All-optical polymeric interferometeric wavelength converter comprising an excited state intramolecular proton transfer dye

Abstract

We designed and demonstrated an all-optical wavelength converter using a polymeric Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) comprised of an excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) dye, 2,2′-{oxybis[4-(4-methoxyphenyl)quinoline-6,2-diyl]}bis(5-methoxyphenol) (MQ). This MZI wavelength converter is composed of the MQ dye-doped polymeric waveguide and a thick light blocking metal film. A feature of this device is that one arm of the MZI can be irradiated by 355 nm pulses (signal beam), while the other arm was not, thus allowing a differential phase shift in the submicrosecond time scale. Because of the refractive index change of the ESIPT dye in one arm of interferometer upon irradiation with the signal beam, phase modulation of the continuous-wave probe light propagating in the irradiated arm of the MZI takes place, leading to the intensity modulation at the output defined by the signal beam, resulting in an all-optical wavelength converter, that is, the conversion of the signal modulation to output signal modulation of the probe light of the MZI. The characteristics of the wavelength converter are well described by a simple kinetic model.