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Prospective authors are requested to submit new, unpublished manuscripts for inclusion in the upcoming event described in this call for papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prospective authors are requested to submit new, unpublished manuscripts for inclusion in the upcoming event described in this call for papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A femtosecond mode-locked soliton erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) is demonstrated using a commercially available nonconductive graphene oxide paper as a saturable absorber. The paper that is sandwiched between two fiber ferrules acts as a mode-locker. The EDFL generates a soliton mode-locked pulse train with a repetition rate of 15.62 MHz and pulsewidth of 680 fs. It is observed that the fiber laser has a low pulsing threshold as well as low damage threshold. The pulse energy and peak power are 0.0085 nJ and 11.85 W, respectively. The easy fabrication of graphene oxide paper should promote its potential application in ultrafast photonics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The recent progress in III-nitride tunnel junction (TJ) contacts for optoelectronic devices is summarized in this review paper. Due to the rapid developments of various III-nitride based optoelectronic devices for different emerging applications, TJs are of interest for these devices to achieve more efficient device performance. This review paper first briefly describes the working principles of TJs and the advantages of employing TJs in optoelectronic devices. The significant advancements in III-nitride TJs realized by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) are addressed, as well as their TJ device performances. Lastly, the critical challenges for employing III-nitride TJs in wide bandgap ultraviolet (UV) light emitters are discussed for future investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mainstream production of optoelectronic and electronic devices based on epitaxial III-V compound semiconductor materials largely employs metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy, a process first demonstrated for devices in the 1970’s. For this special issue in honor of Prof. P. Daniel Dapkus, this paper first briefly reviews his early contributions that spearheaded the interest of MOVPE as a III-V device epitaxy process. Next, the paper discusses MOVPE reactor development in the 1980’s, which at the time was one of the key challenges in establishing MOVPE technology as a reliable epitaxy manufacturing process. The approach combined physical modeling and numerical simulations of reactor processes followed by materials and device demonstrations. Highly uniform performance metrics of AlGaAs/AlGaAs quantum-well diode lasers and two-dimensional monolithic surface-emitting lasers were demonstrated with excellent run-to-run reproducibility. This foundational approach advanced efforts to standardize reactors and subsequent scaling for high-throughput production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method to provide bandwidth compressed time-mapped spectrogram analysis based on temporal Talbot effect and temporal magnification is proposed and numerically demonstrated in this paper. The signal under test (SUT) is firstly sampled by a periodic pulse train, then passes through a dispersive medium under the Talbot condition and the spectrogram of the SUT is mapped to the time domain, so-called time-mapped spectrogram (TM-SP). Subsequently, a temporal magnification technique is implemented to stretch the time axis and compress the spectrum bandwidth, so that the effect of detection bandwidth on the frequency resolution is alleviated. Though the TM-SP cannot be acquired in a continuous way, the SUT is analyzed with ultrahigh frame rate in the temporal aperture. Additionally, a method to improve acquisition frame rate is proposed. The proposed bandwidth compressed TM-SP analysis is compared with the dispersion-based Fourier transform, and the related tradeoffs are provided in detail. The bandwidth compressed TM-SP analysis with a frequency resolution of 0.1 GHz, a measurable frequency range of 4.85 GHz, an analysis period of 0.1 ns, and an observation period of 4 ns is achieved by simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The active mode-locking technique of quantum cascade lasers is highly affected by the bias current level and the magnitude of the modulated signal because of the spatial hole burning effect. The laser generates a stable pulse train near the threshold current and for a high modulation magnitude. We show in this paper an improvement of these conditions with an integration of a single-layer graphene which works as a saturable absorber. The light-matter interaction in the laser active region is described by the two-level Maxwell-Bloch equations and in graphene layer by the Maxwell-Ampere equation and Maxwell-Bloch equations. These system equations are solved using the Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method which has the main advantage of not involving any approximation. The weakly coupled splitting scheme is adopted for the time discretization of Maxwell and Bloch equations. The graphene saturable absorption is modelled by a saturable conductivity in Maxwell-Ampere equation and with the dipole moment and carrier density in Maxwell-Bloch equations. For a QCL structure with a gain recovery time of 50 ps, simulation results show better stability of the mode-locking over a broad range of injection current and for smaller magnitude of the modulated signal. QCL structure with gain recovery time close to 1 ps reveals the generation of two pulses per roundtrip linked to spatial hole burning. The carrier grating strength can be reduced by changing the boundary conditions of the cavity such as with a high reflectivity mirror in front of graphene layer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the modern era of artificial intelligence, increasingly sophisticated artificial neural networks (ANNs) are implemented, which pose challenges in terms of execution speed and power consumption. To tackle this problem, recent research on reduced-precision ANNs opened the possibility to exploit analog hardware for neuromorphic acceleration. In this scenario, photonic-electronic engines are emerging as a short-medium term solution to exploit the high speed and inherent parallelism of optics for linear computations needed in ANN, while resorting to electronic circuitry for signal conditioning and memory storage. In this paper we introduce a precision-scalable integrated Photonic-Electronic Multiply-Accumulate Neuron (PEMAN). The proposed device relies on (i) an analog photonic engine to perform reduced-precision multiplications at high speed and low power, and (ii) an electronic front-end for accumulation and application of the nonlinear activation function by means of a nonlinear encoding in the analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The device has been numerically validated through cosimulations to perform multiply-accumulate operations (MAC). Simulations are based on the iSiPP50G SOI process for the photonic engine and a commercial 28 nm CMOS process for the electronic front-end. The PEMAN exhibits a multiplication accuracy of 6.1 ENOB up to 10 GMAC/s, while it can perform computations up to 56 GMAC/s with a reduced accuracy down to 2.1 ENOB. The device can trade off speed and power consumption with resolution, significantly outperforming its analog electronics counterparts both in terms of speed and energy consumption. With respect to other photonic ANNs, the PEMAN has comparable speed and energy consumption with a higher resolution, while outperforming them by a hundredfold in the fan-in, which opens the possibility to accelerate more complex networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, electro-optic integrated photonic elements have attracted considerable interest owing to their widespread application in optical communication and signal processing. The strong electro-optical properties and the complementary metal–oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology compatibility of silicon–organic hybrid structures makes them promising photonic platforms. This study investigated a novel implementation of a high-speed electrically tuned bandpass optical filter using finite-difference time-domain and eigenmode expansion numerical methods. The proposed device was based on a Fabry–Perot cavity and was realized via an electro-optic organic molecular glass filled slot waveguide with Bragg gratings. Furthermore, the calculation considered the plasma dispersion effect, free-carrier absorption in the silicon component of the slot waveguide for different applied voltages, and doping profiles corresponding to ion implantation. It is shown that the spatial distribution of charge carrier density formed by the surface states accumulation/depletion layers has a significant effect on the optical properties of the slot waveguide. Lithographic distortions in the geometry of the proposed structures during fabrication were also considered. Therefore, this paper presents an optical filter designed for fabrication using CMOS-compatible processes on silicon-on-insulator wafers. The filter produced a 3 nm tunable range for a 10 V bias voltage swing, a 0.3 nm full width at half maximum (FWHM) passband with a center at 1550 nm at zero bias voltage, and a 12.5 nm free spectral range with a 27 dB extinction ratio. The proposed device outperforms many narrow passband analogs in terms of sensitivity (tunability: 0.3 nm/V) and can be applied extensively in the fields of optical communications and photonic spectral signal processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the initial proposal in 1999 by Noda et al., photonic crystal surface emitting lasers (PCSELs) have shown to achieve large area, coherent lasing with a narrow, single mode beam. Owing to their unique orthogonal electrical/optical cavity scheme, PCSELs have emerged as one of the most promising platforms for high power diode lasers. In this paper, we report the performance trade-offs and challenges in power scaling, modal competition, and charge injection control. To address these challenges, we investigate the electrical and optical performances of PCSELs under high-power operation. Heterostructure designs with electron block layers were incorporated for efficient and balanced electrical charge injection. Symmetry breaking strategy was introduced in the photonic crystal design to engineer the in-plane momentum dependent quality factor (Q(k)) for mode discrimination and single mode operation. The impact of electrode designs was also investigated to achieve large area uniform charge injection. Simulation results of these designs indicate promising solutions and improved performances for large-area high-power and single-mode PCSEL operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) on indium phosphide have matured significantly over the past couple of decades and have found use in many system applications. Some PIC efforts on other group III-V substrates have also been initiated. In numerous cases, the usefulness of these PICs is because of the reduction in size, weight, and power they provide, but in many cases also because of the higher performance made possible by the improved relative phase stability among optical paths as well as the reduction of inter-element coupling losses. In this paper, as part of this special issue in tribute to Prof. Daniel Dapkus, we focus on monolithic PICs that provide a system function, especially those that incorporate and build on widely-tunable laser technology as a key element. Some of the early widely-tunable laser work is reviewed, and a selection of past system-on-a-chip developments is presented as background. Then, more recent system-on-a-chip advances performed by the author’s groups are reviewed in more detail. Key advances are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

III-V semiconductor lasers are ubiquitous in modern optoelectronic devices, with applications ranging from telecommunication to general lighting. Among the different kinds of laser cavity designs, whispering-gallery mode (WGM) micro-cavity lasers boast outstanding optical performance due to advantages such as ultra-high Q-factor, compact mode volume, and narrow emission linewidth. Over the past decades, research in III-V WGM micro-cavity lasers has progressed rapidly in various aspects, including the fabrication techniques, emission outcoupling methods, and practical applications. In this paper, a comprehensive review is performed on the advances in these aspects. Although III-V WGM lasers are conventionally fabricated with top-down approaches, recent reports have demonstrated the potential of highly-scalable bottom-up methods in fabricating low-loss WGM lasers. Despite the strong optical confinement in III-V WGM cavities, various techniques have been developed to either outcouple WGM emission into waveguides or direct it into free-space with small beam divergence. Finally, recent developments in different applications of III-V WGM micro-cavity lasers are discussed. Other than serving as integrated photonic components, III-V WGM lasers have also displayed exciting potential in other applications such as label-free sensing and the study of cavity quantum electrodynamics (cQED). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present an experimental study of the metrological stabilization of a solid-state frequency comb for embedded metrology applications. The comb is a passively mode-locked laser diode based on InGaAs/InP Quantum-dash structure emitting optical lines into a 9 nm bandwidth centered at $1.55~\mu \text{m}$ with a repetition rate of 10.09 GHz. The frequency stabilization is achieved by optical injection locking of the comb with an external cavity laser diode referenced onto a metrological frequency standard. One observes the transfer of the spectral purity from the injection laser to the neighbouring modes of the injected one as well as the transfer of stability to the adjacent modes. The measurement of the long term stability highlights a frequency noise with random walk behavior specific of the passive mode locking process. Demonstration of sidebands of the injection laser at the repetition frequency of the comb also makes it possible to propose a transfer mechanism and to consider a complete stabilization of the frequency comb at a metrological stability level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prospective authors are requested to submit new, unpublished manuscripts for inclusion in the upcoming event described in this call for papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prospective authors are requested to submit new, unpublished manuscripts for inclusion in the upcoming event described in this call for papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes the above-named upcoming special issue or section. May include topics to be covered or calls for papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we demonstrate the design, fabrication, and performance estimation of an integrated Bragg grating (IBG) filter having stressed Si3N4 periodic layer over silicon waveguide. The influence of stress-optic effect on the optical performance of the proposed IBG filter is experimentally verified. The proposed IBG filter is fabricated with the different number of grating periods and therefore offers different spectral properties. The proposed filters are designed for a set of target specifications; such as center wavelength, bandwidth, and extinction ratio. The optical performances including temperature sensitivity of the filters are numerically estimated in the absence and presence of stress and are compared with fabricated filter characteristics. The study reveals that the filter, which is designed using numerical simulation considering stress effect, shows the similar optical performance to the fabricated IBG filter. It is also found that the increase of the number of grating periods increases the extinction ratio with narrowing of spectral bandwidth. The IBG filter experimentally demonstrates maximum temperature sensitivity and extinction ratio of 90 pm/°C and 26 dB respectively. The proposed IBG filter offers compact footprint and improved characteristics in comparison to the previously reported filters and finds its potential application in sensing and optical communication. Therefore, the presented work highlights the potency of stress-optic effect in enhancing the capabilities of photonic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we numerically evaluate a hardware-based method for authentication using a pair of twin chaotic lasers. This method belongs to the PUF (Physically Unclonable Function) class; however, it does not require storing the response of the hardware in a database, because both users own the same hardware (one of the twin chaotic lasers), producing, on the fly, the same response, i.e., the same chaotic waveform, when subject to the same stimulus (injection from a third laser) in the same working conditions (local injection, pump current). A bit sequence can be easily obtained from the chaotic waveforms by electronic processing, and authentication consists in comparing the sequences produced by the twin lasers. This scheme is proposed above all for authentication of a client in an unsecure environment to a server in a secure environment, but it can be used also for peer-to-peer authentication. Both the case of open- and close-loop chaotic lasers are considered. Simulations are based on the Lang-Kobayashi model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of an acousto-optic modulator in an interferometer enables heterodyne detection and can alleviate technical issues such as laser intensity noise and photodetector flicker noise. However, it also introduces at least a 3 dB penalty to the shot-noise limited phase sensitivity when compared to that attainable through homodyne detection. In this paper, we show theoretically that this penalty can be lifted by implementing detection and demodulation schemes that exploit the cyclostationary nature of shot noise observed at the outputs of the self-heterodyne interferometer. We also discuss how expected departures from ideality, namely imperfect interferometric visibility, non-zero stationary noise, and finite detection bandwidth, affect the performance of these schemes and propose a simplified procedure relaxing the requirement for a rigorous instrument characterization. While two independent detectors are required to reach the true (classical-light) shot-noise limit for phase, single-detector instruments can also benefit from the introduced ideas to achieve up to 3 dB improvement in phase sensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inhomogeneous and random scattering in a static-scattering medium diffuses an incident light field into a complex speckle pattern. This phenomenon leads to uncontrolled and unpredictable changes in the spectrum as incident polychromatic light is scattered by the static-scattering medium. In this paper, we propose and demonstrate a novel technique for shaping the randomly scattered spectrum into a controlled mode. The proposed technique is demonstrated experimentally by examples of bandpass spectrum, stairs, right triangle, and Gaussian spectra. A theoretical model for simulating polychromatic light field passing through a scattering medium is also developed. Theoretical and experimental results are consistent. The findings of this paper may present exciting applications, such as compensation for fiber dispersion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supercontinuum generation has been extensively studied in optical waveguides pumped with femtosecond pulses, while there are few reports using picosecond pump pulses with a small spectral power variation. In this paper, we numerically demonstrate the supercontinuum generation in a dispersion-engineered silicon nitride waveguide pumped with 10-ps pulses at 1550 nm wavelength. A supercontinuum from 656 to 3867 nm (2.5 octaves) is enabled by uniquely tailored dispersion. The spectrum has a power variation of < 15 dB and shows a very flat pedestal varying by < 5 dB. The spectra generated from different dispersion profiles are compared and analyzed, which verifies the unique role of dispersion tailoring in flattened supercontinuum generation. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first study on such broad and flat supercontinuum generation on a chip using picosecond pump pulses, which would be highly desirable for many applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present theoretically an AM mode-locked laser that can generate various kinds of optical pulses. By employing a non-perturbative master equation in the frequency domain, we show that we can design an arbitrary output pulse waveform, $a(t)$ , output from a laser with a specific optical filter, $F_{A}(\omega)$ , characterized by a Fourier transformed spectral profile $A(\omega)$ of $a(t)$ , $A(\omega +\Omega _{m})$ , and $A(\omega -\Omega _{m})$. Here, $\Omega _{m}$ is the AM modulation frequency. Although the optical filter $F_{A}(\omega)$ generally has a complex frequency response, most $F_{A}(\omega)$ filters are characterized by real values as long as the mode-locked pulse waveform is symmetric in the time domain. However, $F_{A}(\omega)$ becomes spectrally complex when our aim is to generate an asymmetrically mode-locked waveform, for example a single-sided exponential pulse. The actual $F_{A}(\omega)$ can be designed by using, for example, a liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) optical filter, which can simultaneously control the amplitude and the phase of the input signal. A sech pulse (soliton) has already been generated based on the nonlinear Schrödinger equation by using Kerr nonlinearity in a fiber, but we show in this paper that the pulse can be generated very precisely even without nonlinearity. Since the present method enables us to generate triangular, double-sided exponential pulses as well as Gaussian, sech, parabolic, and even Nyquist pulses in the amplitude expression, we may be able to use AM mode-locked lasers as optical function generators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-speed time-gated Single Photon Avalanche Photodiode (SPAD) allows faster detector response times and low afterpulsing effect. Due to the intrinsic capacitance of the SPAD, a fraction of the gate signal is coupled to the readout node. This is unwanted signal and needs to be suppressed. This paper presents a technique to recover the tiny avalanche signal, compensating the high-speed gate feedthrough. The cancellation is carried out in the same way as in the destructive scheme. However, the interfering signal was generated by combining two similar but out-of-phase sinusoidal signals. The proposed scheme is performed using a Micro Photon Devices (MPD) InGaAS/InP SPAD and a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) circuit that has been implemented for this purpose. Tests and measurements were conducted when applying 59.4 V fixed DC supply and 5 $\text{V}_{pp}~1.72$ GHz sinusoidal gating signal. The detector was cooled to 223.15 K, corresponding to 60.4 V breakdown voltage. Applying attenuated laser pulses at 1550 nm, a quantum efficiency of 16% has been measured. The developed technique allowed to suppress the SPAD capacitive response up to 50 dB. In addition, the scheme has provided a better avalanche signal quality compared to a similar circuit employing a low-pass filter to suppress the gate frequency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper (PART I), we describe master equations and specific optical filters designed to generate a periodic Nyquist pulse train with an arbitrary roll-off factor α that can be emitted from a mode-locked Nyquist laser. In the first part, we derive a perturbative master equation for a Nyquist pulse laser with a “single” α ≠ 0 Nyquist pulse, where we obtain a new filter function F(ω) that determines filter shapes at both low and high frequency edges. A second-order differential equation that satisfies a periodic Nyquist pulse train with α \ne 0 is derived and utilized for the direct derivation of a single Nyquist pulse solution in the time domain for a mode-locked Nyquist laser. Then, by employing the concept of Nyquist potential, we describe the differences between the spectral profiles and filter shapes of a Nyquist pulse when α = 0 and α ≠ 0. In the latter part, we describe a non-perturbative master equation that provides the solution to a “periodic” Nyquist pulse train with an arbitrary roll-off factor. We show first that the spectral profile of an α ≠ 0 periodic Nyquist pulse train, which consists of periodic δ functions, has a different envelope shape from that of a single α ≠ 0 Nyquist pulse. This is because a periodic α \ne 0 pulse train consists of two independent periodic functions, which give rise to a different spectral envelope. Then, by Fourier transforming the master equation, we derive new filters consisting of F1(ω) at a low frequency edge and F2(ω) at a high frequency edge to allow us to generate arbitrary Nyquist pulses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper (PART II), we present output waveforms and the corresponding spectrum of a periodic Nyquist pulse train with a roll-off factor α emitted from a mode-locked Nyquist laser. In the first part, the relationship between the optical filter amplitudes Ha and Hb installed in a Nyquist laser cavity is derived by using the inverse Fourier transformation of filter F1 (ω) at a low frequency edge and F2 (ω) at a high frequency edge. We found that the relationship Hb = (4/3) Ha for α = 0 is changed into the relationship Hb = (1/cos(β Ωm/2)) Ha for α ≠ 0, where β = ζ /(2αωN), ωN is the zero-crossing frequency and Ωm is the modulation frequency. This relationship is important for describing the entire spectral profile of the optical filter installed in the laser cavity. In the latter part, we report how we succeeded in generating a Nyquist pulse train with an arbitrary α value by employing computer simulations with analytically derived optical filters consisting of F1 (ω) and F2 (ω), Ha, and Hb. We found that a Nyquist laser cannot always generate an isolated ideal Nyquist pulse train because there is interference between the wings of adjacent Nyquist pulses. We clarify the differences and similarities as regards filter shape and the corresponding waveform in the time domain of a single Nyquist pulse and a periodic Nyquist pulse train in terms of differences in power P, time-domain distribution τ, spectrum S, and filter shape F. We show that a pure Nyquist pulse train can be obtained with the condition α N > 10, where differences in P, S, and F are less than 1 %, and we present a useful chart showing how to generate a Nyquist pulse train in the GHz region. N is the number of modes in the low or high frequency region. We investigated the time domain orthogonality gm,n of the Nyquist pulse train from the laser and found that the orthogonality can be maintained although there is a small interference effect on the wing of the Nyquist pulse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the loss mechanisms in tunable vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). The strong increase of the threshold gain at the tuning range edges motivates the investigation of the degradation mechanisms presented in this paper. A campaign of simulations performed with our in-house VCSEL ELectroMagnetic (VELM) simulation code, combined with a novel approach based on the study of the Poynting vector, allowed to identify significant lateral radiation losses. The proposal of technology-affordable countermeasures rests on the proper understanding of these phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper numerically investigates the relative intensity noise of quantum dot lasers through a rate equation model taking into account both the spontaneous emission and carrier contributions. In particular, results show that the carrier noise originating from the ground and excited states significantly enhances the relative intensity noise of the laser, while that from the carrier reservoir does not. Simulations also point out that a large energy interval between the quantum confined levels is more suitable for low-intensity noise operation due to the reduced contribution from the carrier noise in the excited state. Finally, the carrier noise is found to have little impact on the frequency noise, thus being negligible for the investigation of the spectral linewidth. Overall, this paper is useful for designing low-noise quantum dot oscillators for high-speed communications, optical frequency combs, and radar applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Catastrophic failure of diode pumps in laser systems exhibiting back-irradiance is a common occurrence yet poorly understood. Prior paper has established boundaries for time-zero failures, but these results cannot be used to deduce safe back-irradiance levels for long-term reliable operation. In this paper, a framework to describe the impact of back-irradiance on the reliability of diode pumps is established. The root-cause of back-irradiance induced failure is identified as thermal in nature. The approach follows conventional reliability methodologies by treating the parameters of back-irradiance as stressors, which accelerate failures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comprehensive theoretical study of the optical and thermal properties of an electrically pumped semiconductor nanolaser (SNL) having an GaN/(InGaN/GaN MQWs)/GaN core shell structure. Numerical results show that the lasing whispering-gallery mode has a threshold gain of 413 cm $^{-1}$. Furthermore, it is shown that when it is operated well-above threshold, the device temperature increases by only 22 K above an ambient temperature of 300 K. These promising results are attributed to the strong mode confinement in the active region and the good thermal properties of the material system of the proposed structure. The results presented in this paper offer guidelines for fabrication of electrically pumped room temperature continuous wave SNL operating in the visible spectral region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plasmonic nanolasers are a new class of laser device where surface plasmons are amplified by the stimulated emission in a plasmonic nanocavity. In contrast to conventional lasers, the physical size and the mode volume of plasmonic nanolasers can shrink beyond the optical diffraction limit. The strongly confined optical field leads to high performance of plasmonic nanolasers including ultrafast modulation speed and ultralow power consumption, while on another hand introduces challenges in characterizing their basic lasing properties. In this paper, we systematically characterize the lasing properties of plasmonic nanolasers in spatial, momentum, and frequency spaces simultaneously via leakage radiation microscopy and demonstrate a method to identify the exact lasing modes in a multimode plasmonic nanolaser. This paper advances the understanding of lasing emission behavior in plasmonic nanolasers and paves the way for intentionally manipulating their emission for various applications of on-chip nanophotonic circuits, nonlinear nanophotonics, sensing, and imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides a notice of upcoming special issue(s) of interest to practitioners and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, a novel kind of one-dimensional (1-D) photonic crystals (PCs) using two-dimensional (2-D) hyperbolic material black phosphorus (BP) is proposed, to generate a huge lateral shift which is also known as Goos-Hänchen (GH) shift. The reflected features of such 1-D PCs are mainly ascribed to the thickness ratio of the layer of Au and BP, and the carrier density, due to the characteristics of the permittivities of BP layers and alternating Au-BP layers. In our simulation, the proposed PCs not only can create giant negative and positive GH shifts but also can generate a few adjustable changes under the influences of thickness ratio and carrier density. The simulated results show that the normalized negative one can reach about 253 times of the wavelength, the positive shift can be up to about 279 times. Such 1-D PCs using 2-D hyperbolic material might provide us a new theoretical possibility to produce giant GH shifts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-wavelength distributed feedback laser array (DFB-MLA) based tunable semiconductor lasers have been widely used owing to the high mode stability and simple wavelength tuning scheme. In this paper, we proposed and experimentally demonstrated a matrix-grating tunable DFB laser array. And the reconstruction-equivalent-chirp (REC) technique is utilized to simplify grating fabrication and realize precise control of the grating phase. Traditionally, the laser is tuned by thermal-electric cooler (TEC), with large power consumption, slow wavelength tuning capability, and added device. To improve the wavelength tuning speed of laser, we varied laser’s injection current instead of adjusting TEC’s temperature. In addition, we analyzed the thermal influence of submount on the laser and then chose the SiO2 as the submount material for its low thermal conductivity and poor heat dissipation, resulting in wide wavelength tuning range via injection current. The DFB-MLA chip achieves a better tunable effect as the lasers can be tuned at 3.5–3.7 nm per channel from 50 to 120 mA with stable output power of over 3 mw as contrasted with the laser on the AlN submount being tuned at 1.4–1.5 nm per channel. And the chip has a side-mode suppressing ratio (SMSR) of over 35 dB and strong stability of wavelength in the repeated experiments. The proposed method may give a new way to realize the wide tuning range tunable DFB laser with a simple wavelength tuning mechanism in the future, especially for the applications of uncooled low-cost tunable lasers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beating between the lasing main mode and the non-lasing side modes is one of the intensity noise sources of single longitudinal mode lasers. Its characteristics were investigated experimentally recent years. This paper presents a theoretical study of mode-beating noises in semiconductor lasers, and intends to explain the experimentally observed phenomena. The effects of coherent population oscillation (CPO) induced by mode beating on gain coefficient and on reflective index are analyzed based on Maxwell-Bloch equation and rate equations. The power ratio of the side mode over its conjugation mode generated by four wave mixing (FWM) is discussed; formulas of amplitude and frequency of mode beating intensity noise are given with relations to pump levels and mode orders. The obtained results are suitable for the edge emitting diode lasers and the external cavity lasers. The line shape of mode beating intensity noises is discussed based on CPO-induced phase noise, giving explanations of the experimentally observed phenomenon of multiple sub-peak spectra. The roles of intensity noise reduction by nonlinear optical absorber (NLA) inserted in the laser cavity are described. More factors related to the mode beating noise are discussed qualitatively, such as spectral hole burning of gain (SHB), the effect of external cavity, and higher order FWM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrically-pumped AlGaN-based edge-emitting laser diodes with a buried tunnel junction (TJ) for sub-300 nm emission are designed in this paper. Hole injection is one of the major concerns for the design of ultraviolet (UV) lasers based on this material system. The use of a low-resistive TJ as an intracavity contact within the devices will offer an opportunity to replace highly resistive p-type AlGaN-based cladding and contact layers by their n-doped counterparts. This advanced polarization-engineered interband TJs will lead to improved hole injection and a significantly reduced threshold voltage. The thermal properties of the tunnel-injected devices are thoroughly studied theoretically. For the demonstration of continuous-wave operating lasers, possible improvements in terms of better thermal management of the device are also discussed. Our improved design allows CW-operating AlGaN lasers with a threshold current density of <8 kA/cm2 and maximum optical output power of > 220 mW, yielding a wall-plug efficiency of > 2.8%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper theoretically investigates the optical noise characteristics of the simultaneous ground-state (GS) and excited-state (ES) lasing quantum dot lasers. The optical noise dynamics of both states are analysed through coupling the Langevin noise sources into a set of coupled rate equations. It is pointed out that the ES emission significantly changes the evolution scenario of the relative intensity noise, the frequency noise (spectral linewidth), and the linewidth broadening factor of the GS emission, as a function of the bias current. In the vicinity of the ES lasing threshold, the relative intensity noise and the frequency noise of the GS emission is lower than those of ES emission. However, the linewidth broadening factor of the GS emission is larger than the latter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Si optical phase shifters are key components for efficient phase modulation utilizing carrier modulation. Among many structures for carrier modulation in them, a semiconductor-insulator-semiconductor (SIS) capacitor can achieve high phase modulation efficiency because of its large carrier accumulation. However, due to the limitation caused by relatively small plasma dispersion in Si, its size and voltage for the $\pi $ phase shift are large to integrate into conventional CMOS technology. To enhance its phase modulation efficiency, material engineering of a SIS capacitor is indispensable. Although semiconductor engineering has been proved to realize efficient phase modulation, there are few reports on the insulator engineering of a SIS capacitor for efficient phase modulation. Therefore, we have introduced new functionalities for a SIS optical phase shifter using insulator engineering. In this paper, we have investigated the charge enhancement effect in a SIS capacitor with ferroelectric (FE) materials utilized by the negative capacitance (NC) effect. We will discuss the design of an NC SIS optical phase modulator to enhance this effect for a new efficient phase modulation scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantum key distribution (QKD) relies on the laws of physics to establish a symmetric binary key between remote parties. A QKD link involves the realization of a quantum channel for the transmission of quantum key material encoded in certain photon properties, as well as a public channel for verification of the exchanged key material. This paper deals with the mutual dependence of these channels and analyzes the impact of performance of both channels on the overall key material establishment process. This paper presents measurement data obtained under laboratory conditions as well as the results obtained by establishing a virtual QKD link. Despite the common beliefs that increased quantum bit error rate implies a larger amount of traffic on the public channel, our measurements prove the opposite. The obtained data clearly show that the public channel has a major impact on the overall performance of the QKD link. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A laser system producing controllable and stable pulses with high power and ultrashort duration at high repetition rate is a key component of a high energy laser–plasma accelerator (LPA). Precise characterization and control of laser properties are essential to understanding laser–plasma interactions required to build a 10-GeV class LPA. This paper discusses the diagnostics, control and performance parameters of a 1 Hz, 1 petawatt (PW) class laser at the Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator (BELLA) facility. The BELLA PW laser provided up to 46 J on target with a 1% level energy fluctuation and 1.3- \mu rad pointing stability. The spatial profile was measured and optimized by using a camera, wavefront sensor, and deformable mirror (ILAO system). The focus waist was measured to be r_{0} = 53~\mu \text{m} and the fraction of energy within the circular area defined by the first minimum of the diffraction pattern ( r=67~\mu \text{m}$ ) was 0.75. The temporal profile was controlled via the angle of incidence on a stretcher and a compressor, as well as an acousto-optic programmable dispersive. The temporal pulse shape was measured to be about 33 fs in full width at half maximum (WIZZLER and GRENOUILLE diagnostics). In order to accurately evaluate peak intensity, the energy-normalized peak fluence, and energy-normalized peak power were analyzed for the measured spatial and temporal mode profiles, and were found to be 15 kJ/(cm2 J) with 6% fluctuation (standard deviation) and 25 TW/J with 5% fluctuation for 46-J on-target energy, respectively. This yielded a peak power of 1.2 PW and a peak intensity of 17\times 10^{18} W/cm2 with 8% fluctuation. A method to model the pulse shape for arbitrary compressor grating distance with high accuracy was developed. The pulse contrast above the amplified spontaneous emission pedestal was measured by SEQUOIA and found to be better than 109. The first order spatiotemporal couplings (STCs) were measured with GRENOUILLE, and a simulation of the pulse’s evolution at the vicinity of the target was presented. A maximum pulse front tilt angle of less than 7 mrad was achieved. The reduction of the peak power caused by the first order STCs was estimated to be less than 1%. The capabilities described in this paper are essential for generation of high quality electron beams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) intensity of a distributed feedback laser diode (DFB-LD) amplified by a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is calculated, and the signal-to-spontaneous emission ratio (SSER) is investigated assuming a wavelength tunable laser. Based on a formulization appropriate for an active layer under a low excitation, the theoretical limit of the SSER of the SOA is obtained, and the SSER including the ASEs from both the DFB-LD and the SOA is numerically calculated. The side mode suppression ratio (SMSR) taking the spectral distribution into consideration is also calculated by expanding the same method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we experimentally demonstrate the impacts of laboratory vibrations and laser flicker noise on digital holography (DH). Specifically, we measure both the vibration efficiency and the coherence efficiency of our DH system at various focal-plane array integration times and path-length differences between the signal and reference. These efficiencies, in practice, contribute to the overall mixing efficiency, which is a measure for how well the detected signal and reference interfere. The results show that when the integration time is ≤1ms, the laboratory vibrations are negligible with a vibration efficiency of 100%; however, when the integration time equals 100 ms, the laboratory vibrations lead to a 94% vibration efficiency. In addition, the results show that the effective coherence length of the master-oscillator (MO) laser increases by 280% when the integration time decreases from 100ms to 100 $\mu \text{s}$. To account for this outcome, we present a model of the coherence efficiency based on the frequency noise of the MO laser. The model fit to the DH data then shows that the frequency of the MO laser is flicker-noise dominated. As a result, decreasing the integration time improves the overall mixing efficiency because of high-pass filtering in both the vibration efficiency and the coherence efficiency. Based on previous published efforts, these results have direct ties to the achievable signal-to-noise ratio of a DH system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A mid-wave infrared (MWIR) frequency comb is expected to dramatically improve the precision and sensitivity of molecular spectroscopy. For high resolution applications, a high speed MWIR photodetector is one of the key components, however, commercially available high speed MWIR photodetectors only have sub-GHz bandwidth currently. In this paper, we demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, a high speed mid-wave infrared (MWIR) uni-traveling carrier photodetector based on InAs/GaSb type-II superlattice (T2SL) at room temperature. The device exhibits a cutoff wavelength of $5.6~\mu \text{m}$ and a 3dB bandwidth of 6.58 GHz for a $20~\mu \text{m}$ diameter device at 300 K. These promising results show that the device has potential to be utilized in high speed applications such as frequency comb spectroscopy, free space communication and others. The limitations on the high frequency performance of the photodetectors are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we report a low-loss photonic integrated circuits (PICs) platform at blue wavelengths of the visible spectral regime. Silicon nitride (SiN) is a popular passive waveguide material due to its fabrication flexibility, CMOS compatibility and spectral transparency in this wavelength regime. For active devices including lasers, gallium nitride (GaN) and its alloys are considered. Several basic building blocks for the development of a complete integrated platform, including blue diode lasers, in-plane- and out-of-plane light couplers, as well as on-and off-chip coupling between these active and passive components are theoretically investigated. The proposed in-plane and out-of-plane architectures operate through edge- and vertical grating couplers (VGCs), respectively. With edge-coupling, large mode-mismatch between the GaN laser diode and SiN waveguide is alleviated through nanotapers on both the active and passive sections and the calculated peak coupling efficiency is achieved to be 74% at a wavelength of 450 nm. We also separately designed efficient VGCs for coupling light from standard, commercial, off-the-shelf fibers to the SiN chip, and edge couplers for fiber-chip coupling, exhibiting coupling efficiencies of 51% and 83%, respectively. For robust on-chip light-coupling between active and passive circuit elements, with relaxed alignment tolerances, two approaches, i.e., flip-chip based hybrid integration and evanescent coupling based heterogeneous integration are studied. Calculated maximum coupling efficiencies of 40% (−4 dB) are achieved for both the hybrid and heterogeneous schemes. The theoretical work performed is an initial step towards demonstrating complex blue PICs which could offer a comprehensive range of photonic functionalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measuring optical transmission matrix has enabled image detection through scattering media, however its retrieved resolution is severely limited by the number of measurements. In this paper, we introduce super resolution reconstruction into transmission matrix based imaging scheme, to some extent bypassed this limitation. We demonstrate all detailed information of high-resolution subpixel shifting target are preserved in its corresponding speckle signals. And through phase conjugate reconstruction one can get target's low-resolution projection images with accuracy. The final high-resolution image is achieved by subpixel registration and bilinear interpolation operations. The feasibility of the proposed method is theoretically analyzed and proved by laboratory experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to present a microwave photonic system that can measure the angle of arrival (AOA) of multiple microwave signals with improved measurement accuracy. It is based on a photonic mixer approach to down convert the incoming microwave signals into IF signals, which enables a low-frequency electrical spectrum analyser to be used for measuring the power of the IF signals to determine the incoming microwave signal AOAs. AOA measurement errors can be reduced by operating the optical modulator at a different transmission point for a different range of microwave signal AOA. The system also has the ability to remove the incoming microwave signal amplitude dependence in the AOA measurement. Measured results demonstrate 0°−81.5° AOA measurement with less than ±2° errors over the 0°−30° and 30°−81.5° AOA measurement range when the optical modulator is biased at the minimum and maximum transmission point respectively. The errors remain below ±2° even when there is a ±0.1 dB change in the output IF signal power. AOA measurement of two microwave signals is also demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies show disordered materials such as amorphous silicon (a-Si), in spite of their low mobility, can efficiently amplify photocurrent via carrier multiplication process. Detectors with a thin (~40nm) a-Si multiplication layer has demonstrated single photon sensitivity at high speed under room temperature. It is believed that the abundance of bandtail states that cause low mobility of the amorphous materials actually contribute to the detector’s superior performance because carrier impact ionization involving these states, which can be modeled by donor-acceptor pairs (DAPs), relax the k-selection rule of the many-body carrier multiplication process. Our paper presents a theoretical framework to calculate the carrier multiplication process in a-Si or other disordered materials involving DAPs. Our analysis also establishes the relations between detector characteristics and key parameters such as the density of band tail states, layer thickness, and applied electric field. DAP assisted carrier multiplication rate is computed first. Carrier multiplication coefficients for electrons and holes under given applied field are then calculated using a trial distribution function that satisfies both the continuity equation and the energy balance equation. Our analysis shows that thinner a-Si gives rise to higher multiplication efficiency than thicker a-Si because of its higher carrier kinetic energy when the layer thickness is shorter than the length of energy relaxation by phonon scattering. Using the calculated carrier multiplication coefficients, voltage dependent gain of the device is computed and the results agree well with the measured results of a-Si cycling excitation process (CEP) detectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lasers and especially semiconductor lasers (SCLs) are playing a major role in advanced technological and scientific tasks ranging from sensing, fundamental investigations in quantum optics and communications. The demand for ever-increasing accuracy and communication rates has driven these applications to employ phase modulation and coherent detection. The main laser attribute that comes into play is its coherence which is usually quantified by either the Schawlow-Townes (S-T) linewidth, the spectral width of the laser field, or the power spectral density (PSD) function of the laser frequency fluctuation. In this paper, we present a derivation of a general and direct relationship between these two coherence measures. We refer to the result as the Central Relation. The relation applies independently of the physical origin of the noise. Experiments are described which demonstrate the validity of the Central Relation and at the same time suggest new methods of controlling frequency noise at base band by optical filtering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a new carrier depletion-type hybrid III-V/Si optical phase shifter using a n-III-V/p-Si hetero-junction, which can be fabricated with direct epitaxial growth of III-V semiconductors on Si. We numerically analyzed the performance of the III-V/Si hybrid optical phase shifter by comparing the performance in reverse bias operation with that of pure Si or III-V p-n optical phase shifters. The hybrid III-V/Si optical phase shifter showed improved modulation efficiency and lower optical loss compared to pure Si and III-V p-n optical phase shifters, owing to the large electron-induced refractive index change of III-V compound semiconductors, while avoiding the large hole-induced optical loss of III-V compound semiconductor. The simulation study suggests the feasibility of a very low voltage-length product $(V_{ {\pi }} L)$ of $0.07~\text {V}\cdot \text {cm}$ , a low insertion loss ($\alpha $) of 16 dB/cm, and a very low $\alpha ~V_{ {\pi }}L$ product close to 1 $\text {V}\cdot \text {dB}$ at $1.31~\mu $ m, which is 10 $\times$ lower than for Si p-n optical phase shifters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides theoretical insight on how circular Schottky photodiodes in bulk CMOS can be optimized for certain integrated receiver applications. An optimal photodiode size is analytically demonstrated and the effects of a metal plate reflector are simulated using a transfer-matrix method, both for frontside and backside illumination. Finally, a distributed circuit model is presented, which deviates from the classical lumped model for large photodiodes or sheet resistances. The presented methodologies can also be extended to other types of photodetectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we explain how to use rate equations to describe a laser that includes integrated optical feedback. We find a relation between the threshold current, the voltage drop at the gain section, output power, linewidth, and side mode suppression ratio, and show experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]