Tunable lasers, with the ability to continuously vary their emission wavelengths, have found widespread applications across various fields such as biomedical imaging, coherent ranging, optical communications, and spectroscopy. In these applications, a wide chirp range is advantageous for large spectral coverage and high frequency resolution. Besides, the frequency accuracy and precision also depend critically on the chirp linearity of the laser. While extensive efforts have been made on the development of many kinds of frequency-agile, widely tunable, narrow-linewidth lasers, wideband yet precise methods to characterize and linearize laser chirp dynamics are also demanded. Here we present an approach to characterize laser chirp dynamics using an optical frequency comb. The instantaneous laser frequency is tracked over terahertz bandwidth at 1 MHz intervals. Using this approach we calibrate the chirp performance of 12 tunable lasers from Toptica, Santec, New Focus, EXFO, and NKT that are commonly used in fiber optics and integrated photonics. In addition, with acquired knowledge of laser chirp dynamics, we demonstrate a simple frequency-linearization scheme that enables coherent ranging without any optical or electronic linearization unit. Our approach not only presents novel wideband, high-resolution laser spectroscopy, but is also critical for sensing applications with ever-increasing requirements on performance.

传统的多涡旋光束多为离轴光束，需要更精密的镜头、光路复杂且成像质量差，限制了其应用。本文设计并制备了一种基于液晶器件的复合q-plate，其透射效率大于95%，同时可生成同轴复合涡旋光束。通过理论和实验证明了该器件生成的复合涡旋光束的传播特性，该光束具有自旋和长距离衍射后自愈等新颖的衍射现象，生成的同轴复合涡旋光束避免了传统多涡旋光束离轴的缺点。此研究为粒子捕获和操控、光信息处理、光学加密和光学测量等领域的应用提供了全新的手段。

多芯光纤（MCF）是空分复用（SDM）技术的重要传输介质，能够数倍地拓展现有单根光纤的通信容量，然而MCF结构复杂度高、测试难度大，尚无测试标准。文章根据MCF的结构特点，结合在MCF开发中的技术经验，规范了MCF的熔接方法以及主要参数的测试方法，为未来MCF的大规模商用化奠定了基础。

The foundry development of integrated photonics has revolutionized today’s optical interconnect and datacenters. Over the last decade, we have witnessed the rising of silicon nitride (Si3N4) integrated photonics, which is currently transferring from laboratory research to foundry manufacturing. The development and transition are triggered by the ultimate need for low optical loss offered by Si3N4, which is beyond the reach of silicon and III-V semiconductors. Combined with modest Kerr nonlinearity, tight optical confinement, and dispersion engineering, Si3N4 has today become the leading platform for linear and Kerr nonlinear photonics, and it has enabled chip-scale lasers featuring ultralow noise on par with table-top fiber lasers. However, so far all the reported fabrication processes of tight-confinement, dispersion-engineered Si3N4 photonic integrated circuits (PICs) with optical loss down to few dB/m have only been developed on 4-inch (100 mm diameter) or smaller wafers. Yet, to transfer these processes to established CMOS foundries that typically operate 6-inch or even larger wafers, challenges remain. In this work, we demonstrate the first foundry-standard fabrication process of Si3N4 PICs with only 2.6 dB/m loss, thickness above 800 nm, and near 100% fabrication yield on 6-inch (150 mm diameter) wafers. Such thick and ultralow-loss Si3N4 PIC enables low-threshold generation of soliton frequency combs. Merging with advanced heterogeneous integration, active ultralow-loss Si3N4 integrated photonics could pave an avenue to addressing future demands in our increasingly information-driven society.