Crystal growth and optical properties of Gd1.99-xYxCe.0.01SiO5 single crystals

Gd1.99-xYxCe0.01SiO5 (Ce:GYSO) crystals (x = 0, 0.0995, 0.199) have been grown by the Czochralski (Cz) method. Crystal structure and the distribution coefficients of Ce have been determined for all three crystals. Spectroscopic measurements indicate that optical transmittance and luminescence intensity of Gd1.99-xYxCe0.01SiO5 (x = 0.0995, 0.199) crystals are Substantially higher than those of Ce:Gd2SiO5 (Ce:GSO), especially at x = 0.0995, which makes them good candidate materials for scintillation applications. The particularly important result is that the alloyed Ce:GYSO crystals can be grown easily by the Cz method and, unlike Ce:GSO, they do not undergo cleavage during the growth process or subsequent mechanical treatment. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Thermal-mechanical modeling of nodular defect embedded within multilayer coatings

The initiation of laser damage within optical coatings can be better understood by thermal-mechanical modeling of coating defects. The result of this modeling shows that a high-temperature rise and thermal stress can be seen just inside the nodular defect compared to surrounding coating layers. The temperature rise and thermal stress tend to increase with seed diameter. Shallower seed tend to cause higher temperature rise and greater thermal stress. There is a critical seed depth at which thermal stress is largest. The composition of the seed resulting from different coating-material emission during evaporation can affect the temperature rise and thermal stress distribution.

High-speed 2 x 2 silicon-based electro-optic switch with nanosecond switch time

A 2 x 2 electro-optic switch is experimentally demonstrated using the optical structure of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) based on a submicron rib waveguide and the electrical structure of a PIN diode on silicon-on-insulator (SOI). The switch behaviour is achieved through the plasma dispersion effect of silicon. The device has a modulation arm of I mm in length and cross-section of 400 nmx340 nm. The measurement results show that the switch has a V pi L pi figure of merit of 0.145 V-cm and the extinction ratios of two output ports and cross talk are 40 dB, 28 dB and -28 dB, respectively. A 3 dB modulation bandwidth of 90 MHz and a switch time of 6.8 ns for the rise edge and 2.7 ns for the fall edge are also demonstrated.

Four-channel reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer based on photonic wire waveguide

We designed and fabricated a four-channel reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer based on silicon photonic wire waveguide controlled through thermo-optic effect. The effective footprint of the device is about 1000 x 500 mu m(2). The minimum insertion loss is about 10.7 dB and the tuning bandwidth about 17 nm. The average tuning power efficiency is about 6.187 mW/nm and the tuning speed about 24.4 kHz. The thermo-optic polarization-rotation effect is firstly reported in this paper. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America

InP Based PD/EAM Integrated Photonic Switch

A new compact three-port InP based PD/EAM (photo-detector/electro-absorption modulator) integrated photonic switch is reported. The device demonstrates bi-directional wavelength conversion over 20 nm at 2.5 Gbit/s with a low input optical power of about 20 mW.

Silicon-on-insulator-based waveguide switch with fast response

Based on thermo-optical effect of silicon, a 2 x 2 switch is fabricated in silicon-on-insulator by chemical etching. The switch presents an extinction ratio of 26 dB and a power consumption of 169 mW. The response time F similar to 10.5 mus.

Submicrosecond rearrangeable nonblocking silicon-on-insulator thermo-optic 4 X 4 switch matrix

A rearrangeable nonblocking silicon-on-insulator-based thermo-optic 4 X 4 switch matrix is designed and fabricated. A spot-size converter is integrated to reduce the insertion loss, and a new driving circuit is designed to improve the response speed. The insertion loss is less than 10 dB, and the response time is 950 us. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America

Mach-Zehnder interferometers with asymmetric modulation arms in applications of high speed silicon-on-insulator based optical switches

Modulation arms with different widths are introduced to Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZIs) to obtain improved performance. Theoretical analysis and numerical simulation have shown that when the widths of the two arms are properly designed to achieve an inherent m pi/2 (m is an odd integer) optical phase difference between the arms, the asymmetric MZI presents higher modulation speed. Furthermore, the carrier-absorption induced divergence of insertion losses in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) based MZI optical switches can be obviously improved.

Investigation progress on key photonic integration for application in optical communication network

Proceeding from the consideration of the demands from the functional architecture of high speed, high capacity optical communication network, this paper points out that photonic integrated devices, including high speed response laser source, narrow band response photodetector high speed wavelength converter, dense wavelength multi/demultiplexer, low loss high speed response photo-switch and multi-beam coupler are the key components in the system. The, investigation progress in the laboratory will be introduced.

Optical properties of NAEC-PMMA nonlinear polymeric thin film

Novel guest nonlinear optical (NLO) chromophore molecules (4-nitrobenzene)-3-azo-9-ethylcarbazole (NAEC) were doped in poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) host with a concentration of approximately 15% by weight. For a useful macroscopic electro-optic (EO) effect, these NLO molecules NAEC were arranged in a noncentrosymmetric structure in the host polymer by corona-onset poling at elevated temperature (COPET). For applying NAEC-PMMA polymer in optical devices such as EO switch, its optical properties have been investigated. The UV/Visible absorption spectra for the unpoled and poled polymer film were determined. The refractive index of the film was also determined from measurements of the coupling angles with the reflective intensity at 632.8 nm wavelength. Using the simple reflection technique, the EO coefficient 33 value was measured as 60 pm/V at 632.8 nm wavelength. The second-order nonlinear coefficient d(33) was characterized by the second-harmonic-generation (SHG) experimental setup and the calculated d(33) value reached 18.4 pm/V at 1064 nm wavelength. The relation between the second-order nonlinear coefficients d(33) and d(13) for the poled polymer film was also discussed in detail and the ratio d(33)/d(13) value was obtained as 3.3. (C) 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers.

High energy ion implantation enhanced intermixed quantum well structures and their absorption characteristics in passive optical waveguides

We have shown that high energy ion implantation enhanced intermixing (HE-IIEI) technology for quantum well (QW) structures is a powerful technique which can be used to blue shift the band gap energy of a QW structure and therefore decrease its band gap absorption. Room temperature (RT) photoluminescence (PL) and guided-wave transmission measurements have been employed to investigate the amount of blue shift of the band gap energy of an intermixed QW structure and the reduction of band gap absorption, Record large blue shifts in PL peaks of 132 nm for a 4-QW InGaAs/InGaAsP/InP structure have been demonstrated in the intermixed regions of the QW wafers, on whose non-intermixed regions, a shift as small as 5 nm is observed. This feature makes this technology very attractive for selective intermixing in selected areas of an MQW structure. The dramatical reduction in band gap absorption for the InP based MQW structure has been investigated experimentally. It is found that the intensity attenuation for the blue shifted structure is decreased by 242.8 dB/cm for the TE mode and 119 dB/cm for the TM mode with respect to the control samples. Electro-absorption characteristics have also been clearly observed in the intermixed structure. Current-Voltage characteristics were employed to investigate the degradation of the p-n junction in the intermixed region. We have achieved a successful fabrication and operation of Y-junction optical switches (JOS) based on MQW semiconductor optical amplifiers using HE-IIEI technology to fabricate the low loss passive waveguide. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.

Novel compact SOI-based reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer using microring resonators - art. no. 60190L

Novel compact design for 4-channel SOI-based reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer using microring resonators is presented and analyzed. Microring resonators have two important attributes as a key new technology for future optical communications, namely functionality and compactness. Functionality refers to the fact that a wide range of desirable filter characteristics can be synthesized by coupling multiple rings. Compactness refers the fact that ring resonators with radii about 30 mu m can lead to large scale integration of devices with densities on the order of 10(4) similar to 10(5) devices per square centimeter. A 4-channel reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer comprises a grid-like array of ridge waveguides which perpendicularly cross through each other. SOI-based resonators consisted of multiple rings at each of the cross-grid nodes serve as the wavelength selective switch, and they can switch an optical signal between two ports by means of tuning refractive index of one of the rings. The thermo-optic coefficient of silicon is 1.86x 10(-4) /K. Thus a temperature rise of 27K will increase the refractive index by 5 x 10(-3), which is enough to cause the switching of our designed microring resonators. The thermo-optic effect is used to suppress the resonator power transfer, rather than to promote loss. Thus, the input signal only suffers small attenuation and simultaneously low crosstalk can be achieved by using multiple rings.

Principle and analysis of the moving-optical-wedge interferometer

A new type of interferometer, the moving-optical-wedge interferometer, is presented, and its principle and properties are studied. The novel interferometer consists of one beam splitter, two flat fixed mirrors, two fixed compensating plates, one fixed optical wedge, and one moving optical wedge. The optical path difference (OPD) as a function of the displacement of the moving optical wedge from the zero path difference position is accomplished by the straight reciprocating motion of the moving optical wedge. A large physical shift of the moving optical wedge corresponds to a very short OPD value of the new interferometer if the values of the wedge angle and the refractive index of the two optical wedges are given properly. The new interferometer is not so sensitive to the velocity variation of the moving optical wedge and the mechanical disturbances compared with the Michelson interferometer, and it is very applicable to low-spectral-resolution application for any wavenumber region from the far infrared down to the ultraviolet. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America.

1.55-μm Si-based MOEMS optical tunable filter

A prototype 1.55-μm Si-based micro-opto-electro-mechanical-systems (MOEMS) tunable filter is fabricated, employing surface micromachining technology. Full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM) of the transmission spectrum is 23 nm. The tuning range is 30 nm under 50-V applied voltage. The device can be readily integrated with resonant cavity enhanced (RCE) detector and vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) to fabricate tunable active devices.

1.3μm Si-Based MOEMS Optical Tunable Filter with a Tuning Range of 90nm

Optical filters capable of single control parameter-based wide tuning are implemented and studied. A prototype surface micromachined 1.3μm Si-based MOEMS (micro-opto-electro-mechanical-systems) tunable filter exhibits a continuous and large tuning range of 90 nm at 50 V tuning voltage. The filter can be integrated with Si-based photodetector in a low-cost component for coarse wavelength division multiplexing systems operating in the 1.3μm band.