This dissertation explores various aspects and potential of optical pulse generation based on active, passive, and hybrid mode-locked quantum dot semiconductor lasers with target applications such as optical interconnect and high speed signal processing. Design guidelines are developed for the single mode operation with suppressed reflection from waveguide discontinuities. The device fabrication procedure is explained, followed by characteristics of FP laser, SOA, and monolithic two-section devices. Short pulse generation from an external cavity mode-locked QD two-section diode laser is studied. High quality, sub-picosecond (960 fs), high peak power (1.2 W) pulse trains are obtained. The sign and magnitude of pulse chirp were measured for the first time. The role of the self-phase modulation and the linewidth enhancement factor in QD mode-locked lasers is addressed. The noise performance of two-section mode-locked lasers and a SOA-based ring laser was investigated. Significant reduction of the timing jitter under hybrid mode-locked operation was achieved owing to more than one order of magnitude reduction of the linewidth in QD gain media. Ultralow phase noise performance (integrated timing jitter of a few fs at a 10 GHz repetition rate) was demonstrated from an actively mode-locked unidirectional ring laser. These results show that quantum dot mode-locked lasers are strong competitors to conventional semiconductor lasers in noise performance. Finally we demonstrated an opto-electronic oscillator (OEO) and coupled opto-electronic oscillators (COEO) which have the potential for both high purity microwave and low noise optical pulse generation. The phase noise of the COEO is measured by the photonic delay line frequency discriminator method. Based on this study we discuss the prospects of the COEO as a low noise optical pulse source.

Proprietary.

FundaÃÃo Cearense de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Cientifico e TecnolÃgico / CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeiÃoamento de Pessoal de NÃvel Superior / Duas contribuiÃÃes caracteristicamente distintas, nÃo obstante correlacionÃveis num mesmo sistema de telecomunicaÃÃo, sÃo apresentadas. A primeira versa sobre antenas ressoadoras constituÃdas por novas cerÃmicas dielÃtricas à base de Fe2O3. Os materiais desenvolvidos foram caracterizados na faixa de micro-ondas. Tratam-se de dielÃtricos com baixa permissividade relativa, baixa tangente de perda, e, no caso das amostras monofÃsicas, com coeficiente de temperatura na frequÃncia de ressonÃncia negativo. Posteriormente, as antenas ressoadoras dielÃtricas de geometria cilÃndrica (CDRAs) suportadas em plano de terra retangular e alimentadas por sonda monopolar sÃo analisadas segundo critÃrios de desempenho de irradiaÃÃo, quais sejam: frequÃncia de ressonÃncia, impedÃncia de entrada, largura de banda e padrÃes de irradiaÃÃo. AlÃm de experimentaÃÃo, o seu estudo envolveu procedimento computacional, no que foi promovida a comparaÃÃo de resultados. O mÃtodo dos elementos finitos, no qual està baseado o programa comercial empregado, foi utilizado para anÃlise destas antenas. Resulta que para maiores valores de permissividade relativa de uma amostra, menores sÃo a frequÃncia em que a mesma ressoa e a sua largura de banda. Ainda, foi observado satisfatÃrio casamento de impedÃncia e padrÃes de irradiaÃÃo "broadside", o que candidata os novos materiais desenvolvidos a esta importante aplicaÃÃo. Adicionalmente, mediante empilhamento dos protÃtipos monofÃsicos examinados, foi verificada a remodelagem da largura de banda em relaÃÃo Ãs contrapartidas individuais, provavelmente devido à excitaÃÃo de modos de ordem elevada das CDRAs. A segunda contribuiÃÃo està enfocada no contexto dos guias de ondas dielÃtricos operando em frequÃncias Ãpticas. Neste cenÃrio, sÃo investigados acopladores refletores de Bragg a fibra (FBGCs), estruturas resultantes da combinaÃÃo de dois dispositivos reconhecidamente versÃteis e de ampla aplicaÃÃo: redes de Bragg e acopladores direcionais. Foram apreciados dois estudos de caso numÃricos nos quais se fez promover a interaÃÃo de sinais Ãpticos com as estruturas propostas. Na medida em que descreve com satisfatÃria precisÃo as propriedades Ãpticas dos dispositivos de interesse, o modelo matemÃtico empregado à baseado na teoria dos modos acoplados. O tratamento numÃrico à realizado mediante codificaÃÃo, em linguagem de programaÃÃo FORTRAN, de um algoritmo preditivo-corretor. Considerando regimes pulsados em termos da potÃncia operacional, o problema foi analisado no domÃnio da frequÃncia e, sobretudo, no domÃnio do tempo. Em condiÃÃes especÃficas, a possibilidade de realizaÃÃo da extraÃÃo, reconfiguraÃÃo e comutaÃÃo de pulsos, exemplos de funÃÃes essenciais ao processamento totalmente Ãptico, reforÃam a importÃncia de tais estruturas hÃbridas. / Two heterogeneous contributions to modern communication systems â although fully possible to be correlated â are presented. The first one deals with resonant antennas consisting of new dielectric ceramics based on Fe2O3. These materials characterized at microwave frequency range possess low relative permittivity, low loss tangent and, concerned with the monophasic samples, negative temperature coefficient of resonant frequency. Subsequently, the cylindrical dielectric resonator antennas (CDRAs) supported on rectangular ground plane and fed by monopole are analyzed according to the following radiation performance criteria: resonant frequency, input impedance, bandwidth and radiation patterns. Besides experimentation, the study involved computational procedure, so that the results of both can be compared. A commercial software based on the finite element method was employed to examine the CDRAs. It follows that as higher is the permittivity of a material, the lower are the frequency at which it resonates as well as its bandwidth. Satisfactory impedance matching and broadside radiation patterns are observed, what enables the materials investigated to this relevant application. Additionally, the stacking of the monophasic CDRAs prototypes resulted in bandwidth enhancement, presumably due to their excited high order modes. The second contribution focuses on dielectric waveguides operating at optical frequencies, being fiber Bragg grating couplers (FBGCs) investigated in this scenario. Indeed, they result from a combination of two versatile and widely applied devices: fiber Bragg gratings and directional couplers. Two numerical case studies related to the interaction between optical signals and structures were performed. The theoretical model observed is based on the coupled mode theory since it provides a satisfactorily accurate description of the devices optical properties. By the way, the theoretical model is coded in FORTRAN programming language according to a predictor-corrector algorithm. In terms of operational power levels, analyses are carried out in frequency and (mainly) time domains. Under specific conditions, the capability of the extraction, reshaping and switching of pulses â examples of essential functions for all-optical processing â reinforces the importance of such hybrid structures.

Orientador: Evandro Conforti / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Eletrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-08T01:55:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Castelli_ClaudioSelmi_M.pdf: 2856453 bytes, checksum: 1efb001a79f5f2d885e231abadd78d1f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Resumo: Uma nova técnica de geração de sinais pulsados de microondas é desenvolvida. Baseia-se na composição de dois sinais arbitrários, um trem de pulsos ultra-rápidos e uma portadora de microondas, originados a partir de diferentes fontes e combinados no domínio óptico de forma a preservar ao máximo as características espectrais e temporais dos sinais. São apresentados os conceitos utilizados na técnica e toda a configuração empregada na sua validação experimental. Os resultados obtidos são discutidos e comparados com os sinais pulsados de microondas gerados a partir de um moderno gerador comercial. Os principais componentes utilizados são também caracterizados e propostas de melhorias são apresentadas. A forma de onda obtida a partir da técnica desenvolvida atingiu os resultados esperados / Abstract: A novel technique of pulsed microwave waveform generation has been developed. It is based on the mixture of two arbitrary signals, an ultra-fast pulse train and a microwave carrier, all generated from different sources and combined in the optical domain in order to preserve the spectral and temporal features as much as possible. The technique's concepts and the setup used for the experimental validation have been presented. The obtained results are discussed and compared to the pulsed microwave signals generated by a modern commercial microwave generator. The main components are also characterized and proposals of improvements have been presented. The waveform resulted from this developed technique reached the expected results / Mestrado / Telecomunicações e Telemática / Mestre em Engenharia Elétrica

The objective of this dissertation is to generate high power ultrashort optical pulses from an all-semiconductor mode-locked laser system. The limitations of semiconductor optical amplifier in high energy, ultrashort pulse amplification are reviewed. A method to overcome the fundamental limit of small stored energy inside semiconductor optical amplifier called "eXtreme Chirped Pulse Amplification (X-CPA)" is proposed and studied theoretically and experimentally. The key benefits of the concept of X-CPA are addressed. Based on theoretical and experimental study, an all-semiconductor mode-locked X-CPA system consisting of a mode-locked master oscillator, an optical pulse pre-stretcher, a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) pulse picker, an extreme pulse stretcher/compressor, cascaded optical amplifiers, and a bulk grating compressor is successfully demonstrated and generates >kW record peak power. A potential candidate for generating high average power from an X-CPA system, novel grating coupled surface emitting semiconductor laser (GCSEL) devices, are studied experimentally. The first demonstration of mode-locking with GCSELs and associated amplification characteristics of grating coupled surface emitting SOAs will be presented. In an effort to go beyond the record setting results of the X-CPA system, a passive optical cavity amplification technique in conjunction with the X-CPA system is constructed, and studied experimentally and theoretically.

No description available.

Abstract Although gain-switching is a simple, well-established technique for obtaining ultrashort optical pulses generated with laser diodes, the optical energy in a pulse achievable from commercial structures using this technique is no more than moderate and the ‘spiking’ behaviour seen at turn-on is likely to evolve into trailing oscillations. This thesis investigates, develops and improves laser diodes in order to offer experimentally verified solutions for maximizing the optical energy so as to achieve a peak power of several watts in a single optical pulse of picosecond-range duration in the gain-switching operation regime, and for suppressing the energy located in any trailing pulses to a negligible level relative to the total optical pulse energy. This was addressed by means of either (i) an ultrashort pump current pulse with an amplitude range ~(1–10) A or (ii) custom laser diode structures, both options being capable of operating uncooled at room temperature (23±3°C). For the first solution a unique superfast gallium arsenide (GaAs) avalanche transistor was utilized as a switch in order to achieve an injection current pulse with a duration of < 1 ns, which is short enough to generate only a first optical ‘spike’ when pumping a commercial laser diode. The most promising structure with regard to the second solution was an edge-emitting semiconductor laser having a strongly asymmetric broadened double heterostructure with a relatively thick active layer. Laser pulses with full width at half maximum (FWHM) of ~100 ps and an optical energy of >3 nJ but with some trailing oscillations were achieved in experiments employing injection current pulses in the nanosecond range with an amplitude of ≤17 A, generated using inexpensive silicon (Si) electronics. The performance was improved by introducing a saturable absorber (SA) into the laser cavity, which suppressed the formation of trailing oscillations, resulting in a single optical pulse. / Tiivistelmä ”Gain switching” (vahvistuskytkentä) on tunnettu tekniikka lyhyiden (<100 ps) optisten pulssien generoimiseen laserdiodeilla. Kaupallisia laserdiodirakenteita käyttäen optinen energia rajoittuu kuitenkin 10…100 pJ:n tasolle. Tällöinkin, erityisesti suurilla energiatasoilla, optisessa pulssissa ilmenee voimakkaita jälkioskillaatioita. Tässä väitöskirjassa tutkittiin ja kehitettiin kokeellisesti varmennettuja laserdiodilähetinrakenteita tavoitteena saavuttaa >1 nJ:n optisen pulssin energia ja ~100 ps:n pulssinpituus gain-switching -toimintamoodissa. Tavoitteena oli myös minimoida jälkipulssien energia. Tutkimuksen pääsisältönä on kaksi toimintaperiaatetta: Toisessa tekniikassa päähuomio kohdistuu laseridiodin virta-ajuriin, johon kehitettiin elektroniikka, joka kykenee tuottamaan nopeita virtapulsseja laajalla pulssivirta-alueella. Virtapulssin nopeuden kasvattamisen (<1 ns) osoitettiin edistävän gain switching -ilmiötä. Toisena tekniikkana tutkittiin räätälöityä laserdiodirakennetta, joka sisäisen toimintansa perusteella tuottaa dynaamisessa ohjaustilanteessa tehokkaan ja nopean laserpulssin. Kummankin periaatteen osoitettiin toimivan huonelämpötilassa (23±3°C) ilman erillistä jäähdytystä. Ensimmäisessä ratkaisussa käytettiin nopeaa gallium-arsenidi (GaAs) -avalanchetransistoria virtakytkimenä, jolla saavutettiin <1 ns FWHM injektiovirtapulssi 10 A:n virtatasolla. Tällainen virtapulssi on riittävän lyhyt virittämään ”gain switching” -ilmiön nJ-energiatasolla. Lupaavin rakenne toiseksi ratkaisuksi oli reunaemittoiva puolijohdelaseri, jossa epäsymmetrinen aaltoputki ja aktiivinen alue ovat sijoitettu normaalista laserdiodirakenteesta poiketen rinnakkain. Tällä rakenteella voitiin tuottaa ~100 ps levyisiä (FWHM) ja >3 nJ optisen kokonaisenergian omavia laserpulsseja edullisella pii-pohjaisella (Si) elektroniikalla luoduilla 1.5–2 ns:n (FWHM) ≤17 A injektiovirtapulsseilla. Suorituskykyä saatiin edelleen parannettua istuttamalla saturoiva absorbaattori (SA) laserin optiseen onteloon. Tämän osoitettiin vähentävän jälkioskillaatioiden muodostumista.

Ces travaux de thèse rapportent l’étude des instabilités non-linéaires et des évènements extrêmesse développant lors de la propagation guidée d’un champ électromagnétique au sein de fibresoptiques. Après un succinct rappel des divers processus linéaires et non-linéaires menant à lagénération de super continuum optique, nous montrons que le spectre de celui-ci peut présenterde larges fluctuations, incluant la formation d’événements extrêmes, dont les propriétés statistiqueset l’analogie avec les vagues scélérates hydrodynamiques sont abordées en détail. Nous présentonsune preuve de principe de l’application de ces fluctuations spectrales à la génération de nombres etde marches aléatoires et identifions le phénomène d’instabilité de modulation, ayant lieu lors de laphase initiale d’expansion spectrale du super continuum, comme principale contribution à la formationd’événements extrêmes. Ce mécanisme est étudié numériquement et analytiquement, en considérantune catégorie de solutions exactes de l’équation de Schrödinger non-linéaire présentant descaractéristiques de localisations singulières. Les résultats obtenus sont vérifiés expérimentalement,notamment grâce à un système de caractérisation spectrale en temps réel et à l’utilisation conjointede métriques statistiques innovantes (ex : cartographie de corrélations spectrales). L’excellent accordentre simulations et expériences a permis de valider les prédictions théoriques et d’accéder àune meilleure compréhension des dynamiques complexes inhérentes à la propagation non-linéaired’impulsions optiques. / This thesis reports the study of nonlinear instabilities and extreme events occurring during the guidedpropagation of an electromagnetic field into optical fibers. After a short overview of the various linearand nonlinear processes leading to optical supercontinuum generation, we show that its spectrumcan exhibit large fluctuations, including the formation of extreme events, whose statistical propertiesas well as hydrodynamic rogue waves analogy are studied in detail. We provide a proof of principle ofusing these spectral fluctuations for random number and random walk generation and identify modulationinstability, associated with the onset phase of supercontinuum spectral broadening, as themain phenomenon leading to extreme event formation. This mechanism is studied both numericallyand analytically, considering a class of exact solutions of nonlinear Schrödinger equation which exhibitsingular localization characteristics. The results are experimentally verified, especially througha real-time spectral characterization system along with the use of innovative statistical metrics (e.g.spectral correlation maps). The excellent agreement between simulations and experiments allowedus to validate the theoretical predictions and get further insight into the complex dynamics associatedto nonlinear optical pulse propagation.

This work is dedicated to a comprehensive experimental study on the interaction of femtosecond laser pulses with the nonlinear optical medium lithium niobate. The nonlinear optical response in the nanosecond regime was already studied extensively with a variety of techniques, whereas femtosecond pulses were mainly used in transient absorption or transient grating experiments. Naturally, the temporal resolution of these measurements depends on the pulse duration, however, dynamics during the pulse excitation were barely investigated. The motivation of this work is to widen the limits of femtosecond spectroscopy, not only to temporally resolve faster nonlinear optical processes, but further to show a sensitivity to other coupling mechanisms between the pulses and the material. Especially, the role of transient, dynamic holographic gratings is investigated with a careful determination of the pulse duration, bandwidth and frequency chirp. A basis of this work is established in the first part by studying the material response via light-induced absorption before focusing on the main topic, the pulse interaction with elementary (holographic) gratings, both self-induced and static, in the second part. By this detailed study, several features of femtosecond laser pulses, holographic gratings and the ultrafast material response can be revealed: (i) grating recording is feasible even with pulses of different frequencies, provided that their pulse duration is sufficiently short, (ii) grating based pulse coupling causes a pronounced energy transfer even in a common pump-probe setup for transient absorption measurements with (non-)degenerated frequencies, (iii) beyond expectation, oscillations in the phonon frequency range become apparent in different measurements. The presented results point towards appropriate future experiments to obtain a more consistent, microscopic model for the ultrafast response of the crystal, involving the interplay between photo-generated polarons, self-induced gratings, and phonons.

The present work broaches the physics of light-matter interaction, chiefly using nonlinear optical spectroscopy in a newly developed framework termed as Photon Management Concept. This way, existing fragments dealing with specific properties of harmonic and upconversion nanoparticles (HNPs/UCNPs) are consolidated into a full and coherent picture with the primary goal of understanding the underlying physical processes and their impact on the application side, especially in terms of imaging techniques, via suitable experimental and numerical studies. Contemporary optical setups involving contrast-enhancing agents are frequently limited in their excitation and detection configurations owing to a specialization to a select number of markers. As a result, the bandwidth of experimental methods and specimens that may be investigated is severely restricted in a large number of state-of-the-art setups. Here, an alternative approach involving HNPs and UCNPs, respectively, is presented providing an overview from their synthesis to optical characterization and to potential fields of application. Based on their inherent flexibility based on their nonlinear optical response, especially in terms of wavelength and intensity tunability, the PMC alleviates prevalent limitations by dynamically adapting the setup to a sample instead of the preliminary culling to a reduced number of eligible specimens that must not change their optical properties significantly during investigation. The use of HNPs supersedes such concerns due to their nearly instantaneously generated, strongly anti-Stokes shifted, coherent emission capable of producing radiation throughout the visible spectral range, including infrared and ultraviolet wavelengths. This way, HNPs transcend the traditional field of imaging and introduces potential applications in optomanipulation or holographic techniques. Thorough (nonlinear) optical characterization of UCNPs and alkali niobate HNP ensembles is performed to assess the fundamental physical mechanisms interwoven with numerical studies leading to their wide-ranging applicability. Final remarks show that HNPs are ideal candidates for realization of the PMC and yet hold an even further potential beyond current prospects.