Large Refractive Index Step Research Articles

Asymmetric-waveguide, short cavity designs with a bulk active layer for high pulsed power eye-safe spectral range laser diodes

It is shown, by calculations calibrated against the authors’ recent experimental data, that an eye-safe wavelength range InGaAsP/InP high pulsed power laser design using a bulk active layer, which has a large refractive index step with respect to the optical confinement layer and is located close to the p-cladding, can provide substantial performance improvement compared to the best results achieved so far for this operating regime and wavelength. The dependence of the laser performance on the design parameters such as the thicknesses of the active layer and the waveguide, as well as the cavity length, are analysed. It is shown that the relatively thick bulk active layer in such InGaAsP/InP lasers allows the use of short cavity lengths (∼1 mm or even shorter), for achieving high pulsed power while maintaining a low p-cladding series resistance (making for high efficiency) and a narrow far field (making for high brightness). A single-asymmetry structure with the asymmetric active layer location but symmetric optical confinement layer/cladding refractive index steps gives performance only marginally inferior to that of a double-asymmetric one including asymmetric refractive index steps.

Generation of the second harmonic in ridge waveguides formed in periodically poled lithium niobate

Generation of the second harmonic of semiconductor laser radiation in the IR range (980 – 1140 nm) in ridge waveguides with a large refractive index step, formed in periodically poled nonlinear LiNbO3 crystals, is demonstrated. Ridge waveguides have been prepared by precise cutting using a diamond microsaw. Spectral dependences of the SHG power and intensity distributions in the near field of second harmonic and pump radiations have been measured. The results obtained indicate good prospects of designing tunable laser radiation sources in the visible range due to the SHG in ridge waveguides formed in periodically poled nonlinear crystals under semiconductor laser pumping.

Proposal for Compact Optical Filters Using Large Index Step Binary Supergratings

Compact optical filters are proposed using an aperiodic grating of fixed element size [i.e., a binary supergrating (BSG)] with a large refractive index step. These filters allow for almost arbitrary wavelength filtering, yet they are more compact than previous demonstrations of BSG. The filters are designed using a combination of Boolean particle swarm optimization (B-PSO) and a one-dimensional transfer matrix method. To demonstrate the compact device size, several 50-mum-long single-wavelength transmission filters are demonstrated theoretically, each having a different wavelength while using the same structural parameters. A multiwavelength filter is also proposed in an 80-mum-long structure to show the versatility of the large refractive index step BSG. A genetic algorithm is substituted for the B-PSO; however, B-PSO shows better performance here. This work may be applied to produce compact optical filters for intrachip optical networks and compact tunable lasers, while using existing single-step photolithography processes.

Structure optimization of polymeric Mach-Zehnder rib waveguide

A systematic analysis of the polymeric Mach-Zehnder rib waveguide is presented based on the calculation and optimization. The simulation is carried out with the Effective Index Method (EIM) and two-dimensional (2-D) Finite Difference Beam Propagation Method (FD-BPM). The large refractive index step between the consecutive polymer layers is reduced by using EIM and thus the precision of the calculation is ensured. The important parameters of the waveguide such as Y-junction angle and the separation gap are discussed and their relationships with the optical power propagation and the loss characteristics are investigated in this paper. The total loss of the optimized structure is 0.258 dB.

Supercontinuum generation in photonic-molecule modes of microstructure fibers

Supercontinuum generation in microstructure fibers with a core in the form of a cyclic polyatomic photonic molecule is studied. Air holes arranged in a two-dimensional holey structure in the cladding of this fiber and a larger hole at the center of the fiber form a cyclic-molecule-like structure, consisting of an array of small-diameter glass channels linked by narrow bridges, around the central hole. This photonic-molecule microstructure-integrated bundle of fibers can guide the light through total internal reflection, providing a very high light confinement degree due to the large refractive index step. The properties of supercontinuum emission produced in such fibers can be controlled by coupling the energy of femtosecond light pulses into different photonic-molecule modes of the fiber.