We have carried out dual-comb spectroscopy and observed in a simultaneous acquisition a 140-THz-wide spectrum from 1.0 to 1.9 μm using two fiber-based frequency combs phase-locked to each other. This ultra-broad wavelength bandwidth is realized by setting the difference between the repetition rates of the two combs to 7.6 Hz using the sub-Hz-linewidth fiber combs. The recorded spectrum contains five vibration-rotation bands of C${_2}$H${_2}$, CH${_4}$, and H${_2}$O at different wavelengths across the whole spectrum. The determined transition frequencies of C${_2}$H${_2}$ agree with those from the previous sub-Doppler resolution measurement of individual lines using CW lasers within 2 MHz.
We experimentally demonstrate a broadband and an ultra-broadband spectral bandwidth polarization rotators. Both polarization rotators have modular design, that is, they are comprised of an array of half-wave plates rotated to a given angle. We show that the broadband and ultra-broadband performance of the polarization rotators is due to the adiabatic nature of the light polarization evolution. In this paper we experimentally investigate the performance of broadband and ultra-broadband polarization rotators comprising of ten multi-order half-wave plates or ten commercial achromatic half-wave pl…
We demonstrate, for the first time, a scheme that generates radially-polarized light using Goos-Hanchen shift of a cylindrically symmetric Total Internal Reflection. It allows ultra-broadband radial polarization conversion for wavelengths differing >1 micron.
Light absorption plays an important role in many research areas. Here, we propose and demonstrate a thin ultra-broadband strong light absorber consisting of periodic taper arrays on a gold substrate.
We propose ultra-broadband reflective and absorptive polarizers in the visible range using multi-scaled Ag nano wire-slit arrays. The nano arrays can be tuned from reflective to absorptive by incorporating Ag wires/strips with different lengths/widths. The ultra-broadband nature of the absorptive array, with averaged absorption as high as ~80%, is due to the collective excitations of plasmonic resonances in the Ag wires/strips with different length scales. The Ag nano wire-slit arrays are realized experimentally by using a simple two-times shadowing vapor deposition method. They exhibit broadb…
To enable the enhancement of few-cycle pulses in high-finesse passive optical resonators, a novel complementary-phase approach is considered for the resonator mirrors. The design challenges and first experimental results are presented.
We report on an environmentally stable, Yb-doped, all-normal dispersion, mode-locked fibre laser that is capable of creating broadband pulses with ultra-low repetition rates. Specifically, through careful positioning of fibre sections in an all-PM-fibre cavity mode-locked with a nonlinear amplifying loop mirror, we achieve stable pulse trains with repetition rates as low as 506 kHz. The pulses have several nanojules of energy and are compressible down to ultrashort (< 500 fs) durations.
High absorption in a wide frequency band has attracted considerable interest since their potential applications in frequency spectrum imaging systems and anti-radar cloaking. In this paper, a polarization-independent, ultra-broadband and omnidirectional terahertz absorber is proposed, fabricated and evaluated. It is experimentally demonstrated that an over 95% absorption can be obtained in the frequency range of 0.75~2.41 THz. Attributing to the multi-frequency destructive interference between the layers and the impedance-matching condition of the grating, five successive absorption peaks at 0…
We propose and design an ultra-compact and broadband tunable multimode interference (MMI) splitter in mid-infrared based on graphene plasmonic waveguides. The size of the device is only 0.56μm*1.2μm, which corresponds to device area of only about 0.014λ^2, where λ is the vacuum wavelength. And the center wavelength of the device can be tuned in a broad band from 7μm to 9μm with the Fermi level of graphene varied from 0.5eV to 1eV. Furthermore, the device is easy to be fabricated on chip.
Multimode interference couplers are a fundamental building block in many integrated photonic systems, ranging from high-speed coherent receivers to quantum splitters. However, their basic structure has remained fundamentally unchanged for almost four decades, limiting their size and operation bandwidth. Using sub-wavelength metamaterials, photonic devices with break-through size and performance have been recently reported. Leveraging the inherent anisotropy of these structures, here we derive a semi-analytic expression that enables the design of compact and ultra broadband multimode interferen…
The realization of geometric phase optical device operating over a broad spectral range is usually confronted with intrinsic limitations depending of the physical process at play. Here we propose to use chiral nematic liquid crystal slabs with helical ordering that varies in three dimensions. Namely, gradient-pitch cholesterics endowed with in-plane space-variant angular positioning of the supramolecular helix. By doing so, we show that the recently introduced Bragg-Berry mirrors [Opt. Lett. {\bf 41}, 3972-3975 (2016)] can be endowed with ultra-broadband spectral range. Experimental demonstrat…
We demonstrate an efficient scheme for the generation of broadband, high-energy, circularly polarized femtosecond laser pulses in the deep ultraviolet through seeded degenerate four-wave mixing in stretched gas-filled hollow capillary fibers. Pumping and seeding with circularly polarized 35 fs pulses centered at 400 nm and 800 nm, respectively, we generate idler pulses centered at 266 nm with more than 25 microjoule of energy and over 95% spectrally averaged ellipticity. Even higher idler energies and broad spectra (27 nm bandwidth) can be obtained at the cost of reduced ellipticity. Our syste…
We propose and experimentally demonstrate novel types of composite sequences of half-wave and quarter-wave polarization retarders, either permitting operation at ultra-broad spectral bandwidth or narrow bandwidth. The retarders are composed of stacked standard half-wave retarders and quarter-wave retarders of equal thickness. To our knowledge, these home-built devices outperform all commercially available compound retarders, made of several birefringent materials.
We present detailed studies of the coherence properties of an ultra-broadband super-continuum, enabled by a new approach involving continuous wave laser sources to independently probe both the amplitude and phase noise quadratures across the entire spectrum. The continuum coherently spans more than 1.5 octaves, supporting Hz-level comparison of ultrastable lasers at 698 nm and 1.54 μm. We present the first numerical simulation of the accumulated comb coherence in the limit of many pulses, in contrast to the single-pulse level, with systematic experimental verification. The experiment and numer…
Lensless imaging is an elegant approach to high-resolution microscopy, which is rapidly gaining popularity in applications where imaging optics are problematic. However, current lensless imaging methods require objects to be placed within a well-defined support structure, while the light source needs to have a narrow, stable, and accurately known spectrum. Here we introduce a general approach to lensless imaging without spectral bandwidth limitations or sample requirements. We use two time-delayed coherent light pulses, and show that scanning the pulse-to-pulse time delay allows the reconstruc…
The outstanding phase-noise performance of optical frequency combs has led to a revolution in optical synthesis and metrology, covering a myriad of applications, from molecular spectroscopy to laser ranging and optical communications. However, the ideal characteristics of an optical frequency comb are application dependent. In this review, the different techniques for the generation and processing of high-repetition-rate (>10 GHz) optical frequency combs with technologies compatible with optical communication equipment are covered. Particular emphasis is put on the benefits and prospects of th…
While the performance of mode-locked fiber lasers has been improved significantly, the limited gain bandwidth restricts them to generate ultrashort pulses approaching a few cycles or even shorter. Here we present a novel method to achieve few cycle pulses (~5 cycles) with ultra-broad spectrum (~400 nm). To our best knowledge, this is the shortest pulse width and broadest spectrum directly generated from fiber lasers. It is noteworthy that a dramatic ultrashort pulse evolution can be stabilized in a laser oscillator by the unique nonlinear processes of a self-similar evolution as a nonlinear at…
Anisotropic materials with different signs of components of the permittivity tensor are called indefinite materials. Known realizations of indefinite media suffer of high absorption losses. We show that periodic arrays of parallel carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can behave as a low-loss indefinite medium in the infrared range. We show that a finite-thickness slab of CNTs supports the propagation of backward waves with small attenuation in an ultra-broad frequency band. In prospective, CNT arrays can be used for subwavelength focusing and detection, enhancing the radiation efficiency of small sources.
We present an ultra broadband thin-film infrared absorber made of saw-toothed anisotropic metamaterial. Absorbtivity of higher than 95% at normal incidence is supported in a wide range of frequencies, where the full absorption width at half maximum is about 86%. Such property is retained well at a very wide range of incident angles too. Light of shorter wavelengths are harvested at upper parts of the sawteeth of smaller widths, while light of longer wavelengths are trapped at lower parts of larger tooth widths. This phenomenon is explained by the slowlight modes in anisotropic metamaterial wav…
In this Letter, we show theoretically that the nonlinear photoionisation process of a noble gas inside a hollow-core photonic crystal fibre can be exploited in obtaining broadband supercontinuum generation via pumping close to the mid-infrared regime. The interplay between the Kerr and photoionisation nonlinearities is strongly enhanced in this regime. Photoionisation continuously modifies the medium dispersion, in which the refractive index starts to significantly decrease and approach the epsilon-near-zero regime. Subsequently, the self-phase modulation induced by the Kerr effect is boosted …
Impedance mismatch between free space and absorptive materials is a fundamental issue plaguing the pursue of high-efficiency light absorption. In this work, we design and numerically demonstrate a type of non-resonant impedance-matched optical metasurfaces exhibiting ultra-broadband reflectionless absorption based on anomalous Brewster effect, which are donated as optical Brewster metasurfaces here. Interestingly, such Brewster metasurfaces exhibit a unique type of extreme angular-asymmetry: a transition between perfect transparency and perfect absorption appears when the sign of the incident …
In this article, a few-layered graphene-dielectric multilayer (metamaterial) electro-optic modulator has been proposed in the mid and far infrared range that works on electro-absorption mechanism. Graphene, both mono layer and few layer, is an actively tunable optical material that allows control of inter-band and intra-band transition by tuning its chemical potential. Utilizing this unique feature of graphene, we propose a multilayer graphene dielectric stack where few layer graphene is preferred over mono layer graphene. Although the total thickness of the stack still remains in the nanomete…
Black phosphorus (BP), a relative new plasmonic two-dimensional (2D) material, offers unique photonic and electronic properties. In this work, we propose a new tunable and broadband ultrathin coherent perfect absorber (CPA) device operating in the terahertz (THz) frequency range. It is based on a bifacial metasurface made of BP patch periodic arrays separated by a thin dielectric layer. Broadband CPA bandwidth is realized due to the ultrathin thickness of the proposed device and the extraordinary properties of BP. In addition, a substantial modulation between CPA and complete transparency is a…
Quasi-crystals are intriguing as they exhibit rotational symmetry and long range ordering but lack translational symmetry. 2-dimensional metal-dielectric patterns are interesting to make use of surface plasmon polariton (SPP) mediated local field enhancement and for near dispersionless SPP modes. In plasmonic crystals, the orientation and periodicity of the pattern dictate the polarization response and the discrete plasmon resonances while the interfaces define the plasmon dispersion. However, unique properties of plasmonic quasicrystals lead to polarization independence, designable k-space an…
Silica-based anchored-membrane waveguides (T-Guides) are fabricated and characterized from the visible to infrared with streak imaging. It is numerically shown that the T-Guides can have wideband single-mode and single-polarization (SMSP) properties over a span of 2.6 octaves. Experimentally, a polarization-dependent loss difference of up to 90 dB/cm is measured between orthogonal polarizations, and a record SMSP window of >1.27 octaves is observed, limited only by the available measurement equipment. These measurements make a strong case for T-Guides for SMSP photonics, particularly on high-i…
We report on a heterogeneous active region design for terahertz quantum cascade laser based frequency combs. Dynamic range, spectral bandwidth as well as output power have been significantly improved with respect to previous designs. When operating individually the lasers act as a frequency comb up to a spectral bandwidth of 1.1 THz, while in a dispersed regime a bandwidth up to 1.94 THz at a center frequency of 3 THz can be reached. A self-detected dual-comb setup has been used to verify the frequency comb nature of the lasers.
Localized cavity resonances due to nanostructures at material surfaces can greatly enhance radiative heat transfer (RHT) between two closely placed bodies owing to stretching of cavity states in momentum space beyond light line. Based on such understanding, we numerically demonstrate the possibility of ultra-broadband super-Planckian RHT between two plates patterned with trapezoidal-shaped hyperbolic metamaterial (HMM) arrays. The phenomenon is rooted not only in HMM's high effective index for creating sub-wavelength resonators, but also its extremely anisotropic isofrequency contour. The two …
Tapered and dispersion managed (DM) silicon nanophotonic waveguides are investigated for the generation of optimal ultra broadband supercontinuum (SC). DM waveguides are structures showing a longitudinally dependent group velocity dispersion that results from the variation of the waveguide width with the propagation distance. For the generation of optimal SC, a genetic algorithm has been used to find the best dispersion map. This allows for the generation of highly coherent supercontinuums that span over 1.14 octaves from 1300 nm to 2860 nm and 1.25 octaves from 1200 nm to 2870 nm at -20 dB le…
We computationally study a subwavelength dielectric grating structure, show that slab waveguide modes can be used to obtain broadband high reflectivity, and analyze how slab waveguide modes influence reflection. A structure showing interference between Fabry-Perot modes, slab waveguide modes, and waveguide array modes is designed with ultra-broadband high reflectivity. Owing to the coupling of guided modes, the region with reflectivity R > 0.99 has an ultra-high bandwidth ( Δf/f > 30%). The incident-angle region with R > 0.99 extends over a range greater than 40°. Moreover, an asymmetric waveg…
On-chip twisted light emitters are essential components for orbital angular momentum (OAM) communication devices, which could address the growing demand for high-capacity communication systems by providing an additional degree of freedom for wavelength/frequency division multiplexing (WDM/FDM). Although whispering gallery mode enabled OAM emitters have been shown to possess some advantages, such as being compact and phase accurate, their inherent narrow bandwidth prevents them from being compatible with WDM/FDM techniques. Here, we demonstrate an ultra-broadband multiplexed OAM emitter that ut…
Broadband mid-infrared (MIR) molecular spectroscopy demands a bright and broadband light source in the molecular fingerprint region. To this end, intra-pulse difference frequency generation (IDFG) has shown excellent properties among various techniques. However, previous IDFG systems have mainly used unconventional long-wavelength 2-$μ$m ultrashort pulsed lasers. A few systems have been demonstrated with 1-$μ$m lasers, but they use bulky 100-W-class high-power Yb thin-disk lasers. In this work, we demonstrate a simple and robust approach of 1-$μ$m-pumped broadband IDFG with a conventional mode…
Thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) is an emerging platform for compact, low-power nonlinear-optical devices, and has been used extensively for near-infrared frequency conversion. Recent work has extended these devices to mid-infrared wavelengths, where broadly tunable sources may be used for chemical sensing. To this end, we demonstrate efficient and broadband difference frequency generation between a fixed 1-micron pump and a tunable telecom source in uniformly-poled TFLN-on-sapphire by harnessing the dispersion-engineering available in tightly-confining waveguides. We show a simultaneous 1-2 o…
Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH)（浦项科技大学）
By learning the optimal policy with a double deep Q-learning network, we design ultra-broadband, biomimetic, perfect absorbers with various materials, based the structure of a moths eye. All absorbers achieve over 90% average absorption from 400 to 1,600 nm. By training a DDQN with motheye structures made up of chromium, we transfer the learned knowledge to other, similar materials to quickly and efficiently find the optimal parameters from the around 1 billion possible options. The knowledge learned from previous optimisations helps the network to find the best solution for a new material in …
Ultra-broadband imaging devices with high performance are in great demand for a variety of technological applications, including imaging, remote sensing, and communications. An ultra-broadband up-converter is realized based on a p-GaAs homojunction interfacial workfunction internal photoemission (HIWIP) detector-light emitting diode (LED) device. The device demonstrates an ultra-broad response ranging from visible to terahertz (THz) with good reproducibility. The peak responsivity in the mid-infrared (MIR) region is 140 mA/W at 10.5 microns. The HIWIP-LED shows enormous potential for ultra-bro…
A microwave ultra-broadband polarization-independent metamaterial absorber is demonstrated. It is composed of a periodic array of metal-dielectric multilayered quadrangular frustum pyramids. These pyramids possess resonant absorption modes at multi-frequencies, of which the overlapping leads to the total absorption of the incident wave over an ultra-wide spectral band. The experimental absorption at normal incidence is above 90% in the frequency range of 7.8-14.7GHz, and the absorption is kept large when the incident angle is smaller than 60 degrees. The experimental results agree well with th…
We designed and developed tapered suspended-core fibers of high-purity As39Se61 glass for supercontinuum generation in the mid-IR with a standard fiber laser pump source at 2 $μ$m. It was shown that microstructuring allows shifting a zero dispersion wavelength to the range shorter than 2 $μ$m in the fiber waist with a core diameter of about 1 $μ$m. In this case, supercontinuum generation in the 1-10 $μ$m range was obtained numerically with 150-fs 100-pJ pump pulses at 2 $μ$m. We also performed experiments on wavelength conversion of ultrashort optical pulses at 1.57 $μ$m from Er: fiber laser s…
In this work we present the experimental observation of the non factorable near field spatio-temporal correlation of ultra-broadband twin beams generated by parametric down conversion (PDC), in an interferometric-type experiment using sum frequency generation, where both the temporal and spatial degrees of freedom of PDC light are controlled with very high resolution. The revealed X-structure of the correlation is in accordance with the predictions of the theory.
We report generation of an ultrafast supercontinuum extending into the mid- infrared in gas-filled single-ring hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (SR-PCF) pumped by 1.7 $μ$m light from an optical parametric amplifier. The simple fiber structure offers shallow dispersion and flat transmission in the near and mid-infrared, enabling the generation of broadband spectra extending from 300 nm to 3.1 $μ$m, with a total energy of a few $μ$J. In addition, we report the emission of ultraviolet dispersive waves whose frequency can be tuned simply by adjusting the pump wavelength. SR-PCF also provides an …
We have designed and experimentally realized an ultra-broadband acoustic metasurface (UBAM) capable of going beyond the intrinsic limitation of bandwidth in existing designs of optical/acoustical metasurfaces. Both the numerical and experimental results demonstrate that the UBAM made of subwavelength gratings can manipulate the reflected phase-front within a bandwidth larger than 2 octaves. A simple physical model based on the phased array theory is developed for interpreting this extraordinary phenomenon as well as obtaining deeper insight to the underlying physics of our design. We anticipat…
We observe at record-high speed the nonclassical nature of ultra-broadband bi-photons, reducing the measurement time by four orders of magnitude compared to standard techniques of Hong-Ou-Mandel interference or sum-frequency generation. We measure the quantum state of the broadband bi-photons, amplitude and phase, with a pairwise "Mach-Zehnder" quantum interferometer, where bi-photons that are generated in one nonlinear crystal are enhanced (constructive interference) or diminished (destructive interference) in another crystal, depending on the bi-photon phase. We verify the quantum nature of …
We theoretically demonstrate a fiber-integrated single photon source of unprecedented efficiency. This fiber single photon source is achieved by coupling optically a single quantum emitter to a monomode optical fiber with a new concept of ultra-broadband optical antenna. Such an optical antenna concept is the result of the transposition to optical frequencies of the well-known low-frequency horn antenna The optical horn antenna is here shown to be capable of directing the radiation from the emitter toward the optical fiber and efficiently phase-matching the photon emission with the fiber mode.…
Fabrication, characterization, and analysis of an ultra-broadband lithography-free absorber is presented. An over 94% average absorption is experimentally achieved in the wavelength range of 450-1400 nm. This ultra-broadband absorption is obtained by a simple annealed tri-layer metal-insulator-metal (MIM) configuration. The metal used in the structure is Manganese (Mn), which also makes the structure cost-effective. It is shown that the structure retains its high absorption for TM polarization, up to 70 degrees, and, for TE polarization, up to 50 degrees. Moreover, the physical mechanism behin…
Broadband ultrafast optical spectroscopy methods, such as transient absorption spectroscopy and 2D spectroscopy, are widely used to study molecular dynamics. However, these techniques are typically restricted to optically thick samples, such as solids and liquid solutions. In this article we discuss a cavity-enhanced ultrafast transient absorption spectrometer covering almost the entire visible range with a detection limit of $Δ$OD $ < 1 \times 10^{-9}$, extending broadband all-optical ultrafast spectroscopy techniques to dilute beams of gas-phase molecules and clusters. We describe the techni…
Broad bandwidth and stable microresonator frequency combs are critical for accurate and precise optical frequency measurements in a compact and deployable format. Typically, broad bandwidths (e.g., octave spans) are achieved by tailoring the microresonator's geometric dispersion. However, geometric dispersion engineering alone may be insufficient for sustaining bandwidths well beyond an octave. Here, we introduce the novel concept of synthetic dispersion, in which a second pump laser effectively alters the dispersion landscape to create Kerr soliton microcombs that extend far beyond the anomal…
In order to design broadband extreme ultraviolet multilayers with many objectives, the multiobjective genetic algorithm and the multiobjective genetics algorithm with reference direction have been improved and combined used. The certain conflicting relations between three primary design objectives have been obtained by analyzing the distribution of nondominated solutions, and the multilayer designs with critical average reflectivities have been found. Basing on the multiobjective genetics algorithm with reference direction, the exact multilayer design has been obtained by guiding the searching…
Multi-species breath biomarker profiling with an ultra-broadband (2.9-11.5 μm) spectroscopic platform
Trace Detection Laboratory, Department of Spectroscopy and Catalysis, Institute for Molecules and Materials, Radboud University（鲁汶大学分子与材料研究所光谱与催化系痕量检测实验室）；Faculty of Science and Engineering, Maastricht University（马斯特里赫特大学科学与工程学部）
We propose herein a method of material-structure integrated design for broadband absorption of dielectric metamaterial, which is achieved by combination of genetic algorithm and simulation platform. A multi-layered metamaterial absorber with an ultra-broadband absorption from 5.3 to 18 GHz (a relative bandwidth of as high as 109%) is realized numerically and experimentally. In addition, simulated results demonstrate the proposed metamaterial exhibits good incident angle and polarization tolerance, which also are significant criteria for practical applications. By investigating the working prin…
