External Optical Pulse Research Articles

On-chip spiking neural networks based on add-drop ring microresonators and electrically reconfigurable phase-change material photonic switches

We propose and numerically demonstrate a photonic computing primitive designed for integrated spiking neural networks (SNNs) based on add-drop ring microresonators (ADRMRs) and electrically reconfigurable phase-change material (PCM) photonic switches. In this neuromorphic system, the passive silicon-based ADRMR, equipped with a power-tunable auxiliary light, effectively demonstrates nonlinearity-induced dual neural dynamics encompassing spiking response and synaptic plasticity that can generate single-wavelength optical neural spikes with synaptic weight. By cascading these ADRMRs with different resonant wavelengths, weighted multiple-wavelength spikes can be feasibly output from the ADRMR-based hardware arrays when external wavelength-addressable optical pulses are injected; subsequently, the cumulative power of these weighted output spikes is utilized to ascertain the activation status of the reconfigurable PCM photonic switches. Moreover, the reconfigurable mechanism driving the interconversion of the PCMs between the resonant-bonded crystalline states and the covalent-bonded amorphous states is achieved through precise thermal modulation. Drawing from the thermal properties, an innovative thermodynamic leaky integrate-and-firing (TLIF) neuron system is proposed. With the TLIF neuron system as the fundamental unit, a fully connected SNN is constructed to complete a classic deep learning task: the recognition of handwritten digit patterns. The simulation results reveal that the exemplary SNN can effectively recognize 10 numbers directly in the optical domain by employing the surrogate gradient algorithm. The theoretical verification of our architecture paves a whole new path for integrated photonic SNNs, with the potential to advance the field of neuromorphic photonic systems and enable more efficient spiking information processing.

Optical Manipulation of Bipolarons in a System with Nonlinear Electron-Phonon Coupling.

We investigate full quantum mechanical evolution of two electrons nonlinearly coupled to quantum phonons and simulate the dynamical response of the system subject to a short spatially uniform optical pulse that couples to dipole-active vibrational modes. Nonlinear electron-phonon coupling can either soften or stiffen the phonon frequency in the presence of electron density. In the former case, an external optical pulse tuned just below the phonon frequency generates attraction between electrons and leads to a long-lived bound state even after the optical pulse is switched off. It originates from a dynamical modification of the self-trapping potential that induces a metastable state. By increasing the pulse frequency, the attractive electron-electron interaction changes to repulsive. Two sequential optical pulses with different frequencies can switch between attractive and repulsive interaction. Finally, we show that the pulse-induced binding of electrons is shown to be efficient also for weakly dispersive optical phonons, in the presence anharmonic phonon spectrum and in two dimensions.

Exciton–polaritons in a 2D hybrid organic–inorganic perovskite microcavity with the presence of optical Stark effect

This study investigates the properties of exciton–polaritons in a two-dimensional (2D) hybrid organic–inorganic perovskite microcavity in the presence of optical Stark effect. Through both steady and dynamic state analyses, strong coupling between excitons of perovskite and cavity photons is revealed, indicating the formation of polaritons in the perovskite microcavity. Besides, it is found that an external optical Stark pulse can induce energy shifts of excitons proportional to the pulse intensity, which modifies the dispersion characteristics of the polaritons.

Photonic integrated spiking neuron chip based on a self-pulsating DFB laser with a saturable absorber

We proposed and experimentally demonstrated a simple and novel photonic spiking neuron based on a distributed feedback (DFB) laser chip with an intracavity saturable absorber (SA). The DFB laser with an intracavity SA (DFB-SA) contains a gain region and an SA region. The gain region is designed and fabricated by the asymmetric equivalent π-phase shift based on the reconstruction-equivalent-chirp technique. Under properly injected current in the gain region and reversely biased voltage in the SA region, periodic self-pulsation was experimentally observed due to the Q-switching effect. The self-pulsation frequency increases with the increase of the bias current and is within the range of several gigahertz. When the bias current is below the self-pulsation threshold, neuronlike spiking responses appear when external optical stimulus pulses are injected. Experimental results show that the spike threshold, temporal integration, and refractory period can all be observed in the fabricated DFB-SA chip. To numerically verify the experimental findings, a time-dependent coupled-wave equation model was developed, which described the physics processes inside the gain and SA regions. The numerical results agree well with the experimental measurements. We further experimentally demonstrated that the weighted sum output can readily be encoded into the self-pulsation frequency of the DFB-SA neuron. We also benchmarked the handwritten digit classification task with a simple single-layer fully connected neural network. By using the experimentally measured dependence of the self-pulsation frequency on the bias current in the gain region as an activation function, we can achieve a recognition accuracy of 92.2%, which bridges the gap between the continuous valued artificial neural networks and spike-based neuromorphic networks. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first experimental demonstration of a photonic integrated spiking neuron based on a DFB-SA, which shows great potential to realizing large-scale multiwavelength photonic spiking neural network chips.

Equalization of pulse timings in an excitable microlaser system with delay

An excitable semiconductor micropillar laser with delayed optical feedback is able to regenerate pulses by the excitable response of the laser. It has been shown that almost any pulse sequence can, in principle, be excited and regenerated by this system over short periods of time. We show experimentally and numerically that this is not true anymore in the long term: rather, the system settles down to a stable periodic orbit with equalized timing between pulses. Several such attracting periodic regimes with different numbers of equalized pulse timing may coexist and we study how they can be accessed with single external optical pulses of sufficient strength that need to be timed appropriately. Since the observed timing equalization and switching characteristics are generated by excitability in combination with delayed feedback, our results will be of relevance beyond the particular case of photonics, especially in neuroscience.

Tightly locked optical frequency comb from a semiconductor disk laser.

Ultrafast semiconductor disk lasers (SDLs) passively modelocked using semiconductor saturable absorbers mirrors (SESAMs) generate optical frequency combs (OFCs) with gigahertz line spacings - a regime where solid-state and fiber lasers struggle with geometrical and Q-switching limitations. We stabilized both the frequency comb spacing and the offset without any additional external optical amplification or pulse compression. The overall noise performance is competitive with other gigahertz OFCs. A SESAM-modelocked vertical external-cavity surface-emitting laser (VECSEL) at a center wavelength around 1 µm generates 122-fs pulses with 160 mW average output power and we only needed 17-pJ pulse energy coupled into a silicon nitride (Si3N4) waveguide for supercontinuum generation (SCG) and OFC offset stabilization.

Polarization-resolved and polarization- multiplexed spike encoding properties in photonic neuron based on VCSEL-SA

The spike encoding properties of two polarization-resolved modes in vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser with an embedded saturable absorber (VCSEL-SA) are investigated numerically, based on the spin-flip model combined with the Yamada model. The results show that the external input optical pulse (EIOP) can be encoded into spikes in X-polarization (XP) mode, Y-polarization (YP) mode, or both XP and YP modes. Furthermore, the numerical bifurcation diagrams show that a lower (higher) strength of EIOP is beneficial for generating tonic (phasic) spikes; a small amplitude anisotropy contributes to wide (narrow) tonic spiking range in XP (YP) mode; a large current leads to low thresholds of EIOP strength for both XP and YP modes. However, the spike encoding properties are hardly affected by the phase anisotropy. The encoding rate is shown to be improved by increasing EIOP strength. Moreover, dual-channel polarization-multiplexed spike encoding can also be achieved in a single VCSEL-SA. To the best of our knowledge, such single channel polarization-resolved and dual-channel polarization-multiplexed spike encoding schemes have not yet been reported. Hence, this work is valuable for ultrafast photonic neuromorphic systems and brain-inspired information processing.

On-chip multi-stage optical delay based on cascaded Brillouin light storage.

Storing and delaying optical signals plays a crucial role in data centers, phased array antennas, communication, and future computing architectures. Here, we show a delay scheme based on cascaded Brillouin light storage that achieves multi-stage delay at arbitrary positions within a photonic integrated circuit. Importantly these multiple resonant transfers between the optical and acoustic domain are controlled solely via external optical control pulses, allowing cascading of the delay without the need of aligning multiple structural resonances along the optical circuit.

Ultrafast optical pulse convertor caused by oscillations of the energy level structure in the conjugated polymer poly(p-phenylenevinylene).

For a conjugated polymer irradiated by two optical pulses, the whole process of excitation, involving lattice oscillations, oscillations of the energy level structure, and evolution of the electron cloud, is investigated. Localization of the electron cloud appears in the first 100 fs of irradiation, which in turn induces vibrations of lattice of the polymer chain as well as oscillations of the band gap. These oscillations filter the absorption of the external optical field inversely and convert the original optical field to an ultrafast light field whose intensity varies with a certain period. Based on the mechanism, oscillations of the energy level structure, induced by the external excitation, can be designed as an ultrafast response optical convertor that is able to change the external optical pulse into a new effective light field with a certain oscillation period. This helps provide new insight into designing nanostructures for polymeric optoelectronics.

Formation of Hot Excitons, Annealing, and Relaxation in Conjugated Polymers under an External Optical Pulse

With an optical pulse focusing on a typical semiconducting conjugated polymer, PPV, the resultant electron transition induces an oscillation of the band gap. The gap varies with a period of 50 fs and acts like a comb, filtering the original optical pulse to become an effective light pulse that has a period of 50 fs as well. The effective optical pulse thereby localizes the electron in the first 50 fs, yielding a hot exciton within 100 fs, which is in agreement with experimental results. Because of the prominent electron–lattice coupling of the conjugated polymer, the effective light field not only triggers lattice vibrations but also drives the hot exciton to undergo relaxation. During the relaxation over 1000 fs, the hot exciton loses its excess energy, finally completing its annealing process.

Tunneling of Conduction Band Electrons Driven by a Laser Field in a Double Quantum dot: An Open Systems Approach

In this paper, we investigate tunneling of conduction band electrons in a system of an asymmetric double quantum dot which interacts with an environment. First we consider the case in which the system only interacts with the environment and demonstrate that as time goes to infinity they both reach an equilibrium, which is expected, and there is always a maximum and minimum for the populations of the states of the system. Then we investigate the case in which an external resonant optical pulse (a laser) is applied to the system interacting with the environment. However, in this case for different intensities we have different populations of the states in equilibrium and as the intensity of the laser gets stronger, the populations of the states in equilibrium approach the same constant.

Chaotic oscillation and random-number generation based on nanoscale optical-energy transfer.

By using nanoscale energy-transfer dynamics and density matrix formalism, we demonstrate theoretically and numerically that chaotic oscillation and random-number generation occur in a nanoscale system. The physical system consists of a pair of quantum dots (QDs), with one QD smaller than the other, between which energy transfers via optical near-field interactions. When the system is pumped by continuous-wave radiation and incorporates a timing delay between two energy transfers within the system, it emits optical pulses. We refer to such QD pairs as nano-optical pulsers (NOPs). Irradiating an NOP with external periodic optical pulses causes the oscillating frequency of the NOP to synchronize with the external stimulus. We find that chaotic oscillation occurs in the NOP population when they are connected by an external time delay. Moreover, by evaluating the time-domain signals by statistical-test suites, we confirm that the signals are sufficiently random to qualify the system as a random-number generator (RNG). This study reveals that even relatively simple nanodevices that interact locally with each other through optical energy transfer at scales far below the wavelength of irradiating light can exhibit complex oscillatory dynamics. These findings are significant for applications such as ultrasmall RNGs.

Fast quantum gate via Feshbach-Pauli blocking in a nanoplasmonic trap.

We propose a simple idea for realizing a quantum gate with two fermions in a double well trap via external optical pulses without addressing the atoms individually. The key components of the scheme are Feshbach resonance and Pauli blocking, which decouple unwanted states from the dynamics. As a physical example we study atoms in the presence of a magnetic Feshbach resonance in a nanoplasmonic trap and discuss the constraints on the operation times for realistic parameters, reaching a fidelity above 99.9% within 42 μs, much shorter than existing atomic gate schemes.

Monolithic All-Optical Set-Reset Flip-Flop Operating at 10 Gb/s

A monolithic semiconductor ring laser is operated as an all-optical set-reset flip-flop triggered by external optical pulses. Bit-error-rate measurements of set-reset switchings under the injection of a pseudo-random-bit-sequence have been performed, showing reliable operation up to 10 Gb/s.

A compact terahertz burst emission system driven with 1 μm fiber laser

In this work we propose a compact, easily tunable terahertz burst generation system based on the mixing of two linearly chirped optical pulses in the Michelson interferometer. The use of linearly chirped optical pulses ejected straight from the fiber laser enabled us to avoid bulky external optical pulse stretching schemes. Even for non-compensated third and higher order dispersion that is taking place in the optical fiber terahertz bursts of relatively narrow bandwidth of 55GHz were registered. The system operation range determined from the power measurements reached 2THz.

Generation of 10-GHz ultra-short pulses with low time jitter in an actively mode-locked fiber laser

We have experimentally achieved the 8.3-ps ultra-short pulse at 10 GHz repetition rate with the time jitter as low as 590 fs in an actively mode-locked fiber ring laser. The ring-cavity laser is mode-locked by a semiconductor optical amplifier based on cross-gain modulation. The external CW source is modulated with radio frequency signal by an amplitude modulator as the external optical pulses and, then, injected into the fiber ring cavity to achieve active mode locking. Further investigating the laser output characteristics, it indicates that the linewidth of employed CW source affects properties of the generated ultra-short pulse, such as phase noise and time jitter. Ultra-short pulse at high repetition rate with low time jitter can be generated by the optimization of CW laser source.

Simple approach to picosecond pulse generation based on semiconductor optical amplifier

A simple optical pulse generator based on a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is demonstrated with an easy-generated external optical pulse sequence. Using the cross-gain modulation and self-phase modulation effects inside an SOA, the simple optical pulse generator generates a 10 GHz 3.8 ps optical pulse train with an extremely low timing jitter of 60 fs.

Control of period-one oscillation for all-optical clock division and clock recovery by optical pulse injection driven semiconductor laser

The period-one oscillation produced by an external optical pulse injection driven semiconductor laser is applied to clock recovery and frequency division. By adjusting the repetition rate or injection power of the external injection optical pulses to lock the different harmonic frequencies of the period-one state, the clock recovery and the frequency division (the second and third frequency divisions) are achieved experimentally. In addition, in frequency locking ranges of 2 GHz and 1.9 GHz, the second and third frequency divisions are obtained with the phase noise lower than -100 dBc/Hz, respectively. Our experimental results are consistent well with the numerical simulations.

Time-to-space mapping in a gas medium for the temporal characterization of vacuum-ultraviolet pulses

The authors introduce a method for cross correlating vacuum-ultraviolet with near-infrared femtosecond light pulses in a perpendicular geometry. Photoelectrons generated in an atomic gas by laser-assisted photoionization are used to create a two-dimensional image of the cross-correlation volume, thereby mapping time onto a space coordinate. Thus, information about pulse duration and relative timing between the pulses can be obtained without the need to scan an optical delay line. First tests using vacuum-ultraviolet pulses from the free-electron laser at the Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron set an upper limit for their temporal jitter with respect to external optical laser pulses.

Self-generated Bloch oscillations in biased semiconductor superlattices

We present theoretical simulations of the highly nonlinear ultrafast intraband response of photoexcited biased semiconductor superlattices. Usually, when Bloch oscillating wave packets are created in superlattices, the required coherences arise purely from a spectrally broad external optical pulse that couples different Wannier-Stark ladder states. However, we show that if the pulse intensity is high enough, then even if the optical pulse is spectrally much narrower than the Wannier-Stark ladder spacing, Bloch oscillating wave packets will be generated by the ultrafast nonadiabatic change in the self-generated internal dc electric field that arises from the formation of excitons with permanent dipole moments.