This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 8965, including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, and Conference Committee listing.

We report on the realization of a narrow-band continuous-wave laser source in the deep-ultraviolet. Via two consecutive second-harmonic processes starting from a near-infrared diode laser system, we demonstrate an output power of more than 15 mW at 193 nm. The setup is capable of mode hop-free frequency tuning over a range of 100 GHz und coarse tuning over more than 5 nm. We see direct applications of this laser source in the fields of semiconductor metrology and high-resolution spectroscopy in the deep-ultraviolet.

We report on the development of highly stable pulsed and CW green, yellow and UV fiber based lasers. Using narrow linewidth sources and specialty fibers for high peak powers we achieve highly efficient frequency conversion in a robust single-pass configuration with >70% optical conversion to green and >20% to UV. By employing a novel wavelength extension of Yb-doped fibers we span the wavelength range of green to yellow with >35% conversion efficiency and over 25W average power.

We present a generic approach for the generation of tunable single-frequency light and demonstrate generation of more than 300 mW tunable light around 460 nm. One tapered diode laser is operated in a coupled ring cavity containing the nonlinear crystal and another tapered diode laser is sent through the nonlinear crystal in a single pass. A high conversion efficiency of more than 25 % of the single-pass laser is enabled by the high circulating power in the coupled cavity. The system is entirely self-stabilized with no need for electronic locking.

Orange light with maximum conversion efficiency exceeding 10% and CW output power of 12.04 mW, 10.45 mW and 6.24 mW has been generated at 606, 608, and 611 nm, respectively, from a frequency-doubled InAs/GaAs quantum-dot external-cavity diode laser by use of a periodically-poled KTP waveguides with different cross-sectional areas. The wider waveguide with the cross-sectional area of 4×4 μm² demonstrated better results in comparison with the narrower waveguides (3×5 μm² and 2×6 μm²) which corresponded to lower coupling efficiency. Additional tuning of second harmonic light (between 606 and 614 nm) with similar conversion efficiency was possible by changing the crystal temperature.

Many applications, e.g., within biomedicine stand to benefit greatly from the development of diode laser-based multi- Watt efficient compact green laser sources. The low power of existing diode lasers in the green area (about 100 mW) means that the most promising approach remains nonlinear frequency conversion of infrared tapered diode lasers. Here, we describe the generation of 3.5 W of diffraction-limited green light from SHG of a single tapered diode laser, itself yielding 10 W at 1063 nm. This SHG is performed in single pass through a cascade of two PPMgO:LN crystals with re-focusing and dispersion compensating optics between the two nonlinear crystals. In the low-power limit, such a cascade of two crystals has the theoretical potential for generation of four times as much power as a single crystal without adding significantly to the complexity of the system. The experimentally achieved power of 3.5 W corresponds to a power enhancement greater than 2 compared to SHG in each of the crystals individually and is the highest visible output power generated by frequency conversion of a single diode laser. Such laser sources provide the necessary pump power for biophotonics applications, such as optical coherence tomography or multimodal imaging devices, e.g., FTCARS-OCT, based on a strongly pumped ultrafast Ti:Sapphire laser.

We report a single-mode (SM) green laser based on single-pass frequency doubling of a linearly-polarized narrowlinewidth Yb fiber laser in LBO crystal, and configured to operate in a range of regimes from continuous-wave (CW) to high-repetition-rate quasi-continuous-wave (QCW). Adjusting the duty cycle, we maintained high second harmonic generation (SHG) efficiency for various output powers. Average powers of over 550W in QCW and over 350W in CW regimes were obtained with the wall-plug efficiency up to 15%, opening the possibility to creating new class of simple, compact and efficient single-mode green lasers with output power up to 1kW and above. The same approach could also be used to create high-power lasers operating at other wavelengths in ultraviolet and visible spectral ranges.

We demonstrate the continuous-wave operation of a cascade that has been successfully applied so far only for picosecond systems: A doubly-resonant optical-parametric oscillator (OPO) based on lithium niobate generates signal and idler waves close to degeneracy. Subsequently, these two light fields are converted to a terahertz wave via difference frequency mixing in an orientation-patterned gallium arsenide crystal placed inside the OPO cavity. Using this scheme, we achieved tunability from 1 to 4:5 THz frequency, a linewidth smaller than 10 MHz, and a Gaussian beam profile. The output power is of the order of tens of μW, with a scalability into the milliwatt regime.

One of the most important techniques in modern optical science is the generation of phase-locked pulses. We review two different approaches to achieve the broadband generation and detection: photoconductive antenna and air-plasma method, and show the application to spectroscopy. We investigated dependences of the detection sensitivity on the growth and annealing conditions of antenna substrate, antenna structure, and the gate pulse duration. We successfully generated ultra-broadband phase-locked pulses in the terahertz and infrared regions (up to ∼200 THz) using a combination of organic nonlinear crystals and 5-fs ultrashort laser pulses, which is directly detected by an optimized photoconductive antenna. With a combination of air plasma and intense 10-fs pulses, we also achieved the generation and detection of ultra-broadband phase-locked pulses continuously from the terahertz region to the near-infrared region. The methods are applied to the spectroscopy of superconducting gaps. Our results demonstrate that the broadband phase-locked pulses can easily be generated and detected without explicit carrier envelope phase stabilization, and can be used for broadband spectroscopy.

Terahertz imaging has attracted a lot of interests for more than 10 years. But real time, high sensitive, low cost THz imaging in room temperature, which is widely needed by fields such as biology, biomedicine and homeland security, has not been fully developed yet. A lot of approaches have been reported on electro-optic (E-O) imaging and THz focal plane arrays with photoconductive antenna or micro-bolometer integrated. In this paper, we report high sensitive realtime THz image at 60 frames per second (fps) employing a commercial infrared camera, using nonlinear optical frequency up-conversion technology. In this system, a flash-lamp pumped nanosecond pulse green laser is used to pump two optical parametric oscillator systems with potassium titanyl phosphate crystals (KTP-OPO). One system with dual KTP crystals is used to generate infrared laser for the pumping of THz difference frequency generation (DFG) in a 4- Dimethylamino-N-Methyl-4-Stilbazolium Tosylate (DAST) crystal. The other one is for generation of pumping laser for THz frequency up-conversion in a second DAST crystal. The THz frequency can be tuned continuously from a few THz to less than 30 THz by controlling the angle of KTP crystals. The frequency up-converted image in infrared region is recorded by a commercial infrared camera working at 60 Hz. Images and videos are presented to show the feasibility of this technique and the real-time ability. Comparison with a general micro-bolometer THz camera shows the high sensitivity of this technique.

We present an efficient coherent source widely tunable in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) spectral range consisting of a novel femtosecond Yb-fiber laser operating at ~50 MHz repetition rate, a synchronously-pumped OPO (SPOPO) and difference-frequency generation (DFG) in AgGaSe2. With an average input power of 5 W for ~260 fs pump pulses at 1034 nm, the SPOPO outputs are tunable from ~1710 to 1950 nm (signal) and from 2200 to 2600 nm (idler) with pulse durations between 200 and 250 fs over the entire tuning range. After temporally overlapping signal and idler through a delay line, the two beams are spatially recombined with a dichroic mirror and focused to a beam diameter of ~75 μm. For DFG we employ an uncoated 2-mm-thick AgGaSe2 nonlinear crystal cut for type-I interaction at θ=57°. The generated femtosecond mid-IR pulses are continuously tunable between 5 and 17 μm with average power of up to 69 mW at 6 μm and more than 1 mW at 17 μm. Their spectra and autocorrelation traces are measured up to 12 μm and 8 μm, respectively, and indicate that the input spectral bandwidth and pulse duration are maintained to a great extent in the nonlinear frequency conversion processes. The DFG pulse width measured at 7.2 μm amounts to ~300 fs (FWHM). The measured spectral bandwidth supports ~150 fs Gaussian pulse durations across the entire DFG tuning range. For the first time mid-IR pulses with energy exceeding 1 nJ are generated at such high repetition rates.

Upconversion of incoherent mid-infrared radiation to near visible wavelengths, offers very attractive sensitivity compared to conventional means of infrared detection. Incoherent light, focused into a nonlinear crystal, results in noncollinear phase matching of a narrow range of wavelengths for each angle of propagation. Non-collinear phase matching has been an area of limited attention for many years due to inherent incompatibility with tightly focused laser beams typically used for most second order processes in order to achieve acceptable conversion efficiency. The development of periodically poled crystals have allowed for non-critical collinear phase matching of most wavelengths, virtually eliminating the need for non-collinear phase matching. When considering upconversion of thermal light, spectral radiance is limited due to the finite temperature of the Planck radiation source. It is, however, straightforward to increase the incoherent power by increasing the receiving aperture of the upconversion unit i.e. the diameter of the upconversion laser beam. Hence, the optimal conversion efficiency for incoherent light is not achieved by tightly focused beams. In this paper we show that filling the nonlinear crystal with as large a pump beam as possible yields the best conversion as this allows for upconversion of large angles of incoming incoherent light. We present results of non-collinear mixing and how it affects spectral and spatial resolution in the image and compare against experiments. We finally discuss how it can be used to design and predict system performance and how incoherent upconversion can be used for mid-IR spectroscopy and imaging.

With growing demand on transmission capacity, spectral-efficient multilevel modulation formats such as quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) become of great interest. One of their weaknesses is high sensitivity to noise accumulation, especially in long-haul transmission systems. Our investigations have shown the possibility of all-optical regeneration of multiple amplitude and phase states. Processing of amplitude noise in several amplitude states is based on periodicity of interference conditions in modified nonlinear fiber Sagnac interferometers. Their staircase-like power transfer characteristic can be used for phase-preserving amplitude regeneration of multiple amplitude states. Processing of QAM with up to three non-zero amplitude states, e.g. 16QAM, has been demonstrated in numerical simulations. Furthermore, simultaneous amplitude regeneration of a star-8QAM format with two amplitude states was performed experimentally. Recently, it has also been shown that phase-sensitive amplification for multiple phase states can be realized in fiber optical parametric amplifiers using four-wave mixing (FWM) with a high-order idler. Our numerical simulations and experimental results for star-8QAM revealed that with some modifications, this approach can be used not only for reduction of phase noise in multilevel phase-shift keying but also for signals with multiple amplitude states. The transmission improvement using a cascade of these two regenerator types has been demonstrated in numerical simulations and experiments. Numerical investigations confirm also the possibility to combine both approaches in a single device by using the highly nonlinear fiber in the Sagnac interferometer loop simultaneously for phase-sensitive amplification in one propagation direction.

The ability to replicate (or multicast) an incoming optical signal in frequency domain without loss of fidelity is a holy grail for both fundamental physics and practical applications spanning from telecommunications to quantum processing. Dual-pump driven four-wave mixing in dispersion-engineered waveguides (e.g. optical fiber) is able to generate a large number of signal copies via optical frequency comb generation at precisely defined frequencies, in an ultrafast and coherent manner, however, this phase-insensitive (PI) parametric process also induces excess noise, which scales with the copy count under the ideal phase-matching condition. The reason for noise scaling in PI multicasting relies on the fact that with ideal phase matching (i.e. zero dispersion in the parametric device or mixer), all generated copies couple the same amount of quantum noise to each replica frequency, provided these copies are power equalized. We have found that this conclusion does not apply to mixers with small normal dispersion: conversely, the replica noise-figure (NF, defined as the ratio between the output and input signal-to-noise ratio) eventually approaches 6 dB, rather than scaling upward with increased copy creation. This discovery indeed points out possible direction towards low-noise or even noiseless spectral replication: parametric multicasting using multi-mode phase-sensitive (PS) process in highly-efficient mixer with finite normal dispersion. In this talk, we review the basic principle and realization of low-noise, four-mode PS multicasting. Recent experimental results of such multicaster in comparison to conventional EDFA preamplifiers are also demonstrated. Moreover, potential applications and technical challenges are discussed.

We study sum-frequency generation (SFG) in a multimode PPKTP waveguide. We show that under proper quasi-phasematching, it can support one of the two scenarios. In the first, a single pump mode up-converts several different signal modes to different SFG modes. In the second, several different pairs of signal and pump modes are converted to the same SFG mode. By adjusting the relative phases and magnitudes of the pump modes, any superposition of the corresponding signal modes can be selected for up-conversion without affecting other modes, which can be used for spatial-mode de-multiplexing in both classical and quantum communications.

Supercontinuum generation (SG) in photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) usually takes advantage of soliton dynamics, when pump wavelength is located in the anomalous dispersion region near the zero-dispersion wavelength of the fiber. This results in broader bandwidth than pumping in the normal dispersion region (NDR). SG in NDR is of interest, because of its potential for high degree of coherence and low intensity fluctuations. It was experimentally demonstrated in silica fibers and PCFs pumped around 1000 nm, covering the visible and near-infrared. We developed an all-solid PCF with hexagonal lattice made from N-F2 capillaries, with lattice constant Λ=2.275 μm, filling factor d/Λ=0.9, and a solid N-F2 core with 2,5μm diameter. The capillaries were filled with thermally matched borosilicate glass rods with lower refractive index. The PCF has all-normal dispersion, flattened within 1400- 2750 nm (-35 to -29 ps/nm/km) and a local maximum of -29 ps/nm/km at 1550 nm. Measured attenuation in 1500-1600 nm is around 3.2 dB/m. Nonlinear coefficient calculated at 1550 nm is 17/W/m. We numerically investigate the evolution of supercontinuum formation with a maximum bandwidth of 900-2400 nm. Considered pump pulse lengths were between 1 ps and 50 fs, with corresponding peak powers from 20 kW to 200 kW. Measured coupling efficiency using 20× microscope objective was 50%. One-photon-per-mode noise was used to simulate pump noise and multi-shot SG spectra were calculated. Preliminary experimental results are in good agreement with developed model.

We report a fiber based approach to broadly tunable femtosecond mid-IR source based on difference frequency mixing of the outputs from dual photonic crystal fibers (PCF) pumped by a femtosecond fiber laser, which is a custom-built Yb-doped fiber chirped pulse amplifier (CPA) delivering 1.35 W, 300 fs, 40 MHz pulses centered at 1035 nm. The CPA output is split into two arms to pump two different types of PCFs for generation of the spectrally separated pulses. The shorter wavelength pulses are generated in one PCF with its single zero dispersion wavelength (ZDW) at 1040 nm. Low normal dispersion around the pumping wavelength enables spectral broadening dominated by self-phase modulation (SPM), which extends from 970 to 1092 nm with up to 340 mW of average power. The longer wavelength pulses are generated in a second PCF which has two closely spaced ZDWs around the laser wavelength. Facilitated by its special dispersion profile, the laser wavelength is converted to the normal dispersion region of the fiber, leading to the generation of the narrow-band intense Stokes pulses with 1 to 1.25 nJ of pulse energy at a conversion efficiency of ~30% from the laser pulses. By difference mixing the outputs from both PCFs in a type-II AgGaS₂ crystal, mid-IR pulses tunable from 4.2 to 9 μm are readily generated with its average power ranging from 135 – 640 μW, corresponding to 3 – 16 pJ of pulse energy which is comparable to the reported fiber based mid-IR sources enabled by the solitons self-frequency shift (for example, 3 – 10 μm with 10 pJ of maximum pulse energy in [10]). The reported approach provides a power-scalable route to the generation of broadly tunable femtosecond mid-IR pulses, which we believe to be a promising solution for developing compact, economic and high performance mid-IR sources.

We present experimental results of SBS suppression in high power, monolithic, Yb-doped fiber amplifiers via phase modulated laser gain competition. To narrow the linewidth, two-tone laser gain competition between broad (1036 nm) and narrow linewidth (1064 nm) laser signals is investigated in conjunction with phase modulation and yields pump limited output powers of 600 W. Here integration of both two-tone and pseudo random bit sequence (PRBS) phase modulation concepts, generated SBS enhancement factors of greater than 17x at a modulation frequency of 500 MHz, without reaching the SBS threshold. Significantly, the results represent a near order of magnitude reduction in linewidth over current high-power, monolithic, Yb-doped fiber amplifiers.

Tellurite glass photonic crystal fibers (PCF) offer a large potential for broadband supercontinuum generation with bandwidths of 4000 nm demonstrated in suspended-core tellurite PCFs under pumping at 1500-1600 nm. We fabricated a hexagonal-lattice, tellurite PCF with lattice constant Λ = 2 μm, linear filling factor d/Λ=0.75 μm, and a solid core with 2.7 μm diameter. Dispersion, calculated from SEM image of drawn fiber, has ZDW at 1500 nm and 4350 nm with a maximum of 193 ps/nm/km at 2900 nm. Under pumping with 150 fs / 36 nJ / 1580 nm pulses, supercontinuum in a bandwidth from 800 nm to over 2500 nm was measured in a 2 cm long PCF sample. Measured coupling efficiency was 8%. Dispersive and nonlinear length scales are 52 cm and 0.2 mm respectively, yielding nonlinearity-dominant propagation regime in the fiber. Numerical analysis of measured supercontinuum spectrum using NLSE, enabled identification of soliton fission and their subsequent red-shifting, dispersive wave generation across first ZDW, as well as FWM among the red-shifted spectral components. FWM phase-matching condition in the fiber is satisfied in a broad range from 1500 nm to 4000 nm with roughly 900 nm bandwidth around the signal wavelength. Developed model is in good agreement with experimental results. Model is used to estimate supercontinuum bandwidth for other experimental conditions with pump pulse lengths up to 1 ps and PCF lengths up to 10 cm.

In this work we present our results on supercontinuum (SC) generation using a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) fabricated from lead-bismuth-gallium-oxide glass (PBG-08). Due to high refractive index, high nonlinearity and high transmittance, the PBG-08 glass-based fibers seem to be excellent media for broad supercontinuum generation in the infrared spectral region. In our experiment, a short-length piece of PCF (6 cm) is pumped by a femtosecond fiber laser system, delivering 540 fs pulses at 60 MHz repetition rate and 2.75 W of maximum average power. This compact and cost-effective system allows to generate supercontinuum spanning from 900 to 2400 nm.

We report a mid-infrared frequency comb generator, which produces up to 3 W of output power. The comb mode spacing is 208 MHz, the spectral bandwidth is ~300 GHz, and the center wavelength is tunable between 3 and 3.4 μm. The comb generation is based on intracavity difference frequency mixing between near-infrared pump and signal beams of a continuous-wave-pumped optical parametric oscillator. The signal beam, which is resonant in the cavity, acquires a comb structure through cascading quadratic nonlinearities in a periodically poled lithium niobate crystal. This comb structure is transferred to the spectrum of the mid-infrared idler beam via the difference frequency mixing process.

Bulk and surface absorption in lithium triborate (LBO) and lithium niobate (LiNbO₃) are measured using two sensitive measurement techniques, a photoacoustic spectrometer (PAS) and a photothermal common-path interferometer (PCI). As pump light sources, optical parametric oscillators are employed, covering the wavelength ranges 212 − 2500 nm (PAS) and 1460 − 1900 nm and 2460 − 3900 nm (PCI). The spectrometers are used to measure absorption spectra of optical materials across this wide spectral range and to compare the methods in the shared wavelength regime.

CdSiP₂ (CSP) is a very promising nonlinear crystal for the mid-IR spectral range with a nonlinear coefficient slightly larger than that of ZnGeP2 (ZGP). In contrast to ZGP, CSP is phase-matchable and can be employed in 1.064-μm pumped optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) without two-photon absorption. Although low damage resistivity has been reported in such initial OPO tests of CSP, no reliable data on the damage-threshold of uncoated CSP exists. We compare in this work the damage resistivity of uncoated CSP with ZGP at two wavelengths, 2.09 μm (1 kHz, 21 ns) and 1.064 μm (100 Hz, 8 ns).

Random duty-cycle errors (RDE) in ferroelectric quasi-phase-matching (QPM) devices not only affect the frequency conversion efficiency, but also generate non-phase-matched background noise. Although such noise contribution can be evaluated by measuring second-harmonic generation (SHG) spectrum with tunable narrow-band lasers, the limited tuning ranges usually results in inaccurate measurement of pure noise. Instead of SHG, we took a diffraction pattern which is mathematically equivalent to the SHG spectrum, but can be obtained with greater simplicity. With our proposed method applied to periodically poled lithium niobate, RDE could be evaluated more accurately from the pure background noise measurement.

We present the characterization of thermal distortion induced in bulk and orientation-patterned GaAs samples by a 100 W narrow linewidth, linearly polarized CW Tm:fiber laser focused to ~150 μm diameter. For a 500-μm thick bulk GaAs sample, the induced thermal distortion is measured using a probe laser beam at 1080 nm and a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor (SHWS). We also compare the power dependent induced divergence for 500-μm thick bulk GaAs and 10-mm thick orientation-partnered GaAs (OP-GaAs) samples as they are translated axially through the focus of a 2-μm wavelength Tm:fiber laser beam.

Glass 80GeO₃:10PbF₂:10CdF₂ triply-doped with europium, terbium, and ytterbium phosphors were synthesized and the energy upconversion luminescence emission properties investigated as a function of NIR excitation power, rare-earth ions content combination, and glass phosphor composition. Multicolor visible luminescence with main emissions peaked around 490, 545, 590, 610, 650, and 700 nm was observed when samples were excited by a diode laser at 980 nm. The up-conversion excitation mechanism for both Eu3⁺, and Tb3⁺ excited-states emitting levels was achieved via phononassisted cooperative energy-transfer from pairs of excited Yb³⁺ ions. White-light emission with CIE-1931 coordinates in the region of low color correlated temperature was obtained for appropriate combination of rare-earth ions content.

This works presents an efficient scheme for enhancing multiple four-wave mixing by using optical feedback, highly nonlinear and erbium-doped fibers. Numerical results illustrate the efficiency of the proposed method and its applicability is experimentally demonstrated by expanding an original frequency comb from 20 to 100 optical mutually coherent lines.

The measurements of nonlinear ellipse rotation (NER) can be very helpful to determine the magnitude, as well, the origin of the nonlinearity. As it is known, NER is related to particular component of the third-order nonlinear susceptibility which can be different from other nonlinear effects. In this way, here we propose a new method to improve the measuring precision of the NER angle using a dual phase lock-in. We also did a well known Z-scan measurement which provides the nonlinear refractive index to give support to our results. Using these two measurements, we could study several materials nonlinearity with different origin and we could reveal the tensor nature of the refractive nonlinearities. Material with thermal, molecular orientation and nonresonant electronic origins could be easily distinguished by those techniques.

We propose an exotic use of sum frequency generation process (SFG) to develop a new kind of high resolution interferometer for astronomical imaging. SFG is well known to be intrinsically a noiseless non linear process of upconversion which permits a wavelength shift. Thereby we propose to shift astronomical MIR and FIR radiation to shorter wavelength where optical fibers and optical components are available and efficient. In order to demonstrate the validity of this method for high resolution imaging, we plan to set up a two-arm upconversion interferometer on the CHARA telescope array (California). Each arm would include an upconversion stage at the focus of telescope. The success of such a project is obviously conditioned by the quality of nonlinear components (waveguided PPLN) in term of efficiency and noise biases. Moreover, coherence study requires the use of identical non linear components which implies manufacturing constraints. To ensure the feasibility of this project, several studies have been conducted. By implementing an upconversion interferometer in laboratory we have recently demonstrated our ability to analyze the coherence properties of a 1550nm signal at visible wavelength. We also have successfully converted astronomical light using one arm of this interferometer at the Hawaï observatory. It showed the capability of our instrument to astronomical observing conditions in photon counting regime. A preliminary mission at CHARA observatory allowed us to check the compatibility of our instrument with the environment onsite and expected photometric levels. From these data we estimate to be able to study the coherence of astronomical target at 1550nm using such an instrument.

We present a new background free method for in situ gas detection that combines degenerate four-wave mixing with an infra-red light detector based on parametric frequency upconversion of infra-red light. The system is demonstrated at mid infrared wavelengths for low concentration measurements of acetylene diluted in a N₂ gas flow at ambient conditions. It is demonstrated that the system is able to cover more than 100 nm in scanning range and detect concentrations as low as 3 ppm based on the R9e line. A major issue in small signal measurements is scattered light and it is showed how a spatial analysis can be used to reduce this level.

We present a novel approach for mid infrared (mid-IR) spectral analysis using upconversion technology applied in a diffuse reflectance setup. We demonstrate experimentally that mid-IR spectral features in the 2.6-4 μm range using different test samples (e.g. zeolites) can be obtained. The results are in good agreement with published data. We believe that the benefit of low noise upconversion methods combined with spectral analysis will provide an alternative approach to e.g. mid-IR Fourier Transform microscopy. We discuss in detail the experimental aspects of the proposed method. The upconversion unit consists of a PP:LN crystal situated as an intracavity component in a Nd:YVO₄ laser. Mixing incoming spectrally and spatially incoherent light from the test sample with the high power intracavity beam of the Nd:YVO₄ laser results in enhanced conversion efficiency. The upconverted light is spectrally located in the near infrared (NIR) wavelength region easily accessible for low noise Silicon CCD camera technology. Thus the room temperature upconversion unit and the Silicon CCD camera replaces noisy mid infrared detectors used in existing Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy. We demonstrate specifically that upconversion methods can be deployed using a diffuse reflectance setup where the test sample is irradiated by a thermal light source, i.e. a globar. The diffuse reflectance geometry is particularly well suited when a transmission setup cannot be used. This situation may happen for highly scattering or absorbing samples.

Mid-infrared microscopy and spectroscopy is interesting due to its medical, biological and chemical applications. Spectromicroscopy can be used for histopathology, sample analysis and diagnosis. The ability to do spectromicroscopy in the 2.5 to 4.5 μm wavelength range where many organic molecules have their fundamental vibrations, with the addition of sufficient spectroscopic resolution to resolve these bands, can e.g. potentially allow for diagnostics without the need for staining of the sample. On a longer timeframe, mid-IR spectromicroscopy has the potential for in-vivo diagnostics, combining morphological and spectral imaging. Recent developments in nonlinear frequency upconversion, have demonstrated the potential to perform both imaging and spectroscopy in the mid-IR range at unparalleled low levels of illumination, the low upconversion detector noise being orders of magnitude below competing technologies. With these applications in mind, we have incorporated microscopy optics into an image upconversion system, achieving near diffraction limited spatial resolution in the 3 μm range. Spectroscopic information is further acquired by appropriate control of the phase match condition of the upconversion process. Multispectral images for a region of interest can be obtained by XY-scanning this region of interest within the field of view of the mid-IR upconversion system. Thus, the whole region of interest can be imaged with all available converter wavelengths, and the spectral representation becomes equal for all points in the image. In addition, the range of converted/imaged wavelengths can be tuned continuously by changing the temperature of the crystal, or discretely by using a different poling channel in the PPLN crystal.

The saturable absorption performance of several one dimensional and two dimensional multi-core fiber array couplers are investigated as a function of the number of the fiber cores. The results indicate that the performance of all these saturable absorbers are comparable and not much is gained, if any, by increasing the number of cores. Hence, rather than using complex multi-core fiber saturable absorbers, one can benefit from the simpler two-core fiber setup to get the desired output mode-locked pulses. This observation is supported by the comparable pulse characteristics obtained from the simulation of a generic mode-locked fiber laser cavity.

We investigated intense Terahertz generation in lithium niobate pumped by a powerful Yb:CaF₂ laser at room temperature and 25 K. This unique amplifier system delivers transform-limited pulses of variable duration (0.38-0.65 ps) with pulse energies up to 12 mJ at a central wavelength of 1030 nm. From theoretical investigations it is expected that those laser parameters are excellently suited for efficient THz generation. In this study we present experimental results on both the conversion efficiency and the THz spectral shape for a series of transform-limited pump pulse durations and crystal temperatures and discuss the optimum pump parameters for most efficient THz generation.

In this work, a method to generate a pulse train based on the strictly negative nonlinear phase shift during the amplification of a dynamic signal in a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) in association with frequency filtering is proposed. A 40 ps width pulse train with a huge continuous tunability repetition frequency ranging from 1 MHz to 5 GHz was experimentally demonstrated. The pulse train properties were characterized by methods such as duty cycle tailoring, and SOA injection current variation.

An efficient scheme for enhanced second harmonic generation in a nonlinear optical hexagonal microcavity by the combined mechanisms of total internal reflection and quasi-phase-matching is proposed. We demonstrate the operational principle by numerical simulation results showing resonance operation in a suitably designed hexagonal optical microresonator, revealing thus the operating feasibility of the proposed scheme in nonlinear material platforms such as Lithium Niobate. The fabrication of high optical quality hexagonal superstructures by chemical etching of inverted ferroelectric domains in this Lithium Niobate platform suggests a route for successful implementation. Design aspects, optimization issues and characteristics of the proposed device are presented.

We present a method of generating mid-IR radiation by means of nonlinear difference frequency generation (DFG) effects occurring in periodically polled lithium niobate (PPLN) crystals using an all-fiber dual-wavelength amplifier. The presented mid-IR laser source incorporates an unique double-clad (DC) Erbium and Ytterbium (Er-Yb) doped amplifier stage capable of simultaneous amplification of both wavelengths required in the DFG process - 1064 nm and 1550 nm. The amplifier delivered more than 23.7 dB and 14.4 dB of amplification for 1550 nm and 1064 nm wavelength, low power, off-the-shelf, fiber pigtailed, distributed feedback (DFB) laser diodes, respectively. The dual-wavelength amplifier parameters crucial for the DFG process were investigated, including long-term power and polarization instabilities and optical spectrum characteristics of both amplified wavelengths. The DFG setup used a single collimator radiation delivery scheme and an 40 mm long MgO doped PPLN crystal. In effect the DFG source was capable of generating 1.14 mW of radiation centered around 3.4 μm. The overall performance of the mid-IR source was elaborated by performing sensitive Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy (TDLAS) detection of methane (CH4) in ambient air on an free-space optical path-length of 8 m. The measured detection limit of the sensor was 26 ppbv with a 1σ SNR of 69.

We present, using numerical simulations, investigations of the modal instability thresholds in high-power Yb-doped fiber amplifiers. We use a time-dependent temperature solver coupled to the optical fields and population inversion equations to determine the temporal dynamics of the modal content of the signal as well as the modal instability threshold. Our numerical code is optimized to achieve fast computations; thus allowing us to perform efficient detailed numerical studies of fiber amplifiers ranging in lengths from 1-20 meters using various pump and seeding wavelengths. Simulation results indicate promising modal instability suppression through gain tailoring, tandem pumping, or through seeding at an appropriate wavelength. We examine the threshold of an amplifier pumped using fiber lasers operating at 1018 nm; similar to the multi-kilowatt single-mode fiber laser demonstrated by IPG. In this case, we show an increase in threshold of 370%. By simply seeding at other wavelengths, as low as 1030 nm, a 60% suppression of the modal instability threshold can also be realized. Furthermore, we show that gain tailoring is an effective mitigation technique leading to an appreciable suppression of the instability in a fiber design that has already been experimentally tested.

In this paper we propose and demonstrate a novel technique to suppress pump in four-wave mixing experiments. The residual pump powers at the fiber output are reflected by fiber-Bragg gratings (FBGs), amplified by an EDFA to compensate for pump losses in feedback path, and fed back to the fiber. With the increase in total input power to the fiber, the ratio of signal and idler to pump increases. Additional optical filters can then be used for further pump suppression. In our experiments, two pump waves of wavelengths 1549.70nm and 1549.85nm are combined using a 3dB coupler and fed to a highly-nonlinear fiber (HNLF) of length 1km, nonlinear coefficient of 12.4/W-km, and zero dispersion wavelength (ZDW) of 1513nm. Without feedback, we obtained the signal and idler to pump ratios of -21dB and -20.6dB respectively. After filtering by FBGs of 95% reflectivity and unity gain feedback, the ratio becomes - 14.1dB and -12.2dB respectively. When the residual pumps are amplified and fed back to the HNLF, the ratio improves to -7.5dB and -8.6dB indicating the potential of our method.