Synchronization and Coherent Combining of Two Pulsed Fiber Ring Lasers Based on Direct Phase Modulation

We demonstrate a scalable architecture for coherent combining of pulsed fiber ring lasers based on mutual injection and direct phase modulation. By direct phase modulation in the common arm of two ring lasers, synchronous pulsed lasers can be generated and coherent combining of the two synchronous lasers is obtained. Two pulsed fiber ring lasers are coherently combined with 0.55μJ pulse energy and 10 μs pulse duration at a repetition rate of 27.5 kHz. Experimental results show that the two fiber ring lasers are phase locked with an invariable phase difference of π and have good temporal synchronization and spatial coherence. The combining efficiency of the two pulsed fiber laser reaches 90% and the fringe contrast is larger than 40%. Neither active phase control nor polarization control is used in our experiment and this method can be extended to combine more beams and higher repetition rate scaling up to higher power.

Powerful 2 μm Silica Fiber Sources: A Review of Recent Progress and Prospects

A review on the progress of powerful 2 μm silica fiber sources in past decades is presented. We review the state-of-the-art records and representative achievements of 2 μm high-average-power continuous- wave, pulsed fiber lasers and amplifiers, and powerful superfluorescent sources. Challenges which limit the further power scaling of 2 μm silica fiber sources are discussed, including pumping brightness limitation, thermal problem and nonlinear effects. Potential and promising roadmaps to go beyond these limitations, like tandem pumping and beam combining, are discussed. Prospects of powerful 2 μm silica fiber sources are also presented in the end of paper.

Coherent beam combination of adaptive fiber laser array with tilt-tip and phase-locking control

We present an experimental study on tilt-tip（TT） and phase-locking（PL） control in a coherent beam combination（CBC） system of adaptive fiber laser array.The TT control is performed using the adaptive fiber-optics collimator（AFOC）,and the PL control is realized by the phase modulator（PM）.Cascaded and simultaneous controls of TT and PL using stochastic parallel gradient descent（SPGD） algorithm are investigated in this paper.Two-fiber-laser-,four-fiber-laser-,and six-fiber-laser-arrays are employed to study the TT and PL control.In the cascaded control system,only one high-speed CMOS camera is used to collect beam data and a computer is used as the controller.In a simultaneous control system one high-speed CMOS camera and one photonic detector（PD） are employed,and a computer and a control circuit based on field programmable gate array（FPGA） are used as the controllers.Experimental results reveal that both cascaded and simultaneous controls of TT using AFOC and PL using PM in fiber laser array are feasible and effective.Cascaded control is more effective in static control situation and simultaneous control can be applied to the dynamic control system directly.The control signals of simultaneous PL and TT disturb each other obviously and TT and PL control may compete with each other,so the control effect is limited.

Research of a fractional-turn ratio saturable pulse transformer and its application in a microsecond-range pulse modulator

As a combination device for a step-up pulse transformer and a magnetic switch,the saturable pulse transformer is widely used in pulsed-power and plasma technology.A fractional-turn ratio saturable pulse transformer is constructed and analyzed in this paper.Preliminary experimental results show that if the primary energy storage capacitors are charged to 300 V,an output voltage of about 19 kV can be obtained across the capacitor connected to the secondary windings of a fractional-tum ratio saturable pulse transformer.Theoretical and experimental results reveal that this kind of pulse transformer is not only able to integrate a step-up transformer and a magnetic switch into one device,but can also lower the saturable inductance of its secondary windings,thus leading to the relatively high step-up ratio of the pulse transformer.Meanwhile,the application of the fractional-turn ratio saturable pulse transformer in a μs range pulse modulator as a voltage step-up device and main switch is also included in this paper.The demonstrated experiments display that an output voltage with an amplitude of about 29 kV,and a 1.6 μs pulse width can be obtained across a 3500 Ω resistive load,based on a pulse modulator,if the primary energy storage capacitors are charged to 300 V.This compact fractional-turn ratio saturable pulse transformer can be applied in many other fields such as surface treatment,corona plasma generation and dielectric barrier discharge.

Relationship between group velocity and symmetry of photonic crystals

Group velocity （GV） of eigenmode is a crucial parameter to explain the extraordinary phenomena about light propagation in photonic crystals （PhCs）. To study relationships between group velocity and symmetry of PhCs, a new general expression of CV in PhCs made up of non-dispersive material is introduced. Based on this, the CVs of eigenmodes of PhCs, especially those of degenerate eigenmodes at highly symmetric points in the first Brillouin zone, are discussed. Some interesting results are obtained. For example, the summation of degenerate eigenmodes＇ CVs is invariant under the operations of wave vector K-group MK. In addition, some numerical results are presented to verify them.

Effects of polarization on intersubband transitions of Al_xGa_(1-x)N/GaN multi-quantum wells

The effects of polarization and related structural parameters on the intersubband transitions of A1GaN/GaN multi- quantum wells （MQWs） have been investigated by solving the Schr6dinger and the Poisson equations self-consistently. The results show that the intersubband absorption coefficient increases with increasing polarization while the transition wavelength decreases, which is not identical to the case of the interband transitions. Moreover, it suggests that the well width has a greater effect on the intersubband transitions than the barrier thickness, and the intersubband transition wavelength of the structure when doped in the barrier is shorter than that when doped in the well. It is found that the influences of the structural parameters differ for different electron subbands. The mechanisms responsible for these effects have been investigated in detail.

Numerical simulation of four-wave mixing efficiency and its induced relative intensity noise

Four-wave mixing, as well as its induced intensity noise, is harmful to wavelength division multiplexing systems. The efficiency and the relative intensity noise of four-wave mixing are numerically simulated for the two-wave and the three-wave fiber transmissions. It is found that the efficiency decreases with the increase of both the frequency spacing and the fiber length, which can be explained using the quasi-phase-matching condition. Furthermore, the relative intensity noise decreases with the increase of frequency spacing, while it increases with the increase of fiber length, which is due to the considerable power loss of the pump light. This investigation presents a good reference for the practical application of wavelength division multiplexing systems.

Comparison between relay propagation and direct propagation of Gaussian-Schell-model beam in turbulent atmosphere along a slant path

a） The relay propagation of Gaussian-Schell-model in turbulent atmosphere along a slant path is studied in this paper. Based on the extended Huygens-Fresnel principle and a quadratic approximation, an analytical formula of average intensity for Gaussian-Schell-model beams in turbulent atmosphere along a slant path is derived, and some special cases are discussed. From the study and the comparison with the direct propagation, we can see that the relay propagation has an advantage over the direct propagation. When the altitude of the target is low, the peak intensity of relay propagation is much larger than that of direct propagation. However, because of the limitation of the relay system aperture for relay propagation and the variation of coherence length for direct propagation, the difference in peak intensity between the two propagations decreases with the increase of the target altitude.

Low-Threshold Broadband Spectrum Generation by Amplification of Cascaded Stimulated Raman Scattering in an Ytterbium-Doped Fiber Amplifier

We present an experimental study on low-threshold broadband spectrum generation mainly due to the amplirfication of the cascaded stimulated Raman scattering （SRS） effect in a four-stage fiber master oscillator power amplifier system. The cascaded SRS is achieved by using a long passive fiber pumped by a pulsed fiber laser cen： tered at wavelength 1064 nm. The amplified spontaneous emission during the amplification process is efficiently suppressed by cutting the length of the passive fiber and by using a double-clad ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier. The generated broadband spectrum spans from 960nm to 1700nm with maximum average output 13.6 W and average spectral power density approximately 17. 7 mW/nm.

Design and implementation of ethernet passive electronic network over coax

To increase the limit of ethernet over coax （EoC） technology in the bidirectional reform of the hybrid fiber coaxial （HFC） network, an ethernet passive electronic network （EPEN） system based on Coax is proposed and experimentally demonstrated in this paper. The proposed EPEN exploits the existing capabilities of the MAC layer in the ethernet passive optical network （EPON） for reduction of cost of the HFC network. As the MPCP （multi-point control protocol） is introduced in the EPEN, bandwidth control and higher efficiency can be achieved. The experimental results exhibit the throughput of system up to 100Mbps, which meet the requirements of HFC network. To improve the performance of EPEN, frequency division multiplexing （FDM） can be used for further increase of the throughput and more hardware processing modules in the future. can be implemented to enhance the capacity

Cryptanalysis of an Improved Flexible Ping-Pong Protocol in Perfect and Imperfect Quantum Channels

We recently proposed a flexible quantum secure direct communication protocol [Chin. Phys. Lett. 23 （2006） 3152]. By analyzing its security in the perfect channel from the aspect of quantum information theory, we find that an eavesdropper is capable of stealing all the information without being detected. Two typical attacks are presented to illustrate this point. A solution to this loophole is also suggested and we show its powerfulness against the most general individual attack in the ideal case. We also discuss the security in the imperfect case when there is noise and loss.

Research on Convergence Network of EPON and WiMAX Based on ROF

Convergence of optical and wireless networks is a promising development for future access network architecture. A Radio over Fiber （ROF）-based network that converges Ethernet Passive Optical Network （EPON） and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access （WiMAX） technologies makes it possible to simultaneously transmit EPON baseband signals and WiMAX wireless Radio Frequency （RF） signals. This article elaborates on uplink and downlink transmission, redundancy protection, and roaming features of such a network.

A novel 2-μm pulsed fiber laser based on a supercontinuum source and its application to mid-infrared supercontinuum generation

A new method to achieve 2-μm pulsed fiber lasers based on a supercontinuum （SC） is demonstrated. The incident pump light is a pulsed SC which contains a pump light and a signal light at the same time. The initial signal of the seed laser is provided by the incident pump light and amplified in the cavity. Based on this, we obtain a 2-μm pulsed laser with pulse repetition rate of 50 kHz and pulse width of 2 ns from the Tm-doped fiber laser. This 2-μm pulsed laser is amplified by two stages of fiber amplifiers, then the amplified laser is used for mid-infrared （mid-IR） SC generation in a 10-m length of ZrF4-BaF2-LaF3-AIF3-NaF （ZBLAN） fiber. An all-fiber-integrated mid-IR SC with spectrum ranging from 1.8 ~tm to 4.3 μm is achieved. The maximal average output power of the mid-IR SC from the ZBLAN fiber is 1.24 W （average output power beyond 2.5 μm is 340 mW）, corresponding to an output efficiency of 6.6% with respect to the 790-nm pump power.

Control of light scattering by nanoparticles with optically-induced magnetic responses

Conventional approaches to control and shape the scattering pattems of light generated by different nanostructures are mostly based on engineering of their electric response due to the fact that most metallic nanostructures support only electric resonances in the optical frequency range. Recently, fuelled by the fast development in the fields of metamaterials and plasmonics, artificial optically-induced magnetic responses have been demonstrated for various nanostructures. This kind of response can be employed to provide an extra degree of freedom for the efficient control and shaping of the scattering patterns of nanoparticles and nanoantennas. Here we review the recent progress in this research direction of nanoparticle scattering shaping and control through the interference of both electric and optically-induced magnetic responses. We discuss the magnetic resonances supported by various structures in different spectral regimes, and then summarize the original results on the scattering shaping involving both electric and magnetic responses, based on the interference of both spectrally separated （with different resonant wavelengths） and overlapped dipoles （with the same resonant wavelength）, and also other higher-order modes. Finally, we discuss the scattering control utilizing Fano resonances associated with the magnetic responses.

Generation of a compact high-power high-efficiency normal-dispersion pumping supercontinuum in silica photonic crystal fiber pumped with a 1064-nm picosecond pulse

Broadband normal dispersion pumping supercontinuum （SC） generation in silica photonic crystal fiber （PCF） is investigated in this paper. A 1064-nm picosecond fiber laser is used to pump silica PCF for the SC generation. The length of PCF is optimized for the most efficient stimulated Raman scattering process in the picosecond pump pulse region. The first stimulated Raman Stokes peak is located in the anomalous dispersion regime of the PCF and near the zero dispersion wavelength; thus the SC generation process can benefit from both a normal dispersion pumping scheme and an anomalous dispersion pumping scheme. The 51.7-W SC spanning from about 700 nm to beyond 1700 nm is generated with an all-fiber configuration, and the pump-to-SC conversion efficiency is up to 90%. In order to avoid the output fiber end face damage and increase the stability of the system, an improved output solution for the high power SC is proposed in our experiment. This high-efficiency near-infrared SC source is very suitable for applications in which average output power and spectral power density are firstly desirable.

Investigation of pump-wavelength dependence of terahertz-wave parametric oscillator based on LiNbO_3

This paper investigates the performances of terahertz-wave parametric oscillators （TPOs） based on the LiNbO3 crystal at different pump wavelengths.The calculated results show that TPO characteristics,including the frequency tuning range,the THz-wave gain and the stability of THz-wave output direction based on the Si-prism coupler,can be significantly improved by using a short-wavelength pump.It also demonstrates that a long-wavelength-pump allows the employment of a short TPO cavity due to an enlarged phase-matching angle,that is,an increased angular separation between the pump and oscillated Stokes beams under the THz-wave generation at a specific frequency. The study provides an useful guide and a theoretical basis for the further improvement of TPO systems.

Phase-matching analysis of four-wave mixing induced by modulation instability in a single-mode fiber

Four-wave mixing induced by modulation instability in a single-mode fiber is analyzed from the phase-matching point of view. For the two-channel transmission, a method is proposed to select the four-wave-mixing-induced sidebands, which is based on the proper use of a continuous-wave and a pulse as light sources. We find that a mass of sidebands are generated in the modulation instability resonance region, and the power of the sideband increases with not only the peak power of the pump pulse but also the continuous-wave power which acts as a seed. The research will provide guidance for fiber communication and sensing systems using wavelength division multiplexing technology.

Abnormal Polarity Effects of Streamer Discharge in Propylene Carbonate under Microsecond Pulses

Propylene carbonate （PC） has a great potential to be used as an energy storage medium in the compact pulsed power sources due to its high dielectric constant and large resistivity. We investigate both the positive and negative breakdown characteristics of PC. The streamer patterns are obtained by ultra-high-speed cameras. The experimental results show that the positive breakdown voltage of PC is about 135% higher than the negative one, which is abnormal compared with the common liquid. The shape of the positive streamer is filamentary and branchy, while the negative streamer is tree-like and less branched. According to these experimental results, a charge layer structure model at the interface between the metal electrode and liquid is presented. It is suggested that the abnormal polarity effect basically arises from the electric field strength difference in the interface between both electrodes and PC. What is more, the recombination radiation and photoionization also play an important role in the whole discharge process.

The 260-W coherent beam combining of two compact fibre amplifier chains

Coherent beam combining of two fibre amplifier chains with a total power of 260 W in a compact system using the stochastic parallel gradient descent （SPGD） algorithm is demonstrated. A 150 MHz linewidth fibre laser is built and introduced for high-power amplification to mitigate stimulated Brillouin scattering （SBS）. Compact high-power amplifier chains are built with low power all-fibre system and high-power bulk free-optics fibre amplifiers. When the total power is about 260 W, active phase-locking of two high-power amplifiers is demonstrated using the SPGD algorithm. In closed-loop, the power in the main lobe increases 1.68 times, the visibility is increased from 0 to 0.62, and the phase residual error is less than λ/10.

A simple model of suppressing stimulated Brillouin scattering in optical fiber with frequency-modulated laser

A simple model is developed to study the mechanism of stimulated Brillouin scattering（SBS） suppression with frequency-modulated laser in optical fiber. By taking into account the laser frequency distribution along the fiber induced by frequency modulation, the average effective Brillouin gain is calculated to determine the SBS threshold. Experimental results show agreement with the numerical analysis. The application for SBS suppression in interferometric fiber sensing system is also discussed in this paper. The results show that the maximum input power can be increased effectively by frequency modulation method.