The phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometry (φ-OTDR) is a good candidate for distributed dynamic strain sensing, due to its high sensitivity and fast measurement, which has already been widely used in intrusion monitoring, geophysical exploration, etc. For the frequency scanning based φ-OTDR, the phase change manifests itself as a shift of the intensity distribution. The correlation between the reference and measured spectra is employed for relative strain demodulation, which has imposed the continuous measurement for the absolute strain demodulation. Fortunately, the Brillouin optical time domain analysis (BOTDA) allows for the absolute strain demodulation with only one measurement. In this work, the combination of the φ-OTDR and BOTDA has been proposed and demonstrated by using the same set of frequency-scanning optical pulses, and the frequency-agile technique is also introduced for fast measurements. A 9.9 Hz vibration with a strain range of 500 nε has been measured under two different absolute strains (296.7με and 554.8 με) by integrating the Rayleigh and Brillouin information. The sub-micro strain vibration is demonstrated by the φ-OTDR signal with a high sensitivity of 6.8 nε, while the absolute strain is measured by the BOTDA signal with an accuracy of 5.4 με. The proposed sensor allows for dynamic absolute strain measurements with a high sensitivity, thus opening a door for new possibilities which are yet to be explored.

Helicity-dependent ultrafast spin current generated by circularly polarized photons in topological materials holds the crux to many technological improvements, such as quantum communications, on-chip communication processing and storage. Here, we present the manipulation of helicity-dependent terahertz emission generated in a nodal line semimetal candidate Mg3Bi2 by using photon polarization states. The terahertz emission is mainly ascribed to the helicity-dependent photocurrent that is originated from circular photogalvanic effects, and the helicity-independent photocurrent that is attributed to linear photogalvanic effect. Our work will inspire more explorations into novel nodal line semimetals and open up new opportunities for developing ultrafast optoelectronics in the topological system.

Nonlinear high-harmonic generation in micro-resonators is a common technique used to extend the operating range of applications such as self-referencing systems and coherent communications in the visible region. However, the generated high-harmonic emissions are subject to a resonance shift with a change in temperature. We present a comprehensive study of the thermal behavior induced phase mismatch that shows this resonance shift can be compensated by a combination of the linear and nonlinear thermo-optics effects. Using this model, we predict and experimentally demonstrate visible third harmonic modes having temperature dependent wavelength shifts between -2.84 pm/℃ and 2.35 pm/℃ when pumped at the L-band. Besides providing a new way to achieve athermal operation, this also allows one to measure the thermal coefficients and Q-factor of the visible modes. Through steady state analysis, we have also identified the existence of stable athermal third harmonic generation and experimentally demonstrated orthogonally pumped visible third harmonic modes with a temperature dependent wavelength shift of 0.05 pm/℃ over a temperature range of 12 ℃. Our findings promise a configurable and active temperature dependent wavelength shift compensation scheme for highly efficient and precise visible emission generation for potential 2f-3f self-referencing in metrology, biological and chemical sensing applications.