A novel long-period fiber grating (LPFG) film methane sensor is designed and applied successfully. The sensor is constructed by depositing a thin styrene-acrylonitrile (SAN) film containing the new compound cryptophane-E-(OEt)6 onto the cladding surface of the LPFG. This film is sensitive to methane gas. Methane causes a change in the refractive index of the sensing film, which can be measured by shifting the resonance wavelength. Experimental results show that the resonant wavelength shifts to the longer wavelength, with increasing methane concentration at a range of 0.0%–3.5% (v/v). A linear relationship is obtained within the test range. Detection limit is estimated at 0.2%, and response time is 60 s. No significant interference is detected from dry air, O2, CO, CO2, and H2. This novel methane sensing material has great application potential due to its advantages.

Fluctuating polarization state-of-light in the optical loop is an important factor that seriously influences the output performance of a multi-carrier source based on re-circulating frequency shifter (RFS). The reason for output spectrum instability when no polarization controller (PC) is present in the loop is analyzed theoretically. Numerical simulations for the output spectra of the multi-carrier source with and without PC are conducted, and the trajectories of the several frequency components polarization states on the Poincare sphere with and without PC are compared. The results show that the performance of multi-carrier source based on a RFS can be improved effectively by adjusting the PC in the configuration properly.

A piece of domestic polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber (PM-PCF, 964 m in length) is made into a fiber coil, and its polarization extinction ratio (PER) is measured in a temperature range of –45–80 oC before and after PM-PCF is wound and solidified. A fiber coil made of commercial panda PM fiber (PMF) is also fabricated and measured for comparison. Our experiments show that the PER variation of the PM-PCF coil (2.25 dB) is far smaller than that of the panda PMF coil (10 dB) in the whole temperature range because PM-PCF is intrinsically insensitive to the temperature variation and stress in the fiber coil induced by the winding and solidification process. This characteristic is important for the real application of PM-PCFs in temperature-insensitive fiber interferometers, fiber sensors, and optical fiber gyroscopes.

The effect of hydrostatic pressure (up to 28 MPa) on Brillouin frequency shift (BFS) within two types of bare, single-mode fibers is studied via Brillouin optical time domain analysis technique. Experimental results show a negative linear relation between pressure and BFS, with almost the same sensitivity in both types of fibers. The average value of experimental slopes is –0.742 MHz/MPa. This value is found to be well suited to theoretical analysis on the basis of data on bulk silica glass in previous reports. This preliminary evaluation may result in a new method for distributed pressure sensing along silica optical fiber.

We experimentally demonstrate that a high-power 0.1-THz continuous wave can be generated by external modulation. A low-noise electrical amplifier and a W-band antenna with a gain of 25 dBi are employed to enhance photodiode output power. Detection power exceeds 1 mW when an absolute terahertz power meter is used.

The principle of error vector magnitude (EVM) against modulator nonlinearity for vector modulation signal (VMS) transmission in radio-over-fiber (RoF) systems is theoretically and experimentally investigated. A highly linear modulation scheme is proposed and demonstrated using a single-drive dual parallel Mach–Zehnder modulator (MZM). This method improves EVM performance and enlarges the linear input dynamic range of the VMS transmission. An index of maximum allowable input power difference (MAIPD) that reflects the difference of upper input power limits between these two schemes is measured. An EVM limitation of 5% MAIPD has 5 dB. Both 16- and 64-QAM results indicate that the proposed scheme supports VMS transmission better than the MZM one.

Analytical formulas and experimental proof of the echo broadening effect in active range-gated imaging, including atmospheric interference, currently exist. We investigate the impact of this effect on target detection. Our research demonstrates that the echo broadening effect affects the energy profile of the depth of view and collects only part of the signals of targets in head and tail zones. Under bad weather conditions, the effect weakens the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of images, especially in cases with large laser pulse width. Fortunately, by modifying the laser pulse width, the effect can be controlled. These results are valuable to the applications of active range-gated imaging.

A single-mode laser is demonstrated using a newly developed double-clad thulium-ytterbium-doped fiber (TYDF) in a linear cavity formed by two fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs). The YTF used is drawn from a D-shape preform fabricated using the modified chemical vapor deposition and solution doping technique. The laser is operated at 1 901.6 nm via the transition of thulium ions from 3F4 to 3H6 with the assistance of ytterbium to thulium ion energy transfer. The efficiencies of the laser are 0.71% and 0.75% at 927- and 905-nm multimode pumping, respectively. The thresholds of the launched pump power for 927- and 905-nm pumping are 1 314 and 1 458 mW, respectively. A 7-mW output is obtained at a 905-nm pump power of 2 400 mW.

In this letter, we demonstrate coherent beam combination of laser diode array using the external Talbot cavity with double feedback. The double feedback elements consist of grating and high-reflection plane mirror. Compared with single high-reflection plane mirror feedback, the external Talbot cavity with double feedback reduce the number of interference strips in the far-field pattern and narrow spectral line-width of the laser diode array. The results indicate that the application of the external Talbot cavity with double feedback produces a clear far-field interference pattern. In addition, line-width is reduced to 0.15 nm full-width at half-maximum (FWHM).

Quantum communication is a new technology requiring a stable and reliable laser source for communication security. A new kind of polarization-locked vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) with polarization maintaining (PM) fiber pigtail is fabricated as a decoy state laser source. The VCSEL is packaged in a standard butterfly box integrated with thermoelectric coder (TEC) and thermistor. The optical pulse width of full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) is smaller than 400 ps with a 100-MHz on/off modulation frequency. The results reveal that modulation range is better than 4. Moreover, the polarization is stable, and the power extinction ratio is larger than 25. The center wavelength is 850 nm, and the SMSR is better than 40 dB.

We investigate femtosecond laser direct writing (FLDW) in the fabrication of magneto-optical (MO) microstructures. The experimental results show that FDLW can introduce positive refractive index change in the MO materials. With the increase of the writing intensity of femtosecond laser pulses, refractive index change increases, whereas Verdet constant of the damaged area decreases nonlinearly. With suitable writing intensity, we obtain a single-mode waveguide in which Verdet constant is 80% of the bulk MOg lass.

A new type of bismuth silicate glass (Bi2O3-SiO2-ZnO-Al2O3-La2O3) doped with Tm2O3 is prepared by melt-quenching method. The thermal stability of the glass is examined by differential scanning calorimetry. No crystallization peak is found. Using the absorption and emission spectra, the absorption and emission cross-sections are calculated. Their maximum data are 2.9×10-21 cm2 at 1 663 nm and 4.7×10-21 cm2 at 1 826 nm, respectively. Using the Judd-Ofelt theory, the radiation transition probabilities and radiative lifetimes are obtained. The extended overlap integral method is applied to analyze energy transfer process among the Tm3+ ions. The transfer constants of cross-relaxation and energy migration among the Tm3+ions at the 3H4 level are 7.60×10-40 and 14.98×10-40 cm6/s, respectively. The critical transfer radius for cross-relaxation is 0.99 nm. The cross relaxation process is easy to realize and is favorable for obtaining ~2-\mu m laser.

Two novel anthracene derivatives containing 4-vinylpyridine (FPEA) and 2-vinylpyridine (TPEA) poly(methyl methacrylate) films are prepared on quartz glass substrates. Their nonlinear absorption properties are investigated by using a 120-fs, 800-nm Ti:sapphire femtosecond pulsed laser operating at a 1-kHz repetition rate. The unique nonlinear absorption properties of these new compounds are observed by utilizing a Z-scan system. These two-photon absorption (TPA) properties are proven by the two-photon fluorescence excited at 800 nm. The FPEA and TPEA films have nonlinear TPA coefficients of 0.164 and 0.148 cm/GW and the TPA cross sections of 3.345 × 10-48 and 3.081 × 10-48 cm4·s/photon, respectively. The influence of the chemical structures on the nonlinear TPA properties of the compounds is also discussed. The highly nonlinear TPA activities of the films implied that the new anthracene derivatives are suitable materials with promising applications in super-high-density three-dimensional data storage and nano- or microstructure fabrication.

Since RGD peptides (R: arginine; G: glycine; D: aspartic acid) are found to promote cell adhesion, they are modified at numerous materials surface for medical applications such as drug delivery and regenerative medicine. Peptide-cell surface interactions play a key role in the above applications. In this letter, we study the adhesion force between the RGD-coated bead and Hela cell surface by optical tweezes. The adhesion is dominated by the binding of \alpha5\beta1 and RGD-peptide with higher adhesion probability and stronger adhesion strength compared with the adhesion of bare bead and cell surface. The binding force for a single \alpha5\beta1-GRGDSP pair is determined to be 16.8 pN at a loading rate of 1.5 nN/s. The unstressed off-rate is 1.65 \times 10-2 s-1 and the distance of transition state for the rigid binding model is 3.0 nm.

The impulsive synchronization problem for semiconductor laser (SL) chaotic systems is studied. SL systems can be described by the rate equations governing photon density and carrier density. Because the carrier density is not easy to observe or measure, only photon density is used to design the impulsive controller. Several sufficient conditions for the synchronization of SL chaotic systems via impulsive control are derived. Numerical simulations are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

An improved Z-scan analysis approach is proposed by establishing and solving the saturable absorption (SA) and reverse-SA (RSA) models, respectively. Near-infrared femtosecond Z-scans are carried out on the synthesized gold nanorods (NRs) possessing the average length of 46 nm using a femtosecond laser operated at the wavelength of 800 nm, which is close to the peak position of longitudinal surface plasmon resonance (SPR) (710 nm) of gold NRs. At lower input intensity of less than 400 GW/cm2, the normalized transmission exhibits only SA phenomenon; however, when it exceeds 400 GW/cm2, both SA and RSA are observed. By using the presented Z-scan modeling and theory, the three-photon absorption (3PA) is identified in the material, and the 3PA cross-section is determined to be 1.58×10-71 cm6s2.

The fourth-order dispersion coefficient of fibers are estimated by the iterations around the third-order dispersion and the high-order nonlinear items in the nonlinear Schordinger equation solved by Green's function approach. Our theoretical evaluation demonstrates that the fourth-order dispersion coefficient slightly varies with distance. The fibers also record 4 values of about 0.002, 0.003, and 0.00032 ps4/km for SMF, NZDSF and DCF, respectively. In the zero-dispersion regime, the high-order nonlinear effect (higher than self-steepening) has a strong impact on the transmitted short pulse. This red-shifts accelerates the symmetrical split of the pulse, although this effect is degraded rapidly with the increase of \beta 2. Thus, the contributions to \beta 4 of SMF, NZDSF, and DCF can be neglected.

Consecutive wavelength switching characteristics of a simple, compact, and digitally wavelength-switchable laser based on V-coupled cavities are reported. Wavelength switching through thermal and carrier injection effects is examined. Without using band gap engineering for the tuning section, 26- and 9-channel wavelength switching schemes are achieved via thermal and carrier injection effects, respectively. The performances of these two tuning schemes are then compared.

The Ramsey fringe contrast of a pulsed optically pumped cold atom clock is strongly affected by the transverse decay of the atomic sample. This letter calculates the Ramsey fringe with focus on transverse decay, and analyzes the Ramsey fringe contrast with different transverse decay rates. By fitting the experimental data, we obtain the transverse decay rate in a cold atom sample at an approximate value of 30.5 s-1, which is much smaller than that in a cell.

We analyze entanglement dynamics and transfer in a system composed of two initially correlated two-level atoms, in which each atom is coupled with another atom interacting with its own reservoir. Considering atomic dipole-dipole interactions, the results show that dipole-dipole interactions restrain the entanglement birth of the reservoirs, and a parametric region of dipole-dipole interaction strength exists in which the maximal entanglement of two initially uncorrelated atoms is reduced. The transfer of entanglement shows obvious different behaviors in two initial Bell-like states.

A software synchronous optical sampling system is constructed based on sum frequency generation (SFG) in periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN). Five gigahertz of a non-return-to-zero (NRZ) data signal is sampled by sampling pulse with the repetition frequency of 29.31 MHz. The power of the SFG light is set at -23 dBm, and an eye diagram is successfully recovered. A band-pass filter is added before the sampling pulse is subjected to erbium-doped fiber amplifier to reduce gain competition and ensure a high power level of SFG.

Atom localization in a five-level atomic system under the effect of three driving fields and one standing wave field is suggested. A spontaneously emitted photon from the proposed system is measured in a detector. Precision position measurement of an atom is controlled via phase and vacuum field detuning without considering the parity violation.

Optical design of nested conical Wolter I X-ray telescope covering energy band from 1 to 30 keV is investigated systematically. Recurrence relation of the nested structure is deduced, and the impact of the initial parameters on the performance is analyzed. Due to the need for hard X-ray astronomical observations in China, the initial structure is presented, for which six groups ofW/B4C aperiodic multilayer coatings between the innermost and the outermost shell of the mirror are designed. The effective area, resolution, and field of view are calculated in the simulation. The results show that the effective area can achieve 71 cm2 and the field of view can achieve 13′ at 30 keV. The resolution is estimated to be ~10" in half-power diameter.