Photorefractive phase conjugators

The author presents a tutorial review of various kinds of optical phase conjugators using photorefractive materials. These include externally pumped phase conjugators (EPPCs), self-pumped phase conjugators (SPPCs), and mutually pumped phase conjugators (MPPCs). He briefly describes optical phase conjugation and the photorefractive effect. He also describes wave mixing in photorefractive media. The energy transfer in two-wave mixing and the holographic nature of four-wave mixing are discussed     

Noise characteristics of fiber-based optical phase conjugators

This paper presents a theoretical and experimental analysis of the noise characteristics of a fiber based optical phase conjugator. The results are used to derive an expression for the noise figure (NF) of the device. The lowest measured NF is 18 dB, at -15 dB net conversion efficiency. This NF was limited by stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) and amplified spontaneous emission from an optical amplifier. Using the experimental parameters, the theoretical values agree well with the measurements, and predicts in our particular case a minimum NF of 10 dB at high conversion efficiencies. Furthermore, we investigate the influence of optical amplifiers before and after the conjugator, and, with all excess noise eliminated, we predict the quantum limit of 3 dB at efficiencies much greater than 100%     

光致折射晶体中高速调制光束的DFWM理论

利用一种新的去耦合方法求解光致折射晶体中高速调制光束的DFWM稳态耦合方程组,对几种实际情况进行了解析求解,得到了一些具有普遍性的结论.     

Linear resonator in photorefractive BSO with two pump beams

A linear resonator using a new amplification mechanism in BSO is reported. The gain can be optimised for a particular frequency detuning of one pump beam     

Millimeter-wave beams with phase singularities

Beams of millimeter-wave radiation carrying phase singularities have been generated using specially configured plane and blazed gratings. The blazed grating converts a plane wave into such a beam with very high efficiency. All of the properties of these beams that have been seen at optical wavelengths, such as the hollow profiles of the beams and the way a beam already carrying a singularity is subsequently diffracted, are shown to appear at millimeter wavelengths     

Optimization of DSF- and SOA-based phase conjugators byincorporating noise-suppressing fiber gratings

We compare the performance of dispersion-shifted-fiber (DSF) and semiconductor-optical-amplifier (SOA) based laser phase conjugators for a 10-Gb/s nonreturn-to-zero system with respect to conversion efficiency, noise figure, and distortion. Fiber gratings are used for signal extraction and amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) suppression, allowing closer wavelength spacing and reducing the conjugation noise figure by up to 12 dB. Despite the higher SOA conversion efficiency, both conjugators give similar noise figures with ASE suppression. However, the DSF-based conjugator has the advantage of distortion tolerance at higher input power     

光致折变晶体中相位光栅的相位移动的物理作用

在光致折变晶体(如SBN,BaTiO_3等)中发生两波混频及能量耦合是由于晶体干涉场内产生了相对于干涉场有相位移动的折射率光栅(相位光栅),这已被实验和理论证实。如果仅有两波混频产生的相位光栅,而此光栅相对于干涉场并无相位移动,或相位移动量较小(不足π/2),此时不会发生波能量耦合或耦合极微弱。1981年A.Yariv用耦合波方程从数学上解决了这个问题。     

Measurement of phase shift of photorefractive gratings by a novelmethod

A novel and sensitive method to measure the phase shift of the photorefractive phase grating with respect to the interference pattern is demonstrated that uses no moving mechanical parts. Results are presented for the measurement of the electrical field dependence of the phase shift in KNbO₃ crystals with various Fe concentrations. Some experimental results are also presented that show the strong influence of internal photovoltaic fields on the phase shift of the space-charge field     

Theory and applications of four-wave mixing in photorefractive media

The development of a theory of four-wave mixing in photo-refractive crystals is described. This theory is solved in the undepleted pumps approximation with linear absorption and without using the undepleted pumps approximation for negligible absorption. Both the transmission and reflection gratings are treated individually. The results are used to analyze several photorefractive phase conjugate mirrors, yielding reflectivities and thresholds. The use of photorefractive crystals as optical distortion correction elements and experimental demonstrations of several of the passive phase conjugate mirrors are described.     

Nonlinear response of the photorefractive phase conjugator: aperturbation analysis

Using perturbation theory, an examination is made of the fidelity of the photorefractive degenerate four-wave mixing phase conjugator. The general case is considered in which the probe is spatially varying (a beam) and temporally varying (a pulse), and the pumps are allowed to deplete. The probe wave is expanded as a sum of monochromatic plane-wave components. Carrying out the perturbation procedure up to the third order, the authors found that the components of the probe interact in pairs, so that the reflectance of each component of the conjugate wave is a combination of a linear term, a self-nonlinear term, and a term representing crosstalk with all other components of the probe. The crosstalk effect as a function of the frequency difference exhibits resonance behavior     

Oscillation with photorefractive gain

We review theories and experimental demonstrations of oscillation with photorefractive gain. The unidirectional ring resonator; the linear passive phase conjugate mirror, a phase conjugate resonator (the semilinear passive phase conjugate mirror), and the double phase conjugate resonator are treated, the applications in path-length-to-frequency converting interferometers and one-way wavefront converters are described.     

Theory of helical electron beams in gyrotrons

Helical electron beams (HEB) with disturbed axial symmetry of currents density and HEB with locking electrons in magnetic trap are described. The theory of magnetron injection gun (MIG) in space-charge limited current is developed. Systems on permanent magnets forming HEB are considered.     

Theory of degenerate four-wave mixing an anisotropic, opticallyactive photorefractive crystals

A theory is presented of degenerate four-wave mixing (DFWM) of arbitrary polarized waves in an anisotropic optically active photorefractive crystal. Using the method of coupled waves, a system of differential equations is deduced describing the coupling process. This system is specified to DFWM in crystals of the Bi₁₂GeO₂₀ -type and numerically solved based on the shooting method. Some peculiarities of phase conjugation in these crystal are discussed     

Broadband photorefractive properties and self-pumped phase conjugation in Ce-SBN:60

The first use of cerium-doped Sr0.6Ba0.4Nb2O6as a broadband self-pumped phase-conjugate mirror using internal reflection is reported. The phase-conjugate reflectivity at normal incidence ranged from two percent at 442 nm to seven percent at 515 nm and was zero at 633 nm. The electron-hole competition was found to be significant and had a wavelength dependence in one sample but not the other. The charge carrier density wassim 7 times 10^{16}cm^-3and was wavelength in-dependent. The absorption coefficient ranged from 2 cm^-1at the shorter the wavelengths to zero at longer wavelengths. The dispersion in the indexes of refraction was measured and the birefringence was -0.036. The sign of the dominant charge carriers was determined to be negative and the sign of the electrooptic coefficient, r33, was positive. Using the above values, a wavelength dependent coupling coefficient has been determined. The experimental results indicate that the phaseconjugate reflectivity decreases at shorter wavelengths due to increased absorptive losses and experiences a threshold effect at longer wavelengths.     

Pulse evolution in a photorefractive self-pumped phase conjugatorwith transmission grating geometry

The effect of grating dispersion on pulse evolution in a photorefractive self-pumped phase conjugator is analyzed. The broadening factors and the time-dependent phases of self-pumped phase-conjugate pulses of unchirped and chirped Gaussian pulses are obtained. When the grating dispersion and the angular dispersion cancel the material dispersion, the self-pumped phase-conjugate pulse has a minimum width, which is determined by the first-order dispersion of the grating. The self-pumped phase conjugation of an unchirped Gaussian pulse broadens and is linearly chirped whereas the self-pumped phase conjugation of a chirped Gaussian pulse is compressed when the dispersion-induced chirp cancels the initial chirp     

Theory of periodic electrostatic focusing of electron beams

A general theory of periodic electrostatic focusing structures in micowave tubes is presented. A general method for evaluating the properties of focusing systems is developed. The method is based on the use of the Action Function and is applicable to structures whose potential distribution can be found by the method of separable variables. It is shown that this approach can yield results similar to, but more exact, than those obtained by the classical paraxial ray equation. The basic and double-ring structures have been examined in detail. Parameters describing these structures are presented in graphical and tabular form. It is shown that for irrotational flow, a specific current distribution is required. The use of computer techniques for the solution of electron flow problems is discussed. A computer analysis has been developed and results obtained are discussed. The accuracy of the Action Function and the computer analyses has been verified experimentally. It has been shown that the focusing potentials predicted by the Action Function analysis are in good agreement with the experimental values. The computer analysis has also been shown to give results comparable with those obtained practically. Hollow beams of 3.85, 5.4, and 15.6 µP have been focused using the basic ring structure. In order to investigate the effect of unbalance of focusing and defocusing forces at the inner beam boundary, pinhole measurements have been made. It is shown that the ring structure focuses a hollow beam with some change in the beam cross section. The effect of the unbalance of forces is to transform the current density profile. Results indicate that the transformation is desirable since a beam of constant current density may be transformed to a distribution which approaches that required for irrotational flow.     

Well-width dependence of the phase coherent photorefractive effect in ZnSe quantum wells

We report on the well-width dependence of the phase coherent photorefractive (PCP) effect in ZnSe/ZnMgSe single quantum wells (QWs) using 90 fs light pulses. The experiments are performed in a four-wave-mixing configuration at temperatures between 25 and 65 K. The ZnMgSe/ZnSe QWs with 10, 5 and 3 nm well width were grown on GaAs substrate using molecular beam epitaxy. With decreasing QW thickness we observe a reduction of the PCP diffraction efficiency. This is attributed to the higher electron energy in small QWs due to the quantum size effect, which leads to a reduced equilibrium density of captured electrons in the QW. With increasing temperature the PCP signal further decreases which is attributed to thermal activation of the QW electrons back to the GaAs substrate.     

Generation of multiple simultaneous beams by aperture phase control

Radiation patterns containing multiple beams may be generated by manipulating merely the phase on an aperture, leaving the amplitude distribution undisturbed. The relative phases between the various beams may be adjusted for a best approximation.     

Theory of FM clicks with Brownian motion phase noise

Lasers that are used for coherent optical communication exhibit phase instabilities which can be modeled as a Brownian motion. The effect that such a disturbance has on limiter-discriminator detection of FM signals received in additive Gaussian noise is investigated. Although a new theory must be developed to calculate FM click rates (and prove them finite), no effects are found which would preclude the use of such a detector with Brownian phase noise. In particular, for binary FM transmission at rate R, discriminator detection will result in 1 dB of degradation or less if B_pn/R<0.002, B_pn being the linewidth of the unmodulated carrier     

Array designs for amplitude and phase control of millimeter-wave beams

New array design concepts are described for the phase and amplitude control of millimeter and submillimeter-wave beams. Phase shifter array designs providing increased phase range and wider bandwidth are described. Techniques involving the integration of gain-producing elements as well as tuning elements on a single array are proposed for application to high-performance beam control and beam shaping. These concepts should facilitate the further development of quasi-optical solid state device-based arrays for application to millimeter-wave electronic systems.