Stimulated Brillouin scattering phase conjugation of light beams carrying orbit angular momentum (Invited Paper) Download: 920次
In recent years, vortex beams have gained considerable attention. Vortex beams possess unique phase distribution and orbit angular momentum (OAM)[1]. Therefore, vortex beams have a lot of potential applications in different fields such as optical trapping and manipulation of particles[2], laser processing[35" target="_self" style="display: inline;">–
On the other hand, stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) is a significant topic in nonlinear optics[8]. Its specific properties have been widely studied and have been applied in many applications, such as phase conjugation[9,10], pulse duration compression[11,12], and line width compression[13], even in the research for slow light[14]. Recently, the stimulated Brillouin amplification for vortex beams has been reported[15,16]. The controllable OAM transfer between photons and phonons was realized and the potential of using OAM multiplexing to extend the capacity of a photon-phonon conversion-based signal-processing scheme was demonstrated.
However, in Refs. [15,16] the SBS signal was pumped by a Gaussian beam, but not a vortex beam, and converted to a vortex beam with a spiral phase plate (SPP). As the theoretical forecasts and experimental demonstration[17], the Stokes beam generated by a directly focused vortex laser beam represents a random combination of different modes, as they have the same amplification coefficient. Therefore, it is impossible to achieve the SBS phase conjugation of a directly focused vortex beam. In order to conjugate the optical vortex, it is necessary to destroy the spatial structure of vortex beam in the SBS cell. It has been proposed that it is possible to use a transparent random phase plate for phase conjugation of a vortex beam due to the initiation of a high-fidelity phase-conjugation in the SBS cell[18]. However, until now, few detailed experimental results have been reported. In this Letter, we will experimentally investigate the SBS of a vortex beam generated in a SBS phase-conjugating mirror (PCM) with a random phase plate.
The experimental setup is shown schematically in Fig.
The intensity profile of the incident pump beam after the PBS is recorded by a CCD-based beam profiler (Ophir, SP620U). The pump beam has an annular spatial profile due to a phase singularity, as shown in Fig.
Fig. 3. Experimental intensity distributions of (a) the pump beam, (b) the received SBS signal, and (c) the mirror reflection beam formed after the tilted lens, respectively.
In order to compare the reflection by SBS PCM with the reflection by a conventional mirror, a conventional mirror is placed after the PBS. The incident pump beam is reflected by the mirror and the PBS, and also examined by using a tilted lens. As shown in Fig.
To check the spectral component of the signal we received, we employ a Fabry-Perot (F-P) etalon to form a spectrum. The F-P etalon used is a solid etalon made of quartz with a free spectral range (FSR) of
Figure
Fig. 5. Measured pulse width of the laser beam and that of Brillouin scattering in water.
To check the important role that the LSD played in the SBS process, we removed the LSD from the optical path and then recorded the SBS signal again. Figure
Fig. 6. (a) Speckle pattern recorded after the LSD; (b) the intensity profile of SBS generated in the SBS cell without the LSD.
In conclusion, we experimentally investigate the SBS properties of a vortex beam. We obtain the SBS phase conjugation of a vortex beam with the help of an LSD and confirmed OAM conservation in the SBS PCM. The physical mechanism can be ascribed to the high phase-conjugating fidelity SBS and the acoustical vortex wave with a doubled TC generated by the speckle filed in the SBS medium[18]. Hence, although only the SBS phase conjugation of the vortex with a TC of 2 is investigated, similar results can be obtained for a vortex beam with other TC. We also measure the spectrum and pulse width of the SBS signal. The results show that the pulse width of the vortex beam is efficiently compressed during SBS in water. The OAM transfer from photons to phonons may find potential applications in extending the capacity of a photon-phonon conversion-based signal-processing scheme by using OAM multiplexing.
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Xudong Chen, Chengcheng Chang, Jixiong Pu. Stimulated Brillouin scattering phase conjugation of light beams carrying orbit angular momentum (Invited Paper)[J]. Chinese Optics Letters, 2017, 15(3): 030006.