HF-Induced Modifications of the Electron Density Profile in the Earth’s Ionosphere Using the Pump Frequencies near the Fourth Electron Gyroharmonic

We discuss results on plasma density profile modifications in the F-region ionosphere that are caused by HF heating with the frequency f0 in the range [(−150 kHz)–(+75 kHz)] around the fourth electron gyroharmonic 4fc. The experiments were conducted at the HAARP facility in June 2014. A multi-frequency Doppler sounder (MDS), which measures the phase and amplitude of reflected sounding radio waves, complemented by the observations of the stimulated electromagnetic emission (SEE) were used for the diagnostics of the plasma perturbations. We detected noticeable plasma expulsion from the reflection region of the pumping wave and from the upper hybrid region, where the expulsion from the latter was strongly suppressed for f0 ≈ 4fc. The plasma expulsion from the upper hybrid region was accompanied by the sounding wave’s anomalous absorption (AA) slower development for f0 ≈ 4fc. Furthermore, slower development and weaker expulsion were detected for the height region between the pump wave reflection and upper hybrid altitudes. The combined MDS and SEE allowed for establishing an interconnection between different manifestations of the HF-induced ionospheric turbulence and determining the altitude of the most effective pump wave energy input to ionospheric plasma by using the dependence on the offset between f0 and 4fc.

Theoretical bases of combined nonlinear optical demodulator-amplifer for broadband microwave photonics system

Our demodulator is based on the use of a strong light pump wave along with a signal modulated light wave. The demodulator is linear in terms of the modulation signal, which makes it possible to obtain a demodulated signal without harmonic distortion. The modulator conversion efciency and signal gain increase with increasing microwave baseband.

Highly Efficient Mid-Infrared Generation from Low-Power Single-Frequency Fiber Laser Using Phase-Matched Intracavity Difference Frequency Mixing

In this paper, we demonstrated efficient mid-infrared generation using a low-power 1064 nm single-frequency (SF) fiber laser based on phase-matched intracavity difference frequency generation (DFG) in a continuous-wave (CW) periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN)-based optical parametric oscillator (OPO). This is the first time that the frequency down conversion of a low-power SF light source has been achieved using intracavity difference frequency mixing. A high power 1018 nm fiber laser was firstly used for building the parametric oscillation and providing the high power resonant signal wave. To realize an efficient DFG process between the SF pump wave and the intracavity signal wave, the temperature of periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) crystal was properly adjusted to satisfy the phase-matching conditions. Finally, the low-power 1064 nm SF pump wave was successfully converted to a 3.7 μm mid-infrared wave with a conversion efficiency of 21.6%. The conversion efficiency, to the best of our knowledge, is the highest for SF lasers in DFG processes. Meanwhile, taking advantage of SF laser pumping, a narrow linewidth of 271 pm (5.9 GHz) in the mid-infrared region was achieved without adding any etalons or devices in the cavity.

Super-Gain Optical Parametric Amplification in Dielectric Micro-Resonators via BFGS Algorithm-Based Non-Linear Programming

The goal of this paper is to show that super-gain optical parametric amplification can be achieved even in a small micro-resonator using high-intensity ultrashort pump waves, provided that the frequencies of the ultrashort pulses are tuned to maximize the intracavity magnitude of the wave to be amplified, which we call the stimulus wave. In order to accomplish this, we have performed a dispersion analysis via computational modeling of the electric polarization density in terms of the non-linear electron cloud motion and we have concurrently solved the electric polarization density and the wave equation for the electric field. Based on a series of non-linear programming-integrated finite difference time-domain simulations, we have identified the optimal pump wave frequencies that simultaneously maximize the stored electric energy density and the polarization density inside a micro-resonator by using the Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno (BFGS) optimization algorithm. When the intracavity energy and the polarization density (which acts as an energy coupling coefficient) are simultaneously high, an input wave can be strongly amplified by efficiently drawing energy from a highly energized cavity. Therefore, we propose that micrometer-scale achievement of super-gain optical parametric amplification is possible in a micro-resonator via high-intensity ultrashort “pump wave” pulses, by determining the optimal frequencies that concurrently maximize the stored electric energy density and the polarization density in a dielectric interaction medium.