We present a theoretical analysis of a novel multi-channel light amplification photonic system on chip, where the nonlinear Raman amplification phenomenon in the silicon (Si) wire waveguide is considered. Particularly, a compact and temperature insensitive Mach–Zehnder interferometer filter working as demultiplexer is also exploited, allowing for the whole Si photonic system to be free from thermal interference. The propagation of the multi-channel pump and Stokes lights is described by a rigorous theoretical model that incorporates all relevant linear and nonlinear optical effects, including the intrinsic waveguide optical losses, first- and second-order frequency dispersion, self-phase and cross-phase modulation, phase shift and two-photon absorption, free-carriers dynamics, as well as the inter-pulse Raman interaction. Notably, to prevent excessive drift of the transmission window of the demultiplexer caused by ambient temperature variations and high thermo-optical coefficient of Si, an asymmetric waveguide width is adopted in the upper and lower arms of each Mach–Zehnder interferometer lattice cell. A Chebyshev half-band filter is utilized to achieve a flat pass-band transmission, achieving a temperature sensitivity of <1.4pm/K and over 100 K temperature span. This all-Si amplifier shows a thermally robust behavior, which is desired by future Si-on-insulator (SOI) applications.

The year 2019 marks the 10th anniversary of the first report of ultrafast fiber laser mode-locked by graphene. This result has had an important impact on ultrafast laser optics and continues to offer new horizons. Herein, we mainly review the linear and nonlinear photonic properties of two-dimensional (2D) materials, as well as their nonlinear applications in efficient passive mode-locking devices and ultrafast fiber lasers. Initial works and significant progress in this field, as well as new insights and challenges of 2D materials for ultrafast fiber lasers, are reviewed and analyzed.

Active control of metamaterial properties with high tunability of both resonant intensity and frequency is essential for advanced terahertz (THz) applications, ranging from spectroscopy and sensing to communications. Among varied metamaterials, plasmon-induced transparency (PIT) has enabled active control with giant sensitivity by embedding semiconducting materials. However, there is still a stringent challenge to achieve dynamic responses in both intensity and frequency modulation. Here, an anisotropic THz active metamaterial device with an ultrasensitive modulation feature is proposed and experimentally studied. A radiative-radiative-coupled PIT system is established, with a frequency shift of 0.26 THz in its sharp transparent windows by polarization rotation. Enabled by high charge-carrier mobility and longer diffusion lengths, we utilize a straightforwardly spin-coated MAPbI3 film acting as a photoactive medium to endow the device with high sensitivity and ultrafast speed. When the device is pumped by an ultralow laser fluence, the PIT transmission windows at 0.86 and 1.12 THz demonstrate a significant reduction for two polarizations, respectively, with a full recovery time of 561 ps. In addition, we numerically prove the validity that the investigated resonator structure is sensitive to the optically induced conductivity. The hybrid system not only achieves resonant intensity and frequency modulations simultaneously, but also preserves the all-optical-induced switching merits with high sensitivity and speed, which enriches multifunctional subwavelength metamaterial devices at THz frequencies.

In this work, a soliton mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) with a high-quality molecular beam epitaxy (MBE)-grown topological insulator (TI) Bi₂Se₃ saturable absorber (SA) is reported. To fabricate the SA device, a 16-layer Bi₂Se₃ film was grown successfully on a 100 μm thick SiO₂ substrate and sandwiched directly between two fiber ferrules. The TI-SA had a saturable absorption of 1.12% and a saturable influence of 160 MW/cm². After inserting the TI-SA into the unidirectional ring-cavity EDFL, self-starting mode-locked soliton pulse trains were obtained at a fundamental repetition rate of 19.352 MHz. The output central wavelength, pulse energy, pulse duration, and signal to noise ratio of the radio frequency spectrum were 1530 nm,18.5 pJ, 1.08 ps, and 60 dBm, respectively. These results demonstrate that the MBE technique could provide a controllable and repeatable method for the fabrication of identical high-quality TI-SAs, which is critically important for ultra-fast pulse generation.

Here, we used the micro P-scan method to investigate the saturated absorption (SA) of different layered Bi2Se3 continuous films. Through resonance excitation, first, we studied the influence of the second surface state (SS) on SA. The second SS resonance excitation (～2.07eV) resulted in a free carrier cross section that was 4 orders of magnitude larger than usual. At the same time, we found that the fast relaxation process of the massless Dirac electrons is much shorter than that of electrons in bulk states. Moreover, the second SS excitation resonance reduced the saturation intensity. Second, we studied the effect of the thickness on the SA properties of materials. The results showed that the saturation intensity was positively correlated to the thickness, the same as the modulation depth, and the thicker the Bi2Se3 film was, the less the second SS would influence it. This work demonstrated that by using Bi2Se3 as a saturable absorber through changing the thickness or excitation wavelength, a controllable SA could be achieved.