Low-loss hollow-core silica/air photonic bandgap fibre

Photonic bandgap structures use the principle of interference to reflect radiation. Reflection from photonic bandgap structures has been demonstrated in one, two and three dimensions and various applications have been proposed. Early work in hollow-core photonic bandgap fibre technology used a hexagonal structure surrounding the air core; this fibre was the first demonstration of light guided inside an air core of a photonic bandgap fibre. The potential benefits of guiding light in air derive from lower Rayleigh scattering, lower nonlinearity and lower transmission loss compared to conventional waveguides. In addition, these fibres offer a new platform for studying nonlinear optics in gases. Owing largely to challenges in fabrication, the early air-core fibres were only available in short lengths, and so systematic studies of loss were not possible. More recently, longer lengths of fibre have become available with reported losses of 1,000 dB km(-1). We report here the fabrication and characterization of long lengths of low attenuation photonic bandgap fibre. Attenuation of less than 30 dB km(-1) over a wide transmission window is observed with minimum loss of 13 dB km(-1) at 1,500 nm, measured on 100 m of fibre. Coupling between surface and core modes of the structure is identified as an important contributor to transmission loss in hollow-core photonic bandgap fibres.     

Transformation and control of ultra-short pulses in dispersion-engineered photonic crystal fibres

Photonic crystal fibres (PCFs) offer greatly enhanced design freedom compared to standard optical fibres. For example, they allow precise control of the chromatic dispersion (CD) profile--the frequency dependence of propagation speed--over a broad wavelength range. This permits studies of nonlinear pulse propagation in previously inaccessible parameter regimes. Here we report on spectral broadening of 100-fs pulses in PCFs with anomalously flat CD profiles. Maps of the spectral and spatio-temporal behaviour as a function of power show that dramatic conversion (to both longer and shorter wavelengths) can occur in remarkably short lengths of fibre, depending on the magnitude and shape of the CD profile. Because the PCFs used are single-mode at all wavelengths, the light always emerges in a fundamental guided mode. Excellent agreement is obtained between the experimental results and numerical solutions of the nonlinear wave equation, indicating that the underlying processes can be reliably modelled. These results show how, through appropriate choice of CD, nonlinearities can be efficiently harnessed to generate laser light at new wavelengths.     

Complete photonic bandgaps in 12-fold symmetric quasicrystals

Photonic crystals are attracting current interest for a variety of reasons, such as their ability to inhibit the spontaneous emission of light. This and related properties arise from the formation of photonic bandgaps, whereby multiple scattering of photons by lattices of periodically varying refractive indices acts to prevent the propagation of electromagnetic waves having certain wavelengths. One route to forming photonic crystals is to etch two-dimensional periodic lattices of vertical air holes into dielectric slab waveguides. Such structures can show complete photonic bandgaps, but only for large-diameter air holes in materials of high refractive index (such as gallium arsenide, n = 3.69), which unfortunately leads to significantly reduced optical transmission when combined with optical fibres of low refractive index. It has been suggested that quasicrystalline (rather than periodic) lattices can also possess photonic bandgaps. Here we demonstrate this concept experimentally and show that it enables complete photonic bandgaps--non-directional and for any polarization--to be realized with small air holes in silicon nitride (n = 2.02), and even glass (n = 1.45). These properties make photonic quasicrystals promising for application in a range of optical devices.     

Broad-band optical parametric gain on a silicon photonic chip

Developing an optical amplifier on silicon is essential for the success of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) photonic integrated circuits. Recently, optical gain with a 1-nm bandwidth was demonstrated using the Raman effect, which led to the demonstration of a Raman oscillator, lossless optical modulation and optically tunable slow light. A key strength of optical communications is the parallelism of information transfer and processing onto multiple wavelength channels. However, the relatively narrow Raman gain bandwidth only allows for amplification or generation of a single wavelength channel. If broad gain bandwidths were to be demonstrated on silicon, then an array of wavelength channels could be generated and processed, representing a critical advance for densely integrated photonic circuits. Here we demonstrate net on/off gain over a wavelength range of 28 nm through the optical process of phase-matched four-wave mixing in suitably designed SOI channel waveguides. We also demonstrate wavelength conversion in the range 1,511-1,591 nm with peak conversion efficiencies of +5.2 dB, which represents more than 20 times improvement on previous four-wave-mixing efficiencies in SOI waveguides. These advances allow for the implementation of dense wavelength division multiplexing in an all-silicon photonic integrated circuit. Additionally, all-optical delays, all-optical switches, optical signal regenerators and optical sources for quantum information technology, all demonstrated using four-wave mixing in silica fibres, can now be transferred to the SOI platform.     

一维光子晶体的禁带特性

利用传输矩阵法计算并分析了垂直入射下光子晶体的禁带特性. 给出一个实际需要的禁带范围设计方法. 通过调节两个介质折射率和厚度可控制禁带范围, 并探讨了当两种介质的光学厚度均为1/4中心波长时, 光子晶体透射谱与中心波长、 两种介质折射率比值等的变化规律.      

基于光子晶体环形腔的滤波与分束器件设计

基于光子晶体环形腔与波导之间的共振耦合原理,设计了一款由环形缺陷和线缺陷组成的三端口二维三角晶格光子晶体双功能器件.运用平面波展开法和时域有限差分法分析了光波在器件结构中的传输特性,得到了传输特性曲线和光场分布,然后讨论了环形腔中心柱数量和疏密程度对输出端口透射率的影响.结果表明,通过调节环形腔中心介质柱的数量可进行选频,当环形腔中心柱数量为5时,器件可实现波长1.346,1.455 μm的滤波功能与波长1.414 μm的波束均分功能;根据中心柱水平和竖直方向的间距对透射率的影响规律,得到器件的最佳结构参数,以及器件的滤波与分束波长透射率.     

含负折射率介质的光子晶体量子阱的透射谱特性研究

构建具有双量子阱结构的一维光子晶体(AB)m(CD)n(AB)m(CD)n(AB)m的物理模型[(AB)5(CD)n]2(AB)5,考虑介质为正折射材料或负折射材料情况,利用传输矩阵法对不同的n取值及C、D材料进行色散关系和透射能带谱的数值计算与分析,揭示光子遂穿多量子阱结构时谱线条数及其分裂的规律性.结果表明,当重复...     

近零介电常数区超导界面的古斯-汉欣位移

对相同的结构,构造材料的光学特性不同,古斯-汉欣(Goos-H?nchen,GH)位移也会不同。在近零介电常数区,对介质-超导界面上反射光的GH位移进行了理论研究。结果表明,GH位移与超导材料介电常数为零时的波长(定义为阈值波长)相关。当入射光波长小于阈值波长时,不同偏振态的入射光的GH位移随入射角和介质折射率的变化规律基本相同。当入射光波长大于阈值波长,对s波,GH位移为正值,而对p波,GH位移为负值。当以阈值波长入射,除了在以接近0°的小角度入射时,GH位移基本保持为某一常数,不随入射角的改变而变化。零折射率材料在光子学领域具有广泛的应用,计算结果为基于超导材料的新型光子学器件研究开发提供了参考。     

三波长光子晶体耦合波分复用器的设计与仿真

目前,光子晶体的波导共振耦合技术被广泛应用,设定波长下的波导透射频率的高低成为影响器件功能优劣的重要因素。首先对比了改变光子晶体介质柱折射率和半径的大小与耦合点归一化频率的关系,之后利用时域有限差分法设计了一种由三种波导构成的共振耦合型光子晶体结构的波分复用器,并且在波长分别为1 490 nm与1 440 nm的光信号下的波导共振区域增加了一定数量的介质柱形成一种新的微腔耦合区域。并且通过在1 310 nm波长的输出信道末端改变介质柱的半径大小,使得1 310 nm波长的光信号的透射率提高到了95.5%。研究表明,通过增大介质柱半径的大小Rc,可以使得对应的光信号透射率的大幅改善。     

金属-石墨烯光子晶体复合结构多带光吸收器设计中金属材料的选择

研究表明,具有金属-石墨烯光子晶体-金属结构的光吸收器可实现多带吸收。这种光吸收器是在由石墨烯和介质材料构成的石墨烯光子晶体两侧加载金属层构成。所加载的金属材料的光学特性对多带吸收特性具有很大的影响。采用金属介电常数的Drude-Lorentz色散模型和传输矩阵法,比较分析了七种金属材料在可见光波段对光吸收器多带吸收特性的影响。发现金属银适合做光吸收器入射空间一侧的金属层材料,而金属铝、银、金和铜适合做衬底层材料。进一步的计算发现,只使用银做加载金属材料可实现一致性好、制作容差大、吸收带宽窄的多带光吸收器。研究结果对实际多带光吸收器的设计提供了参考。     

空气隙型格兰泰勒棱镜斜面减反射膜的设计

为了提高空气隙型格兰泰勒棱镜的透射率,改善其使用性能,针对空气隙型格兰泰勒棱镜出射偏振光的特点,利用合适的光学薄膜材料,借助于薄膜设计软件,设计了棱镜斜面增透膜,633nm处单面的剩余反射率由3．365662％降低到0．000009％,并且在579-686nm范围内剩余反射率均小于0．009％．采用Al2O3做过渡层,既增加了薄膜和晶体的附着性能又使目标波长处的光谱更加平坦．讨论了入射角度和薄膜的光学厚度对剩余反射率的影响;薄膜的厚度误差控制在±8％以内,剩余反射率小于0．05％     

含双负介质一维二元光子晶体量子阱的透射谱分析

利用传输矩阵法,比较分析了(AB)m-(BACAB)n-(BA)m和(AB)m-(CBAABC)n-(BA)m一维二元光子晶体量子阱分别含双正和双负介质C的透射谱特性,并重点分析了双负介质C对光量子阱透射谱的影响。通过改变双负介质C的折射率、阱层光子晶体的周期数,得出了光量子阱透射谱随这两种因素变化的规律,从而为光子晶体理论研究及新型量子阱光学器件设计提供参考。     

Linear and nonlinear optical spectroscopy of a strongly coupled microdisk-quantum dot system

Cavity quantum electrodynamics, the study of coherent quantum interactions between the electromagnetic field and matter inside a resonator, has received attention as both a test bed for ideas in quantum mechanics and a building block for applications in the field of quantum information processing. The canonical experimental system studied in the optical domain is a single alkali atom coupled to a high-finesse Fabry-Perot cavity. Progress made in this system has recently been complemented by research involving trapped ions, chip-based microtoroid cavities, integrated microcavity-atom-chips, nanocrystalline quantum dots coupled to microsphere cavities, and semiconductor quantum dots embedded in micropillars, photonic crystals and microdisks. The last system has been of particular interest owing to its relative simplicity and scalability. Here we use a fibre taper waveguide to perform direct optical spectroscopy of a system consisting of a quantum dot embedded in a microdisk. In contrast to earlier work with semiconductor systems, which has focused on photoluminescence measurements, we excite the system through the photonic (light) channel rather than the excitonic (matter) channel. Strong coupling, the regime of coherent quantum interactions, is demonstrated through observation of vacuum Rabi splitting in the transmitted and reflected signals from the cavity. The fibre coupling method also allows us to examine the system's steady-state nonlinear properties, where we see a saturation of the cavity-quantum dot response for less than one intracavity photon. The excitation of the cavity-quantum dot system through a fibre optic waveguide is central to applications such as high-efficiency single photon sources, and to more fundamental studies of the quantum character of the system.     

基于一维光子晶体超晶格的多通道滤波器

利用传输矩阵方法,研究了由两种具有特定散射关系的一维光子晶体交替排列所形成的一维光子晶体超晶格的光学特性,讨论了势垒宽度,势阱宽度及势阱数目对其的影响.计算结果表明,通过改变超晶格的结构,可以调节在光子禁带中透射带的数目、透射带中透射峰的数目,并且这些透射峰都具有很高的品质因子.这种光子晶体超晶格结构有望作为多通道滤波器在密集波分复用系统及集成光学系统中获得应用.     

含负折射率材料光子晶体耦合腔的传输特性

基于三分Cantor分形多层序列结构,设计了一种一维光子晶体耦合腔结构.用传输矩阵法研究了当引入的缺陷介质为负折射率材料时,该晶体耦合腔的传输谱和场局域化特征;在透射谱中得到了一个半高宽仅为0.19 nm的超窄透射窗口,通过曲线拟合得出了缺陷层折射率与超窄透射窗口位置之间的非线性解析关系.新耦合腔结构在光通信超密集波分复用和光学精密测量等领域中有一定的应用价值.     

高斯光脉冲在正弦型色散补偿系统的稳定传输

从含非线性薛定谔方程出发，通过数值模拟，研究了高斯光脉冲在正弦型色散补偿系统的传输，得到结论：当系统的二阶色散的平均值为零时可得到高斯光脉冲的稳定传输．这将对高码率光通讯传输系统的设计提供了一定的理论依据，有助于光脉冲在光纤中传输的研究．     

Large-scale synthesis of a silicon photonic crystal with a complete three-dimensional bandgap near 1.5 micrometres

Photonic technology, using light instead of electrons as the information carrier, is increasingly replacing electronics in communication and information management systems. Microscopic light manipulation, for this purpose, is achievable through photonic bandgap materials, a special class of photonic crystals in which three-dimensional, periodic dielectric constant variations controllably prohibit electromagnetic propagation throughout a specified frequency band. This can result in the localization of photons, thus providing a mechanism for controlling and inhibiting spontaneous light emission that can be exploited for photonic device fabrication. In fact, carefully engineered line defects could act as waveguides connecting photonic devices in all-optical microchips, and infiltration of the photonic material with suitable liquid crystals might produce photonic bandgap structures (and hence light-flow patterns) fully tunable by an externally applied voltage. However, the realization of this technology requires a strategy for the efficient synthesis of high-quality, large-scale photonic crystals with photonic bandgaps at micrometre and sub-micrometre wavelengths, and with rationally designed line and point defects for optical circuitry. Here we describe single crystals of silicon inverse opal with a complete three-dimensional photonic bandgap centred on 1.46 microm, produced by growing silicon inside the voids of an opal template of dose-packed silica spheres that are connected by small 'necks' formed during sintering, followed by removal of the silica template. The synthesis method is simple and inexpensive, yielding photonic crystals of pure silicon that are easily integrated with existing silicon-based microelectronics.     

Towards the clarity limit in optical fibre

An important scientific and technological goal in the field of optical communications is the achievement of the clarity limit in optical fibres--that is, ensuring that the SiO2 glass from which fibres are made is as transparent as possible. The clarity of the wavelength transmission window (and the width of that window) in existing fibres is already sufficient to form the basis of a world-wide optical communication system, yet it is still limited by contamination of the fibre by water. Here we measure the spatial distribution of water in the glass rods from which optical fibres are drawn and explain the distribution quantitatively with a mathematical model of diffusion in a medium with essentially perfect cylindrical symmetry. Our analysis shows that the water enters from the outside of the rod and diffuses into the molten, flowing glass much faster than is expected from extrapolation of low-temperature measurements. Our elucidation of the physics underlying the contamination process has already led to the fabrication of dry fibres, which have a clarified and broadened communications window. The improved operational range of wavelengths should yield applications for new lasers, optical amplifiers and detectors, and should substantially increase the information-carrying capacity of optical communications systems.     

Active control of slow light on a chip with photonic crystal waveguides

It is known that light can be slowed down in dispersive materials near resonances. Dramatic reduction of the light group velocity-and even bringing light pulses to a complete halt-has been demonstrated recently in various atomic and solid state systems, where the material absorption is cancelled via quantum optical coherent effects. Exploitation of slow light phenomena has potential for applications ranging from all-optical storage to all-optical switching. Existing schemes, however, are restricted to the narrow frequency range of the material resonance, which limits the operation frequency, maximum data rate and storage capacity. Moreover, the implementation of external lasers, low pressures and/or low temperatures prevents miniaturization and hinders practical applications. Here we experimentally demonstrate an over 300-fold reduction of the group velocity on a silicon chip via an ultra-compact photonic integrated circuit using low-loss silicon photonic crystal waveguides that can support an optical mode with a submicrometre cross-section. In addition, we show fast (approximately 100 ns) and efficient (2 mW electric power) active control of the group velocity by localized heating of the photonic crystal waveguide with an integrated micro-heater.     

Metal-insulator-semiconductor optoelectronic fibres

The combination of conductors, semiconductors and insulators with well-defined geometries and at prescribed length scales, while forming intimate interfaces, is essential in most functional electronic and optoelectronic devices. These are typically produced using a variety of elaborate wafer-based processes, which allow for small features, but are restricted to planar geometries and limited coverage area. In contrast, the technique of fibre drawing from a preformed reel or tube is simpler and yields extended lengths of highly uniform fibres with well-controlled geometries and good optical transport characteristics. So far, this technique has been restricted to particular materials and larger features. Here we report on the design, fabrication and characterization of fibres made of conducting, semiconducting and insulating materials in intimate contact and in a variety of geometries. We demonstrate that this approach can be used to construct a tunable fibre photodetector comprising an amorphous semiconductor core contacted by metallic microwires, and surrounded by a cylindrical-shell resonant optical cavity. Such a fibre is sensitive to illumination along its entire length (tens of meters), thus forming a photodetecting element of dimensionality one. We also construct a grid of such fibres that can identify the location of an illumination point. The advantage of this type of photodetector array is that it needs a number of elements of only order N, in contrast to the conventional order N2 for detector arrays made of photodetecting elements of dimensionality zero.