In this report, we give a deeper investigation of the loss-compensated recirculating delayed self-heterodyne interferometer (LC-RDSHI) for ultra-narrow linewidth measurement, including the theoretical analysis, experimental implementation, further modification on the system and more applications. Recently, less than 1kHz linewidth fiber lasers have been commercialized. But even the manufacturers face a challenge on accurately measuring the linewidth of such lasers. There is a need to develop more accurate methods to characterize ultra-narrow laser linewidth and frequency noises. Compared with other currently available linewidth measurement techniques, the loss-compensated recirculating delayed-heterodyne interferometer (LC-RDSHI) technique is the most promising one. It overcomes the bottle-neck of the high resolution requirement on the delayed self-heterodyne interferometer (DSHI) by using a short length of fiber delay line. This method does not need another narrower and more stable laser as the reference which is the necessary component in heterodyne detection. The laser spectral lineshape can be observed directly instead of complicated interpretation in frequency discriminator techniques. The theoretical analysis of a LC-RDSHI gives us a guidance on choosing the optimal parameters of the system and assists us to interpret the recorded spectral lineshape. Laser linewidth as narrow as 700Hz has been proved to be measurable by using the LC-RDSHI method. The non-linear curve fitting of Voigt lineshape to separate Lorentzian and Gaussian components was investigated. Voigt curve fitting results give us a clear view on laser frequency noises and laser linewidth nature. It is also shown that for a ultra-narrow linewidth laser, simply taking 20dB down from the maximum value of the beat spectrum and dividing by $2\sqrt{99}$ will over estimate the laser linewidth and coherent length. Besides laser linewidth measurement in the frequency domain, we also implemented time-domain frequency noise measurement by using a LC-RDSHI. The long fiber delay obtained by a fiber recirculating loop provides a higher resolution of frequency noise measurement. However, spectral width broadening due to fiber nonlinearity, environmental perturbations and laser intrinsic 1/f frequency noises are still potential problems in the LC-RDSHI method. A new method by adding a transmitter switch and a loop switch is proposed to minimize the Kerr effect caused by multiple recirculation. / Ph. D.

We present and discuss results from a measurement of the hyperfine a constant of the 1s^(2)2s^(2)2p^(6)3p^(2)2P1/2 excited state in 25Mg+ and the linewidth of the same state in 24Mg+. We trapped a single ion in a linear Paul trap and laser-cooled it using the 2S1/2 -> 2P3/2 transition (in the case of 25Mg+) and the 2S1/2 -> 2P1/2 transition (in the case of 24Mg+). We optically pumped the ion into the (F=3, mp=±3) ground states and weakly probed it with a tunable fibre laser that was scanned to drive the ion from the ground state to the F'=3 and F'=2 manifolds of the 2P1/2 state. The final state of the ion was determined by counting fluorescence (or the reduction therein) from the 2S1/2 (F=3, mF=±3) -> 2P3/2 (F''=4, m''F=±4) cycling transition with a photomultiplier module. We determined that the hyperfine a constant is 102.16 ± 0.16 MHz and the natural linewidth is 42.4 ± 1.2 MHz. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Neste trabalho são apresentados estudos de Cu(&#945-AIB)2 utilizando-se a técnica de RPE à temperatura ambiente nas freqüências de 9,7 GHz e 34 GHz. Os espectros de R. P. E. mostram uma única ressonância tanto em banda X (9,7 GHz) quanto em banda Q (34 GHz), devido ao efeito de estreitamento por troca. Os valores das componentes do tensor g e da largura de linha foram determinados a partir dos espectros obtidos variando o ângulo entre H e os eixos do cristal a´, b e c em três planos a´b, a´c, e bc. O tensor g reflete as propriedades moleculares do complexo, com o íon Cu(II) em uma simetria axial e também a orientação destas moléculas dentro da cela unitária do cristal. A variação angular da largura de linha é analisada em termos da simetria do íon Cu(II) na rede cristalina e das contribuições das interações dipolar e Zeeman Residual. O parâmetro da interação de troca |J\'|, é obtido através da contribuição da interação Zeeman residual na largura de linha, |J\'| ~ 0,34K. É também observada uma característica magnética bidimensional no complexo Cu(&#945-AIB)2 concordando com os resultados cristalográficos. / In this work is presented a study of the complex Cu(&#945-AIB) 2 using EPR spectroscopy at room temperature, in two frequency bands (9.7 and 34 GHz). The EPR spectra, in both bands and any direction of the extremal magnetic field consist of a single resonance line. This fact can be understood considering the exchange narrowing between non-equivalent Cu(II) íons. The elements of the g tensor and line width were determined from the angular dependence of the EPR spectrum, in three ortogonal crystal planes a´b, a´c and ab (a´=b x c). The angular dependence of the g tensor reflects the molecular properties of the complex Cu(&#945-AIB)2 the axial symmetry of the molecule and the orientation on the crystal unit cell. The most important contributions to the line width were found to be: 2D dipolar interactions, the residual Zeeman effect and defects compatible to the symmetry of the crystal. The Exchange parameter, |J\'| ~ 0.34K, was obtained from the residual Zeeman contribution to the line width (Q band). The low dimension found for dipolar interations agrees with crystallographic results.

With increased demand for bandwidth-hungry applications such as video-on-demand, wavelength-division-multiplexing passive optical network (WDM-PON) has become a strong contender in overcoming the last mile bottle neck. However, the wide-scale deployment of WDM-PONs has been delayed mainly due to the high cost of wavelength-specific optical components. To realize cost-effective WDM-PONs, various wavelength-independent, so called colorless architectures, have been developed so that all the subscribers can have identical optical network units (ONUs). In such WDM-PONs, however, single-fiber bidirectional transmission results in degradation of system performance caused by interference between the signals and backreflections. This thesis investigates the impact of backreflections on single-fiber bidirectional WDM-PONs. A WDM-PON with various optical line terminals (OLTs) and colorless ONU configurations is presented. The dependence of the power penalty, caused by backreflections, on a variety of parameters is investigated. This includes parameters such as the source linewidths, receiver bandwidth, transmission line loss (TLL), ONU gain, chirp effect at the ONU and optical return loss (ORL), in various WDM-PON configurations. The WDM-PON with continuous wave (CW) seed light and remodulation schemes are both presented and studied experimentally. The impacts of the backreflections on the single-fiber bidirectional WDM-PON with various OLT and ONU configurations are compared and analyzed accordingly.

With increased demand for bandwidth-hungry applications such as video-on-demand, wavelength-division-multiplexing passive optical network (WDM-PON) has become a strong contender in overcoming the last mile bottle neck. However, the wide-scale deployment of WDM-PONs has been delayed mainly due to the high cost of wavelength-specific optical components. To realize cost-effective WDM-PONs, various wavelength-independent, so called colorless architectures, have been developed so that all the subscribers can have identical optical network units (ONUs). In such WDM-PONs, however, single-fiber bidirectional transmission results in degradation of system performance caused by interference between the signals and backreflections. This thesis investigates the impact of backreflections on single-fiber bidirectional WDM-PONs. A WDM-PON with various optical line terminals (OLTs) and colorless ONU configurations is presented. The dependence of the power penalty, caused by backreflections, on a variety of parameters is investigated. This includes parameters such as the source linewidths, receiver bandwidth, transmission line loss (TLL), ONU gain, chirp effect at the ONU and optical return loss (ORL), in various WDM-PON configurations. The WDM-PON with continuous wave (CW) seed light and remodulation schemes are both presented and studied experimentally. The impacts of the backreflections on the single-fiber bidirectional WDM-PON with various OLT and ONU configurations are compared and analyzed accordingly.

Neste trabalho são apresentados estudos de Cu(&#945-AIB)2 utilizando-se a técnica de RPE à temperatura ambiente nas freqüências de 9,7 GHz e 34 GHz. Os espectros de R. P. E. mostram uma única ressonância tanto em banda X (9,7 GHz) quanto em banda Q (34 GHz), devido ao efeito de estreitamento por troca. Os valores das componentes do tensor g e da largura de linha foram determinados a partir dos espectros obtidos variando o ângulo entre H e os eixos do cristal a´, b e c em três planos a´b, a´c, e bc. O tensor g reflete as propriedades moleculares do complexo, com o íon Cu(II) em uma simetria axial e também a orientação destas moléculas dentro da cela unitária do cristal. A variação angular da largura de linha é analisada em termos da simetria do íon Cu(II) na rede cristalina e das contribuições das interações dipolar e Zeeman Residual. O parâmetro da interação de troca |J\'|, é obtido através da contribuição da interação Zeeman residual na largura de linha, |J\'| ~ 0,34K. É também observada uma característica magnética bidimensional no complexo Cu(&#945-AIB)2 concordando com os resultados cristalográficos. / In this work is presented a study of the complex Cu(&#945-AIB) 2 using EPR spectroscopy at room temperature, in two frequency bands (9.7 and 34 GHz). The EPR spectra, in both bands and any direction of the extremal magnetic field consist of a single resonance line. This fact can be understood considering the exchange narrowing between non-equivalent Cu(II) íons. The elements of the g tensor and line width were determined from the angular dependence of the EPR spectrum, in three ortogonal crystal planes a´b, a´c and ab (a´=b x c). The angular dependence of the g tensor reflects the molecular properties of the complex Cu(&#945-AIB)2 the axial symmetry of the molecule and the orientation on the crystal unit cell. The most important contributions to the line width were found to be: 2D dipolar interactions, the residual Zeeman effect and defects compatible to the symmetry of the crystal. The Exchange parameter, |J\'| ~ 0.34K, was obtained from the residual Zeeman contribution to the line width (Q band). The low dimension found for dipolar interations agrees with crystallographic results.

With increased demand for bandwidth-hungry applications such as video-on-demand, wavelength-division-multiplexing passive optical network (WDM-PON) has become a strong contender in overcoming the last mile bottle neck. However, the wide-scale deployment of WDM-PONs has been delayed mainly due to the high cost of wavelength-specific optical components. To realize cost-effective WDM-PONs, various wavelength-independent, so called colorless architectures, have been developed so that all the subscribers can have identical optical network units (ONUs). In such WDM-PONs, however, single-fiber bidirectional transmission results in degradation of system performance caused by interference between the signals and backreflections. This thesis investigates the impact of backreflections on single-fiber bidirectional WDM-PONs. A WDM-PON with various optical line terminals (OLTs) and colorless ONU configurations is presented. The dependence of the power penalty, caused by backreflections, on a variety of parameters is investigated. This includes parameters such as the source linewidths, receiver bandwidth, transmission line loss (TLL), ONU gain, chirp effect at the ONU and optical return loss (ORL), in various WDM-PON configurations. The WDM-PON with continuous wave (CW) seed light and remodulation schemes are both presented and studied experimentally. The impacts of the backreflections on the single-fiber bidirectional WDM-PON with various OLT and ONU configurations are compared and analyzed accordingly.

This thesis focuses on the physics of nanoplasmonic systems for dispersive and lossy media. Gold nanoparticles in P3HT (poly(3-hexylthiophene)) and PMMA (poly(methyl methacrylate)) are analyzed both theoretically and experimentally. It is found in both cases that the presence of P3HT narrows the linewidth of the gold plasmon peak. This is a counter-intuitive result, and this narrowing of the linewidth by a lossy material is analyzed in detail. It is found that dispersion in both the real and imaginary parts of the permittivity of the surrounding medium can significantly affect the linewidth. Another plasmonic phenomena was also researched. An atomic energy level model of erbium was constructed and used to solve a rate equation to calculate the far-field emission enhancement from an erbium atom nearby a gold nanorod when the dark mode is excited. Normally a small emission enhancement is expected in the far field since dark modes do not couple strongly to radiation, but in experiments this dark field emission enhancement was seen to be significant. The results of the calculation were compared to this previous experimental result. Although the incident power dependence of the calculated 980 nm emission line agreed with experiments, the 650 nm emission line power dependence and the calculated emission enhancement did not, and so more work needs to be done with this model to explain the experimental results. / Graduate

NV centers in a diamond are proving themselves to be good building blocks for quantum information, electron spin resonance (ESR) imaging, and sensor applications. The key feature of the NV is that it has an electron spin that can be polarized and read out at room temperature. The readout is optical, thus the magnetic field imaging can also be done easily. Magnetic field variation with feature sizes below 0.3 microns cannot be directly resolved, and so in this region magnetic resonance imaging must be employed. To realize the full sensitivity of NV diamond, the spin transition linewidth must be as narrow as possible. Additionally, in the case of NV ensembles for micron-sized magnetometers, there must be a high concentration of NV. To this end three techniques are explored: (1) Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) imaging with microwave field gradients, (2) Magic angle rotation of magnetic field, and (3) TEM irradiation to optimize the yield of NV in a diamond. For the EPR imaging demonstration a resonant microwave field gradient is used in place of the usual DC magnetic gradient to obtain enough spatial resolution to resolve two very close "double NV" centers in a type Ib bulk diamond. Microfabrication technology enabled the micron-size wire structure to sit directly on the surface of millimeter-scale diamond plate. In contrast to conventional magnetic resonance imaging pulsed ESR was used to measure the Rabi oscillations. From the beating of Rabi oscillations from a "double NV," the pair was resolved using the one-dimension EPR imaging (EPRI) and the spatial distance was obtained. To achieve high sensitivity in nitrogen-doped diamond, the dipole-dipole coupling between the electron spin of the NV center and the substitutional nitrogen (14N) electron must be suppressed because it causes linewidth broadening. Magic angle spinning is an accepted technique to push T2 and T2 * down toward the T1 limit. An experiment was performed using the HPHT diamond with a high concentration of nitrogen, and a rotating field was applied with a microfabricated wire structure to reduce line broadening. In this experiment, ~50% suppression of the linewidth was observed and the effective time constant T2* improved from 114 ns to 227 ns. To achieve the highest possible sensitivity for micro-scale magnetic sensors the concentration of NV should be large. Since the unconverted N are magnetic impurities they shorten T2 and T2*, giving a tradeoff between NV (and therefore N) concentration and sensitivity. To construct a damage monitor, a type Ib HPHT sample was irradiated with electrons from a transmission electron microscope (TEM) and the effects on the ESR transition were seen well before physical damage appeared on the diamond and thus this proved to be a sensitive metric for irradiation damage.

The linewidths and line positions of 4I15/2 to 4I13/2 absorption transitions of trivalent erbium in CsCdBr₃ and CaF₂ were measured as a function of temperature from approximately 10 K to 300 K. By comparing the temperature dependence of these transitions with theoretical models of electron-phonon coupling the primary mechanism involved were determined. For Er3+ doped CaF₂ the Raman scattering processes dominated the line broadening, although the single-phonon direct processes were significant enough to drastically alter the values of the Raman scattering electron-phonon coupling constant. In comparison, the Er³⁺ doped CsCdBr₃ had negligible Raman scattering contributing to the line broadening. This is likely due to the exceedingly low Debye temperature and consequently low number of phonons, reducing the likelihood of two-phonon processes relative to single-phonon processes. The results were then analysed in terms of the bond length with the ligands and compared with other studies showing that as the bond length gets shorter the electron-phonon coupling constant associated with Raman scattering is expected to get smaller. To explain the line shifts in CaF₂:Er³⁺ it is necessary to treat the Debye temperature as a parameter. This indicates that the phonon modes causing the line shifts are different from those causing the line broadening, and in most of the cases are vibronic processes rather than Raman processes. In the case of CsCdBr₃:Er³⁺ there is very little difference between the fits using the fixed Debye temperature and a varied Debye temperature in over half of the cases examined. Given the distribution of phonon modes, it is likely that this small difference arises because combinations of these processes are of similar intensity, meaning that a combination of Raman and optical phonon modes are likely causing the line shift.