Spatial terahertz wave modulators that can arbitrarily tailor the electromagnetic wavefront are in high demand in nondestructive inspections and high-capacity wireless communications. Here, we propose a liquid crystal integrated metadevice. It modulates the terahertz wave based on the adjustable electromagnetically induced transparency analog when spatially changing the environmental refractive index. The functions of the device can be arbitrarily programmed via photo-reorienting the directors of liquid crystals with a digital micromirror device-based exposing system. The thin liquid crystal layer can be further driven by an electric field, and thus the function can be rapidly switched. Amplitude modulation and the lens effect are demonstrated with modulation depths over 50% at 0.94 THz.

The temporal coupled-mode theory (TCMT) has made significant progress in recent years, and is widely applied in explaining a variety of optical phenomena. In this paper, the optical characteristics of the metasurface composed of nano-bars and nano-rings are simulated. The simulation results are well explained by TCMT under the coupled basis vector. However, when the structural asymmetry is large, the fitting of results shows that the total radiation loss is not conservative, in contradiction to the requirement of traditional TCMT. We solved this inconsistency by introducing the propagation phase into the near-field coupling term of TCMT. The studies show that, unlike the local mode near the exceptional point which corresponds to the radiation loss of the bright mode, the global mode near the diabolic point is closely related to the propagation phase. Furthermore, the structure near the diabolic point shows characteristic cross-coupling with the change of period. This study proposes a new theoretical framework for comprehending the interaction of light and matter and offers some guiding implications for the application of TCMT to a variety of related domains.

The lateral geometry and material property of plasmonic nanostructures are critical parameters for tailoring their optical resonance for sensing applications. While lateral geometry can be easily observed by a scanning electron microscope or an atomic force microscope, characterizing materials properties of plasmonic devices is not straightforward and requires delicate examination of material composition, cross-sectional thickness, and refractive index. In this study, a deep neural network is adopted to characterize these parameters of unknown plasmonic nanostructures through simple transmission spectra. The network architecture is established based on simulated data to achieve accurate identification of both geometric and material parameters. We then demonstrate that the network training by a mixture of simulated and experimental data can result in correct material property recognition. Our work may indicate a simple and intelligent characterization approach to plasmonic nanostructures by spectroscopic techniques.

The two-photon state with spatial entanglement is an essential resource for testing fundamental laws of quantum mechanics and various quantum applications. Its creation typically relies on spontaneous parametric downconversion in bulky nonlinear crystals where the tunability of spatial entanglement is limited. Here, we predict that ultrathin nonlinear lithium niobate metasurfaces can generate and diversely tune spatially entangled photon pairs. The spatial properties of photons including the emission pattern, rate, and degree of spatial entanglement are analyzed theoretically with the coupled mode theory and Schmidt decomposition method. We show that by leveraging the strong angular dispersion of the metasurface, the degree of spatial entanglement quantified by the Schmidt number can be decreased or increased by changing the pump laser wavelength and a Gaussian beam size. This flexibility can facilitate diverse quantum applications of entangled photon states generated from nonlinear metasurfaces.

Metasurfaces, two-dimensional (2D) or quasi-2D arrays of dielectric or metallic meta-atoms, offer a compact and novel platform to manipulate the amplitude, phase, and polarization of incoming wavefronts in a desired manner by engineering the geometry of meta-atoms. In polarization control, spin-insensitive metasurfaces have attracted significant attention due to the robustness of circular polarization against the beam misalignment and multi-path effects. Till now, several efforts have been made to realize polarization-insensitive metasurfaces for circularly polarized (CP) wavefront manipulation; however, these metasurfaces only consider the cross-polarization channels and keep the co-polarization channels abandoned. Such metasurfaces cannot be considered truly spin-insensitive, as one has to carefully choose the analyzer at output. Here, by combining the polarization-insensitive geometric phase and engineered propagation phase, we propose a spin-insensitive design principle based on metasurfaces that can perform identical functionality (on co- and cross-polarization channels) irrespective of the handedness of incident/transmitted light. As a proof of concept, we design and numerically realize two types of spin-insensitive wavefront engineering devices: (1) spin-insensitive meta-hologram and (2) spin-insensitive beam deflector with power splitting functionality. The proposed work is expected to open up new avenues for developing spin-independent metasurfaces-based devices.

Electrically driven structural patterns in liquid crystals (LCs) have attracted considerable attention due to their electro-optical applications. Here, we disclose various appealing reconfigurable LC microstructures in a dual frequency nematic LC (DFNLC) owing to the electroconvection-induced distortion of the LC director, including one-dimensional rolls, chevron pattern, two-dimensional grids, and unstable chaos. These patterns can be switched among each other, and the lattice constants are modulated by tuning the amplitude and frequency of the applied electric field. The electrically switchable self-assembled microstructures and their beam steering capabilities thus provide a feasible way to tune the functions of DFNLC-based optical devices.

In this study, an optical fiber-based magnetically-tuned graphene mechanical resonator (GMR) is demonstrated by integrating superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles on the graphene membrane. The resonance frequency shift is achieved by tuning the tension of the graphene membrane with a magnetic field. A resonance frequency tunability of 23 kHz using a 100 mT magnetic field is achieved. The device provides a new way to tune a GMR with a non-contact force. It could also be used for weak magnetic field detection in the future with further improvements in sensitivity.

To date, fluorescence imaging systems have all relied on at least one beam splitter (BS) to ensure the separation of excitation light and fluorescence. Here, we reported SiO2/TiO2 multi-layer long pass filter integrated GaN LED. It is considered as the potential source for imaging systems. Experimental results indicate that the GaN LED shows blue emission peaked at 470.3 nm and can be used to excite dye materials. Integrating with a long pass filter (550 nm), the light source can be used to establish a real-time fluorescence detection for dyes that emit light above 550 nm. More interestingly, with this source, a real-time imaging system with signature words written with the dyes, such as ‘N J U P T’, can be converted into CCD images. This work may lead to a new strategy for integrating light sources and BS mirrors to build mini and smart fluorescence imaging systems.

Single-pixel imaging can reconstruct the image of the object when the light traveling from the object to the detector is scattered or distorted. Most single-pixel imaging methods only obtain distribution of transmittance or reflectivity of the object. Some methods can obtain extra information, such as color and polarization information. However, there is no method that can get the vibration information when the object is vibrating during the measurement. Vibration information is very important, because unexpected vibration often means the occurrence of abnormal conditions. In this Letter, we introduce a method to obtain vibration information with the frequency modulation single-pixel imaging method. This method uses a light source with a special pattern to illuminate the object and analyzes the frequency of the total light intensity signal transmitted or reflected by the object. Compared to other single-pixel imaging methods, frequency modulation single-pixel imaging can obtain vibration information and maintain high signal-to-noise ratio and has potential on finding out hidden facilities under construction or instruments in work.

Nitrogen-vacancy color centers can perform highly sensitive and spatially resolved quantum measurements of physical quantities such as magnetic field, temperature, and pressure. Meanwhile, sensing so many variables at the same time often introduces additional noise, causing a reduced accuracy. Here, a dual-microwave time-division multiplexing protocol is used in conjunction with a lock-in amplifier in order to decouple temperature from the magnetic field and vice versa. In this protocol, dual-frequency driving and frequency modulation are used to measure the magnetic and temperature field simultaneously in real time. The sensitivity of our system is about 3.4 nT/Hz and 1.3 mK/Hz, respectively. Our detection protocol not only enables multifunctional quantum sensing, but also extends more practical applications.

Studies on the kinetics of gas-phase chemical reactions currently rely on calculations or simulations and lack simple, fast, and accurate direct measurement methods. We developed a tunable laser molecular absorption spectroscopy measurement system to achieve direct measurements of such reactions by using wavelength modulated spectroscopy and performed online measurements and diagnostics of molecular concentration, reaction temperature, and pressure change during the redox reaction of ozone with nitrogen oxides (NOx) with 0.1 s temporal resolution. This study provides a promising diagnostic tool for studying gas-phase chemical reaction kinetics.

A quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) coherent photodetector chip consisting of a 4×4 multimode interference 90° optical hybrid and a four-channel evanescent photodetector array is designed and fabricated with its photo-response in the L-band characterized. The metal organic chemical vapor deposition regrowth method is adopted to realize active–passive monolithic integration. The chip exhibits a low dark current below 100 nA for each photodetector in the array, a low excess loss of 0.85 dB, a common mode ratio rejection better than 13.6 dB, and a phase deviation within ±10° over the 40 nm wavelength span.

A 222 nm all-solid-state far-ultraviolet C (UVC) pulse laser system based on an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) and second-harmonic generation (SHG) using β-Ba2BO4 (BBO) crystals was demonstrated. Pumped by a Nd:Y3Al5O12 laser with a repetition rate of 100 Hz at 355 nm, the maximum signal laser pulse energy of 1.22 mJ at 444 nm wavelength was obtained from the BBO-OPO system, corresponding to a conversion efficiency of 27.9%. The maximum output pulse energy of 164.9 µJ at the 222 nm wavelength was successfully achieved, corresponding to an SHG conversion efficiency of 16.2%. Moreover, the tunable output wavelength of UVC light from 210 nm to 252.5 nm was achieved.

We report the InAs/GaAs quantum dot laterally coupled distributed feedback (LC-DFB) lasers operating at room temperature in the wavelength range of 1.31 µm. First-order chromium Bragg gratings were fabricated alongside the ridge waveguide to obtain the maximum coupling coefficient with the optical field. Stable continuous-wave single-frequency operation has been achieved with output power above 5 mW/facet and side mode suppression ratio exceeding 52 dB. Moreover, a single chip integrating three LC-DFB lasers was tentatively explored. The three LC-DFB lasers on the chip can operate in single mode at room temperature, covering the wavelength span of 35.6 nm.

In this Letter, we proposed and experimentally demonstrated a directly modulated tunable laser based on the multi-wavelength distributed feedback (DFB) laser array. The lasers are placed in series to avoid the usage of an optical combiner and additional power loss. A three-section design is utilized to reduce the interference from other lasers and improve the electro-optic response bandwidth. Besides, the reconstruction-equivalent-chirp technique is used to simplify the grating fabrication and precisely control the grating phase. We realized 12 channels with 100 GHz spacing with high side mode suppression ratios of above 50 dB. The output power of all the channels is above 14 mW. The 3 dB electro-optic bandwidth is above 20 GHz at a bias current of 100 mA for all four lasers. A 25 Gb/s data transmission over a standard single-mode fiber of up to 10 km is demonstrated for all 12 channels, and 50 Gb/s data per wavelength is obtained through the four-level pulse amplitude modulation. The proposed directly modulated tunable in-series DFB laser array shows the potential for a compact and low-cost light source for wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) systems, such as next-generation front-haul networks and passive optical networks.

The idea of a slot waveguide amplifier based on erbium-doped tellurite glass is first theoretically discussed in this work. Choosing the horizontal slot for low propagation loss, the TM mode profile compressed in the insertion layer was simulated, and the gain characteristics of the slot waveguide amplifier were calculated. Combining the capacity to confine light locally and the merits of tellurite glass as an emission host, this optimized amplifier shows enhanced interactions between the electric field and erbium ions and achieves a net gain of 15.21 dB for the 0.01 mW input light at 1530 nm, implying great promise of a high-performance device.

Based on the Nd-doped single-mode fiber as the gain medium, an all-fiber 12th harmonic mode-locked (HML) laser operating at the 0.9 µm waveband was obtained for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. A mandrel with a diameter of 10 mm was employed to introduce bending losses to suppress mode competition at 1.06 µm, which resulted in a suppression ratio of up to 54 dB. The 1st–12th order HML pulses with the tunable repetition rate of 494.62 kHz–5.94 MHz were obtained in the mode-locked laser with a center wavelength of ∼904 nm. In addition, the laser has an extremely low threshold pump power of 88 mW. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that an HML pulse has been achieved in a 0.9 µm Nd-doped single-mode all-fiber mode-locked laser with the advantages of low cost, simple structure, and compactness, which could be an ideal light source for two-photon microscopy.

A wideband wavelength-tunable 4×5 distributed feedback (DFB) semiconductor laser array based on the reconstruction-equivalent-chirp (REC) technique using a simple tuning scheme is demonstrated. It consists of 20 DFB lasers with 4×5 matrix interleaving distributions, two-level cascaded Y-branch optical combiners, and one active semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA), all in-series integrated on one chip. Unlike the traditional thermal-electric cooler (TEC)-based wavelength-tuning scheme, the tunable 4×5 REC-DFB laser array achieves a faster and broader continuous wavelength-tuning range using TaN thin-film heaters integrated on the AlN submount. By changing the injection current of the TaN resistor from 0 to 190 mA, the proposed tunable laser achieves a wavelength-tuning range of ∼2.5 nm per channel and a total tuning of over 50 nm. This study opens up new avenues for realizing cost-effective and wide-tuning-range semiconductor lasers.

Swept source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) is a new noninvasive technique for assessing tissue. Although it has advantages, such as being label-free, noninvasive, and with high resolution, it also has drawbacks: there has been no in-depth research into identifying the driving of swept source. Based on preliminary research, we demonstrate a novel driving modulation method of a fiber Fabry–Perot tunable filter ranging phase adjustable as a tool for making bandwidth compensation of a swept laser source. This novel method is analyzed in detail; a swept laser source with a sweep rate of 100.5 kHz over a range of 152.25 nm and at a center wavelength of 1335.45 nm is demonstrated.

We report on the design and fabrication of a dual-wavelength switchable quantum cascade laser (QCL) by optimizing the design of a homogeneous active region and combining superposed distributed feedback gratings. Coaxial, single-mode emissions at two different wavelengths were achieved only through adjusting the bias voltage. Room temperature continuous-wave operation with output powers of above 30 mW and 75 mW was realized for single-mode emission at 7.61 µm and 7.06 µm, respectively. The simplified fabrication process and easy wavelength control of our designed dual-wavelength QCL make it very attractive for developing miniature multi-species gas sensing systems.

The chiral feature of an optical field can be evaluated by the parameter of g-factor enhancement, which is helpful to enhance chiroptic signals from a chiral dipole. In this work, the superchiral spot has been theoretically proposed in metal-insulator-metal waveguides. The g-factor enhancement of the superchiral spot can be enhanced by 67-fold more than that of circularly polarized light, and the spot is confined in the deep wavelength scale along each spatial dimension. Moreover, the position of the superchiral spot can be tuned by manipulating the incident field. The tunable superchiral spot may find applications in chiral imaging and sensing.

We report the modulation of epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) wavelength and enhanced third-order nonlinearity in indium tin oxide (ITO)/Au multilayer films. The samples consisting of five-layer 40 nm ITO films spaced by four-layer ultrathin Au films of different thickness, i.e., ITO(40 nm)/[Au(x)/ITO(40 nm)]4, were prepared by magnetron sputtering at room temperature. The ENZ wavelength in the multilayer films is theoretically calculated and experimentally confirmed. The nonlinear refractive index and nonlinear absorption coefficient of the samples of x=0, 2, 3, 4 nm were determined using the Z-scan method at a wavelength of 1.064 µm. The large nonlinear refractive index n2=1.12×10-13 m2/W and nonlinear absorption coefficient β=-1.78×10-7 m/W in the sample of x = 4 nm are both four times larger than those in the single-layer ITO film. The large optical nonlinearity due to the ENZ enhancement and carrier concentration is discussed. The results indicate that the ITO/Au multilayer films are promising for advanced all-optical devices.

Non-interferometric X-ray quantitative phase imaging (XQPI), much simpler than the interferometric scheme, has provided high-resolution and reliable phase-contrast images. We report on implementing the volumetric XQPI images using concurrent-bidirectional scanning of the orthogonal plane on the optical axis of the Foucault differential filter; we then extracted data in conjunction with the transport-intensity equation. The volumetric image of the laminate microstructure of the gills of a fish was successfully reconstructed to demonstrate our XQPI method. The method can perform 3D rendering without any rotational motion for laterally extended objects by manipulating incoherent X-rays using the pinhole array.