A recent JEOS-RP publication proposed Comments about Dispersion of Light Waves, and we present here complementary comments for birefringence dispersion in polarization-maintaining (PM) fibers, and for its measurement techniques based on channeled spectrum analysis. We start by a study of early seminal papers, and we propose additional explanations to get a simpler understanding of the subject. A geometrical construction is described to relate phase birefringence to group birefringence, and it is applied to the measurement of several kinds of PM fibers using stress-induced photo-elasticity, or shape birefringence. These measurements confirm clearly that the difference between group birefringence and phase birefringence is limited to 15–20% in stress-induced PM fibers (bow-tie, panda, or tiger-eye), but that it can get up to a 3-fold factor with an elliptical-core (E-core) fiber. There are also surprising results with solid-core micro-structured PM fibers, that are based on shape birefringence, as E-core fibers.

In order to improve the morphology of microchannels fabricated by femtosecond laser ablation, the thermal process was introduced into the post-treatment processing. It was found that the thermal process cannot only decrease the roughness but also the width and depth of the microchannel. The change rates of width, depth, and roughness of the microchannel increase with processing temperature. When we prolong the time of constant temperature, the change rate of the width decreases at the beginning, and then it tends to be stable. However, the change rates of depth and roughness increase, and then they tend to be stable. In this Letter, we discuss the reasons of the above phenomena.

Surface channel waveguides (WGs) were fabricated in a monoclinic Tm3+:KLu(WO4)2 crystal by femtosecond direct laser writing (fs-DLW). The WGs consisted of a half-ring cladding with diameters of 50 and 60 μm located just beneath the crystal surface. They were characterized by confocal laser microscopy and μ-Raman spectroscopy, indicating a reduced crystallinity and stress-induced birefringence of the WG cladding. In continuous-wave (CW) mode, under Ti:sapphire laser pumping at 802 nm, the maximum output power reached 171.1 mW at 1847.4 nm, corresponding to a slope efficiency η of 37.8% for the 60 μm diameter WG. The WG propagation loss was 0.7±0.3 dB/cm. The top surface of the WGs was spin-coated by a polymethyl methacrylate film containing randomly oriented (spaghetti-like) arc-discharge single-walled carbon nanotubes serving as a saturable absorber based on evanescent field coupling. Stable passively Q-switched (PQS) operation was achieved. The PQS 60 μm diameter WG laser generated a record output power of 150 mW at 1846.8 nm with η=34.6%. The conversion efficiency with respect to the CW mode was 87.6%. The best pulse characteristics (energy/duration) were 105.6 nJ/98 ns at a repetition rate of 1.42 MHz.

In this work, we report the modeling and the experimental demonstration of intermodal spontaneous as well as stimulated four-wave mixing (FWM) in silicon waveguides. In intermodal FWM, the phase-matching condition is achieved by exploiting the different dispersion profiles of the optical modes in a multimode waveguide. Since both the energy and the wave vectors have to be conserved in the FWM process, this leads to a wide tunability of the generated photon wavelength, allowing us to achieve a large spectral conversion. We measured several waveguides that differ by their widths and demonstrate large signal generation spanning from the pump wavelength (1550 nm) down to 1202 nm. A suited setup evidences that the different waves propagated indeed on different order modes, which supports the modeling. Despite observing a reduced efficiency with respect to intramodal FWM due to the decreased modal overlap, we were able to show a maximum spectral distance between the signal and idler of 979.6 nm with a 1550 nm pump. Our measurements suggest the intermodal FWM is a viable means for large wavelength conversion and heralded photon sources.

A fused silica glass micro-channel can be formed by chemical etching after femtosecond laser irradiation, and the successful etching probability is only 48%. In order to improve the micro-channel fabrication success probability, the method of processing a high-temperature lattice by a femtosecond laser pulse train is provided. With the same pulse energy and scanning speed, the success probability can be increased to 98% by optimizing pulse delay. The enhancement is mainly caused by the nanostructure, which changes from a periodic slabs structure to some intensive and loose pore structures. In this Letter, the optimum pulse energy distribution ratio to the etching is also investigated.

This work demonstrates the Nd:YAG waveguide laser as an efficient platform for the bio-sensing of dextrose solutions and tumor cells. The waveguide was fabricated in an Nd:YAG crystal with the cooperation of ultrafast laser writing and ion irradiation. The laser oscillation in the Nd:YAG waveguide is ultrasensitive to the external environment of the waveguide. Even a weak disturbance leads to a large variation of the output power of the laser. According to this feature, an Nd:YAG waveguide coated with graphene and WSe2 layers is used as substrate for the microfluidic channel. When the microflow crosses the Nd:YAG waveguide, the laser oscillation in the waveguide is disturbed and induces fluctuation of the output laser. According to the fluctuation, the microflow is detected with a sensitivity of 10 mW/RIU.

We propose and demonstrate an ultrasensitive integrated photonic current sensor that incorporates a silicon-based single-mode-multimode-single-mode waveguide (SMSW) structure. This kind of SMSW structure is placed over a direct current carrying power resistor, which produces Joule’s heat to change the temperature of the SMSW and further results in the change of the effective refractive index between different propagating modes. Interference occurs when the modes recombine at the second single mode waveguide. Finally, the current variation is measured by monitoring the shift in the output spectrum of the multimode interferometer. In low current, the wavelength shift has almost linear dependence: Δλ∝Ic. This effect can be used as a current sensor with a slope efficiency of 4.24 nm/A in the range of 0–200 mA.