It is shown that orbital angular momentum (OAM) is a promising new resource in future classical and quantum communications. However, the separation of OAM modes is still a big challenge. In this paper, we propose a simple and efficient separation method with a radial varying phase. In the method, specific radial varying phases are designed and modulated for different OAM modes. The resultant beam is focused to the spots with different horizontal and vertical positions after a convex lens, when the coordinate transformation, including two optical elements with coordinate transformation phase and correct phase, operates on the received beam. The horizontal position of the spot is determined by the vortex phases, and the vertical position of the spot is dependent on the radial varying phases. The simulation and experimental results show that the proposed method is feasible both for separation of two OAM modes and separation of three OAM modes. The proposed separation method is available in principle for any neighboring OAM modes because the radial varying phase is controlled. Additionally, no extra instruments are introduced, and there is no diffraction and narrowing process limitation for the separation.

Two-dimensional (2D) periodical Au and indium tin oxide (ITO) nanocomposite arrays have been fabricated based on a self-assembled nanosphere lithography technique. A button-shaped Au nanoparticle was formed on each hollow hemisphere-shaped ITO shell. Importantly, the underlying formation mechanism during the thermal treatment has been thoroughly explored by comparing structures resulting from different deposition conditions in detail. Compared to the Au nanoparticle arrays without ITO shells, the Au/ITO nanocomposite arrays showed a stronger localized surface plasmon resonance effect and higher absorption in the near-infrared (NIR) region, benefiting from the free-electron interaction enhancement between Au and ITO. The nonlinear optical properties were investigated using a modified femtosecond intensity-scan system, and the results demonstrated Au/ITO nanocomposite arrays with a remarkable two-photon absorption saturation effect for femtosecond pulses at 1030 nm. The versatile NIR optical responses indicate the great potential of the elaborately prepared 2D periodical Au/ITO nanocomposite arrays in many applications such as solar cells, photocatalysis, and novel nano optoelectronic devices.

Fiber-optic laser–ultrasound generation is being used in an increasing number of applications, including medical diagnosis, material characterization, and structural health monitoring. However, most currently used fiber-optic ultrasonic transducers allow effective ultrasound generation at only a single location, namely, at the fiber tip, although there have been a few limited proposals for achieving multipoint ultrasound generation along the length of a fiber. Here we present a novel fiber-optic ultrasound transducer that uses the core-offset splicing of fibers to effectively generate ultrasound at multiple locations along the fiber. The proposed laser–ultrasonic transducer can produce a balanced-strength signal between ultrasonic generation points by reasonably controlling the offsets of the fibers. The proposed transducer has other outstanding characteristics, including simple fabrication and low cost.

We report on the design and performance of a fiber laser system with adaptive acousto-optic macropulse control for a novel photocathode laser driver with 3D ellipsoidal pulse shaping. The laser system incorporates a three-stage fiber amplifier with an integrated acousto-optical modulator. A digital electronic control system with feedback combines the functions of the arbitrary micropulse selection and modulation resulting in macropulse envelope profiling. As a benefit, a narrow temporal transparency window of the modulator, comparable to a laser pulse repetition period, effectively improves temporal contrast. In experiments, we demonstrated rectangular laser pulse train profiling at the output of a three-cascade Yb-doped fiber amplifier.

We demonstrate how a metal wire grating can work as a 45° polarization converter, a quarter-wave retarder, and a half-wave retarder over a broadband terahertz range when set up in total internal reflection geometry. Classical electromagnetic theory is applied to understand the mechanism, and equations to calculate the polarization state of reflected light are derived. We use a metal grating with a period of 20 μm and width of 10 μm on a fused silica surface: linearly polarized terahertz light incident from fused silica with a supercritical incident angle of 52° is totally reflected by the metal grating and air. The polarization of the terahertz light is rotated by 45°, 90°, and circularly polarized by simply rotating the wire grating. The performance is achromatic over the measured range of 0.1–0.7 THz and comparable to commercial visible light wave retarders.

Changes in refractive index and the corresponding changes in the characteristics of an optical waveguide in enabling propagation of light are the basis for many modern silicon photonic devices. Optical properties of these active nanoscale waveguides are sensitive to the little changes in geometry, external injection/biasing, and doping profiles, and can be crucial in design and manufacturing processes. This paper brings the active silicon waveguide for complete characterization of various distinctive guiding parameters, including perturbation in real and imaginary refractive index, mode loss, group velocity dispersion, and bending loss, which can be instrumental in developing optimal design specifications for various application-centric active silicon waveguides.

The effects of gain compression on the modulation dynamics of an optically injected gain lever semiconductor laser are studied. Calculations reveal that the gain compression is not necessarily a drawback affecting the laser dynamics. With a practical injection strength, a high gain lever effect and a moderate compression value allow us to theoretically predict a modulation bandwidth four times higher than the free-running one without a gain lever, which is of paramount importance for the development of directly modulated broadband optical sources compatible with short-reach communication links.

We report an index-coupled distributed feedback quantum cascade laser by employing an equivalent phase shift (EPS) of quarter-wave integrated with a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) at λ～5.03 μm. The EPS is fabricated through extending one sampling period by 50% in the center of a sampled Bragg grating. The key EPS and DBR pattern are fabricated by conventional holographic exposure combined with the optical photolithography technology, which leads to improved flexibility, repeatability, and cost-effectiveness. Stable single-mode emission can be obtained by changing the injection current or heat sink temperature even under the condition of large driving pulse width.

We experimentally demonstrate the nonlinear interaction between two chirped broadband single-photon-level coherent states. Each chirped coherent state is generated in independent fiber Bragg gratings. They are simultaneously coupled into a high-efficiency nonlinear waveguide, where they are converted into a narrowband single-photon state with a new frequency by the process of sum-frequency generation (SFG). A higher SFG efficiency of 1.06×10 7 is realized, and this efficiency may achieve heralding entanglement at a distance. This also made it possible to realize long-distance quantum communication, such as device-independent quantum key distribution, by directly using broadband single photons without filtering.

A woofer–tweeter adaptive optical structured illumination microscope (AOSIM) is presented. By combining a low-spatial-frequency large-stroke deformable mirror (woofer) with a high-spatial-frequency low-stroke deformable mirror (tweeter), we are able to remove both large-amplitude and high-order aberrations. In addition, using the structured illumination method, as compared to widefield microscopy, the AOSIM can accomplish high-resolution imaging and possesses better sectioning capability. The AOSIM was tested by correcting a large aberration from a trial lens in the conjugate plane of the microscope objective aperture. The experimental results show that the AOSIM has a point spread function with an FWHM that is 140 nm wide (using a water immersion objective lens with NA=1.1) after correcting a large aberration (5.9 μm peak-to-valley wavefront error with 2.05 μm RMS aberration). After structured light illumination is applied, the results show that we are able to resolve two beads that are separated by 145 nm, 1.62× below the diffraction limit of 235 nm. Furthermore, we demonstrate the application of the AOSIM in the field of bioimaging. The sample under investigation was a green-fluorescent-protein-labeled Drosophila embryo. The aberrations from the refractive index mismatch between the microscope objective, the immersion fluid, the cover slip, and the sample itself are well corrected. Using AOSIM we were able to increase the SNR for our Drosophila embryo sample by 5×.

A novel scheme for the design of an ultra-compact and high-performance optical switch is proposed and investigated numerically. Based on a standard silicon (Si) photonic stripe waveguide, a section of hyperbolic metamaterials (HMM) consisting of 20-pair alternating vanadium dioxide (VO2)/Si thin layers is inserted to realize the switching of fundamental TE mode propagation. Finite-element-method simulation results show that, with the help of an HMM with a size of 400 nm×220 nm×200 nm (width×height×length), the ON/OFF switching for fundamental TE mode propagation in an Si waveguide can be characterized by modulation depth (MD) of 5.6 dB and insertion loss (IL) of 1.25 dB. It also allows for a relatively wide operating bandwidth of 215 nm maintaining MD>5 dB and IL<1.25 dB. Furthermore, we discuss that the tungsten-doped VO2 layers could be useful for reducing metal-insulator-transition temperature and thus improving switching performance. In general, our findings may provide some useful ideas for optical switch design and application in an on-chip all-optical communication system with a demanding integration level.

A theoretical design is presented for a 1×M wavelength-selective switch (WSS) that routes any one of N incoming wavelength signals to any one of M output ports. This planar on-chip device comprises a 1×N demultiplexer, a group of N switching “trees” actuated by electro-optical or thermo-optical means, and an M-fold set of N×1 multiplexers. Trees utilize 1×2 switches. The WSS insertion loss is proportional to [log2 (M+N+1)]. Along with cross talk from trees, cross talk is present at each cross-illuminated waveguide intersection within the WSS, and there are at most N 1 such crossings per path. These loss and cross talk properties will likely place a practical limit of N=M=16 upon the WSS size. By constraining the 1×2 switching energy to ～1 fJ/bit, we find that resonant, narrowband 1×2 switches are required. The 1×2Multiplexing Optical switching devices Subsystem integration and techniques