Because of their compatibility with the planar concept of integrated optics, grating couplers offer the most satisfactory means of coupling light into thin film optical waveguides. The purpose of this dissertation has been to study the behaviour, both theoretically and experimentally, and fabrication of grating couplers in nonlinear waveguides. A theory of nonlinear grating couplers is presented based on a coupled-mode approach. The dependence of coupling efficiency on incident beam intensity, beam size, beam position, incident angle, chirp rate, and waveguide losses have been examined all in the presence of nonlinearities in the waveguide. It is reported that, in the presence of nonlinearities, the coupling efficiency decreases with increasing incident power. Different ways of optimizing the coupling efficiency at high incident power levels are presented. These include adjusting the beam size, the coupling angle, and chirping the grating. A new technique is reported for fabrication of regular period, chirped, and curved photoresist gratings. The experimental arrangement is essentially based on Lloyd's mirror fringes and is characterized by its stability, simplicity, and versatility. We also report on successful use of Reactive Ion-Beam Etching (RIBE) with C₂F₆ gas in producing very smooth and deep gratings with high aspect ratios in different waveguide structures. Experimental coupling efficiencies of up to 40% are reported in polystyrene waveguides using etched grating couplers. Experiments are reported in support of the theoretical findings of this dissertation using a polystyrene waveguide with thermal nonlinearity.

A theory is presented which describes the global reflection and transmission characteristics of a self-focused channel propagating at an oblique angle of incidence to an interface separating two or more self-focusing nonlinear dielectric media. A complete characterization of the different behavior of the channel is given in the proper parameter space. In the dominant region, the nonlinear wavepacket representing the self-focused channel is represented as an equivalent particle moving in an equivalent potential. The dynamics of the particle is described by Newton's equations of motion, with the asymptotic propagation paths of the channel being read off from the associated phase planes of the equivalent potential. This theory provides therefore, the nonlinear Snell's Laws of refleciton or transmission since the particle dynamics gives the critical angle of total reflection and in the case of transmission, the corresponding angle of transmission. This theory also gives the stability characteristics of nonlinear surface waves, which had only been partially established in the past through numerical simulations. Finally, some applications of the theory are presented such as the design of an all-optical power adjustable spatial scanning element and an all optical switch. Extensions of the theory to waveguides with multiple interfaces are also given and possible new directions are also suggested.

This work concerns the vacuum deposition of novel thin films that exhibit nonlinear optical effects due to their unusual microstructure. We discuss four different materials: 1) Tilted columns of aluminum-oxide 2) Gold particles in aluminum-oxide 3) Cadmium sulpho-selenide particles in aluminum-oxide 4) Silver particles in zinc-sulphide. We begin with a description of the vacuum system and some the techniques used to characterize the optical and structural properties of the films. This leads to our study of second-harmonic generation (SHG) in aluminum-oxide thin films deposited at an angle to the evaporant source. We show that SHG is very sensitive to the non-isotropic microstructure that results from such a deposition. and the behavior of the SHG signal with sample orientation provides insight to the symmetry properties of the microstructure. In a related study we show that AU/Al₂O₃ composite films produce a large SHG signal. We investigate the dependence of the strength of the SHG signal with fill-fraction of gold and show that it increases quadratically. in agreement with theory. The third material we discuss is cadmium sulpho-selenide doped aluminumoxide. We describe attempts at nucleating semiconductor crystallites in a variety of hosts through a process of co-deposition and subsequent annealing. We also deposit alternate layers of CdS-Se and Al₂O₃ with the semiconductor layer thin enough that interspersed crystallites form. This results in suspended. isolated crystallites similar to the doped-glass materials of interest to nonlinear optics. A waveguide of a CdS/Al₂O₃ "sandwich" demonstrates optical nonlinearity through a power-dependent prism coupling experiment, and the degree of nonlinearity is much greater than undoped glass, though less than doped glass. The final section of the dissertation is a theoretical description of nonlinear optical behavior in a novel composite material consisting of metal particles in a nonlinear dielectric host. We assume the enhanced field around the resonating particles drives the host locally nonlinear through either a Kerr-type or thermal nonlinearity. We calculate the change in optical properties of the medium due to this effect and show that for a system of silver in zinc-sulphide the nonlinearity can be significant.

Two spectral regions of gain exist for a weak probe beam propagating through a medium of two-level-atoms pumped by a strong near-resonance field. Experimentally a cw ring-dye laser is used to explore this gain at the Na D₂ resonance in a vapor. Plane-wave calculations of probe-gain spectra which include the Doppler broadening inherent in a vapor agree well with experimental spectra obtained with a Fabry-Perot interferometer. Such two-beam-coupling gain might have applications as optical pre- or power amplifiers. The gain is also the primary step in four-wave-mixing. Mixing of the pump and sideband which experiences gain produces the medium polarization from which the fourth-wave arises. For phase-matched propagation the fourth-wave, which is at a frequency that experiences little or negative probe-gain (i.e., absorption), grows at nearly the same rate as the primary sideband. Together the two sidebands extract far more than twice as much energy from the pump than does the primary sideband acting alone. Experimentally four-wave-mixing which arises from noise at the gain-sideband-frequency is sometimes accompanied by conical emission at the fourth-wave sideband. Since this sideband is also seen on axis the explanation cannot be simply phase-matching. Simulations which include the full transverse nature of the experiment are currently running on a CRAY supercomputer. These simulations indicate that the radial variation of the medium index of refraction is responsible for conical emission.

Nonlinear optical properties of passive and active semiconductors are investigated experimentally and theoretically. Improvement of switching cycle time in optical nonlinear etalons to 40 ps is demonstrated, and strained-layer InGaAs/GaAs quantum well material is used in an asymmetric etalon to greatly improve switching power and contrast. Coherent energy transfer (CET) induced by injection of an external light field is demonstrated in a GaAs quantum well vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). The evolution of CET induced asymmetric gain with increasing injected power is investigated experimentally and theoretically, and it is found that the CET induced effective gain peak and dip are detuned proportionally with injected power as in homogeneously broadened media and in contrast to other multi-wave effects in GaAs which are detuned proportionally with the light field. Transfer of gain modification between orthogonally polarized modes of the VCSEL and cascading of gain modification within a mode is observed and investigated. The approach of a laser to an injection locked state through increased injected power is investigated experimentally and theoretically, showing new emission frequencies produced which evolve to chaos-like behavior before reaching the phase locked state. CET induced gain modification is used to demonstrate low-power high-contrast switching between polarization modes of the VCSEL with differential gain of 3,510. Switching speed and switching bistability is observed and investigated. Injection induced modification of VCSEL transverse modes is studied experimentally and theoretically. Field defects in the resulting field are observed, and their locations are dependent on the frequency of the injected field, in contrast to the temporally evolving defects normally observed. The rich behavior of nonlinear properties, especially in gain media provide interesting results and valuable applications.

No description available.

Computer modeling of prism coupling of pulsed laser irradiation at a wavelength of 1064 nm into an organic polymer waveguide with Kerr Law nonlinearities showed that the prism coupling technique was inherent problems that make it difficult to accurately determine the magnitude of the refractive index change. Uncertainty in knowledge of the gap spacing under the prism leads to errors in any estimates of these nonlinear refractive index changes. Results from prism coupling experiments conducted on a polymer waveguide with a pulsed laser are inconclusive.

<p>The nonlinear interaction between light and atoms is an extensive field of study with a broad range of applications in quantum information science and condensed matter physics. Nonlinear optical phenomena occurring in cold atoms are particularly interesting because such slowly moving atoms can spatially organize into density gratings, which allows for studies involving optical interactions with structured materials. In this thesis, I describe a novel nonlinear optical effect that arises when cold atoms spatially bunch in an optical lattice. I show that employing this spatial atomic bunching provides access to a unique physical regime with reduced thresholds for nonlinear optical processes and enhanced material properties. Using this method, I observe the nonlinear optical phenomenon of transverse optical pattern formation at record-low powers. These transverse optical patterns are generated by a wave- mixing process that is mediated by the cold atomic vapor. The optical patterns are highly multimode and induce rich non-equilibrium atomic dynamics. In particular, I find that there exists a synergistic interplay between the generated optical pat- terns and the atoms, wherein the scattered fields help the atoms to self-organize into new, multimode structures that are not externally imposed on the atomic sample. These self-organized structures in turn enhance the power in the optical patterns. I provide the first detailed investigation of the motional dynamics of atoms that have self-organized in a multimode geometry. I also show that the transverse optical patterns induce Sisyphus cooling in all three spatial dimensions, which is the first observation of spontaneous three-dimensional cooling. My experiment represents a unique means by which to study nonlinear optics and non-equilibrium dynamics at ultra-low required powers.</p> / Dissertation

Lasers are an essential technology enabling countless fields of optics, however, their operation wavelengths are limited to isolated regions across the optical spectrum due to the need for suitable gain media. Parametric frequency conversion (PFC) is an attractive means to convert existing lasers to new colors using nonlinear optical interactions rather than the material properties of the host medium, allowing for the development of high power laser sources across the entire optical spectrum. PFC in bulk χ(2) crystals has led to the development of the optical parametric oscillator, which is currently the standard source for high power light at non-traditional wavelengths in the laboratory setting. Ideally, however, one could implement PFC in an optical fiber, thus leveraging the crucial benefits of a guided-wave geometry: alignment-free, compact, and robust operation. Four-wave mixing (FWM) is a nonlinear effect in optical fibers that can be used to convert frequencies, the major challenge being conservation of momentum, or phase matching, between the interacting light waves. Phase matching can be satisfied through the interaction of different spatial modes in a multi-mode fiber, however, previous demonstrations have been limited by mode stability and narrow-band FWM gain. Alternatively, phase matching within the fundamental mode can be realized in high-confinement waveguides (such as photonic crystal fibers), but achieving the anomalous waveguide dispersion necessary for phase matching at pump wavelengths near ∼1 μm (where the highest power fiber lasers emit) comes at the cost of reducing the effective area of the mode, thus limiting power-handling. Here, we specifically consider the class of Bessel-like LP0,m modes in step-index fibers. It has been shown that these modes can be selectively excited and guided stably for long lengths of fiber, and mode stability increases with mode order ‘m’. The effective area of modes in these fibers can be very large (>6000 μm2 demonstrated) and is decoupled from dispersion, allowing for phase matching within a single mode in a power-scalable platform. Furthermore, step-index fibers can guide many different LP0,m modes, allowing access to a highly multi-moded basis set with which to study FWM interactions between different modes. In this thesis we develop techniques to excite, propagate, and characterize LP0,m modes in order to demonstrate FWM in two regimes: monomode interactions comprising waves all belonging to the same mode, and intermodal interactions between different modes. In the monomode regime we demonstrate parametric sources which operate at near-infrared wavelengths under-served by conventional fiber lasers, including 880, 974, 1173, and 1347 nm. The output pulses for these systems are ∼300 ps in duration and reach peak powers of ∼10 kW, representing, to the best our knowledge, the highest peak power fiber laser sources demonstrated at these wavelengths to date. In the intermodal regime, we demonstrate a cascade of FWM processes between different modes that lead to a series of discrete peaks in the visible portion of the spectrum, increasing monotonically in mode order from LP0,7 at 678 nm to LP0,16 at 443 nm. This cascade underscores the huge number of potential FWM interactions between different LP0,m modes available in a highly multi-mode fiber, which scale as N4 for N guided modes. Finally, we demonstrate a novel intermodal FWM process pumped between the LP0,4 and LP0,5 modes of a step-index fiber, which provides broadband FWM gain (63 nm at 1550 nm) while maintaining wavelength separations of nearly an octave (762 nm) – a result that cannot be replicated in the single-mode regime. We seed this process to generate a ∼10 kW, ∼300-ps pulsed fiber laser wavelength-tunable from 786-795 nm; representing a fiber analogue of the ubiquitous Ti:Sapphire laser.

This thesis presents several advances in the technology and applications of photonic crystal fibres achieved over the last three years. Chapters 1 and 2 give the background material important to understand the results presented in chapters 3, 4 and 5. In chapter 1, linear properties of optical fibres are described. This chapter focuses particularly on how the engineering of the cladding structure of solid core photonic crystal fibres can be used to vary the fibre properties, most importantly the group index and dispersion. Propagation in all-solid photonic bandgap fibres is also discussed in terms of the anti-resonant reflecting optical waveguide model. Chapter 2 introduces the nonlinear optical effects that are important to understand the work presented in chapters 4 and 5. In chapter 3, a method to reduce bend losses in all-solid photonic bandgap fibres is outlined. The reduction of these losses is achieved by redesigning the high-index inclusions in the cladding structure to suppress cladding modes that strongly couple to the fundamental core-guided mode when the fibre is bent. In chapter 4, a method of tapering photonic crystal fibres in order to decrease the dispersion along their length is described. The tapers are used to compress solitons via adiabatic soliton compression and a combination of adiabatic soliton compression and soliton effect compression, achieving a factor of 15 compression of a transform-limited pulse to below 50 fs. Chapter 5 describes how engineering the cladding structure of photonic crystal fibres can be used to generate shorter frequencies in supercontinuum generation. The method by which this achieved is experimentally verified and then exploited to generate a continuum incorporating the entire visible spectrum using low cost, low maintenance pump sources.