Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to G I Stegeman.
We demonstrate all-optical switching at 1550 nm between two weakly coupled cores in a photonic crystal fiber for intensities up to 0.5 TW/cm2. Spectrum analysis at higher intensities reveals that the output was dominated by continuum generation primarily towards shorter wavelengths.
We report the first observation of discrete optical surface solitons at the interface between a nonlinear self-focusing waveguide lattice and a continuous medium. The effect of power on the localization process of these optical self-trapped states at the edge of an AlGaAs waveguide array is investigated in detail. Our experimental results are in good agreement with theoretical predictions.
We have observed the incoherent interaction between a highly confined (blocker) soliton and wide, moving signal beams of a different wavelength in a one-dimensional discrete Kerr medium. Digital switching of the blocker solitons to successive adjacent channels was measured with increasing signal power via both one and two cascaded interactions in an AlGaAs waveguide array, operations equivalent to a reconfigurable three-output router.
We investigate experimentally and numerically the interaction of a highly localized, single-channel discrete soliton (blocker) with a wide, tilted beam in a one-dimensional AlGaAs array. In agreement with theory the blocker is observed to discretely shift its position by multiple channels, depending on the intensity and relative phase of the tilted beam.
We have investigated the interaction between two dissipative spatial solitons of different frequencies in periodically patterned semiconductor optical amplifiers. The experimental results are in good agreement with the theory. Simulations suggest that multiwavelength interactions do not produce stable bound solitons unless the system's modeling equations are completely symmetric.
We demonstrate phase-insensitive, ultrafast, all-optical spatial switching and frequency conversion in quadratically nonlinear waveguide arrays in periodically poled lithium niobate. Routing of milliwatt signals with wavelengths in the communication band (1550 nm) is achieved without pulse distortions by parametric interaction with a control beam with 10-W power and wavelengths near 775 nm.
Discrete solitons with two frequency components mutually locked by a quadratic nonlinearity have been observed for the first time. Optical experiments have been performed in arrays of coupled channel waveguides with tunable cascaded quadratic nonlinearity. The tunability was the prerequisite that soliton species with different topology could be identified in the same array. Moreover, soliton stability has been experimentally probed. Good agreement with theoretical predictions was found.
We report the first experimental observation of modulation instability in a discrete optical nonlinear array.
The existence of stable dissipative spatial solitons at low intensities in patterned electrode semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) is predicted theoretically. In contrast to conventional SOAs, this system may support stable solitons because the inherent saturating losses provide subcritical bifurcations for both the plane-wave and the soliton solution.
We have investigated the amplification of a spatially periodic perturbation applied to a wide fundamental beam launched near phase matching for second-harmonic generation in a lithium niobate film waveguide. We measured the gain coefficient for the modulational instability of quadratic eigenmodes as a function of periodicity, intensity, and wave-vector mismatch. Excellent agreement with theory was obtained.
Garito and co-workers have suggested a mechanism to dramatically increase the second hyperpolarizability, gamma, in linear pi-electron-conjugated molecules. Polarization is introduced that leads to a difference between the dipole moments of the molecule's ground state and excited state. Here a series of carotenoids was examined that had increasing intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) from the polyenic chain to the acceptor moiety in the ground state, and gamma was measured for these compounds as a function of wavelength by third-harmonic generation. The compound with the greatest ICT exhibited a 35-fold enhancement of gammamax (the gamma measured at the peak of the three-photon resonance) relative to the symmetric molecule beta-carotene, which itself has one of the largest third-order nonlinearities known. Stark spectroscopic measurements revealed the existence of a large difference dipole moment, Delta mu, between the ground and excited state. Quantum-chemical calculations underline the importance of interactions involving states with large Delta mu.