The 50 most-cited articles in Optics Letters, 2016

We report, to the best of our knowledge, the first demonstration of thermally controlled soliton mode-locked frequency comb generation in microresonators. By controlling the electric current through heaters integrated with silicon nitride microresonators, we demonstrate a systematic and repeatable pathway to single- and multi-soliton mode-locked states without adjusting the pump laser wavelength. Such an approach could greatly simplify the generation of mode-locked frequency combs and facilitate applications such as chip-based dual-comb spectroscopy.

A significant enhancement of light extraction efficiency from InGaN light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with microhole arrays and roughened ZnO was experimentally demonstrated. The roughened ZnO was fabricated using an Ar and H2 plasma treatment of ZnO films pre-coated on a p-GaN layer. When followed by a femtosecond laser direct writing technique, a periodic array of microholes could be added to the surface. The diameter of the microhole was varied by changing the output power of the femtosecond laser. Compared to conventional LEDs on the same wafer, the output power of LEDs with roughened ZnOs and a microhole (diameter of 2 μm) array was increased by 58.4% when operated with an injection current of 220 mA. Moreover, it was found that LEDs fabricated with roughened ZnO and the microhole array had similar current–voltage (I–V) characteristics to those of conventional LEDs and no degrading effect was observed.

Recently, lead halide perovskite quantum dots have been reported with potential for photovoltaic and optoelectronic applications due to their excellent luminescent properties. Herein excitonic photoluminescence (PL) excited by two-photon absorption in perovskite CsPbBr3 quantum dots (QDs) has been studied at a broad temperature range, from 80 to 380 K. Two-photon absorption has been investigated and the absorption coefficient is up to 0.085 cm/GW at room temperature. Moreover, the PL spectrum excited by two-photon absorption shows a linear blue-shift (0.32 meV/K) below the temperature of 220 K. However, for higher temperatures, the PL peak approaches a roughly constant value and shows temperature-independent chromaticity up to 380 K. This behavior is distinct from the general red-shift for semiconductors and can be attributed to the result of thermal expansion, electron–phonon interaction and structural phase transition around 360 K. The strong nonlinear absorption and temperature-independent chromaticity of CsPbBr3 QDs observed in temperature range from 220 to 380 K will offer new…

We report a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber that is engineered so as to strongly suppress higher-order modes, i.e., to provide robust LP01 single-mode guidance in all the wavelength ranges where the fiber guides with low loss. Encircling the core is a single ring of nontouching glass elements whose modes are tailored to ensure resonant phase-matched coupling to higher-order core modes. We show that the resulting modal filtering effect depends on only one dimensionless shape parameter, akin to the well-known d/Λ parameter for endlessly single-mode solid-core PCF. Fabricated fibers show higher-order mode losses some ∼100 higher than for the LP01 mode, with LP01 losses <0.2 dB/m in the near-infrared and a spectral flatness ∼1 dB over a >110 THz bandwidth.

We demonstrate passive large-scale nanophotonic phased arrays in a CMOS-compatible silicon photonic platform. Silicon nitride waveguides are used to allow for higher input power and lower phase variation compared to a silicon-based distribution network. A phased array at an infrared wavelength of 1550 nm is demonstrated with an ultra-large aperture size of 4 mm×4 mm, achieving a record small and near diffraction-limited spot size of 0.021°×0.021° with a side lobe suppression of 10 dB. A main beam power of 400 mW is observed. Using the same silicon nitride platform and phased array architecture, we also demonstrate, to the best of our knowledge, the first large-aperture visible nanophotonic phased array at 635 nm with an aperture size of 0.5 mm×0.5 mm and a spot size of 0.064°×0.074°.

We generalize the concept of photonic gauge potential in real space by introducing an additional "synthetic" frequency dimension in addition to the real space dimensions. As an illustration, we consider a one-dimensional array of ring resonators, each supporting a set of resonant modes having a frequency comb with spacing Ω, and undergoing a refractive index modulation at the modulation frequency equal to Ω. We show that the modulation phase provides a gauge potential in the synthetic two-dimensional space with the dimensions being the frequency and the spatial axes. Such a gauge potential can create a topologically protected one-way edge state in the synthetic space that is useful for high-efficiency generation of higher-order side bands.

Utilizing a novel laser system consisting of a 500 W, 10 MHz, 3 ps laser source which is fully synchronized with a polygon scanner reaching scanning speeds up to 500 m/s, we explore the possibilities to increase the productivity of nanoparticle synthesis by laser ablation in liquids. By exploiting the high scanning speed, laser-induced cavitation bubbles are spatially bypassed at high repetition rates and continuous multigram ablation rates up to 4 g/h are demonstrated for platinum, gold, silver, aluminum, copper, and titanium. Furthermore, the applicable, ablation-effective repetition rate is increased by two orders of magnitude. The ultrafast ablation mechanisms are investigated for different laser fluences, repetition rates, interpulse distances, and ablation times, while the resulting trends are successfully described by validating a model developed for ultrafast laser ablation in air to hold in liquids as well.

We demonstrate a scheme for nonlinear pulse compression at high average powers based on self-phase modulation in a multi-pass cell using fused silica as the nonlinear medium. The scheme is suitable for compression of pulses with peak powers exceeding the threshold for critical self-focusing. At >400 W of input power, the pulses of a Yb:YAG-Innoslab laser system (10 MHz repetition rate, 850 fs pulse duration) are spectrally broadened from 1.6 to >13.5 nm bandwidth while maintaining almost diffraction-limited beam quality. The chirp is removed with a dispersive mirror compressor, and pulse durations of 170 fs at an output power of 375 W are achieved. The compression unit reaches an overall transmission of >90%.

We observe a nonlinear spatial self-cleaning process for femtosecond pulses in graded-index (GRIN) multimode fiber (MMF). Pulses with ∼80 fs duration at 1030 nm are launched into GRIN MMF with 62.5 μm core. The near-field beam profile at the output end of the fiber evolves from a speckled pattern to a centered, bell-shaped transverse structure with increasing pulse energy. The experimental observations agree well with numerical simulations, which show that the Kerr nonlinearity underlies the process. This self-cleaning process may find applications in ultrafast pulse generation and beam-combining.

We experimentally demonstrate mid-infrared (MIR) supercontinuum (SC) generation spanning ∼2.0 to 15.1 μm in a 3 cm-long chalcogenide step-index fiber. The pump source is generated by the difference frequency generation with a pulse width of ∼170 fs, a repetition rate of ∼1000 Hz, and a wavelength range tunable from 2.4 to 11 μm. To the best of our knowledge, this is the broadest MIR SC generation observed so far in optical fibers. It facilitates fiber-based applications in sensing, medical, and biological imaging areas.

Compact electro-optical modulators are demonstrated on thin films of lithium niobate on silicon operating up to 50 GHz. The half-wave voltage length product of the high-performance devices is 3.1 V.cm at DC and less than 6.5 V.cm up to 50 GHz. The 3 dB electrical bandwidth is 33 GHz, with an 18 dB extinction ratio. The third-order intermodulation distortion spurious free dynamic range is 97.3 dBHz2/3 at 1 GHz and 92.6 dBHz2/3 at 10 GHz. The performance demonstrated by the thin-film modulators is on par with conventional lithium niobate modulators but with lower drive voltages, smaller device footprints, and potential compatibility for integration with large-scale silicon photonics.

Soliton mode locking and femtosecond pulse generation have recently been demonstrated in high-Q optical microcavities and provide a new way to miniaturize frequency comb systems, as well as create integrated comb systems on a chip. However, triggering the mode-locking process is complicated by a well-known thermal hysteresis that can destabilize the solitons. Moreover, on a longer time scale, thermal drifting of the cavity resonant frequency relative to the pumping frequency causes loss of mode locking. In this Letter, an active feedback method is used both to capture specific soliton states and to stabilize the states indefinitely. The capture and stabilization method provides a reliable way to overcome thermal effects during soliton formation and to excite a desired number of circulating cavity solitons. It is also used to demonstrate a low pumping power of 22 mW for generation of microwave-repetition-rate solitons on a chip.

A low-loss and broadband silicon thermo-optic switch is proposed and demonstrated experimentally by using a Mach-Zehnder Interferometer with 2×2 3 dB power splitters based on bent directional couplers (DCs). The bent DCs are introduced here to replace the traditional 2×2 3 dB power splitters based on multimode interferometers or straight DCs, so that one achieves a coupling ratio of ∼50%∶ 50%, as well as low excess loss over a broadband. The demonstrated Mach-Zehnder switch (MZS) has a ∼140 nm bandwidth for an excess loss of <1 dB and an extinction ratio of >20 dB. The present MZS also shows excellent reproducibility and good fabrication tolerance, which makes it promising for realizing N×N optical switches.

We observe efficient supercontinuum generation that extends into the visible spectral range by pumping a low differential mode group delay graded index multimode fiber in the normal dispersion regime. For a 28.5 m long fiber, the generated spectrum spans more than two octaves, starting from below 450 nm and extending beyond 2400 nm. The main nonlinear mechanisms contributing to the visible spectrum generation are attributed to multipath four-wave mixing processes and periodic spatio-temporal breathing dynamics. Moreover, by exploiting the highly multimodal nature of this system, we demonstrate versatile generation of visible spectral peaks in shorter fiber spans by altering the launching conditions. A nonlinearly induced mode cleanup was also observed at the pump wavelength. Our results could pave the way for high brightness, high power, and compact, multi-octave continuum sources.

We propose the concept of perfect vectorial vortex beams (VVBs), which not merely have intensity profile independent of the polarization order and the topological charge of spiral phase, but also have stable intensity profile and state of polarization (SoP) upon propagation. Utilizing a Sagnac interferometer, we approximately generate perfect VVBs with locally linear and elliptical polarizations, and demonstrate that such beams can keep their intensity profile and SoP at a certain propagation distance. These proposed VVBs can be expanded to encode information and quantum cryptography, as well as to enrich the conversion of spin and orbital angular momenta.

A holographic display system for realizing a three-dimensional optical see-through augmented reality (AR) is proposed. A multi-functional holographic optical element (HOE), which simultaneously performs the optical functions of a mirror and a lens, is adopted in the system. In the proposed method, a mirror that is used to guide the light source into a reflection type spatial light modulator (SLM) and a lens that functions as Fourier transforming optics are recorded on a single holographic recording material by utilizing an angular multiplexing technique of volume hologram. The HOE is transparent and performs the optical functions just for Bragg matched condition. Therefore, the real-world scenes that are usually distorted by a Fourier lens or an SLM in the conventional holographic display can be observed without visual disturbance by using the proposed mirror-lens HOE (MLHOE). Furthermore, to achieve an optimized optical recording condition of the MLHOE, the optical characteristics of the holographic material are measured. The proposed holographic AR display system is verified…

We present terahertz metasurfaces based on aligned rectangular graphene patches placed on top of a dielectric layer to convert the transmitted linearly polarized waves to circular or elliptical polarized radiation. Our results lead to the design of an ultrathin broadband terahertz quarter-wave plate. In addition, ultrathin metasurfaces based on the arrays of L-shaped graphene periodic patches are demonstrated to achieve broadband cross-polarization transformation in reflection and transmission. The proposed metasurface designs have tunable responses and are envisioned to become the building blocks of several integrated terahertz systems.

We show that the average orbital angular momentum (OAM) of twisted light can be measured simply and robustly with a single stationary cylindrical lens and a camera. Theoretical motivation is provided, along with self-consistent optical modeling and experimental results. In contrast to qualitative interference techniques for measuring OAM, we quantitatively measure non-integer average OAM in mode superpositions.

In distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) an optical fiber is transformed into an array of thousands of "virtual microphones." Most current DAS methodologies are based on coherent interference of Rayleigh backscattered light and thus are prone to signal fading. Hence, the sensitivities of the "microphones" fluctuate randomly along the fiber. Therefore, specifying the sensitivity of DAS without considering its random nature is incomplete and of limited value. In this Letter, the statistical properties of DAS SNR and DAS sensitivity are studied in detail for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. It is shown that the mean dynamic DAS SNR is proportional to the SNR obtained in a single measurement of the fiber's "static" backscatter profile and, in turn, to the energy of the interrogation pulse. Finally, the minimum input signal, which produces a specified mean DAS SNR, is proposed as a new figure of merit for the characterization of system performances and for comparison between the sensitivities of different DAS modalities.

An ultrafast fiber chirped-pulse amplifier comprising eight coherently combined amplifier channels is presented. The laser delivers 1 kW average power at 1 mJ pulse energy and 260 fs pulse duration. Excellent beam quality and low-noise performance are confirmed. The laser has proven suitable for demanding scientific applications. Further power scaling is possible right away using even more amplifier channels.

We experimentally demonstrate and characterize the performance of a 400-Gbit/s orbital angular momentum (OAM) multiplexed free-space optical link over 120 m on the roof of a building. Four OAM beams, each carrying a 100-Gbit/s quadrature-phase-shift-keyed channel are multiplexed and transmitted. We investigate the influence of channel impairments on the received power, intermodal crosstalk among channels, and system power penalties. Without laser tracking and compensation systems, the measured received power and crosstalk among OAM channels fluctuate by 4.5 dB and 5 dB, respectively, over 180 s. For a beam displacement of 2 mm that corresponds to a pointing error less than 16.7 μrad, the link bit error rates are below the forward error correction threshold of 3.8×10(-3) for all channels. Both experimental and simulation results show that power penalties increase rapidly when the displacement increases.

We predict the existence of gap solitons in the nonlinear fractional Schrödinger equation (NLFSE) with an imprinted optically harmonic lattice. Symmetric/antisymmetric nonlinear localized modes bifurcate from the lower/upper edge of the first/second band in defocusing/focusing Kerr media. A unique feature we revealed is that, in focusing Kerr media, stable solitons appear in the finite bandgaps with the decrease of the Lévy index, which is in sharp contrast to the standard NLSE with a focusing nonlinearity. Nonlinear bound states composed by in-phase and out-of-phase soliton units supported by the NLFSE are also uncovered. Our work may pave the way for the study of spatial lattice solitons in fractional dimensions.

We report on a long wavelength emitting rare earth doped fiber laser with the emission centered at 3.5 μm and tunable across 450 nm. The longest wavelength emission was 3.78 μm which is the longest emission from a fiber laser operating at room temperature. In a simple optical arrangement employing dielectric mirrors for feedback, the laser was capable of emitting 1.45 W of near diffraction limited output power at 3.47 μm. These emission characteristics complement the emissions from quantum cascade lasers and demonstrate how all infrared dual wavelength pumping can be used to access high lying rare earth ion transitions that have previously relied on visible wavelength pumping.

Soliton explosions, as one of the most fascinating nonlinear phenomena in dissipative systems, have been investigated in different branches of physics, including the ultrafast laser community. Herein, we reported on the soliton dynamics of an ultrafast fiber laser from steady state to soliton explosions, and to huge explosions by simply adjusting the pump power level. In particular, the huge soliton explosions show that the exploding behavior could operate in a sustained, but periodic, mode from one explosion to another, which we term as "successive soliton explosions." The experimental results will prove to be fruitful to the various communities interested in soliton explosions.

We report on what we believe is the first field implementation of a continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) network with point-to-point configuration. Four QKD nodes are deployed on standard communication infrastructures connected with commercial telecom optical fiber. Reliable key exchange is achieved in the wavelength-division-multiplexing CV-QKD network. The impact of a complex and volatile field environment on the excess noise is investigated, since excess noise controlling and reduction is arguably the major issue pertaining to distance and the secure key rate. We confirm the applicability and verify the maturity of the CV-QKD network in a metropolitan area, thus paving the way for a next-generation global secure communication network.

In this Letter, we realize the concept of analog computing using an engineered gradient dielectric meta-reflect-array. The proposed configuration consists of individual subwavelength silicon nanobricks, in combination with a fused silica spacer and silver ground plane, realizing a reflection beam with full phase coverage of 2π degrees, as well as an amplitude range of 0 to 1. Spectrally overlapping electric and magnetic dipole resonances, such high-index dielectric metasurfaces can locally and independently manipulate the amplitude and phase of the incident electromagnetic wave. This practically feasible structure overcomes substantial limitations imposed by plasmonic metasurfaces such as absorption losses and low polarization conversion efficiency in the visible range. Using such CMOS-compatible and easily integrable platforms promises highly efficient ultrathin planar wave-based computing systems that circumvent the drawbacks of conventional bulky lens-based signal processors. Based on these key properties and the general concept of spatial Fourier transformation, we design and…

We report on the generation of high-energy (1.9 μJ) far-infrared pulses tunable between 4 and 18 THz frequency. Emphasis is placed on tunability and on minimizing the bandwidth of these pulses to less than 1 THz, as achieved by difference-frequency mixing of two linearly chirped near-infrared pulses in the organic nonlinear crystal DSTMS. As the two near-infrared pulses are derived from amplification of the same white light continuum, their carrier envelope phase fluctuations are mutually correlated, and hence the difference-frequency THz field exhibits absolute phase stability. This source opens up new possibilities for the control of condensed matter and chemical systems by selective excitation of low-energy modes in a frequency range that has, to date, been difficult to access.

Optical computing has emerged as a promising candidate for real-time and parallel continuous data processing. Motivated by recent progresses in metamaterial-based analog computing [Science343, 160 (2014)SCIEAS0036-807510.1126/science.1242818], we theoretically investigate the realization of two-dimensional complex mathematical operations using rotated configurations, recently reported in [Opt. Lett.39, 1278 (2014)OPLEDP0146-959210.1364/OL.39.001278]. Breaking the reflection symmetry, such configurations could realize both even and odd Green's functions associated with spatial operators. Based on such an appealing theory and by using the Brewster effect, we demonstrate realization of a first-order differentiator. Such an efficient wave-based computation method not only circumvents the major potential drawbacks of metamaterials, but also offers the most compact possible device compared to conventional bulky lens-based optical signal and data processors.

We present a simple, yet effective, approach for optical induction of Lieb photonic lattices, which typically rely on the femtosecond laser writing technique. Such lattices are established by judiciously overlapping two sublattices (an "egg-crate" lattice and a square lattice) with different periodicities through a self-defocusing photorefractive medium. Furthermore, taking advantage of the superposition of localized flat-band states inherent in the Lieb lattices, we demonstrate distortion-free image transmission in such two-dimensional perovskite-like photonic structures. Our experimental observations find good agreement with numerical simulations.

Highly efficient absorption of light at telecommunication wavelengths in monolayer graphene is numerically and theoretically investigated in a multi-layer photonic configuration, which consists of an ultrathin metal film coated on a dielectric Bragg mirror and a graphene sheet in a silica spacer. Our results show that the absolute absorption of light in the single-atomic-layer graphene can significantly reach 80% (34.8-fold enhancement compared to the intrinsic value of 2.3%), due to the strong field confinement of Tamm plasmon polaritons in the silica spacer. Moreover, we find that the absorption efficiency of graphene is critically dependent on the position of the graphene in the spacer. The operating wavelength is flexibly tunable by adjusting the incident angle of light and the thicknesses of metal and Bragg mirror layers. The meaningful improvement and tunability of graphene absorption may find favorable applications for the realization of high-performance graphene optoelectronic devices, such as detectors and modulators.

Imperfections in integrated photonics manufacturing have a detrimental effect on the maximal achievable visibility in interferometric architectures. These limits have profound implications for further technological developments in photonics and in particular for quantum photonic technologies. Active optimization approaches, together with reconfigurable photonics, have been proposed as a solution to overcome this. In this Letter, we demonstrate an ultrahigh (>60 dB) extinction ratio in a silicon photonic device consisting of cascaded Mach-Zehnder interferometers, in which additional interferometers function as variable beamsplitters. The imperfections of fabricated beamsplitters are compensated using an automated progressive optimization algorithm with no requirement for pre-calibration. This work shows the possibility of integrating and accurately controlling linear-optical components for large-scale quantum information processing and other applications.

Few-cycle lasers are essential for many research areas such as attosecond physics that promise to address fundamental questions in science and technology. Therefore, further advancements are connected to significant progress in the underlying laser technology. Here, two-stage nonlinear compression of a 660 W femtosecond fiber laser system is utilized to achieve unprecedented average power levels of energetic ultrashort or even few-cycle laser pulses. In a first compression step, 408 W, 320 μJ, 30 fs pulses are achieved, which can be further compressed to 216 W, 170 μJ, 6.3 fs pulses in a second compression stage. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest average power few-cycle laser system presented so far. It is expected to significantly advance the fields of high harmonic generation and attosecond science.

The development of compact and reliable ultrafast sources operating in the mid-infrared region could lead to major advances in both fundamental and applied sciences. In this Letter, we report on a simple and efficient laser system based entirely on erbium-doped fluoride glass fibers that generates high-energy Raman soliton pulses tunable from 2.8 to 3.6 μm at a high average output power. Stable 160 fs pulses at 3.4 μm with a maximum energy of 37 nJ, a corresponding average output power above 2 W, and an estimated peak power above 200 kW are demonstrated. This tunable source promises direct applications in laser processing of polymers and biological materials.

We experimentally demonstrate that pumping a graded-index multimode fiber with sub-ns pulses from a microchip Nd:YAG laser leads to spectrally flat supercontinuum generation with a uniform bell-shaped spatial beam profile extending from the visible to the mid-infrared at 2500 nm. We study the development of the supercontinuum along the multimode fiber by the cut-back method, which permits us to analyze the competition between the Kerr-induced geometric parametric instability and stimulated Raman scattering. We also performed a spectrally resolved temporal analysis of the supercontinuum emission.

Dissipative Kerr cavity solitons experience a so-called self-frequency shift (SFS) as a result of Raman interactions. The frequency shift has been observed in several microcavity systems. The Raman process has also been shown numerically to influence the soliton pumping efficiency. Here, a perturbed Lagrangian approach is used to derive simple analytical expressions for the SFS and the soliton efficiency. The predicted dependences of these quantities on soliton pulse width are compared with measurements in a high-Q silica microcavity. The Raman time constant in silica is also inferred. Analytical expressions for the Raman SFS and soliton efficiency greatly simplify the prediction of soliton behavior over a wide range of microcavity platforms.

We demonstrate coherent beam combining and adaptive mitigation of atmospheric turbulence effects over 7 km under strong scintillation conditions using a coherent fiber array laser transmitter operating in a target-in-the-loop setting. The transmitter system is composed of a densely packed array of 21 fiber collimators with integrated capabilities for piston, tip, and tilt control of the outgoing beams wavefront phases. A small cat's-eye retro reflector was used for evaluation of beam combining and turbulence compensation performance at the target plane, and to provide the feedback signal for control of piston and tip/tilt phases of the transmitted beams using the stochastic parallel gradient descent maximization of the power-in-the-bucket metric.

An unprecedented Brillouin gain of 44 dB in a photonic chip enables the realization of broadly tunable and reconfigurable integrated microwave photonic filters. More than a decade bandwidth reconfigurability from 30 up to 440 MHz, with a passband ripple <1.9 dB is achieved by tailoring the Brillouin pump. The filter central frequency is continuously tuned up to 30 GHz with no degradation of the passband response, which is a major improvement over electronic filters. Furthermore, we demonstrate pump tailoring to realize multiple bandpass filters with different bandwidths and central frequencies, paving the way for multiple on-chip microwave filters and channelizers.

Vector beams have found a myriad of applications, from laser materials processing to microscopy, and are now easily produced in the laboratory. They are usually differentiated from scalar beams by qualitative measures, for example, visual inspection of beam profiles after a rotating polarizer. Here we introduce a quantitative beam quality measure for vector beams and demonstrate it on cylindrical vector vortex beams. We show how a single measure can be defined for the vector quality, from 0 (purely scalar) to 1 (purely vector). Our measure is derived from a quantum toolkit, which we show applies to classical vector beams.

A three-mode (de)multiplexer based on two cascaded asymmetric Y junctions is proposed and experimentally demonstrated on a silicon-on-insulator platform for mode-division multiplexing applications. Within a bandwidth from 1537 to 1566 nm, the best demultiplexing crosstalk of the fabricated device, composed of a three-mode multiplexer, a multimode straight waveguide, and a three-mode demultiplexer, is up to -31.5 dB, while in the worst case it is -9.7 dB. The measured maximum insertion loss is about 5.7 dB at a wavelength of 1550 nm. The mode crosstalk and insertion loss can be further improved by high-quality fabrication processes.

A 3D printer was used to realize custom-made diffractive THz lenses. After testing several materials, phase binary lenses with periodic and aperiodic radial profiles were designed and constructed in polyamide material to work at 0.625 THz. The nonconventional focusing properties of such lenses were assessed by computing and measuring their axial point spread function (PSF). Our results demonstrate that inexpensive 3D printed THz diffractive lenses can be reliably used in focusing and imaging THz systems. Diffractive THz lenses with unprecedented features, such as extended depth of focus or bifocalization, have been demonstrated.

From its beginning, the measurement of optical rotation (OR) is crucial for the analysis of chiral molecules in many fields. However, the precision measurement of a weak OR signal with conventional setup remains elusive. In this Letter, we experimentally propose a precision method to determine the OR of glucose and fructose based on weak measurements. By using the spin Hall effect of light (SHEL) as a probe, a nonlinear weak measurements model is established that is applicable beyond the Aharonov-Albert-Vaidman (AAV) limit. Due to the high sensitivity of weak measurements amplification with respect to the OR, a tremendous variation of the amplified beam displacement of the SHEL is observed, while the concentration of glucose and fructose is slightly changed.

This Letter reports the production of a supercontinuum extending from ≈2 μm to >10 μm generated using a chalcogenide buried rib waveguide pumped with 330 femtosecond pulses at 4.184 μm. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the broadest mid-infrared supercontinuum generated in any planar waveguide platform. Because the waveguide is birefringent, quasi-single-mode, and uses an optimized dispersion design, the supercontinuum is linearly polarized with an extinction ratio >100. Dual beam spectrophotometry is performed easily using this source.

Typical single-pixel imaging techniques inherently consume a large number of measurements to reconstruct a high-quality and high-resolution image. Three-dimensional (3-D) single-pixel imaging with both high sampling efficiency and high depth accuracy remains a challenge. We implement fringe projection virtually by exploiting Helmholtz reciprocity. Depth information is modulated into a deformed fringe pattern whose Fourier spectrum is sampled by using sinusoidal intensity pattern illumination and single-pixel detection. The fringe pattern has a highly focused first-order component in its Fourier spectrum, which allows us to efficiently acquire the depth information from measurements far fewer than illumination pattern pixels. The 3-D information is retrieved through Fourier analysis. We experimentally obtained a 3-D reconstruction of a complex object with 599×599 effective pixels, achieving a measurement-to-pixel ratio of 5.78%. The depth accuracy is evaluated at sub-millimetric level by using a test object.

In this Letter, we demonstrate a compellingly simple directional bending sensor based on multicore optical fibers (MCF). The device operates in reflection mode and consists of a short segment of a three-core MCF that is fusion spliced at the distal end of a standard single mode optical fiber. The asymmetry of our MCF along with the high sensitivity of the supermodes of the MCF make the small bending on the MCF induce drastic changes in the supermodes, their excitation, and, consequently, on the reflected spectrum. Our MCF bending sensor was found to be highly sensitive (4094 pm/deg) to small bending angles. Moreover, it is capable of distinguishing multiple bending orientations.

Efficient diode-pumped passively Q-switched Er:Lu2O3 laser operation at 2.84 μm was realized. A few-layer MoS2 nanosheet film on a YAG substrate, was fabricated and employed as saturable absorber (SA) in a short plane-plane cavity. Under an absorbed diode laser pump power of 7.61 W, an average output power of 1.03 W was generated with a pulse duration of 335 ns and a repetition rate of 121 kHz, resulting in a pulse energy of 8.5 μJ.

Spatial self-phase modulation (SSPM) experiments on two-dimensional (2D) black phosphorus (BP) nanoflake suspensions are performed with focused femtosecond pulsed lasers at 350-1160 nm. In the broadband region, the slope of the SSPM ring number versus laser intensity varies from 0.99 to 0.34, which is larger than 0.25 in MoS2. We deduce the portion of the fluid globe (ξ) to be 0.0067, which is a constant independent of laser intensity, when the laser intensity is above 10 W/cm2. The nonlinear refractive index of BP is measured to be ∼10(-5) cm2 W(-1), and the third-order nonlinear susceptibility is χ(3)∼10(-8) esu at multiple wavelengths.

We report the coherent mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in an all-solid chalcogenide microstructured fiber with all-normal dispersion. The chalcogenide microstructured fiber is a four-hole structure with core material of AsSe2 and air holes that are replaced by As2S5 glass rods. Coherent mid-infrared supercontinuum light extended to 3.3 μm is generated in a 2 cm long chalcogenide microstructured fiber pumped by a 2.7 μm laser.

We demonstrate experimentally a double-clad Er:Yb co-doped dual amplifier passive mode-locked figure-of-eight fiber laser that generates high energy, width, and amplitude tunable dissipative soliton resonance square pulses. In our laser system, each loop contains an amplifier that controls a characteristic of the output pulse. The amplitude and width of the output beam can be controlled continuously but, dependently, according to the pump power of each amplifier. The pulse width can be tuned in a range of almost 360 ns while the peak power varies from 8 to 120 W. On maximum possible pumping from both sides without having a pulse break, we report square pulses with 10 μJ energy per pulse with a signal-to-noise ratio of 60 dB.

We presented the significant enhancement of the photonic spin Hall effect by taking advantage of long-range surface plasmon resonance (LRSPR). The influence of the thicknesses of metal and dielectric layers in the insulator-metal-insulator structure which supports LRSPR was investigated. Under the optimal parameter setup, the largest transverse separation with a 632.8 nm incident Gaussian beam reaches 7.85 μm, which is much larger than previous reported values.

We present a graphene-on-silicon (GoS) suspended vertical slot waveguide. By changing the Fermi level of graphene, the variation in the effective refractive index (RI) of the waveguide is a factor of two larger than that in the traditional GoS rib waveguide. The improvement is due to the light-intensity enhancement and the poor confinement of the optical mode in the slot nanostructure. We design Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) and microring modulators based on the GoS suspended vertical slot waveguide. Our calculations show that the modulators can be energy-efficient and footprint-compact due to the large phase shift of the propagating mode in the waveguide after applying a gate voltage on the graphene. Fabrication of our design is easy and CMOS-compatible. It paves the way for chip-integrated electronic-RI modulators.