Refractive Index Modulation Research Articles

High-temperature resistance weak fiber Bragg grating array fabrication

Polyimide coated weak fiber Bragg grating array (PI-wFBGA) fabricated online by drawing tower overcomes the temperature limitation of conventional acrylate coating, and has broad application prospects in high-temperature environments. However, the periodic refractive index modulation of PI-wFBG is weak and rapidly decays or even erases in high temperature, indicating poor high-temperature resistance. In this paper, we report the design of a high-temperature resistance wFBGA based on PI-wFBGA fabricated online by drawing tower, which uses post hydrogen-loading and low-temperature annealing to improve its high-temperature resistance. Activated by thermal energy, hydrogen molecules react chemically with the germanium or silicon-related defects in the glass structure of the optical fiber to produce hydroxyl groups. When two hydroxyl groups combine, they form molecular water, which is a key factor in enhancing the high-temperature resistance of PI-wFBG due to its high stability and low diffusion. After annealing the post-hydrogen-loaded PI-wFBGA at 200℃ for 180 min and then removing the residual hydrogen molecules inside the fiber, the mechanical strength of the fiber remains unchanged. The high-temperature resistance PI-wFBG can operate at 350℃ for more than 40 days and have good temperature consistency in the high and low temperature cycle at 400℃. Changing the temperature and time of annealing, the experimental results show that the annealing of post-hydrogen-loaded PI-wFBG at 200℃ for 120 min is an optimal annealing method considering both the high-temperature resistance and mechanical property of high-temperature resistance PI-wFBG, which can realize the reliable use of PI-wFBGA in the temperature resistance range of polyimide coating.

Encrypted optical fiber tag based on encoded fiber Bragg grating array

Optical fibers are typically used in telecommunications services for data transmission, where the use of fiber tags is essential to distinguish between the different transmission fibers or channels and thus ensure the working functionality of the communication system. Traditional physical entity marking methods for fiber labeling are bulky, easily confused, and, most importantly, the label information can be accessed easily by all potential users. This work proposes an encrypted optical fiber tag based on an encoded fiber Bragg grating (FBG) array that is fabricated using a point-by-point femtosecond laser pulse chain inscription method. Gratings with different resonant wavelengths and reflectivities are realized by adjusting the grating period and the refractive index modulations. It is demonstrated that a binary data sequence carried by a fiber tag can be inscribed into the fiber core in the form of an FBG array, and the tag data can be encrypted through appropriate design of the spatial distributions of the FBGs with various reflection wavelengths and reflectivities. The proposed fiber tag technology can be used for applications in port identification, encrypted data storage, and transmission in fiber networks.

Asymmetric Switching of Edge Modes by Dynamically Encircling Multiple Exceptional Points

Dynamically encircling exceptional points (EPs) in the parameter space of a non-Hermitian system has drawn widespread attention for realizing asymmetric mode switching and related applications. While previous works have been restricted to two-level systems, the switching between edge states in a multistate system that contains more complex dynamics remains to be explored. Herein, asymmetric switching of edge modes in multistate systems is demonstrated by encircling multiple EPs. A multistate non-Hermitian system containing multiple EPs is constructed based on a one-dimensional lattice, which can support four edge-localized modes. Dynamically encircling the EPs in parameter space leads to a specific edge mode surviving to the end, determined by the encircling direction. Correspondingly, optical waveguide arrays are designed to investigate mode evolution through refractive index modulation. Simulated results show that clockwise (counterclockwise) encirclement leads to an output mode localized at the left (right) side of the waveguide array with a phase difference of 0 (\ensuremath{\pi}), regardless of the input modes; this excellently illustrates the asymmetric switching of edge modes in a multistate system. Moreover, such an effect can be extended to the multistate system with an arbitrary number of EPs. This work enables investigation of interesting effects in non-Hermitian physics by engineering the EPs and topological properties, especially for complex multistate systems, which will be useful for developing functional nanophotonic devices.

Fabrication of titanium in-diffusion waveguide in the PIN-PMN-PT single crystal

Fabrication of the optical waveguide is essential for the application of high-performance relaxor ferroelectric single crystals in broadband integrated electro-optic devices. Here, a multimode titanium in-diffusion planar waveguide is demonstrated in a rhombohedral phase Pb(In1/2Nb2/3)O3–Pb(In1/2Nb2/3)O3–PbTiO3 (PIN-PMN-PT) single crystal. Influences of titanium in-diffusion on the crystalline phase and composition were carefully studied. Guided modes in the planar waveguide were characterized by prism couple measurements. Using the inverse Wentzel-Krames-Brillouin method, the refractive index profile in the waveguide was constructed. The results show that the PIN-PMN-PT crystal retains its single crystal structure and excellent electro-optic response after titanium in-diffusion. The mode refractive index change between the diffused layer and substrate crystal is approximately 3%, which is sufficient to constrain the energy of transmitted light. Moreover, the titanium-diffused PIN-PMN-PT waveguide is confirmed to be a graded optical waveguide with a Gaussian index profile. Our work indicates that the titanium in-diffusion is a feasible way to fabricate waveguides in PIN-PMN-PT crystals, which is of great significance for their application in integrated photonic devices.

Multidimensional synthetic frequency lattice in the dynamically modulated waveguides.

Here we propose an effective method to construct a higher-dimensional synthetic frequency lattice with an optical waveguide under dynamic modulation. By applying the traveling-wave modulation of refractive index modulation with two different frequencies that are not mutually commensurable, a two-dimensional frequency lattice could be formed. The Bloch oscillations (BOs) in the frequency lattice is demonstrated by introducing a wave vector mismatch of the modulation. We show that the BOs are reversible only as the amounts of wave vector mismatch in orthogonal directions are mutually commensurable. Finally, by employing an array of waveguides with each under traveling-wave modulation, a 3D frequency lattice is formed and its topological effect of one-way frequency conversion is revealed. The study offers a versatile platform for exploring higher-dimensional physics in concise optical systems and may find great application in optical frequency manipulations.

A high resolution compact all-fiber spectrometer based on periodic refractive index modulation

The realization of a miniaturized spectrometer with high resolution is highly desired but is still a big challenge. Although all-fiber spectrometers based on speckle detection show their great potential for high resolution ones, their long fiber lengths set the greatest obstacle for the miniaturized design. Here, we demonstrate a compact all-fiber speckle spectrometer by using cascading coreless fibers and photonic crystal fibers. A unique cascaded structure readily excites more guided modes, in which the speckle patterns are formed by modal interferences. Using only a 10 cm-long fiber with 20-segment spliced elements, a resolution of 0.03 nm over a bandwidth from 1540 to 1560 nm is achieved. The spectral resolution is comparable to that of a 2 m multimode fiber spectrometer and approximately 20 times higher than that of the same length multimode fiber. Narrow linewidth and broadband spectra are individually reconstructed to demonstrate the excellent performance of the spectrometer. The proposed processing technique of the dispersive element is versatile, reproducible, and controllable, promising for different application scenarios.

Uncooled 100-GBaud Directly Modulated Membrane Lasers on SiC Substrate

We investigate the temperature dependence of the dynamic characteristics of a 1.3-μm InGaAlAs-based directly modulated membrane laser on a SiC substrate. The laser is fabricated by combining direct wafer bonding of SiC and InP substrates using a very thin (∼10 nm) oxide layer and epitaxial regrowth of a membrane InP layer on the InP/SiC template. The membrane laser structure on SiC with a high thermal conductivity (490 Wm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-1</sup> K <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-1</sup> ) and a moderate refractive index (∼2.6) ensures both high thermal dissipation and a large optical confinement factor in the active region, which are ideal for increasing the relaxation oscillation frequency even at high operating temperatures. We further leverage the optical feedback effect from the output facet of a waveguide to enhance the bandwidth and enable signal modulation at 100 GBaud and beyond. Owing to the high relaxation oscillation frequency and the photon-photon resonance effect, it is possible to obtain a flat frequency response at temperatures ranging from 25 to 85°C. The fabricated membrane laser on SiC with an active-region length of 50 μm exhibits 3dB bandwidths of >110, 97, and 74 GHz at 25, 55, and 85°C, respectively. We successfully demonstrate 2-km transmissions of 100-Gbit/s NRZ signals under uncooled conditions (25 to 85°C). Furthermore, the laser is capable of 112-Gbit/s NRZ modulation at 85°C.

An ultra-compact broadband polarizing beam splitter utilizing hybrid plasmonic waveguide

Polarizing beam splitter has rather significant applications in polarization diversity circuits and polarization multiplexing systems. In this paper, we present an asymmetric polarizing beam splitter utilizing hybrid plasmonic waveguide. The special hybrid structure with a hybrid waveguide and a dielectric waveguide can limit the energy of TE and TM modes to a different layer. Therefore, we can achieve beam splitting by adjusting the corresponding parameters of the two waveguides. First, we studied the influences of different structure parameters on the real part of the effective mode refractive index of the two waveguides, and obtained a set of parameters that satisfy the condition of strong coupling of TM mode and weak coupling of TE mode. Then, the performance of our proposed polarizing beam splitter is evaluated numerically. The length of the coupling section is only 4.1 µm, and the propagation loss of TM and TE modes is 0.0025 dB/µm and 0.0031 dB/µm respectively. Additionally, the extinction ratios of TM and TE modes are 10.62 dB and 12.55 dB, respectively. Particularly, the proposed device has excellent wavelength insensitivity. Over the entire C-band, the fluctuation of the whole normalized output power is less than 0.03. In short, our proposed asymmetric polarizing beam splitter features ultra-compactness, low propagation loss, and broad bandwidth, which would provide promising applications in polarization multiplexing system and polarization diversity circuits relevant to optical interconnection.

Multiple core modes conversion using helical long-period fiber gratings.

We propose and demonstrate the fabrication of an all-fiber mode converter enabling simultaneous generation of multiple high-order core modes, which is realized by inscribing a helical long-period grating (HLPG) in a few-mode fiber (FMF) using a femtosecond laser. Helical refractive index modulation is introduced by continuously irradiating the core region with a highly focused femtosecond laser, while the fiber moves in a spiral path through a three-dimensional translation stage. Mode conversion from the LP01 mode to high-order core modes, including LP11, LP21, LP31, LP02, LP12, and LP41 modes, is achieved by controlling the inscription pitch of the grating. Moreover, first-, second-, third-, and fourth-order orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes can be directly generated using the HLPGs, and multiple OAM modes of different topological charges can be simultaneously excited using a single high diffraction order HLPG. This approach offers a new option for implementing with high-integration high-order mode converters or OAM mode generators.

Optical Properties of Electrochemically Gated La1−xSrxCoO3−δ as a Topotactic Phase‐Change Material

AbstractMaterials with tunable infrared refractive index changes have enabled active metasurfaces for novel control of optical circuits, thermal radiation, and more. Ion‐gel‐gated epitaxial films of the perovskite cobaltite La1−xSrxCoO3−δ (LSCO) with 0.00 ≤ x ≤ 0.70 offer a new route to significant, voltage‐tuned, nonvolatile refractive index modulation for infrared active metasurfaces, shown here through Kramers–Kronig‐consistent dispersion models, structural and electronic transport characterization, and electromagnetic simulations before and after electrochemical reduction. As‐grown perovskite films are high‐index insulators for x &lt; 0.18 but lossy metals for x &gt; 0.18, due to a percolation insulator‐metal transition. Positive‐voltage gating of LSCO transistors with x &gt; 0.18 reveals a metal‐insulator transition from the metallic perovskite phase to a high‐index (n &gt; 2.5), low‐loss insulating phase, accompanied by a perovskite to oxygen‐vacancy‐ordered brownmillerite transformation at high x. At x &lt; 0.18, despite nominally insulating character, the LSCO films undergo remarkable refractive index changes to another lower‐index, lower‐loss insulating perovskite state with Δn &gt; 0.6. In simulations of plasmonic metasurfaces, these metal‐insulator and insulator‐insulator transitions support significant, varied mid‐infrared reflectance modulation, thus framing electrochemically gated LSCO as a diverse library of room‐temperature phase‐change materials for applications including dynamic thermal imaging, camouflage, and optical memories.

High Refractive Index Monomers for Improving the Holographic Recording Performance of Two-Stage Photopolymers.

Photopolymers hold great promise for the preparation of transparent volume holographic gratings (VHG), which are core optical elements in many application fields. To improve the holographic recording property of a two-stage photopolymer, four new (meth)acrylate monomers (CTA, CTMA, CTBA, CTBMA) with high refractive indices (1.59-1.63) are designed and synthesized in this study. Using them as one writing monomer, a series of photopolymer samples with different formulations and thicknesses are fabricated for holographic recording. Among them, a formulation containing 9 wt % CTMA shows the best performance. Using it as a recording medium, a VHG with high resolution and diffraction efficiency is constructed. Its refractive index modulation reaches 0.046. Moreover, its total transmittance within 400-800 nm achieves 96.62% after photobleaching. The results indicate that the CTMA-based formulation has great application potential in developing high-performance transparent VHG.

Demonstration of Type A volume Bragg gratings inscribed with a femtosecond Gaussian-Bessel laser beam.

To our knowledge, we report on the first demonstration of Type A VBGs inscribed in silver-containing phosphate glasses by femtosecond laser writing. The gratings are inscribed plane-by-plane by scanning the voxel of a 1030 nm Gaussian-Bessel inscription beam. This results in a refractive-index modification zone, induced by the appearance of silver clusters, extending over a much larger depth than those obtained with standard Gaussian beams. As a result, a high diffraction efficiency of 95% at 632.8 nm is demonstrated for a 2-µm period transmission grating with a 150-µm effective thickness indicating a strong refractive-index modulation of 1.78 × 10-3. Meanwhile, a refractive-index modulation of 1.37 × 10-3 was observed at a wavelength of 1.55 µm. Thus, this work opens the avenue for highly effective femtosecond-written VBGs suitable for industrial applications.

Tunable structural transmissive color in fano-resonant optical coatings employing phase-change materials

Reversible, nonvolatile, and pronounced refractive index modulation is an unprecedented combination of properties enabled by chalcogenide phase-change materials (PCMs). This combination of properties makes PCMs a fast-growing platform for active, low-energy nanophotonics, including tunability to otherwise passive thin-film optical coatings. Here, we integrate the PCM Sb2Se3 into a novel four-layer thin-film optical coating that exploits photonic Fano resonances to achieve tunable structural colors in both reflection and transmission. We show, contrary to traditional coatings, that Fano-resonant optical coatings (FROCs) allow for achieving transmissive and reflective structures with narrowband peaks at the same resonant wavelength. Moreover, we demonstrate asymmetric optical response in reflection, where Fano resonance and narrow-band filtering are observed depending upon the light incidence side. Finally, we use a multi-objective inverse design via machine learning (ML) to provide a wide range of solution sets with optimized structures while providing information on the performance limitations of the PCM-based FROCs. Adding tunability to the newly introduced Fano-resonant optical coatings opens various applications in spectral and beam splitting, and simultaneous reflective and transmissive displays, diffractive objects, and holograms.

Direct laser-written aperiodic photonic volume elements for complex light shaping with high efficiency: inverse design and fabrication

Light plays a central role in many applications. The key to unlocking its versatility lies in shaping it into the most appropriate form for the task at hand. Specifically tailored refractive index modifications, directly manufactured inside glass using a short pulsed laser, enable an almost arbitrary control of the light flow. However, the stringent requirements for quantitative knowledge of these modifications, as well as for fabrication precision, have so far prevented the fabrication of light-efficient aperiodic photonic volume elements (APVEs). Here, we present a powerful approach to the design and manufacturing of light-efficient APVEs. We optimize application-specific three-dimensional arrangements of hundreds of thousands of microscopic voxels and manufacture them using femtosecond direct laser writing inside millimeter-sized glass volumes. We experimentally achieve unprecedented diffraction efficiencies up to 80%, which is enabled by precise voxel characterization and adaptive optics during fabrication. We demonstrate APVEs with various functionalities, including a spatial mode converter and combined intensity shaping and wavelength multiplexing. Our elements can be freely designed and are efficient, compact, and robust. Our approach is not limited to borosilicate glass but is potentially extendable to other substrates, including birefringent and nonlinear materials, giving a preview of even broader functionalities, including polarization modulation and dynamic elements.

Morphological and Optical Transformation of Gas Assisted Direct Laser Written Porous Silicon Films.

Direct laser writing (DLW) of mesoporous porous silicon (PS) films is shown to selectively create spatially separated nitridized and carbonized features on a single film. Nitridized or carbonized features are formed during DLW at 405nm in an ambient of nitrogen and propane gas, respectively. The range of laser fluence required to create varying feature sizes while avoiding damage to the PS film is identified. At high enough fluence, nitridation using DLW has been shown as an effective method for laterally isolating regions on the PS films. The efficacy in preventing oxidation once passivated is investigated via energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Changes in composition and optical properties of the DL written films are investigated using spectroscopic analysis. Results show carbonized DLW regions have a much higher absorption than as-fabricated PS, attributed to pyrolytic carbon or transpolyacetylene deposits in the pores. Nitridized regions exhibit optical loss similar to previously published thermally nitridized PS films. This work presents methods to engineer PS films for a variety of potential device applications, including the application of carbonized PS to selectively engineer thermal conductivity and electrical resistivity and of nitridized PS to micromachining and selective modification of refractive index for optical applications.

Improved Thermal Stability of a Fiber Optic Gyroscope Using a Geometric Birefringence-Enhanced Polarization- Maintaining Fiber

In this paper, we propose and experimentally demonstrate an interferometric fiber optic gyroscope (IFOG) composed of an optimized elliptical-core Panda polarization-maintaining fiber (PMF) based on a comprehensive analysis of the design principle of PMFs for IFOGs. The improvement mechanism of the geometric birefringence on the performance of the Panda PMF was analyzed using the finite element model, and the optimized structural parameters were selected for fiber fabrication. The extinction ratio, polarization crosstalk, and assembled closed-loop IFOG output were tested and compared for fiber coils wound by different fiber structures under different temperature loads. An angle random walk performance of 0.001723 °/√h was achieved, which is a significant improvement over the traditional IFOG. The experimental results confirmed the proposed design basis that the elliptical-core Panda PMF with both higher birefringence and lower effective mode refractive index can improve the temperature stability of the IFOG.

Universal Active Metasurfaces for Ultimate Wavefront Molding by Manipulating the Reflection Singularities

AbstractOptical metasurfaces are becoming ubiquitous optical components to control light properties. However, most of these devices are passive and cannot be arbitrarily reconfigured according to the change in the surrounding environment. Here the authors propose an innovative design strategy relying on the position of topological singularities to address full phase modulation of light with almost unity efficiency. The active metasurface unit cells consist of asymmetric Gires–Tournois resonators filled with either silicon or hetero‐structured materials to leverage on the thermo‐optical or electro‐optical effects, respectively. In both cases, a full phase modulation associated with 100% reflection amplitude is observed even when dealing with extremely low refractive index change, on the order of 0.01. Improving the deflection efficiencies for each deflection angle is performed by optimizing the refractive index modulation profile in the extended unit cell using an advanced statistical learning optimization methodology. Consequently, active beam steering designs for active thermo‐optical effect with ultimate performance exceeding 90% have been optimized. Furthermore, active wavefront splitting using electro‐optics materials is optimized to reach ultimate modulation performances with nearly 92% efficiency. The realization of highly efficient active beam‐forming operating at high frequencies would open important applications in imaging microscopy, and 3D light detection and ranging (LiDAR).

Large Optical Modulation of Dielectric Huygens’ Metasurface Absorber

AbstractHigh‐index nanostructures are found to exhibit large nonlinearity of spectral responses under photoexcitation, which is applicable to all‐optical modulation. The nonlinearity stems from Mie‐type resonance shift due to photoinduced variation of refractive index. Here, amorphous silicon‐based Huygens’ metasurface absorber and ultrafast excitation are used to demonstrate two orders of magnitude enhancement of modulation depth, both theoretically and experimentally, when electric dipole lattice resonance matches the magnetic dipole resonance. Within a few square micrometer spatial confinement and picosecond scale delay, over 100% photothermal modulation depth is experimentally achieved at matched resonance condition. This concept is not limited to photothermal modulation in the amorphous silicon but is applicable to dielectric materials with various mechanisms to achieve modulation of refractive index. This work opens the avenue toward all‐optical information processing via optimized modulation by careful spatiotemporal and spectral control over a metasurface.

108.96 nm Broadband Generation of Second-Order OAM Beam Using an Angular Modulated Cascading LPFG

Broadband generation of orbital angular momentum (OAM) beam in fiber has a lot of applications in optical communications and fiber sensing. However, the efficient broadband generation of second-order OAM beam using long-period fiber grating (LPFG) is still a great challenge due to the low intermodal overlap. In this paper, we achieved a 108.96 nm efficient broadband generation of second-order OAM beams with a conversion efficiency over 95% in experiment using an angular modulated cascading LPFG with low insertion loss. By changing the refractive index modulation area in certain angle, not only the coupling between fundamental mode and second-order mode in fiber can be greatly enhanced, but also second-order even and odd modes are generated with approximately equal magnitudes, which is very beneficial to high-purity OAM beams generation. Finally, by choosing proper cascading parameters and an adaptive refractive index modulation fabrication strategy, we achieved a LPFG mode converter with a conversion efficiency over 95% in a 108.96 nm from 1520.96 nm to 1629.92 nm. The insertion loss of the LPFG is measured only ∼0.48 dB.

Femtosecond laser fabrication of large-core fiber Bragg gratings for high-power fiber oscillators

In this paper, a fs-laser phase mask inscription system based on a galvanometer scanning strategy is designed and set up for the fabrication of large-core fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs). Based on this setup, a homogeneous cross-sectional refractive index modulation can be achieved in the core of a large-mode-area fiber, and a pair of FBGs are fabricated in fibers with a core diameter of 30 µm. To investigate the performance of the fabricated FBGs, a high power all-fiber oscillator is built using a pure backward pumping structure. The FBGs work well, and the maximum output power of 7920 W is achieved with an optical–optical conversion efficiency of 77.3%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest power of all-fiber oscillators based on fs-written FBGs. This work provides a flexible, stable, and economic scanning strategy for large-core FBG inscription and exhibits excellent performance for high power fiber lasers.