Transient dynamics of dissipative solitons formation in a net-normal dispersion mode-locked fiber laser based on nonlinear polarization evolution.

In mode-locked fiber lasers, the formation of ultrashort pulses from noisy or unstable states is a crucial area of research. Investigating these complex nonlinear dynamics can lead to valuable insights and new practical engineering techniques, particularly for the design and optimization of optical systems. Time-stretch dispersive Fourier transform, utilized in our study to investigate dissipative solitons formation in a net-normal dispersion nonlinear polarization evolution mode-locked fiber laser, provides a window into the intricate dynamics of such systems. In our experiments, the identification of five distinct transient stages in the formation process sheds light on the underlying mechanisms of dissipative soliton (DS) formation. The five distinct transient stages involved in the formation process include relaxation oscillation, modulation instability, spectral broadening, soliton explosions (SEs), and stable mode-locking. Notably, we also observed the generation of dissipative rogue waves during the SE stage. Our findings shed light on the intricate dynamics of DS formation and offer valuable insights for the design and optimization of mode-locked fiber lasers.

Optical curvature sensor with high resolution based on in-line fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer and microwave photonic filter.

Curvature measurement plays an important role in structural health monitoring, robot-pose measuring, etc. High-resolution curvature measurement is highly demanded. In this paper, an optical curvature sensor with high resolution based on in-fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) and microwave photonic filter (MPF) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The in-fiber MZI is constructed with a ring-core fiber (RCF) which is fusion spliced between two coreless fibers (CLFs). The structure of CLF-RCF-CLF is then sandwiched between two segments of single-mode fiber (SMF), making the whole interferometer structure of SMF-CLF-RCF-CLF-SMF. The operating principle is that different curvatures will cause the variations of the interference spectrum of MZI due to elastic-optic effect, and then the variations are converted into the frequency-shift of the MPF. The factors affecting the visibility of the interference spectrum are researched. A preliminary exploration of the multiplexing demodulation for the in-fiber-MZIs is also investigated and discussed, which is for the first time to the best of our knowledge, holding great potential to pave the way for constructing the sensing network composed of interferometric sensors. The curvature measurement sensitivity is -147.634 MHz/m-1, and the resolution is 6.774 × 10-6 m-1 which is the highest value up to now.

Multiplexed sensing interrogation technique based on a flexibly switchable multi-passband RF filter by using a Solc-Sagnac loop.

In this paper, we have proposed and experimentally demonstrated a multiplexed sensing interrogation technique based on a flexibly switchable multi-passband RF filter with a polarization maintaining fiber (PMF) Solc-Sagnac loop. A high-order Solc-Sagnac loop can be used as a spectrum slicer as well as sensing heads, and a multi-passband microwave photonic filter (MPF) can be achieved together with a dispersive medium. Environmental parameter variations will cause a frequency shift of the corresponding passband of the MPF, so by employing only one Sagnac loop, it is possible to monitor several environmental parameters simultaneously. In this article, we have demonstrated and analyzed the performance of the flexibly switchable multi-passband MPF by using a second-order Solc-Sagnac loop. To demonstrate the temperature sensing capabilities of our interrogation system, we have applied temperature changes individually to Sensor Head 1 (L P M F 1 ≈0.97m) only, Sensor Head 2 (L P M F 2 ≈2.97m) only, and both Sensor Head 1 and 2 in the experiment. By monitoring frequency shift of the MPF's passbands, the sensitivities for Sensor Head 1 and Sensor Head 2 have been estimated to be -0.275 ± 0.011 MHz/℃ and -0.811 ± 0.013 MHz/℃ respectively, which show a good sensing linearity and stability. By utilizing the longer length of the sensing PMF, higher sensitivity can be achieved. By using Solc-Sagnac loop with higher order, more sensors can be multiplexed.

Temperature measurement using a multi-wavelength fiber ring laser based on a hybrid gain medium and Sagnac interferometer.

In this paper, a multi-wavelength fiber ring laser (MWFRL) based on a hybrid gain medium and Sagnac interferometer (SI) used for temperature measurement has been proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Experiments have been carried out with polarization maintaining fibers (PMF) of different lengths, which are incorporated in the SI as sensing elements. Stable multi-wavelength oscillation at 1560 nm band is successfully achieved with the wavelength instability of ±0.08 nm and the signal-to-noise of 42 dB. The experimental results show that the wavelength change of the MWFRL with temperature variation has a good linear response and the temperature sensitivity of 1.8063 ± 0.00933 nm/°C is obtained when the length of the PMF is 1.7 m. As the length of PMF increases, the sensitivity can be improved.

Mid-infrared Raman lasers and Kerr-frequency combs from an all-silica narrow-linewidth microresonator/fiber laser system.

Mid-infrared (mid-IR) lasers have great applications in bio-molecular sensing due to strong vibrational fingerprints in this wavelength range. However, it is a huge challenge to realize mid-IR lasers in conventional silica materials. Here, we demonstrate the generation of mid-IR Raman lasers and Kerr-frequency combs from an all-silica microresonator/fiber laser system. A single wavelength narrow-linewidth laser at ∼2 µm is first realized by using an ultrahigh Q-factor silica whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) microresonator as mode-selection mirror, and thulium-doped silica fiber as gain medium. Due to the strong intensity enhancement in the microresonator itself, multiple third-order nonlinear optical effects are observed, which include stimulated Stokes and anti-Stokes Raman scattering, and (cascaded) four-wave-mixing (FWM). The stimulated Stokes and anti-Stokes Raman scattering shift the initial 2 µm narrow-linewidth laser to as far as ∼2.75 µm and ∼1.56 µm, respectively. While the cascaded FWM helps to form a Kerr-frequency comb with a broad bandwidth of ∼900 nm and a mode spacing of twice of the microresonator free-spectral-range. This work offers a simple and effective route to realize all-silica mid-IR lasers based on enhanced optical nonlinearity in WGM microresonators.

Fiber Bragg grating sensor interrogation system based on an optoelectronic oscillator loop.

In this article, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor interrogation technique based on an optoelectronic oscillator (OEO). The main components of the OEO loop in this proposed scheme contains an electro-optic modulator (EOM), a section of dispersive element, an electric filter, and a photodiode (PD). The reflection signal of the FBG sensor is functioning as the optical source of the OEO. The oscillating frequency of the OEO is determined by the overall time delay of the OEO loop. Due to the dispersive element in the loop, time delay of the OEO loop is a function of the OEO optical source wavelength. As a result, the wavelength change of the FBG can be converted into the oscillating frequency shift of the OEO. A proof-of-concept FBG based axial strain sensing experiment is carried out. The experimental results show that the frequency of the OEO generated microwave signals have a good linear relationship with the axial strain applied to the FBG. The sensitivity is about 58 Hz/µÎµ when using dispersion compensation fiber (DCF) with dispersion of -120 ps/(nm*km) as the dispersive medium and tracking the microwave signal with frequency near 2056.4 MHz, which is consistent with the theoretical calculation. The proposed method can also be applied to interrogate optical sensors based on detecting the wavelength change of the optical signals.

Preparation of AgCl Particles with Different Superwettabilities by Particle Size Regulation.

In this work, a simple ammonia evaporation process to obtain AgCl powder with arbitrary superwettability, without introducing any low-surface-free-energy modifier, was investigated. By controlling the recrystallization parameters of the ammonia evaporation process, AgCl crystals precipitated from AgCl-ammonia solution show different wettabilities ranging from superhydrophilicity, via hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity, to superhydrophobicity, with the same chemical composition and structure. Characterization of the obtained AgCl samples with different wettabilities confirms the decisive effect of particle size although light irradiation also causes their wettability transformation.

A Spectral Reconstruction Algorithm of Miniature Spectrometer Based on Sparse Optimization and Dictionary Learning.

The miniaturization of spectrometer can broaden the application area of spectrometry, which has huge academic and industrial value. Among various miniaturization approaches, filter-based miniaturization is a promising implementation by utilizing broadband filters with distinct transmission functions. Mathematically, filter-based spectral reconstruction can be modeled as solving a system of linear equations. In this paper, we propose an algorithm of spectral reconstruction based on sparse optimization and dictionary learning. To verify the feasibility of the reconstruction algorithm, we design and implement a simple prototype of a filter-based miniature spectrometer. The experimental results demonstrate that sparse optimization is well applicable to spectral reconstruction whether the spectra are directly sparse or not. As for the non-directly sparse spectra, their sparsity can be enhanced by dictionary learning. In conclusion, the proposed approach has a bright application prospect in fabricating a practical miniature spectrometer.

Sensitivity enhanced fiber sensor based on a fiber ring microwave photonic filter with the Vernier effect.

A temperature sensor employing the Vernier effect generated from a cascaded fiber rings based microwave photonic filter (MPF) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The structure of the fiber ring is used as a sensing element as well as the sampling and delaying component of the MPF in our proposed sensing scheme. The sensing characteristics of both single ring and cascaded fiber rings based sensors have been studied and compared. By employing two cascaded fiber rings of slightly different length, the Vernier effect can be generated in the frequency response of the MPF. The sensing interrogation of the cascaded fiber rings based sensor is conducted by detecting the frequency shift of the upper envelope of the measured frequency response curve. The experimental results show that the sensitivity of the cascaded fiber rings based sensor can be improved about 30 times compared with the single fiber ring based temperature sensor.

Sensing interrogation technique for fiber-optic interferometer type of sensors based on a single-passband RF filter.

In this paper, a sensing interrogation system for fiber-optic interferometer type of sensors by using a single-passband radio-frequency (RF) filter has been proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The fiber-optic interferometer based sensors can give continuous optical sampling, and along with dispersive medium a single-passband RF frequency response can be achieved. The sensing parameter variation on the fiber-optic interferometer type of sensors will affect their free spectrum range, and thus the peak frequency of the RF filter. By tracking the central frequency of the passband the sensing parameter can be demodulated. As a demonstration, in our experiment a fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer (FMZI) based temperature sensor has been interrogated. By tracking the peak frequency of the passband the temperature variation can be monitored. In our experiment, the sensing responsivity of 10.5 MHz/°C, 20.0 MHz/°C and 41.2 MHz/°C, when the lengths of sensing fiber are 1 m, 2 m and 4 m have been achieved.

[Study on the Plasma Parameters of the Spot-Halo Hexagon Pattern with Optical Emission Spectrum].

The spot-halo hexagon pattern consisted of the center spot and hexagon halo in dielectric barrier discharge is researched, which filled with gas-mixture of argon and air. The pictures taken from the experiment shows that there is an obvious difference on brightness between the center spot and hexagon halo. All of these phenomena suggest that the center spot and hexagon halo are probably in different plasma state. The plasma parameters of the center spot and hexagon halo in the spot-halo hexagon pattern as a function of gas pressure are studied in details by using optical emission spectra. The emission spectra of the N2 second positive band(C3Πu→B3Πg)are measured, from which the molecule vibrational temperature of the center spot and hexagon halo are calculated. Based on the relative intensity of the line at 391.4 nm and the N2 line at 394.1 nm, the change of the electron average energy of the center spot and hexagon halo as a function of gas pressure is investigated. The electron density is studied by using the broadening of the spectral line 696.5 nm. It is found that the main chart of the spot-halo hexagon pattern is the argon content from 60% to 75% and the pressure from 30 to 46 kPa. The molecule vibrational temperature and electron average energy of the hexagon halo are higher than those of the center spot at the same pressure. As the pressure gradually increased from 30 to 46 kPa, the molecule vibrational temperature and electron average energy of the center spot and hexagon halo are increased, too. The broadening of the spectral line of the hexagon halo is bigger than the center spot at the same pressure, which increases with the gas pressure increasing. It indicates that the electron density increases with gas pressure increasing. The different plasma state of the center spot and hexagon halo show that the different formations mechanism of them. It is found that there are volume discharges firstly and then comes surface discharges with e high speed camera.

Switchable and tunable microwave frequency multiplication based on a dual-passband microwave photonic filter.

In this paper, a novel approach to implement switchable and tunable microwave frequency multiplication has been proposed and experimentally demonstrated. High order harmonics of microwave signal with external modulation technique can be selected by using a novel switchable dual-passband microwave photonic filter (MPF) based on a modified fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer (FMZI) and a dispersive medium. By adjusting the polarization controllers in the modified FMZI, the passbands of the MPF can switch between lower frequency, higher frequency or dual-passband states, and by changing the length of the variable optical delay line (VODL) in the modified FMZI, the central frequencies of these passbands can also be tuned. Therefore, tunable and switchable microwave signal frequency multiplication can be achieved. The experimental results show that by modulating a driving signal with frequency of 2.5 GHz, a signal with frequency of 7.5 GHz, which is three times of the driving frequency, the other one with the frequency of 15 GHz, which is six times of the driving frequency can be generated and freely switchable between two frequencies and dual frequency states by simply adjusting the polarization controllers in the modified FMZI.

Direct generation of 2 W average-power and 232 nJ picosecond pulses from an ultra-simple Yb-doped double-clad fiber laser.

We report the generation of 2.06 W average-power and 232 nJ picosecond mode-locked pulses directly from an ultra-simple Yb-doped fiber laser. A section of Yb-doped double-clad fiber pumped by a 976 nm laser diode provides the large gain, and the linear cavity is simply formed by a 1064 nm highly reflective fiber Bragg grating and a fiber loop mirror (FLM) using a 5/95 optical coupler. The asymmetric FLM not only acts as the output mirror for providing ∼20% optical feedback, but also equivalently behaves as a nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) to initiate the mode-locking operation in this cavity. Stable mode-locking is therefore achieved over a pump power of 3.76 W. The mode-locked pulses show the dissipative soliton resonance (DSR), which has the pulse duration of 695 ps to ∼1 ns, and the almost unchanged peak power of ∼200 W as increasing the pump power. In particular, this laser can emit 232 nJ high-energy DSR pulses with an average output power of >2 W. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first demonstration of such an ultra-simple, mode-locked fiber laser that enables watt-level, high energy, picosecond DSR pulses.

Ultralow-threshold cascaded Brillouin microlaser for tunable microwave generation.

We experimentally demonstrate an ultralow-threshold cascaded Brillouin microlaser for tunable microwave generation in a high-Q silica microsphere resonator. The threshold of the Brillouin microlaser is as low as 8 µW, which is close to the theoretical prediction. Moreover, the fifth-order Stokes line with a frequency shift up to 55 GHz is achieved with a coupled pump power of less than 0.6 mW. Benefiting from resonant wavelength shifts driven by thermal dynamics in the microsphere, we further realized tunable microwave signals with tuning ranges of 40 MHz at an 11 GHz band and 20 MHz at a 22 GHz band. To the best of our knowledge, it was the first attempt for tunable microwave source based on the whispering-gallery-mode Brillouin microlaser. Such a tunable microwave source from a cascaded Brillouin microlaser could find significant applications in aerospace, communication engineering, and metrology.

[Influence of Argon Content on Plasma Temperature of Single Filament in Dielectric Barrier Discharge].

The single filament (also referred to as monofilament) which composed of two parts including the center spot and the outer halo is observed and researched for the first time in dielectric barrier discharge, which filled with gas-mixture of argon and air. The pictures taken from the experiment show that the diameter of the monofilament decreases with the increasing of the content of the argon in the argon-air mixture, and at the same time there is an obvious difference on brightness between the center spot and the outer halo. All of these phenomenons suggest that the center spot and the outer halo are probably in different plasma state. The micro character of the center spot and the outer halo is researched seriously in the experiment by the time-resolved measurement with optical method. Three plasma temperatures of the center spot and the outer halo in single filament in different argon content are studied in details by using optical emission spectra. The emission spectra of the N2 second positive band (C3 π(u) --> B3 πg) are measured, from which the molecule vibrational temperature of the center spot and the outer halo are calculated. Based on the relative intensity of the N2 line at 391.4 nm and the N2 line at 394. 1 nm, the changing relationship of the average electron energy of the center spot and the outer halo with argon content is investigated. The spectral lines of Ar I 763.2 nm (2P6 --> 1S5) and 772.077 nm (2P2 --> 1S3) are chosen to estimate electron excitation temperature of the center spot and the outer halo by the relative intensity ratio method. The results show that the optical signal corresponding to the first lasge pulse is the center spot, whose signal intensity is a litter weaker; and the optical signal containing the whole pulse is the outer halo, whose signal intensity is stronger. The three plasma temperatures including the molecule vibrational temperature, average electron energy and electron excitation temperature of the outer halo are higher than those of the spot at the same argon content without exception. In addition, the molecule vibrational temperature of the center spot and the outer halo decrease with the argon content increases from 30% to 50%, while on the other hand, electron excitation temperature and average electron energy are decrease gradually.

[Plasma temperature of white-eye hexagonal pattern in dielectric barrier discharge].

By using the water-electrode discharge experimental setup, the white-eye hexagonal pattern is firstly observed and investigated in the dielectric barrier discharge with the mixture of argon and air whose content can be varied whenever necessary, and the study shows that the white-eye cell is an interleaving of three different hexagonal sub-structures: the spot, the ring, and the halo. The white-eye hexagonal pattern has the excellent discharge stability and sustainability during the experiment. Pictures recorded by ordinary camera with long exposure time in the same argon content condition show that the spot, the ring, and the halo of the white-eye hexagonal pattern have different brightness, which may prove that their plasma states are different. And, it is worth noting that there are obvious differences not only on the brightness but also on the color of the white-eye cell in conditions of different argon content, which shows that its plasma state also changed with the variation of the argon content. The white-eye hexagonal pattern is observed at a lower applied voltage so that the temperature of the water electrodes almost keeps unchanged during the whole experiment, which is advantageous for the long term stable measurement. The plasma state will not be affected by the temperature of the electrodes during the continuous discharge. Based on the above phenomena, plasma temperatures of the spot, the ring, and the halo in white-eye hexagonal pattern including molecule vibrational temperature and variations of electron density at different argon content are investigated by means of optical emission spectroscopy (OES). The emission spectra of the N2 second positive band(C3Πu-->B3Πg)are measured, and the molecule vibrational temperature of the spot, the ring, and the halo of the white-eye hexagonal pattern are calculated by the emission intensities. Furthermore, emission spectra of Ar I (2P2-->1S5)is collected and the changes of its width with different argon content are used to estimate the variations of electron density of the spot, the ring, and the halo of the white-eye hexagonal pattern. In the same argon content condition, the molecule vibrational temperatures of halo, ring, and spot in the white-eye hexagonal pattern are in descending order, while the electron densities of halo, ring, and spot are in ascending order. With argon content increasing from 70% to 90%, both the molecule vibrational temperature and the electron density of the spot increase, while both of them of the halo decrease. And the molecule vibrational temperature of the ring keeps constant, while its electron density decreases. The experimental results indicate that the plasma state of the spot, the halo and the ring in a white-eye cell of the white-eye hexagonal pattern is different. These results are of great importance to the investigation of the multilayer structure of the patterns in dielectric barrier discharge and applications in industry.

Determination of glutathione in single HepG2 cells by capillary electrophoresis with reduced graphene oxide modified microelectrode.

Determination of intracellular bioactive species will afford beneficial information related to cell metabolism, signal transduction, cell function, and disease treatment. In this study, the electrochemically reduced graphene oxide modified carbon fiber microdisk electrode (ER-GOME) was used as a detector of CZE-electrochemical detection and developed to detect glutathione (GSH). The electrocatalytic activity of the modified microelectrode was characterized by cyclic voltammetry. Under optimized experimental conditions, the concentration linear range of GSH was from 1 to 60 µM. When the S/N ratio was 3, the concentration detection limit was 1 µM. Compared with the unmodified carbon fiber microdisk electrode, the sensitivity was enhanced more than five times. With the use of this method, the average contents of GSH in single HepG2 cells were found to be 7.13 ± 1.11 fmol (n = 10). Compared with gold/mercury amalgam microelectrode, which was usually used in determining GSH, the electrochemically reduced graphene oxide modified carbon fiber microdisk electrode was friendly to environment for free mercury. Furthermore, there were several merits of the novel electrochemical detector coupled with CE, such as comparative repeatability, easy fabrication, and high sensitivity, hold great potential for the single-cell assay.

Fast and noninterpolating method for subpixel displacement analysis of digital speckle images using phase shifts of spatial frequency spectra.

A fast noninterpolation method for calculating displacement of digital speckle images with subpixel precision was introduced. In this method, the precise displacement is obtained from phase shifts of spatial frequency spectra of two digital speckle images instead of digital correlation calculation. First, digital speckle images before and after displacement are windowed and fast Fourier transform is performed. Then, phase shifts of different spatial frequencies are linearly fitted in spectral space using the least square method, and a coarse displacement value is directly calculated according to the phase shift theorem of Fourier transform. By a window technique and iterative procedure, the influence of finite image size on the accuracy of the results is eliminated, and the accurate displacement is obtained finally. It is significant that the method obtains the subpixel-precision displacement without any interpolation operations. The test results show that the method has high computing efficiency, high precision, and good robustness to low image quality.

Fabrication of ultraviolet-curable adhesive bottle-like microresonators by wetting and photocuring.

This work presents a remarkably simple method for the fabrication of ultraviolet (UV)-curable adhesive bottle-like microresonators (BLMRs). The main fabrication process involves two steps: (1) creating liquid bottle-like microcavities along the taper waist of an optical fiber taper under interfacial tension and (2) curing the liquids into solids by UV light irradiation. The shape of the BLMRs can be fitted with a truncated harmonic-oscillator profile. Whispering gallery mode resonances of the bottle-like microcavity were excited via a tapered fiber at different positions along its axis. A cleaner spectrum with identifiable and traceable features over a broad wavelength range at the center excitation position and the estimated Q factors close to 105 around 1.55 µm are observed. The shifts of resonance frequency by the input light power change demonstrate the potential applications of thermo-optic sensing and frequency tuning.

Highly-coherent second-harmonic generation in a chip-scale source.

A highly efficient second-harmonic source is integrated into a silicon nitride microring resonator, unlocking the potential for advanced chip-scale devices such as miniaturized atomic clocks and fully integrated self-referenced microcombs.