Photonics sensing at the thermodynamic limit.

We report a slow-light fiber Bragg grating strain sensor with a resolution limited by the extremely low thermodynamic phase fluctuations of the fiber. This was accomplished by using a short grating (4.5 mm) to enhance the thermal phase noise, an ultra-stable interrogation laser to lower the laser frequency noise, and a slow-light mode with a high group index (∼533) to suppress all other noise sources. We demonstrate that in a similar but longer grating (21 mm), the phase noise is suppressed in inverse proportion to the square root of the length, in accordance with theory, leading to a strain resolution as low as 130 fε/√Hz and a minimum detectable length of ∼3×10-15 m at 1.5 kHz.

High Purcell factor in fiber Bragg gratings utilizing the fundamental slow-light mode.

We demonstrate through numerical simulations that the slow-light resonances that exist in strong, apodized fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) fabricated with femtosecond pulses in deuterium-loaded fibers can exhibit very large intensity enhancements and Purcell factors with the proper optimization of their length. This potential is illustrated with two saturated FBGs that are less than 5 mm long and have been annealed to reduce their internal loss. The first one exhibits the largest measured Purcell factor in an all-fiber device (38.7), and the second one exhibits the largest intensity enhancement (1525). These devices are anticipated to have significant applications in quantum-dot lasers, nonlinear fiber devices, and cavity quantum-electrodynamics experiments.

Slowing down light to 300 km/s in a deuterium-loaded fiber Bragg grating.

We report light propagation with a group velocity of only 300 km/s, a group index of 1010, and a group delay of 42 ns, in a strong apodized fiber Bragg grating 12.5 mm in length. The grating was fabricated in a deuterium-loaded fiber using a femtosecond laser and a phase mask, followed by annealing to reduce residual losses. Data analysis indicates a strong index modulation of 1.98×10(-3) and an ultra-low single-pass power loss of 0.010 dB.

Observation of ~20 ns group delay in a low-loss apodized fiber Bragg grating.

We report a record group delay of 19.5 ns (an equivalent group index of 292) measured in a strongly apodized, 2 cm long, femtosecond fiber Bragg grating (FBG). This significant (~4-fold) improvement over the previous record results from the presence of a Fabry-Perot arising from the apodization. The measured group-index spectrum is well explained by a model that accounts for the apodized profiles of the index modulation, propagation loss, and birefringence of the grating. The peak power loss inferred from this model is only ~0.12 m⁻¹, which is one of the lowest values reported for an FBG.