A new mechanism for the THz light amplification is identified ina non-resonant Raman scattering between the THz light and a visible light lasers. The non-resonant scattering normally does not exchange the energy between E \&M fields, but the presence of the plasma density gradientcreates an condition in which a visible light laser could transfer its energy into a tera-hertz (THz) light via the laser-plasma interaction. The gain per length could reach 100 (1000) per centimeter for the THz light (far infra-red light) amplification.
A THz light amplifier and the corresponding methods are proposed, based on the Raman interaction between a THz light and visible light lasers. Two lasers, with their frequencies differing by that of a Langmuir wave, counter-propagate inside a background plasma, exciting a rather strong Langmuir wave. The THz light amplification occurs through the non-resonant Raman scattering between the THz light and one of the lasers in the presence of the mentioned Langmuir wave. It is normally the case that the non-resonant scattering does not exchange the energy between E \&M fields but the author demonst…
The metamaterial is proposed which supports a mixture of three or more normal and backward electromagnetic modes with equal co-directed phase velocities and mutually contra-directed energy fluxes. This enables extraordinary three-wave mixing, greatly enhanced optical parametric amplification and frequency-changing generation of entangled photons in the reflection direction. Proof-of-principle numerical simulation of such processes is presented based on the particular example of the wave-guided THz waves contra-propagating in the metamaterial made of carbon nanotubes.
We report optical parametric amplification (OPA) of low-frequency infrared pulses in the intermediate region between terahertz (THz) frequency and mid-infrared (MIR), i.e., from 16.9 to 44.8 THz. The 255-fs laser output of the Yb:KGW regenerative amplifier is compressed to 11-fs pulses using a multi-plate broadening scheme, which generates THz-to-MIR pulses with a spectrum extending to approximately 50 THz by intra-p1ulse differential frequency generation (DFG) in GaSe. The THz-to-MIR pulses are further amplified using a two-stage OPA in GaSe. The temporal dynamics and photocarrier effects dur…
The efficient amplification and lasing of electromagnetic radiation at terahertz (THz) frequencies is a non-trivial task achieved mainly by quantum cascade laser configurations with limited tunability and narrowband functionality. There is a strong need of compact and efficient THz electromagnetic sources with reconfigurable operation in a broad frequency range. Photoexcited graphene can act as the gain medium to produce coherent radiation at low THz frequencies but its response is very weak due to its ultrathin thickness. In this work, we demonstrate an alternative design to achieve efficient…
Optical injection locking is implemented to faithfully transfer the phase noise of a dissipative Kerr microresonator soliton comb in addition to the amplification of the Kerr comb. Unlike Er-doped fiber and semiconductor optical amplifiers, the optical injection locking amplifies the comb mode without degrading the optical signal-to-noise ratio. In addition, we show that the residual phase noise of the optical injection locking is sufficiently small to transfer the relative phase noise of comb modes (equivalent to the repetition frequency) of low phase noise Kerr combs, concluding that the opt…
Optical parametric oscillation (OPO) in a microresonator is promising as an efficient and scalable approach to on-chip coherent visible light generation. However, so far only red light at < 420 THz (near the edge of the visible band) has been reported. In this work, we demonstrate on-chip OPO covering > 130 THz of the visible spectrum, including red, orange, yellow, and green wavelengths. In particular, using a pump laser that is scanned 5 THz in the near-infrared from 386 THz to 391 THz, the signal is tuned from the near-infrared at 395 THz to the visible at 528 THz, while the idler is tuned …
A highly efficient, practical approach to high-energy terahertz (THz) generation based on spectrally cascaded optical parametric amplification (THz-COPA) is introduced. The THz wave initially generated by difference frequency generation between a strong narrowband optical pump and optical seed (0.1-10% of pump energy) kick-starts a repeated or cascaded energy down-conversion of pump photons. This helps to greatly surpass the quantum-defect efficiency and results in exponential growth of THz energy over crystal length. In cryogenically cooled periodically poled lithium niobate, energy conversio…
Beginning with a continuous wave laser at 1064 nm, we generate a 30 GHz electro-optic frequency comb which contains 100 lines spanning 3 THz. The initial comb is subsequently amplified, spectrally broadened in normal dispersion photonic crystal fiber, and then temporally compressed to provide 74 fs pulses with average power of up to 2.6 W. When launched into a second photonic crystal fiber with anomalous dispersion, a supercontinuum spanning 800-1350 nm is generated. Second harmonic generation allows for extension of the 30 GHz comb into the visible, yielding greater than 300 THz of total spec…
Amplified bursts of laser pulses are sought for various machining, deposition, spectroscopic and strong-field applications. Standard frequency- and time-domain techniques for pulse division become inadequate when intraburst repetition rates reach the terahertz (THz) range as a consequence of inaccessible spectral resolution, requirement for interferometric stability, and collapse of the chirped pulse amplification (CPA) concept due to the loss of usable bandwidth needed for safe temporal stretching. Avoiding the burst amplification challenge and resorting to a lossy post-division of an isolate…
A THz laser generation utilizing a helical relativistic electron beam propagating through a strong magnetic field is discussed. The initial amplification rate in this scheme is much stronger than that in the conventional free electron laser. A magnetic field of the order of Tesla can yield a radiation in the range of 0.5 to 3 THz, corresponding to the total energy of mJ and the duration of tens of pico-second, or the temporal power of the order of GW.
A new type of the THz laser is proposed. A coherent tera-hertz light is emitted through the backward Raman scattering between a visible light laser and a relativistic electron beam. The threshold conditions for the laser intensity and the electron beam density are identified. The scheme may lead to one of the most intense tera-hertz coherent light sources.
A new scheme of the THz light source is proposed. The excitation of the Langmuir wave in a moderately relativistic electron beam via the two-stream instability and the subsequent interaction of the excited Langmuir wave with the visible light laser results in THz ligh via the Raman scattering. The cost of the current scheme could be cheaper than the conventional technologies by using the electron beam from cathodes and low-intensity infra-red laser.
Visible dual-comb spectroscopy across more than 100 THz with lithium niobate nanophotonic waveguides
University of Colorado Boulder（科罗拉多大学博尔德分校）；National Institute of Standards and Technology（美国国家标准与技术研究院）；Université Laval（拉瓦尔大学）；California Institute of Technology（加州理工学院）
It is evidenced by numerical calculations that optically pumped graphene is suitable for compensating inherent loss in terahertz (THz) metamaterials. In a first step, the complex conductivity of graphene under optical pumping is calculated and the proper conditions for terahertz amplification in single layer graphene are determined. It is shown that amplification in graphene occurs for temperatures up to room temperature and for moderate pump intensities when pumped at a telecommunication wavelength $λ=1.5~\mathrm{μm}$. Furthermore, the amplification properties of graphene are evaluated and di…
In this paper, we design and simulate a terahertz (THz) controllable active plasmonic waveguide structure based on a single graphene layer that is placed on a random silicon grating substrate. Optical gain in the proposed THz active plasmonic waveguide structure is provided by the stimulated emission process in the photoexcited graphene monolayer that leads to the amplification of surface plasmon polariton (SPP) waves. We use a random grating substrate to introduce Anderson localization of the SPP waves propagating through the graphene monolayer to enhance their optical amplification at resona…
Optical amplification of the input wave by mixing the pump wave within a nonlinear interaction medium offers high gain for a variety of applications. In real life studies, the interaction mediums which allow the optical amplification of the input wave have many resonance frequencies. However, the computational expense for tuning the pump frequency to yield the optical amplification of the input wave increases with the number of resonance frequencies within the interaction mediums. Here, we present a Fletcher-Reeves based algorithm for parametric amplification in micro-resonators having multipl…
Controlling light polarization is one of the most essential routines in modern optical technology. Since the demonstration of optical pulse shaping by spatial light modulators and its potential in controlling the quantum reaction pathways, it paved the way for many applications as a coherent control of the photoionization process or as polarization shaping of terahertz (THz) pulses. Here, we evidenced efficient nonresonant and noncollinear $χ^{(2)}$-type light-matter interaction in femtosecond polarization-sensitive time-resolved optical measurements. Such nonlinear optical interaction of visi…
On-chip electrically reconfigurable octave-bandwidth optical amplification from visible to near-infrared
Photonics Initiative, Advanced Science Research Center, City University of New York（纽约市立大学高级科学研究中心光子学倡议）；Physics Program, Graduate Center, City University of New York（纽约市立大学研究生院物理学项目）；Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Michigan（密歇根大学电气与计算机工程系）；Department of Physics, City College of New York（纽约市立学院物理系）
A new x-ray amplification mechanism is considered in an interaction between a x-ray and an intense visible-light laser in a plasma. In normal circumstances, the x-ray amplification from this type of the physical processes is implausible because its phase, which is the \textbf{non-resonant} perturbation, is not suitable for transferring the energy from the visible light laser to the x-ray. As proposed in this paper, this undesirable phase can be manipulated into the desirable one. Two situations are considered. The first case is in the presence of the strong plasma density gradient. A lasting a…
We report near infrared optical amplification in gold diffused silicon-on-insulator waveguides by visible optical pumping. More then 30dB/cm gain was measured for a light carrier at a wavelength of 1.55 microns
We present a high-power source of broadband terahertz radiation covering the whole THz spectral region (0.1-30 THz). The two-color gas plasma generation process is driven by a state-of-the-art Ytterbium fiber chirped pulse amplification system based on coherent combination of 16 rod-type amplifiers. Prior to the THz generation, the pulses are spectrally broadened in a multi-pass-cell and compressed to 37 fs with a pulse-energy of 1.3 mJ at a repetition rate of 500 kHz. A gas-jet scheme has been employed for the THz generation, increasing the efficiency of the process to 0.1%. The air-biased-co…
Integrated ytterbium gain for visible-near-infrared photonics
John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University（哈佛大学生物工程与应用科学学院）；Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology（麻省理工学院电气与计算机科学系）；Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder（科罗拉多大学博尔德分校电气、计算机和能源工程系）；Chi3 Optics LLC（Chi3光学有限责任公司）；Octave Photonics（Octave光子学公司）；Time and Frequency Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology（美国国家标准与技术研究院时间与频率司）；Department of Physics, University of Colorado Boulder（科罗拉多大学博尔德分校物理系）
It is now well established that, due to excitation of localized surface plasmon resonances in plasmonic nanosystems, the electric field from an external irradiation source is greatly amplified in their vicinity. Surface plasmon mediated electric field amplification near plasmonic nanosystems is of vital importance for; light absorption enhancement of solar cells, molecular detection using surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy, proximity measurement of biological macromolecules such as proteins, lipids and nucleic acids using plasmon enhanced FRET, cancer therapy using photothermal effects, just …
Short mode-locked pulses from planarized Y-coupled THz lasers
Quantum Optoelectronics Group, Institute of Quantum Electronics, ETH Zürich（苏黎世联邦理工学院量子电子学研究所）；John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University（哈佛大学约翰·保尔森工程与应用科学学院）；Institute of Physics and Center for Quantum Science and Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne（洛桑联邦理工学院物理系与量子科学与工程中心）；Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie, CNR（意大利国家研究委员会光子学与纳米技术研究所）
Center for Free-Electron Laser Science CFEL, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY（自由电子激光科学中心，德国电子同步辐射研究所）；University of Hamburg（汉堡大学）；Antalya Bilim University（安塔利亚科学大学）
Using a high-Q diamond microresonator (Q > 300,000) interfaced with high-power-handling directly-written doped-glass waveguides, we demonstrate a Raman laser in an integrated platform pumped in the near-visible. Both TM-to-TE and TE-to-TE lasing is observed, with a Raman lasing threshold as low as 20 mW and Stokes power of over 1 mW at 120 mW pump power. Stokes emission is tuned over a 150 nm (60 THz) bandwidth around 875 nm wavelength, corresponding to 17.5% of the center frequency.
Oblique Bragg-Doppler scattering at relativistic grating created by backward Raman amplification in hydrogen
Russell Centre for Advanced Lightwave Science, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics and Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)（中国科学院上海光学精密机械研究所杭州分院）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）；Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Microstructured Specialty Optical Fiber, Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics（浙江省微结构特种光纤重点实验室，中国科学院上海光学精密机械研究所杭州分院）
The plasmonic amplification of non-linear vibrational sum frequency spectroscopy (SFG) at the surfaces of gold nanoparticles is systematically investigated by tuning the incident visible wavelength. The SFG spectra of dodecanethiol-coated gold nanoparticles chemically deposited on silicon are recorded for twenty visible wavelengths. The vibrational intensities of thiol methyl stretches extracted from the experimental measurements vary with the visible color of the SFG process and show amplification by coupling to plasmonics. Since the enhancement is maximal in the orange-red region rather than…
Absorption induced transparency is an optical phenomenon that occurs in metallic arrays of nanoholes when materials featuring narrow lines in their absorption spectra are deposited on top of it. First reported in the visible range, using dye lasers as cover materials, it has been described as transmission peaks unexpectedly close to the absorption energies of the dye laser. In this work, amplification of light is demonstrated in the active regime of absorption induced transparency. Amplification of stimulated emission can be achieved when the dye laser behaves as a gain material. Intense illum…
Ultraviolet frequency combs enable applications ranging from precision spectroscopy to atomic clocks by addressing the electronic transitions of atoms and molecules. Access to ultraviolet light via integrated nonlinear optics is usually hampered by the strong material dispersion and large waveguide attention in the ultraviolet region. Here we demonstrate a simple route to chip-scale ultraviolet comb generators, simultaneously showing a gap-free frequency span of ~128 terahertz and supercontinuum sourced by an ultrafast fiber laser. The simultaneous cubic and quadratic nonlinear processes are i…
A novel phase retrieval algorithm for broadband hyperspectral phase imaging from noisy intensity observations is proposed. It utilizes advantages of the Fourier Transform spectroscopy in the self-referencing optical setup and provides, additionally beyond spectral intensity distribution, reconstruction of the investigated object's phase. The noise amplification Fellgett's disadvantage is relaxed by the application of sparse wavefront noise filtering embedded in the proposed algorithm. The algorithm reliability is proved by simulation tests and results of physical experiments on transparent obj…
Terahertz imaging system with on-chip superconducting Josephson plasma emitters for nondestructive testing
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)（产业技术综合研究所）；James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow（格拉斯哥大学詹姆斯·瓦特工程学院）；Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, University of Tsukuba（筑波大学理工学群）
We report the first demonstration to our knowledge of a continuously tunable picosecond laser operating around 1 MHz. The emission can be tuned from 640 to 685 nm and the repetition rate from 200 kHz to 1 MHz with a pulse duration of less than 200 ps. The system is based on a Nd:YVO4 passively Q-switched microchip laser providing a few tens of nJ per pulse. Two cascaded stages of amplification are then used to increase the pulse energy to several microJ . The frequency doubled radiation is then used to pump a periodically-poled-niobate-lithium (PPLN)-based optical parametric generator in an al…
Optical parametric amplification of spatiotemporal optical vortices
Zhejiang Key Laboratory of 3D Micro/Nano Fabrication and Characterization, Department of Electronic and Information Engineering, School of Engineering, Westlake University（西湖大学工程学院电子信息工程系三维微纳加工与表征浙江省重点实验室）；School of Optical and Electronic Information and Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology（华中科技大学光学与电子信息学院/武汉光电国家研究中心）；Westlake-Kromoson Joint Laboratory of Light-Field Intelligence, School of Engineering, Westlake University（西湖大学工程学院光场智能西湖-科慕森联合实验室）
The effectiveness of self-mixing interferometry has been demonstrated across the electromagnetic spectrum, from visible to microwave frequencies, in a plethora of sensing applications, ranging from distance measurement to material analysis, microscopy and coherent imaging. Owing to their intrinsic stability to optical feedback, quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) represent a source that offers unique and versatile characteristics to further improve the self-mixing functionality at mid infrared and terahertz (THz) frequencies. Here, we show the feasibility of detecting with nanometer precision deeply…
