Active control of terahertz waves based on hybrid VO2 periodic corrugated waveguides.

We describe a method for the active control of terahertz (THz) waves using hybrid vanadium dioxide (VO2) periodic corrugated waveguide. Unlike liquid crystals, graphene and semiconductors and other active materials, VO2 exhibits a unique insulator-metal transition characteristic by the electric fields, optical, and thermal pumps, resulting in five orders of magnitude changes in its conductivity. Our waveguide consists of two gold coated plates with the VO2-embedded periodic grooves, which are placed in parallel with the grooves face to face. Simulations show that this waveguide can realize mode switching by changing the conductivity of the embedded VO2 pads, whose mechanism is attributed to the local resonance induced by defect mode. Such a VO2-embedded hybrid THz waveguide is favorable in practical applications such as THz modulators, sensors and optical switches, and provides an innovative technique for manipulating THz waves.

Internal Cylinder Identification Based on Different Transmission of Longitudinal and Shear Ultrasonic Waves.

We have built a Fizeau fiber interferometer to investigate the internal cylindrical defects in an aluminum plate based on laser ultrasonic techniques. The ultrasound is excited in the plate by a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. When the ultrasonic waves interact with the internal defects, the transmitted amplitudes of longitudinal and shear waves are different. The experimental results show that the difference in transmission amplitudes can be attributed to the high frequency damping of internal cylinders. When the scanning point is close to the internal defect, the longitudinal waves attenuate significantly in the whole defect area, and their amplitude is always smaller than that of shear waves. By comparing the transmitted amplitudes of longitudinal and shear waves at different scanning points, we can achieve a C scan image of the sample to realize the visual inspection of internal defects. Our system exhibits outstanding performance in detecting internal cylinders, which could be used not only in evaluating structure cracks but also in exploring ultrasonic transmission characteristics.

Wave packet interactions in a thin aluminum plate partially immersed in water.

When investigating the wave propagation and mode conversions in a thin aluminum plate partially immersed in water, a kind of wave packet interaction was observed. It was found that the transmitted ultrasonic signal consists of different wave packets, which contain essential information of different wave types. When the incident angle is very small, the signals can be identified as the major wave packet followed by its tail. The major packet includes the information of the incident wave while the tail is related to the mode conversion and propagation in the plate. When the incident angle increased, the major packet was literally engulfed by its tail, indicating that the directly transmitted incident ultrasound disappeared and more energy was coupled into the plate. The interactions between different wave packets found here reveal the excitation and propagation mechanisms of Lamb waves in plates, which would benefit applications in ultrasonic imaging, signal recognition, underwater acoustic communication, and so on.

Self-adaptive terahertz spectroscopy from atmospheric vapor based on Hilbert-Huang transform.

Absorption lines of atmospheric vapor commonly appear in terahertz (THz) spectra measured in a humid air environment. However, these effects are generally undesirable because they may mask critical spectroscopic information. Here, a self-adaptive method is demonstrated for effectively identifying and eliminating atmospheric vapor noise from THz spectra of an all-fiber THz system with the Hilbert-Huang transform. The THz signal was decomposed into eight components in different time scales called the intrinsic mode functions and the interference of atmospheric vapor was accurately isolated. A series of experiments confirmed the effectiveness and strong self-adaptiveness of the proposed system in vapor noise elimination.

Unidirectional optical transmission in dual-metal gratings in the absence of anisotropic and nonlinear materials.

We predict the unidirectional optical transmission in dual-metal grating structures composed of two gratings with different structures in the absence of anisotropy and nonlinearity. The zero-order unidirectional transmission is achieved. Based on the unique property and by modulating the structural parameters, the transmittance approaches to 0% and 60% in the two opposite directions, respectively.

Flat-plateau supercontinuum generation in liquid absorptive medium by femtosecond filamentation.

We have studied filamentation and supercontinuum generation by focusing the intense femtosecond laser pulses into an absorptive medium (CuSO(4) aqueous solution). A broad spectrum from 350 to 950 nm with a flat plateau spanning approximately from 450 to 700 nm with a flatness of 9% is obtained without any additional filters. The results indicate that the absorptive medium not only suppresses the strong surplus femtosecond laser signal but also flattens the supercontinuum spectrum efficiently.

Three-wave shearing interferometer based on spatial light modulator.

The use of a SLM for the three-wave lateral shearing interference is proposed, and an eight-step phase-shifting scheme is developed for extracting phase information from three-wave interferograms. The two-dimensional phase of object is reconstructed from two phase differences which are calculated from two orthogonal sheared interferograms. The flexibility of SLM can be fully utilized in the sense of dynamical controlling of the direction and amount of shear, as well as phase shift. The numerical simulation and optical experiment are carried out to demonstrate the feasibility and reliability of the proposed scheme.

FDTD approach to optical forces of tightly focused vector beams on metal particles.

We propose an improved FDTD method to calculate the optical forces of tightly focused beams on microscopic metal particles. Comparison study on different kinds of tightly focused beams indicates that trapping efficiency can be altered by adjusting the polarization of the incident field. The results also show the size-dependence of trapping forces exerted on metal particles. Transverse tapping forces produced by different illumination wavelengths are also evaluated. The numeric simulation demonstrates the possibility of trapping moderate-sized metal particles whose radii are comparable to wavelength.

Acoustic extraordinary transmission manipulation based on proximity effects of heterojunctions.

Heterojunctions between two crystalline semiconductor layers or regions can always lead to engineering the electronic energy bands in various devices, including transistors, solar cells, lasers, and organic electronic devices. The performance of these heterojunction devices depends crucially on the band alignments and their bending at the interfaces, which have been investigated for years according to Anderson's rule, Schottky-Mott rule, Lindhard theory, quantum capacitance, and so on. Here, we demonstrate that by engineering two different acoustic waveguides with forbidden bands, one can achieve an acoustic heterojunction with an extraordinary transmission peak arising in the middle of the former gaps. We experimentally reveal that such a transmission is spatially dependent and disappears for a special junction structure. The junction proximity effect has been realized by manipulating the acoustic impedance ratios, which have been proven to be related to the geometrical (Zak) phases of the bulk bands. Acoustic heterojunctions bring the concepts of quantum physics into the classical waves and the macroscopic scale, opening up the investigations of phononic, photonic, and microwave innovation devices.

Vanadium dioxide-assisted broadband tunable terahertz metamaterial absorber.

Tunable terahertz (THz) functional devices have exhibited superior performances due to the use of active materials, such as liquid crystals, graphene, and semiconductors. However, the tunable range of constitutive parameters of materials is still limited, which leads to the low modulation depth of THz devices. Here, we demonstrate a broadband tunable THz absorber based on hybrid vanadium dioxide (VO2) metamaterials. Unlike other phase change materials, VO2 exhibits an insulator-to-metal transition characteristic and the conductivity can be increased by 4-5 orders of magnitude under external stimulus including electric fields, optical, and thermal pumps. Based on the unique transition character of VO2, the maximum tunable range of the proposed absorber can be realized from 5% to 100% by an external thermal excitation. Meanwhile, an absorption greater than 80% in a continuous range with a bandwidth about 2.0 THz can be obtained when VO2 is in its metal phase at high temperature. Furthermore, the absorber is insensitive to the incident angle up to 50° and such a broadband THz absorber can be used in applications including imaging, modulating, cloaking, and so on.

A new planar left-handed metamaterial composed of metal-dielectric-metal structure.

An improved planar structure of left-handed (LH) metamaterial is presented, and then designed and analyzed in microwave regime. In the anticipated LH frequency regime, the LH property is validated from the phenomena of backward wave propagation and negative refraction. To characterize the electromagnetic property of the planar metamaterial, we introduce the wedge method by constructing a wedge-shaped bulk LH metamaterial by stacking the planar LH metamaterials. The effective refractive index estimated by the wedge method is in excellent agreement with that retrieved by the inversion method from the transmission and reflection spectra.

Single-mode interface states in heterostructure waveguides with Bragg and non-Bragg gaps.

Interface states can always arise in heterostructures that consist of two or more (artificial) materials with topologically different energy bands. The gapped band structure can be classified by the Chern number (a topological invariant) generally or the Zak phase in one-dimensional periodic systems. Recently, topological properties have been employed to investigate the interface states occurring at the connecting regions of the heterostructures of mechanical isostatic lattices and acoustical waveguides. Here, we study this heterostructure phenomenon by carefully connecting two corrugated stainless steel waveguides with Bragg and non-Bragg gaps at approximately the same frequency. These two waveguide structures can be achieved by continuously varying their geometry parameters when a topological transition exists in the forbidden bands, in which the reflection impedance changes the sign. Furthermore, a localized single high-order mode has been observed at the interface because of the transverse mode interactions, which relate to the non-Bragg gaps created by the different transverse mode resonances. Such a localized acoustic single mode with very large enhanced intensity could find its applications in sound detection, biomedical imaging, and underwater sound control, and could also enrich our means of wave front manipulations in various engineering fields.

Large lateral shift near pseudo-Brewster angle on reflection from a weakly absorbing double negative medium.

We focus on the lateral shift for an electromagnetic wave reflected from a weakly absorbing double negative medium (DNM). A large lateral shift near the pseudo-Brewster angle is found, which may be negative or positive. We give an analytic expression for such a kind of lateral shift, from which the critical transition point for sign-changing of the lateral shift can be easily obtained. Theoretical analysis shows that the absorption of DNM, even though very weak, plays an important role in determining the lateral shift. As evidences, we calculate the lateral shift by means of the momentum method and perform the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations. We find that the results of our theoretical analysis are reliable.

Z-scan theory for material with two- and three-photon absorption.

We present a theoretical study on the Z-scan characteristics of thin nonlinear optical media with simultaneous two- and three-photon absorption, a situation that exists, for example, in polydiacetylenes. With the introduction of a coupling function between two- and three-photon absorption, we find a quasi-analytic expression for open aperture Z-scan traces. We make a comparison of the analytic solutions with numerical solutions in detail, showing that they are in good agreement. This theoretical result allows us to easily identify and determine simultaneously the two- and three-photon absorption coefficients from the open aperture Z-scan traces.

Orthogonality breaking induces extraordinary single-mode transparency in an elaborate waveguide with wall corrugations.

Orthogonality plays a fundamental role in various mathematical theorems and in physics. The orthogonal eigenfunctions that represent the intrinsic motions of various physical systems can also be regarded as transverse wave modes in a straight waveguide. Because of their orthogonality, these modes propagate independently, without mutual interference. When the wall separation fluctuates, the former mode orthogonality is destroyed because of the change in the Euclidean space of the system. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the extraordinary single-mode transparency that arises as a result of the intense mode interference induced by orthogonality breaking in a waveguide with a varying cross section. A mode diagram is also introduced to illuminate these mode interactions. In particular, measurements of the transverse field distributions indicate that a three-mode interaction leads to a single high-order mode that penetrates through the lower-mode bandgaps when the wall period is carefully selected. The observation of Bessel-like transverse distributions is promising for applications in wave-control engineering.

High-efficiency continuous-wave Raman conversion with a BaWO(4) Raman crystal.

We report a high-efficiency cw Raman conversion with a BaWO(4) Raman crystal in a diode-end-pumped Nd:YVO(4) laser. The Raman threshold is as low as 3.6 W of diode power at 808 nm. The highest output power obtained at the 1,180 nm first-order Stokes line is 3.36 W under the diode power of 25.5 W, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 15.3% and a diode-to-Stokes optical conversion efficiency of 13.2%. The intracavity Raman conversion efficiency is 21.5% with respect to the available output of the 1,064 nm fundamental.

Saturation effect and forward-dominant second-harmonic generation in single-defect photonic crystals with dual localizations.

We study the forward-dominant output of second-harmonic generation (SHG) in single-defect and dual-localized photonic crystals within the saturation limit. We propose that an asymmetric structure can be used to improve the performance of the enhanced SHG. We get two empirical expressions for the total saturation SHG efficiency and the forward factor and provide a reasonable explanation. The theoretical results predict a nearly 100% conversion efficiency and a nearly 100% forward output. Our work is very valuable for designing nonlinear photonic devices. As a test, a practical asymmetrical structure is presented.

Passively mode-locking Nd:Gd0.5Y0.5VO4 laser with an In0.25Ga0.75As absorber grown at low temperature.

We have demonstrated stable self-starting passive mode locking in a diode-end-pumped Nd:Gd0.5Y0.5VO4 laser by using an In0.25Ga0.75As absorber grown at low temperature (LT In0.25Ga0.75As absorber). An In0.25Ga0.75As single-quantum-well absorber, which was grown directly on the GaAs buffer by use of the metal-organic chemical-vapor deposition technique, acts simultaneously as a passive mode-locking device and as an output coupler. Continuous-wave mode-locked pulses were obtained at 1063.5 nm. We achieved a pulse duration of 2.6 ps and an average output power of 2.15 W at a repetition rate of 96.4 MHz.

4-ps passively mode-locked Nd:Gd0.5Y0.5VO4 laser with a semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror.

We have demonstrated a passively mode-locked diode end-pumped all-solid-state laser, which is composed of a Nd:Gd0.5Y0.5VO4 crystal and a folded cavity with a semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror grown by metal-organic chemical-vapor deposition. Stable cw mode locking with a 3.8-ps pulse duration at a repetition rate of 112 MHz was obtained. At 13.6 W of the incident pump power, a clean mode-locked fundamental-mode average output power of 3.9 W was achieved with an overall optical-to-optical efficiency of 29.0%, and the slope efficiency was 38.1%.

Tunable high-peak-power, high-energy hybrid Q-switched double-clad fiber laser.

A cw laser-diode-pumped Yb-doped double-clad fiber laser operating in a hybrid Q-switched regime was demonstrated. The output pulses had a duration as short as 4.2 ns, a tunable wavelength range from 1080.8 to 1142.7 nm, and a linewidth of less than 0.05 nm. Maximum peak power of approximately 175 kW and single-pulse energy of 1.57 mJ were obtained.