Numerical Investigation and Design of Electrically-Pumped Self-Pulsing Fano Laser Based on III-V/Silicon Integration

A self-pulsing III-V/silicon laser is designed based on the Fano resonance between a bus-waveguide and a micro-ring resonator, partially covered by the graphene as a nonlinear saturable absorption component. The Fano reflector etched on the straight waveguide is used as one of the cavity mirrors in the coupling region to work with the graphene induced loss and nonlinearity to achieve pulsed lasing in GHz repetition frequency. The detailed lasing characteristics are studied numerically by using the rate equation and finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations. The results show that the CMOS compatible hybrid laser can generate picosecond pulses with repetition rate at 1~3.12 GHz, which increases linearly with the injection current.

Autocorrelation Measurement of Picosecond Pulses with Two-Photon Absorption

In this work, an autocorrelation measurement method is proposed to obtain the key information of picosecond pulses using the two-photon absorption (TPA) effect. The autocorrelation measurement process is simulated with a linear tuning of the pulse repetition frequency (PRF). Given the dispersion of picosecond pulses, the profile of the autocorrelation signal is broadened symmetrically. Moreover, the dispersive distribution in time-frequency domain of picosecond pulses and the different bandwidth of the TPA spectrum of materials should bring in sub pulses in the autocorrelation signal with the relative different delay. As shown in simulations, with an ideal broadband two-photon response spectrum, only the broadening of autocorrelation trace appears. But the detection with a narrowband two-photon response spectrum displays the greater sensitivity for pulse dispersion of the edge of the pulse, benefiting from the more sub pulses. Detections of picosecond pulses within the space wireless communication band region generally employ the photoconductive antenna and electro-optic effect in free space. However, with respect to the TPA effect in the specific materials, we could build an extremely compact autocorrelation measurement configuration for the key information extraction of picosecond pulses in space wireless communication and astronomical measurement, which would provide the same information as conventional detections about the autocorrelation signal of picosecond pulses.

Generation of Subpicosecond Pulse Trains in Fiber Cascades Comprising a Cylindrical Waveguide with Propagating Refractive Index Wave

A cylindrical waveguide structure with the running refractive index wave has been recently demonstrated as a means for the generation of high-repetition-rate pulse trains. The operation mechanism involves a proper combination of the frequency modulation and modulation instability simultaneously experienced by the input continuous wave (CW) signal as it propagates through the cylinder waveguide. Here, we explore the same idea but employ the cylindrical waveguide only as a part of the cascaded optical fiber configuration now comprising both passive and active optical fiber segments. The new system design enables the improved control of the pulse train formation process in the cascaded system elements, relaxes strong requirements for the CW signal power, and provides an additional optical gain for the advanced pulse peak power scaling. In particular, using a low-amplitude, weakly modulated, continuous wave as an input signal we explore and optimize the nonlinear mechanisms underlying its cascaded transformation into the train of kilowatt peak power picosecond pulses.

Intracavity incoherent supercontinuum dynamics and rogue waves in a broadband dissipative soliton laser

Understanding dynamical complexity is one of the most important challenges in science. Significant progress has recently been made in optics through the study of dissipative soliton laser systems, where dynamics are governed by a complex balance between nonlinearity, dispersion, and energy exchange. A particularly complex regime of such systems is associated with noise-like pulse multiscale instabilities, where sub-picosecond pulses with random characteristics evolve chaotically underneath a much longer envelope. However, although observed for decades in experiments, the physics of this regime remains poorly understood, especially for highly-nonlinear cavities generating broadband spectra. Here, we address this question directly with a combined numerical and experimental study that reveals the physical origin of instability as nonlinear soliton dynamics and supercontinuum turbulence. Real-time characterisation reveals intracavity extreme events satisfying statistical rogue wave criteria, and both real-time and time-averaged measurements are in quantitative agreement with modelling.

Spatiotemporal Evolutions of Similariton Pulses in Multimode Fibers with Raman Amplification

This paper aims to pave the way towards the demonstration of spatiotemporal similariton pulses’ evolution in passive multimode fibers with Raman amplification. We numerically present this issue in graded-index and step-index multimode fibers and provide a first look at the complex spatiotemporal dynamics of similariton pulses. The results showed that the similariton pulses could be generated in both multimode fibers. The temporal and spectral evolution of the pulses can be characterized as parabolic shapes with linear chirp and kW peak power. By compressing these, high-energy femtoseconds pulses can be obtained, starting initial picosecond pulses. A spatial beam profile could be preserved in both multimode fibers with the most energy coupled to the fundamental mode. Specifically, the similariton pulses’ generation with Raman amplification in a graded-index multimode fiber improves the spatial beam self-cleaning process under the different initial modes’ excitation. The observation of a new beam self-cleaning process is another attractor feature of propagation in graded-index multimode fibers.