Cascaded Raman slow light and optical spatial solitons in Kerr media

International audienceWe provide a complete experimental and numerical investigation of nonlinear beam propagation in a carbon disulfide liquid-filled Kerr slab waveguide using picosecond pulsed light. A first spatial analysis shows the generation of a multicolor solitary wave through the combined effects of cascaded Raman scattering and crossphase modulation. The impact of temporal effects on this self-trapped optical beam is further studied through a spatiotemporal analysis. It is shown in particular how cascaded Raman slow light induces optical delays between the solitonic components which prevents higher-order spatial soliton and provides a remarkable beam stability. Experimental observations are in very good agreement with numerical simulations of the spatiotemporal (1+1D) nonlinear Schr¨odinger equation including the Raman scattering

Impact of Pump Quality on the Performances of Fiber Optical Parametric Amplifiers

International audienceThe principle of operation of fibre optical parametric amplifiers is revisited with a special attention to the pump wave characteristics ranging from the monochromatic coherent case to the incoherent one

Slow-light spatial solitons

International audienceWe numerically and experimentally report the observation of slow-light spatial solitons in a Kerr medium owing to light amplification by stimulated Raman scattering. This was achieved in a CS2 nonlinear planar waveguide that possesses both a strong self-focusing nonlinearity to generate the spatial Raman soliton and a Raman susceptibility sharp enough to induce the slow-light process simultaneously. We show that the Raman Stokes component is optically delayed by more than 120 ps for a 140 ps Raman pulse duration and only 3 cm of propagation length, while propagating as a spatial soliton beam

Observation of surface acoustic wave Brillouin scattering in optical microfibers (Orale)

International audienceWe report the observation of surface-acoustic-wave Brillouin scattering (SAWBS) in a subwavelength-diameter fiber and show that this effect relies on the generation by the electrostrictive force of phonons confined at the surface of the microwire

Stimulated Brillouin scattering in hybrid chalcogenide-PMMA microwires

International audienceWe investigate the onset of nonlinear effects in hybrid As2Se3-PMMA microwires and demonstrate that they provide an enhanced Kerr nonlinearity while mitigating stimulated Brillouin scattering when compared to chalcogenide and silica optical fibers

Stability of spatial soliton arrays generated in a noninstantaneous Kerr medium from partially spatiotemporally coherent light

International audienceWe demonstrate numerically and experimentally how spatial soliton arrays generated through modulation instability in a planar waveguide with relaxing Kerr nonlinearity can be spatially and temporally destabilized when using a partially spatiotemporally coherent light pulse. However, the amplitude of the shot-to-shot spatial jitter is limited. This jitter depends on the correlation degree of the spatial noise between pulses, and this correlation degree strongly depends on the spatiotemporal coherence of the propagating beam

Simple methods for crosstalk reduction in fiber optical parametric amplifiers

International audienceWe propose and numerically demonstrate two simple methods for reduction of the crosstalk caused by four-wave mixing between the pump and the wavelength-division multiplexed channels in single-pump fiber optical parametric amplifier. The first one is based on a proper tuning of the WDM system from the pump wavelength and the second one uses the Stokes side rather than the anti-Stokes side in the gain band

LiNbO3 ridge waveguides realized by precision dicing on silicon for high efficiency second harmonic generation

Nonlinear periodically poled ridge LiNbO3 waveguides have been fabricated on silicon substrates. Components are carved with only use of a precision dicing machine without need for grinding or polishing steps. They show efficient second harmonic generation at telecommunication wavelengths with normalized conversion reaching 204%/W in a 15 mm long device. Influence of geometrical non uniformities of waveguides due to fabrication process is asserted. Components characteristics are studied notably their robustness and tunability versus temperature.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure

Generation of multicolor vector Kerr solitons by cross-phase modulation, four-wave mixing, and stimulated Raman scattering

International audienceWe numerically and experimentally show the existence of multicolor vector spatial solitons in a Kerr planar waveguide through the combined effects of cross-phase modulation, four-wave mixing, and stimulated Raman scattering. Mutual spatial guiding of the Raman-Stokes, anti-Stokes, and pump waves is achieved in the high-conversion regime mainly by cross-phase modulation and phase-matched four-wave mixing induced by a power imbalance between Stokes and anti-Stokes components, leading to the generation of a clear-cut sech-shape three-frequency spatial soliton