86% in the distribution experiment.

Tunable all-optical delays via Brillouin slow light in an optical fiber.

We demonstrate a technique for generating tunable all-optical delays in room temperature single-mode optical fibers at telecommunication wavelengths using the stimulated Brillouin scattering process. This technique makes use of the rapid variation of the refractive index that occurs in the vicinity of the Brillouin gain feature. The wavelength at which the induced delay occurs is broadly tunable by controlling the wavelength of the laser pumping the process, and the magnitude of the delay can be tuned continuously by as much as 25 ns by adjusting the intensity of the pump field.