Suspended LRSPP for the development of highly integrated active plasmonic devices.

We present a novel long-range surface plasmon polariton (LRSPP) device consisting of a suspended dielectric matrix in which an electrically active, millimeter-long metallic waveguide is embedded. We show that, by opening an air gap under the lower cladding, the influence of the substrate is suppressed and the symmetry of the thermo-optical distribution around the LRSPP waveguide is preserved over extended ranges of applied electrical current with minimal optical losses. Experimental results show that, compared to a standard nonsuspended structure, our device allows either the induction of a phase change that is three times larger, for a fixed electrical power, or, equivalently, a scaling down of the device to one-tenth of its original length, for a fixed phase change.

Few-mode erbium-doped fiber amplifier with photonic lantern for pump spatial mode control.

We demonstrate a few-mode erbium-doped fiber amplifier employing a mode-selective photonic lantern for controlling the modal content of the pump light. Amplification of six spatial modes in a 5 m long erbium-doped fiber to ∼6.2 dBm average power is obtained while maintaining high modal fidelity. Through mode-selective forward pumping of the two degenerate LP21 modes operating at 976 nm, differential modal gains of <1 dB between all modes and signal gains of ∼16 dB at 1550 nm are achieved. In addition, low differential modal gain for near-full C-band operation is demonstrated.

Six mode selective fiber optic spatial multiplexer.

Low-loss all-fiber photonic lantern (PL) mode multiplexers (MUXs) capable of selectively exciting the first six fiber modes of a multimode fiber (LP01, LP11a, LP11b, LP21a, LP21b, and LP02) are demonstrated. Fabrication of the spatial mode multiplexers was successfully achieved employing a combination of either six step or six graded index fibers of four different core sizes. Insertion losses of 0.2-0.3 dB and mode purities above 9 dB are achieved. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the use of graded index fibers in a PL eases the length requirements of the adiabatic tapered transition and could enable scaling to large numbers.

Fiber-optic sensor for liquid level measurement.

A novel (to the best of our knowledge) liquid level sensor based on multimode interference (MMI) effects is proposed and demonstrated. By using a multimode fiber (MMF) without cladding, known as no-core fiber, liquids around the MMF modify the self-imaging properties of the MMI device and the liquid level can be detected. We show that the sensor exhibits a highly linear response with the sensing range and multiplexed operations easily controlled by just modifying the length of the no-core fiber. At the same time, we can measure the refractive index of the liquid based on the maximum peak wavelength shift. We can also use the sensor for continuous and discrete liquid level sensing applications, thus providing a liquid level sensor that is inexpensive with a very simple fabrication process.

Ultra-widely tunable long-period holey-fiber grating by the use of mechanical pressure.

We report an ultra-widely tunable long-period holey-fiber grating, which combines the wide-range single-mode behavior and transverse strain sensitivity of the holey fibers with the advantages of mechanically induced long-period fiber gratings. We obtain a versatile widely tunable long-period holey-fiber grating with attractive transmission spectral characteristics for optical communications, fiber-based amplifiers, and lasers. The mechanically induced long-period holey-fiber grating shows a continuous tuning range over 500 nm, more than 12 dB depth notches with less than 0.75 dB out-of-band losses, and bandwidth control from 10 to 40 nm.

Vector soliton fiber lasers.

We show by simulations that a nonlinear optical loop mirror with birefringent fiber can have intensity-dependent transmission of vector soliton pulses with a 50/50 coupler. Using this result we propose two mode-locked laser cavity designs.

Beam amplification resulting from non-Bragg wave mixing in photorefractive strontium barium niobate.

Two-wave mixing with a small angle between beams in a photorefractive crystal biased with an external electric field leads to the formation of additional non-Bragg orders and to wave amplification. A steady-state gain of 25 cm (-1) was obtained for an external voltage of 3 kV/cm in strontium barium niobate. Noise amplification and oscillation are also demonstrated.

Observation of interaction forces between one-dimensional spatial solitons in photorefractive crystals.

We propagate two coherent and parallel beams of a He-Ne laser through a Bi(12)TiO(20) photorefractive crystal in the presence of drift nonlinearity. Our experimental results demonstrate that the beams attract or repel each other according to their initial phase difference. They attract each other when they are initially in phase and they repel each other when they are initially out of phase. These experimental results agree with numerical predictions recently published.

Formation of steady-state cylindrical thermal lenses in dark stripes.

Characteristic features of the formation of cylindrical laser-induced thermal steady-state lenses in the dark stripes associated with spatial dark-soliton propagation are analyzed and verified experimentally in an ethanol-dye solution. Positive focusing power perpendicular to the dark stripe is ensured by defocusing along the axis of this stripe and depends strongly on the shape of the light-beam profile and the orientation of the dark stripe within it.

Experimental evidence of modulation instability in a photorefractive Bi(12)TiO(20) crystal.

We present experimental results on the propagation of an interference pattern of two He-Ne laser beams of unequal amplitudes through a photorefractive Bi(12)TiO(20) crystal in the presence of drift nonlinearity. The phenomenon that we have observed is the focusing of the fringes as the nonlinearity of the crystal is increased. We show that such a phenomenon can be quantitatively interpreted in the framework of modulation instability theory.

Nonlinear restrictions of Talbot-like spatial filters in semiconductor laser arrays.

We consider the operation of an active Talbot spatial filter in semiconductor laser arrays. High linearity of filtering can be achieved in lasers with separate driving systems for the array and filter regions by the use of a constant driving current in the filter region. If the regions are pumped equally, then lasers with high threshold current will show nonlinear light-current characteristics.

Prepulses as a distinctive characteristic of resonant pulse propagation in degenerate atomic media.

Prepulses are associated with resonant pulse propagation in degenerate media. We show numerically that the appealing explanation of prepulses in terms of separate pulse propagation dynamics for strong and weak dipole channels in a Q(2) degenerate atomic medium is incorrect, although prepulses remain a characteristic of degenerate media.