High-power widely tunable Raman fiber laser

Tunable Raman fiber lasers have attracted great interest owing to their high efficiency and reliability important for applications, such as optical fiber communications and sensing, spectroscopy, and instrument testing. Their tuning range is defined by the Raman gain bandwidth amounting to about 40 nm in telecom spectral range (∼1550 nm) for conventional silica single mode fibers (SMF). To increase the range, highly nonlinear fibers which broaden pump spectrum may be incorporated in the cavity of Raman fiber lasers, see e.g. [1]. Another approach is to involve Rayleigh scattering forming random distributed feedback in a relatively long fiber resulting in prominent flattening of the tuning curve [2]. In this paper we report on combination of these two techniques in tunable Raman fiber lasers thus providing great improvement of their output characteristics. © 2013 IEEE.

Spectral width optimization in random DFB fiber laser

Lasers with random distributed feedback (DFB) owing to Rayleigh scattering in optical fibers [1] have attracted a great interest: a number of papers demonstrating new laser schemes and applications have been proposed [2-7] recently. Moreover, the generation output power and, more generally, generation power distribution could be described both analytically and numerically within simple balance models [8-9]. However, spectral properties of random DFB fiber lasers are not studied except some attempt made in [10]. Generation spectrum of random DFB fiber laser is quite broad (more than 1 nm), and physical mechanisms of its formation and broadening are still unclear. There is no any practical solution up to date to minimize the generation spectrum width. Here we experimentally show the way to minimize the generation spectral width. © 2013 IEEE.

Random distributed feedback Raman fiber laser operating in a 1.2 μm wavelength range

The random distributed feedback fiber laser operating via the stimulated Raman scattering and random distributed feedback based on the Rayleigh scattering is demonstrated in the 1.2 μm frequency band. The RDFB fiber laser generates at 1174 nm up to 2.4 W of output power with corresponding slope efficiency more than 30%. The output radiation has the spectral shape similar to the conventional Raman fiber lasers and spectral width less than 1.7 nm. © 2011 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.

Recent advances in fundamentals and applications of random fiber lasers

Random fiber lasers blend together attractive features of traditional random lasers, such as low cost and simplicity of fabrication, with high-performance characteristics of conventional fiber lasers, such as good directionality and high efficiency. Low coherence of random lasers is important for speckle-free imaging applications. The random fiber laser with distributed feedback proposed in 2010 led to a quickly developing class of light sources that utilize inherent optical fiber disorder in the form of the Rayleigh scattering and distributed Raman gain. The random fiber laser is an interesting and practically important example of a photonic device based on exploitation of optical medium disorder. We provide an overview of recent advances in this field, including high-power and high-efficiency generation, spectral and statistical properties of random fiber lasers, nonlinear kinetic theory of such systems, and emerging applications in telecommunications and distributed sensing.

Random distributed feedback fiber laser

I will overview our recent results on ultra-long lasers and will discuss the concept of a fiber laser with an open cavity that operates using random distributed feedback provided by Rayleigh scattering amplified through the Raman effect. © 2011 Optical Society of America.

Random distributed feedback fiber laser

Researchers conducted investigations to demonstrate the advantages of random distributed feedback fiber laser. Random lasers had advantages, such as simple technology that did not require a precise microcavity and low production cost. The properties of their output radiation were special in comparison to those of conventional lasers and they were characterized by complex features in the spatial, spectral, and time domains. The researchers demonstrated a new type of one-dimensional laser with random distributed feedback based on Rayleigh scattering (RS) that was presented in any transparent glass medium due to natural inhomogeneities of refractive index. The cylindrical fiber waveguide geometry provided transverse confinement, while the cavity was open in the longitudinal direction and did not include any regular point-action reflectors.

Dipole polarizability and Rayleigh light scattering by the hydrated electron

Assuming the existence of a confined state of the electron in bulk water the polarizability of the hydrated electron is analyzed. Statistically uncorrelated supermolecular structures composed of seven water molecules (first solvation shell) with an extra electron were extracted from classical Monte Carlo simulation and used in quantum mechanical second-order Moller-Plesset calculations. It is found that the bound excess electron contributes with 274 a.u. to the total dipole polarizability of 345 a.u. for (H(2)O)(7)(-). From the calculated polarizabilities the Rayleigh elastic light scattering properties are inferred and found to considerably enhance activity and light depolarization. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Fine Structure of the Rayleigh Line in Amorphous Substances

As is well known, when monochromatic light scattered by a liquid is examined under high resolution it exhibits a fine structure: an undisplaced central line and two lines on either side with wavelengths slightly different from that of the incident light. The appearance of the displaced components was first predicted by Brillouin1. On the basis of his theory, the observed displacements of frequency are regarded as a Doppler effect arising from the reflexion of the light wave by the progressive sound waves of thermal origin in the scattering medium. The frequency shift of the so-called Brillouin components is given by the formula where nu and c are the velocities of sound and light in the medium and theta is the angle of scattering. That the effect contemplated by Brillouin does arise in liquids and crystals is now a well-established experimental fact.

Monte Carlo Simulation Of Thermal Fluctuations Below The Onset Of Rayleigh-Benard Convection

The density fluctuations below the onset of convection in the Rayleigh-Benard problem are studied with the direct simulation Monte Carlo method. The particle simulation results clearly show the connection between the static correlation functions of fluctuations below the critical Rayleigh number and the flow patterns above the onset of convection for small Knudsen number flows (Kn=0.01 and Kn=0.005). Furthermore, the physical nature for no convection in the Rayleigh-Benard problem under large Knudsen number conditions (Kn>0.028) is explained based on the dynamics of fluctuations.

A multiple scattering problem

The present work deals with the problem of the interaction of the electromagnetic radiation with a statistical distribution of nonmagnetic dielectric particles immersed in an infinite homogeneous isotropic, non-magnetic medium. The wavelength of the incident radiation can be less, equal or greater than the linear dimension of a particle. The distance between any two particles is several wavelengths. A single particle in the absence of the others is assumed to scatter like a Rayleigh-Gans particle, i.e. interaction between the volume elements (self-interaction) is neglected. The interaction of the particles is taken into account (multiple scattering) and conditions are set up for the case of a lossless medium which guarantee that the multiple scattering contribution is more important than the self-interaction one. These conditions relate the wavelength λ and the linear dimensions of a particle a and of the region occupied by the particles D. It is found that for constant λ/a, D is proportional to λ and that |Δχ|, where Δχ is the difference in the dielectric susceptibilities between particle and medium, has to lie within a certain range.

The total scattering field is obtained as a series the several terms of which represent the corresponding multiple scattering orders. The first term is a single scattering term. The ensemble average of the total scattering intensity is then obtained as a series which does not involve terms due to products between terms of different orders. Thus the waves corresponding to different orders are independent and their Stokes parameters add.

The second and third order intensity terms are explicitly computed. The method used suggests a general approach for computing any order. It is found that in general the first order scattering intensity pattern (or phase function) peaks in the forward direction Θ = 0. The second order tends to smooth out the pattern giving a maximum in the Θ = π/2 direction and minima in the Θ = 0 , Θ = π directions. This ceases to be true if ka (where k = 2π/λ) becomes large (> 20). For large ka the forward direction is further enhanced. Similar features are expected from the higher orders even though the critical value of ka may increase with the order.

The first order polarization of the scattered wave is determined. The ensemble average of the Stokes parameters of the scattered wave is explicitly computed for the second order. A similar method can be applied for any order. It is found that the polarization of the scattered wave depends on the polarization of the incident wave. If the latter is elliptically polarized then the first order scattered wave is elliptically polarized, but in the Θ = π/2 direction is linearly polarized. If the incident wave is circularly polarized the first order scattered wave is elliptically polarized except for the directions Θ = π/2 (linearly polarized) and Θ = 0, π (circularly polarized). The handedness of the Θ = 0 wave is the same as that of the incident whereas the handedness of the Θ = π wave is opposite. If the incident wave is linearly polarized the first order scattered wave is also linearly polarized. The second order makes the total scattered wave to be elliptically polarized for any Θ no matter what the incident wave is. However, the handedness of the total scattered wave is not altered by the second order. Higher orders have similar effects as the second order.

If the medium is lossy the general approach employed for the lossless case is still valid. Only the algebra increases in complexity. It is found that the results of the lossless case are insensitive in the first order of k_imD where k_im = imaginary part of the wave vector k and D a linear characteristic dimension of the region occupied by the particles. Thus moderately extended regions and small losses make (k_imD)² ≪ 1 and the lossy character of the medium does not alter the results of the lossless case. In general the presence of the losses tends to reduce the forward scattering.

NEW METHOD FOR ACQUIRING A HIGH-RESOLUTION ATMOSPHERIC RAYLEIGH-MIE SPECTRUM

A new method using an atomic-resonance filter and deconvolution techniques has been developed to acquire high-resolution spectra of atmospheric Rayleigh-Mie scattering. In the deconvolution process, the difficulty of the undetermined division 0/0 is overcome by a fitting method. Preliminary laboratory experimental results on 90-deg scattering show that with a signal-to-noise ratio of 20, the scattered Rayleigh-Mie spectrum may be retrieved in agreement with the theoretical analysis.

Gold nanoparticles on polarizable surfaces as Raman scattering antennas.

Surface plasmons supported by metal nanoparticles are perturbed by coupling to a surface that is polarizable. Coupling results in enhancement of near fields and may increase the scattering efficiency of radiative modes. In this study, we investigate the Rayleigh and Raman scattering properties of gold nanoparticles functionalized with cyanine deposited on silicon and quartz wafers and on gold thin films. Dark-field scattering images display red shifting of the gold nanoparticle plasmon resonance and doughnut-shaped scattering patterns when particles are deposited on silicon or on a gold film. The imaged radiation patterns and individual particle spectra reveal that the polarizable substrates control both the orientation and brightness of the radiative modes. Comparison with simulation indicates that, in a particle-surface system with a fixed junction width, plasmon band shifts are controlled quantitatively by the permittivity of the wafer or the film. Surface-enhanced resonance Raman scattering (SERRS) spectra and images are collected from cyanine on particles on gold films. SERRS images of the particles on gold films are doughnut-shaped as are their Rayleigh images, indicating that the SERRS is controlled by the polarization of plasmons in the antenna nanostructures. Near-field enhancement and radiative efficiency of the antenna are sufficient to enable Raman scattering cyanines to function as gap field probes. Through collective interpretation of individual particle Rayleigh spectra and spectral simulations, the geometric basis for small observed variations in the wavelength and intensity of plasmon resonant scattering from individual antenna on the three surfaces is explained.

On integral equation and least squares methods for scattering by diffraction gratings

In this paper we consider the scattering of a plane acoustic or electromagnetic wave by a one-dimensional, periodic rough surface. We restrict the discussion to the case when the boundary is sound soft in the acoustic case, perfectly reflecting with TE polarization in the EM case, so that the total field vanishes on the boundary. We propose a uniquely solvable first kind integral equation formulation of the problem, which amounts to a requirement that the normal derivative of the Green's representation formula for the total field vanish on a horizontal line below the scattering surface. We then discuss the numerical solution by Galerkin's method of this (ill-posed) integral equation. We point out that, with two particular choices of the trial and test spaces, we recover the so-called SC (spectral-coordinate) and SS (spectral-spectral) numerical schemes of DeSanto et al., Waves Random Media, 8, 315-414 1998. We next propose a new Galerkin scheme, a modification of the SS method that we term the SS* method, which is an instance of the well-known dual least squares Galerkin method. We show that the SS* method is always well-defined and is optimally convergent as the size of the approximation space increases. Moreover, we make a connection with the classical least squares method, in which the coefficients in the Rayleigh expansion of the solution are determined by enforcing the boundary condition in a least squares sense, pointing out that the linear system to be solved in the SS* method is identical to that in the least squares method. Using this connection we show that (reflecting the ill-posed nature of the integral equation solved) the condition number of the linear system in the SS* and least squares methods approaches infinity as the approximation space increases in size. We also provide theoretical error bounds on the condition number and on the errors induced in the numerical solution computed as a result of ill-conditioning. Numerical results confirm the convergence of the SS* method and illustrate the ill-conditioning that arises.

Radar scattering by aggregate snowflakes

The radar scattering properties of realistic aggregate snowflakes have been calculated using the Rayleigh-Gans theory. We find that the effect of the snowflake geometry on the scattering may be described in terms of a single universal function, which depends only on the overall shape of the aggregate and not the geometry or size of the pristine ice crystals which compose the flake. This function is well approximated by a simple analytic expression at small sizes; for larger snowflakes we fit a curve to Our numerical data. We then demonstrate how this allows a characteristic snowflake radius to be derived from dual wavelength radar measurements without knowledge of the pristine crystal size or habit, while at the same time showing that this detail is crucial to using such data to estimate ice water content. We also show that the 'effective radius'. characterizing the ratio of particle volume to projected area, cannot be inferred from dual wavelength radar data for aggregates. Finally, we consider the errors involved in approximating snowflakes by 'air-ice spheres', and show that for small enough aggregates the predicted dual wavelength ratio typically agrees to within a few percent, provided some care is taken in choosing the radius of the sphere and the dielectric constant of the air-ice mixture; at larger sizes the radar becomes more sensitive to particle shape, and the errors associated with the sphere model are found to increase accordingly.