The implementation and performance of a unidirectional all-single mode fiber hybrid passive variable optical coupler/attenuator based on a Sagnac loop mirror with a continuous variable coupling ratio using off-the-shelf optical sub-components are discussed. Parameters of two output ports of the unidirectional hybrid passive variable optical coupler/attenuator, such as maximum coupling ratio, insertion loss, excess loss, and wavelength- dependent return loss over the C-band at room temperature are reported. The reflectivity of the Sagnac loop mirror continuously varies from 0.1% to 99.9% by adjusting retarders of a polarization controller. The 3-dB coupling ratio (i.e., 50:50) between the two output ports of the hybrid passive variable optical coupler/attenuator is achieved when the reflectivity of the Sagnac loop mirror is set at 73%. The attenuation and coupling ratio range of 1.7 - 45.5 dB and 0.13 - 99.87% is achieved, respectively, from the implemented unidirectional hybrid passive variable optical coupler/attenuator. The availability of the off-the-shelf optical sub-components and achieved easy control of continuous variable coupling ratio makes the proposed unidirectional hybrid passive variable optical coupler/attenuator a cost-effective optical device for several applications including optical system testing, and general laboratory experiments.
Silver (Ag) nanoparticles (NPs) have unique optical, electrical, and thermal properties that are being incorporated into products ranging from optical communication devices and photovoltaics to biological, DNA and other chemical sensors. The optical properties of silver nanoparticles are strongly influenced by their shape, size, distribution, and surrounding environment. One of the main challenges is to maximize the coupling efficiency of incident radiation into plasmonic resonances. In this paper, we present a method to optimize the selection of mono-dispersed Ag NPs size and the wavelength of incident radiation to enhance coupling efficiency. The results are supported by experimental measurements of optical properties of mono-dispersed silver nanoparticles.
A method to generate an optical metasurface is developed. In our experimental setup, we use a pump-probe technique,
where the pump beam is used to project patterns of v-shaped antennas on the surface of a silicon substrate. In the areas
illuminated with the images of v-shaped antennas electron-hole pairs are created. Therefore, the antenna structures on
silicon will have metallic-like properties, we classify this structure as a metasurface. The THz beam probes refraction
and reflection on the metasurface generated on the silicon substrate. The dynamic change of these patterns of
metasurface causes the beam steering effects of THz radiation.
An innovative method of examining properties of metasurfaces is presented. A pump-probe technique is used to create a metasurface composed of conductive shapes on a silicon surface. A wave-front of intense pulse of 82 fs from Ti:Sa laser with wavelength of 800 nm is shaped by a spatial light modulator and then focused into a preprogrammed array of vshaped features on a high purity float zone silicon substrate. The laser pulse generates electron-hole pairs on the silicon substrate, thus a metasurface consisting of an array of metal-like v-shaped antennas is inscribed on the silicon substrate. The lifetime of v-shaped antennas is in millisecond time range. In the meantime, the second, less intense pulse, also of wavelength 800 nm is converted to a pulse of terahertz radiation with a peak-power at wavelength approximately 800 μm and used to probe the metasurface inscribed in the silicon. Tracing the position of the refracted terahertz beam is achieved with a specially designed INO video camera for terahertz radiation.
The authors propose an alternative method for high resolution optical microscopy - Evanescent Field Scanning Optical
Microscopy (EFSOM) which eliminates implementation of the scanning tip compare to classical NSOM technique. The
approach involves scanning a sample in the evanescent-field of a prism generated using total internal reflection (TIR)
and recording the reflected power as a function of position. The reflection pattern of the wave is collected and processed,
using comparative differentiation. The extracted information is processed further to eliminate any distortions. The
system is not limited by diffraction and resolution primarily depends on the characteristics of the photo-detector and
scanning velocity. Implementation of thin silver layer and coupling of incident radiation into Surface Plasmons
Polaritons (SPP) improves system sensitivity and reduces photo detector dynamic range requirements.
Optical fiber parametric amplification is combined with Raman amplification to demonstrate the possibility of extending
the flat gain bandwidth of Raman fiber amplifiers. Counter propagating pumps separated by over 145 nm are used to
pump a section of highly nonlinear fiber. Parametric gain enables an increase in the gain bandwidth by extending the
gain region to the long wavelength side of the Raman gain. Gains of nearly 20 dB have been achieved with this
configuration. To achieve gain flatness of 5-6 dB, lower peak gains of between 8 and 14 dB are observed where the
variations of the gain and gain flatness are controlled by adjusting the two pump powers. Optimal pump powers are
determined that result in good performance amplification by characterizing the receiver power penalty of bit error rate
measurements. Negligible power penalty is observed in the region of strong Raman gain whereas nearly a 3 dB power
penalty is observed in the region of strong parametric gain. An experimental technique is proposed that helps in the
understanding of the coupling of the parametric and Raman processes.
Open and close aperture Z-scans were performed on various CdS quantum dots
embedded in either generation 4 (G4) and G5 poly(propyleneimine) dendrimer films
using picosecond and femtosecond pulses between 350 nm and 1 &mgr;m. The films had an
average thickness of 400nm. The measured values of the third order nonlinear coefficient
were among the highest off-resonance nonlinearities reported for organic and/or hybrid
composites materials. However, the nonlinear response with picosecond pulses were
about an order of magnitude higher than the femtosecond counterpart. We show that the
nonlinear response in these materials is also a function of the dynamics of the excited
states involved and that measurements of the nonlinear optical coefficient with pulses of
different duration is directly correlated to the dynamics of the excited states.
We have measured the nonlinear optical response of Cadmium Sulfide quantum dots (CdS QD) in a poly(propyleneimine) dendrimer matrix having diaminobutane (DAB) core. Large refractive nonlinear coefficients and low absorption losses were observed at all wavelengths. Dendrimers are nanosize, highly branched, tree like monodisperse macromolecules that emanate from a central core with a branch occurring at each monomer unit. Dendrimers encapsulations convey stability, control of emission wavelengths by QD size. The branching points in the interior of the dendrimers are occupied by tertiary nitrogen to provide numerous nucleation sites to drive formation of QD clusters of small size. The dendrimer-stabilized CdS QDs were stable at room temperature, both in solution and in solid state for several weeks. Thin films were deposited by spin casting from methanol solutions. The resulting samples consisted of a 1mm thick quartz substrate with a 200-400 Å nonlinear optical film on one side. The Z-scan technique was used to characterize the NLO response. A mode-locked YAG laser provided the laser pulses with 30-ps duration at 355 nm, 532 nm and 1064 nm at a 20-Hz repetition rate with energies per pulse ranging from few microjoules to several millijoules. These results indicate relatively large values for the nonlinear response (> 10-10 esu) at all three wavelengths. Our calculations indicate that quantum dot-organic systems have large optical nonlinearity due to interactions between excitons in the quantum dots and the organic medium. We calculate that an increase of the QD radius to ~4-8 nm will result in a substantial enhancement of the nonlinearity.
KEYWORDS: Network architectures, Receivers, Transmitters, Signal detection, Stars, Multiplexing, Signal processing, Broadband telecommunications, Failure analysis, Process control
To date, the mainstream Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) bandwidth allocation schemes as well as the new IEEE 802.3ah Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM) Task Force specifications have been centralized, relying on a component in the central office, Optical Line Termination (OLT), to provision upstream traffic. Hence, the OLT is the only device that can arbitrate time-division access to the shared channel. Since the OLT has global knowledge of the state of the entire network, this is a centralized control plane in which the OLT has centralized intelligence. One of the major problems associated with a centralized architecture is the "single-point of failure" problem that is the failure of the OLT software will bring down the whole access network. It is the purpose of this work to propose a distributed solution to this problem, and to devise and experimentally demonstrate the feasibility of implementing a novel Ethernet over Star Coupler-based PON architecture that uses a fully distributed time division multiple access arbitration schemes. Specifically, we assess the viability of implementing a distributed control plane architecture that facilitates internetworking among connected users.
In addition to the added flexibility and reliability associated with distributed control plane architecture, as well as emulating shared LAN capability among different users, the distributed networking architecture and the associated bandwidth allocation algorithms have characteristics that make them far better suited for provisioning Quality of Service (QoS) schemes necessary for multimedia services over a single line.
Single beam zscan experiments were carried out using a 130 fs tunable Ti:Sapphire-OPA laser system. The size and the sign of the third order susceptibility were measured at 400 nm, 590 nm, 648 nm, 800 nm, and 1000 nm. At 800 measurements were conducted for different pulse durations between 130 fs and 1 ps. Our results show that the measured values of the third order nonlinearity were relatively large, negative, and strongly dependent on pulse duration and wavelength. We found that, when wavelength and pulse duration are taken into account, the third order susceptibility of Gd2 at C80 is about one order of magnitude larger than that of empty-cage C60 or C70.
Third harmonic conversion is an effective technique to generate laser radiation at 355 nm from high power solid state lasers. Numerous studies have shown that conversion efficiency depends on parameters such as laser beam quality, crystal nonlinear coefficient, crystal optical quality, and interaction geometry. Relatively little attention has been given to possible limitation in conversion efficiency due to two photon absorption (TPA) at the third harmonic wavelength (355 nm). We have conducted two photon absorption measurements in more than a dozen KDP crystals. The investigated crystals had different doping concentrations and were doped with different impurities. The results of these investigations show that TPA is always present in KDP crystals at 355 nm and is strongly dependent on crystal composition. The TPA coefficient β varied from β= 0.001 to 0.02 cm/GW.
We report the femtosecond laser studies of exciton decay kinetics in stretch oriented poly(paraphenylenevinylene) (PPV) films. Stimulated emission of excitons and stimulated Raman gain have been observed after 500 nm photoexcitation with 100 fs laser pulses. These are not observed when higher energy photons are used to excite the polymer.
We report on the investigations of the response time, magnitude, and sign of the third order optical
nonlinear coefficients of polythiophene and polysilane polymers using the Z-scan technique.
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