Laser mode-locking with saturable absorbers

In this paper we describe a mode-locked laser in terms of traveling pulses of light. We show that the energy absorbed by a saturable absorber is a minimum if the pulselength is a minimum, and that two pulses are essentially as favorable as one if they meet at the position of the dye cell. Under steady-state pulsing conditions, however, we show that the pulses will have a width which depends on their energy. We find that for parameters appropriate to present Nd: glass experiments, the expected length is about 10-11 seconds, in agreement with observations. Finally, we demonstrate the rather surprising result that a linearly dispersive medium does not broaden the mode-locked laser pulses to first order

Resource Letter NO-1: Nonlinear Optics

This Resource Letter provides a guide to the literature on nonlinear optics. Books, journals, and websites are introduced that cover the general subject. Journal articles and websites are cited covering the following topics: second-order nonlinearities in transparent media including second-harmonic generation and optical parametric oscillation, third-order and higher nonlinearities, nonlinear refractive index, absorptive nonlinearities such as saturable absorption and multiphoton absorption, and scattering nonlinearities such as stimulated Raman scattering and stimulated Brillouin scattering. Steady-state and transient phenomena, fiber optics, solitons, nonlinear wave mixing, optical phase conjugation, nonlinear spectroscopy, and multiphoton microscopy are all outlined

Propagation losses in metal-film-substrate optical waveguides

The propagation losses in metal-film-substrate two-dimensional optical waveguides are calculated. Losses for confined modes may become large and are at least an order of magnitude larger for TM than for TE modes. Higher order modes suffer more loss than the fundamental mode. Such mode-dependent loss can make efficient mode analyzers, useful for integrated optics modulation schemes

Observation of propagation cutoff and its control in thin optical waveguides

The first observation of optical cutoff in thin-film waveguides is reported. The waveguides consist of thin (~10µ) epitaxial layers of high-resistivity GaAs deposited on lower-resistivity GaAs substrates. The optical cutoff is controlled through the electro-optic effect by applying an electric field across the epitaxial layer

Can precursors improve the transmission of energy at optical frequencies?

The recent interest in precursors has been fuelled by the possibility of using them for the efficient transmission of information through absorbing media at radio or optical frequencies. Here we demonstrate that the low attenuation experienced by the Brillouin precursor is attributed to the inherently low absorption of dispersive media near DC, a characteristic already exploited with communications systems using the extremely low frequency (ELF) band. Pulses, regardless of their temporal width and carrier frequency, always obey Beer's law as long as they propagate in the linear time invariant regime. We conclude with an FDTD simulation of the Maxwell–Bloch equations that shows how optical coherent bleaching effects, which take place in the linear time variant regime of the Lorentz oscillator model, can cause sustained deviations from Beer's law over relatively long distances of water

Nonlinear optics in daily life

An overview is presented of the impact of NLO on today’s daily life. While NLO researchers have promised many applications, only a few have changed our lives so far. This paper categorizes applications of NLO into three areas: improving lasers, interaction with materials, and information technology. NLO provides: coherent light of different wavelengths; multi-photon absorption for plasma-materials interaction; advanced spectroscopy and materials analysis; and applications to communications and sensors. Applications in information processing and storage seem less mature

Stimulated Brillouin Review: Invented 50 Years Ago and Applied Today

Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) is embedded today in a variety of optical systems, such as advanced high-power lasers, sensors, microwave signal processors, scientific instrumentation, and optomechanical systems. Reduction in SBS power requirements involves use of optical fibers, integrated optics, micro-optic devices, and now nano-optics, often in high Q cavities. It has taken fifty years from its earliest invention by conceptual discovery until today for SBS to become a practical and useful technology in a variety of applications. Some of these applications are explained and it is shown how they are tied to particular attributes of SBS: phase conjugation, frequency shifts, low noise, narrow linewidth, frequency combs, optical and microwave signal processing, etc