We propose and demonstrate a dual-channel microfluidic sensor based on a side-hole fiber (SHF) with two long-period fiber grating (LPFG) structures. There are two air holes in the SHF, which are natural microfluidic channels. We fabricate two LPFGs (long-period gratings LPG-A and LPG-B) in the SHF with the resonance wavelengths of 1268.7 nm and 1385.8 nm, respectively. Results show that the refractive index sensitivities of LPG-A and LPG-B are ?76.0 nm/RIU and ?71.1 nm/RIU, respectively. One can measure the refractive index of liquid samples in two channels simultaneously. The proposed dual-channel microfluidic sensor has advantages of good linearity response, fluidic technology compatibility, and easy light input/output coupling and system integration, which helps the sensor to have a potential application in environmental detection and food safety detection.

We have demonstrated the highly efficient excitation of the linearly polarized mode (LP₀₁) in ring-core fibers (RCFs) by tapering the spliced point between the RCF and the standard single-mode fiber (SMF) to optimize all-fiber orbital angular momentum (OAM) generation. The tapering technique has been investigated theoretically and experimentally. Before tapering, only 50% of light can be coupled from SMFs to RCFs. The modal interference spectrum with an extinction ratio (ER) of ～9 dB is observed, showing that higher-order modes are excited in RCF. By tapering the spliced point, 90% of light is coupled, and the ER is minimized to be ～2 dB, indicating that the higher-order modes are effectively suppressed by tapering. Such tapered spliced points of RCF–SMF are further applied for all-fiber OAM generation. The efficiencies of OAM₊₁ and OAM_?1 generation are found to be enhanced by approximately 11.66% and 12.41%, respectively, showing that the tapered spliced point of the RCF–SMF is a feasible way to optimize OAM generation.

We propose a radio frequency (RF) transfer technique with passive phase noise compensation over a fiber-optic ring. By adopting different frequencies and same wavelength transmission and double sideband (DSB) with carrier suppression (DSBCS) modulation, the impact of backscattering can be effectively suppressed. A stable RF signal can be obtained via frequency mixing at an arbitrary access site along the fiber-optic ring. As the two directional transmissions adopt the same fiber and same wavelength from the same laser, the bidirectional propagation symmetry can be maximally guaranteed. We experimentally demonstrate 2 GHz RF signal transfer along a 100 km standard single-mode fiber-optic ring.

The influences of nutation trail accuracy, simplification of coupling model, spot position jitter, and power variation of incident light on the detection error are analyzed theoretically. Under the condition of satisfying the requirements, the nutation radius is less than 1.13 μm, the accuracy of the nutation trail is less than 0.04 μm, and the detection range is [?5 μm, +5 μm]. The nutation frequency is 160 times spot position jitter frequency and 100 times intensity jitter frequency of incident light. The analysis is of great significance for determining nutation radius and frequency in the tracking system based on fiber nutation.

Lens-less Fourier-transform holography has been actively studied because of its simple optical structure and its single-shot recording. However, a low-contrast interferogram between the reference and object waves limits its signal to noise ratio. Here, multi-reference lens-less Fourier-transform holography with a Greek-ladder sieve array is proposed in the experiment and demonstrated effectively to improve the signal to noise ratio. The key technique in our proposed method is a Greek-ladder sieve array, which acts as not only a wave-front modulator but also a beam splitter. With advantages of the common path, single shot, and no need for a lens, this system has enormous potential in imaging and especially in extreme ultraviolet and soft X-ray holography.

Systems containing multiple graphics-processing-unit (GPU) clusters are difficult to use for real-time electroholography when using only a single spatial light modulator because the transfer of the computer-generated hologram data between the GPUs is bottlenecked. To overcome this bottleneck, we propose a rapid GPU packing scheme that significantly reduces the volume of the required data transfer. The proposed method uses a multi-GPU cluster system connected with a cost-effective gigabit Ethernet network. In tests, we achieved real-time electroholography of a three-dimensional (3D) video presenting a point-cloud 3D object made up of approximately 200,000 points.

SO₂ and NO₂ are the most important pollution in atmosphere. An optimized long path (LP) differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS) system of high light intensity at an ultraviolet (UV) wavelength is proposed and used to measure the concentration of SO₂ and NO₂ simultaneously. In contrast to the traditional DOAS, the system adopted a Y-type optical fiber structure instead of a combination of mirrors in the telescope. The UV light intensity test shows that the light intensity of UV can arrive to above 80% of the max measuring range when the light path reaches 135 m, and the integral time of the spectrograph is only 15 ms. The system is proved to be efficacious through laboratory calibration. The maximum error of SO₂ calibration is 4.19%, and is 5.22% for NO₂. The error of the SO₂ and NO₂ mixture calibration is within 10%. Field measurement is implemented in a wastewater treatment plant in winter. The measurement light path is 738 m. The concentration of SO₂ varies from 6 μg/m³ (2.26 ppb) to 20 μg/m³ (7.52 ppb), and the concentration of NO₂ varies from 100 μg/m³ (53.2 ppb) to 200 μg/m³ (106.4 ppb) approximately. The results are in accordance with the data from a monitoring station nearby in magnitude order and variation tendency mostly.

An all-reflective self-referenced spectral interferometry based on the transient grating (TG) effect is proposed for single-shot measuring of the amplitude and phase of ultrashort pulses in a broadband spectral range. Except for a thin third-order nonlinear medium, which was used to generate the TG signal, no transmitted optics were used in the proposed device, and few-cycle pulses in a broad spectral range from deep UV to mid-IR can be characterized. With a homemade compact and alignment-free device, a 5.0 fs pulse at 800 nm corresponding to about two cycles and a 14.3 fs pulse at 1800 nm corresponding to less than three cycles were successfully characterized.

A novel phase-shifted long-period fiber grating (PS-LPFG) for the simultaneous measurement of torsion and temperature is described and experimentally demonstrated. The PS-LPFG is fabricated by inserting a pre-twisted structure into the long-period fiber grating (LPFG) written in single-mode fiber (SMF). Experimental results show that the torsion sensitivities of the two dips are ?0.114 nm/(rad/m) and ?0.069 nm/(rad/m) in the clockwise direction, and ?0.087 nm/(rad/m) and ?0.048 nm/(rad/m) in the counterclockwise direction, respectively. The temperature sensitivities of the two dips are 0.057 nm/°C and 0.051 nm/°C, respectively. The two dips of the PS-LPFG exhibit different responses to torsion and temperature. Simultaneous measurement of torsion and temperature can be implemented using a sensor. The feasibility and stabilization of simultaneous torsion and temperature measurement have been confirmed, and hence this novel PS-LPFG demonstrates potential for fiber sensing and engineering applications.

We propose a new non-intrusive flow measurement method using the distributed feedback fiber laser (DFB-FL) as a sensor to monitor flow in the pipe. The relationship between the wavelength of the DFB-FL and the liquid flow rate in the pipeline is derived. Under the guidance of this theory, the design and test of the flow sensor is completed. The response curve is relatively flat in the frequency range of 10 Hz to 500 Hz, and the response of the flow sensor has high linearity. The flow from 0.6 m³/h to 25.5 m³/h is accurately measured under the energy analysis method in different frequency intervals. A minimum flow rate of 0.046 m/s is achieved. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the new non-intrusive flow measurement method based on the DFB-FL and accurate measurement of small flow rates.

A 1.5 J Nd:LuAG ceramic active mirror laser amplifier with a high beam quality is demonstrated in which a 0.8% (atomic fraction) Nd-doped Nd:LuAG ceramic disk with a diameter of 64 mm and a thickness of 5.5 mm is used as a laser gain medium. A maximum single-pass small-signal gain of 2.59 is measured when the pump energy is 11.5 J, with an injected seed energy of 0.4 J; a maximum output energy of 1.5 J is obtained at the repetition rate of 10 Hz. A far-field beam spot 1.25 times the diffraction limit (DL) is achieved by using a stimulated Brillouin scattering phase conjugation mirror (SBS-PCM) for wavefront correction.

High-power fiber-to-fiber coupling is extensively used in fiber laser applications, and its performance is determined by coupling efficiency. We demonstrate a novel method for alignment and monitoring efficiency by detecting backscattering power at the fiber end cap. The relationship between alignment error and backscattering power is determined by simulations and experiments. Through this method, a state-of-the-art kW-level fiber-to-fiber optic switch is developed (transmission efficiency >97%). It performs well for longer than 60 min. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time to establish the mathematical model based on this method. Our results can provide guidance in high-power fiber-to-fiber coupling.

The laser-induced damage threshold of a calcium fluoride (CaF₂) single crystal was obtained by a 193 nm ArF excimer laser. The damage morphology of the crystal was analyzed. The results showed that the surface of CaF₂ single crystal broke along the natural cleavage plane under ArF excimer laser irradiation, some fragments fell off, and Newton’s rings were observed on the curved fragments. Laser-induced periodic stripe structures (LIPSS) appeared on the surface layer beneath the fragments that peeled off. The spacing of LIPSS was measured, and the formation mechanism of LIPSS was analyzed based on the interference model.

In this Letter, we report the existence and relaxation properties of a critical phenomenon on called a 3D super crystal that emerges at T = T_C ? 3.5°C, that is, in the proximity of the Curie temperature of a Cu:KTN sample. The dynamics processes of a 3D super crystal manifest in its formation containing polarized nanometric regions and/or polarized clusters. However, with strong coupling and interaction of microcomponents, the characteristic relaxation time measured by dynamic light scattering demonstrates a fully new relaxation mechanism with a much longer relaxation time. As the relaxation mechanism of a relaxator is so-far undetermined, this research provides a novel perspective. These results can help structure a fundamental theory of ferroelectric relaxation.

Alloying in two-dimension has been a hot spot in the development of new, versatile systems of optics and electronics. Alloys have been demonstrated to be a fascinating strategy to modulate the chemical and electronic properties of two-dimensional nanosheets. We firstly reported ultra-broadband enhanced nonlinear saturable absorption of Mo_0.53W_0.47Te₂ alloy at 0.6, 1.0, and 2.0 μm. The nonlinear saturable absorption of Mo_0.53W_0.47Te₂ saturable absorber (SA) was measured by the open aperture Z-scan technique. Compared to MoTe₂ and WTe₂ SAs, the Mo_0.53W_0.47Te₂ SA showed five times deeper modulation depth, 8.6% lower saturable intensity, and one order larger figure of merit. Thus, our research provides a method of alloys to find novel materials with more outstanding properties for optics and optoelectronic applications.

We experimentally investigated the forward 353.8 nm radiation from plasma filaments in pure nitrogen gas pumped by intense circularly polarized 800 nm femtosecond laser pulses. This emission line corresponds to the B2Σu+(v′=4)?X2Σg+(v=3) transition of nitrogen ions. In the presence of an external seeding pulse, the 353.8 nm signal was amplified by 3 orders of magnitude. Thanks to the much enhanced intensity, we performed time-resolved measurement of the amplified 353.8 nm emission based on the sum-frequency generation technique. It was revealed that the built-up time and duration of these emissions are both inversely proportional to the gas pressure, while the radiation peak power grows up nearly quadratically with pressure, indicating that the 353.8 nm radiation is of the nature of superradiance.

To make further understanding of terahertz (THz) wave generation from liquid water, we study THz wave emission from water lines of different diameters. The water line with a smaller diameter generates a stronger THz electric field for the diameters from 0.2 mm to 0.5 mm. The THz electric field strength and polarity change with the relative position between the incident laser and water line. Moreover, the THz energy has an optimal radiation angle of about 60°. A two-dimensional dipole array model is introduced to illustrate the phenomenon. Our observations contribute to optimizing the scheme of the liquid THz source.

Recently, fundamental properties and practical applications of two-dimensional (2D) materials have attracted tremendous interest. Micro/nanostructures and functional devices in 2D materials have been fabricated by various methods. Ultrafast direct laser writing (DLW) with the advantages of rich light-matter interactions; unique three-dimensional processing capability; arbitrary-shape design flexibility; and minimized thermal effect, which enables high fabrication accuracy resolution, has been widely applied in the fabrication of 2D materials for multifunctional devices. This timely review summarizes the laser interactions with 2D materials and the advances in diverse functional photonics devices by DLW. The perspectives and challenges in designing and improving laser-fabricated 2D material photonic devices are also discussed.