Two different experimental techniques for preparing and analysing superpositions of Gaussian and Laguerre-Gaussian modes are presented. These involve exploiting an interferometric method in one case and using computer-generated holograms in the other. It is shown that by shifting a hologram with respect to an incoming Gaussian beam, different superpositions of the Gaussian and the Laguerre-Gaussian beam can be produced. An analytical expression connecting the relative phase, the amplitudes of the modes and the displacement of the hologram is given. The application of such orbital angular momenta superpositions in quantum experiments such as quantum cryptography is discussed.

Superpositions of the orbital angular momentum for applications in quantum experiments : Special issue on atoms and angular momentum of light

Design a photonic crystal fiber of guiding terahertz orbital angular momentum beams in optical communication

High‐power laser sources are widely used in industrial precision processing and act as a new platform for strong‐field physics research using peak power over petawatt. This review focuses on realizing high‐energy solid‐state disk and slab systems and the nonlinear‐suppression strategies for high‐power fiber systems using the functional fibers. First, the implementations and enabling technologies of the solid‐state lasers for increasing peak power from gigawatt to petawatt are reviewed. Then the mechanisms and suppression strategies of the deterioration effects (including stimulated Raman scattering, stimulated Brillouin scattering, and transverse mode instability) in various fiber amplifiers are analyzed. At the same time, the mechanism and achievements of the current functional fibers are introduced. Finally, the challenges and perspectives of high‐power solid‐state and fiber amplifiers are summarized.

High‐Power Laser Systems

Highly-birefringent and ultra-wideband low-loss photonic crystal fiber with rhombic and elliptical holes

High-sensitivity temperature and magnetic sensor based on magnetic fluid and liquid ethanol filled micro-structured optical fiber

In this work, a novel design of a high birefringence photonic crystal fiber (HB-PCF) with multimode and low confinement loss is proposed. To achieve high birefringence, the core is designed as an elliptical region, which is enclosed by twelve small holes. Based on this design, replacing the two circular holes at the top and bottom of the core region with two elliptical holes can further improve the birefringence. At the wavelength of 1.55 μm, the birefringence of the fundamental mode (LP01) and the second-order mode (LP11) are 1.70×10−2 and 1.85×10−2, respectively. Meanwhile, the confinement losses maintain on orders of 1×10−5  dB/km (LP01) and 1×10−1  dB/km (LP11). After the effective refractive indices of two types of the proposed HB-PCF are calculated by the finite element method, the birefringence, confinement loss, bending loss, dispersion, and nonlinear coefficient are studied. These results reveal that the HB-PCF might be applied for polarization-maintaining and nonlinear optics.

Design for a high birefringence photonic crystal fiber with multimode and low loss.

In this paper, an asymmetric large-mode-area photonic crystal fiber (LMA-PCF) with low bending loss at a smaller bending radius is designed. The finite-element method with a perfectly matched layer boundary is used to analyze the performance of the PCF. To achieve LMA-PCF with low bending loss, the air holes with double lattice constants and different sizes at the core are designed. Numerical results show that this structure can achieve low bending loss and LMA with a smaller bending radius at the wavelength of 1.55 μm. The effective mode area of the fundamental mode is larger than 1000  μm2 when the bending radius is ≥10  cm. The bending loss of the fundamental mode is just 0.0113 dB/m, and the difference between the fundamental and high-order modes of the bending loss is larger than 103 when the bending radius is 10 cm. Simulation results show this novel PCF can achieve LMA and have effective single-mode operation when the bending orientation angle ranges in ±110°. This novel photonic crystal has potential application in high-power fiber lasers.

Design and analysis for a bend-resistant and large-mode-area photonic crystal fiber with hybrid cladding.

Higher-order modes suppression in negative curvature anti-resonance hollow core fibers by multiple resonant coupling

We propose a hollow-core photonic bandgap fiber (HC-PBGF) with background composed of two materials to support orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes. Numerical models are set up to figure out the effective indexes and confinement losses over 1.3-2.0 μm. Simulation results show that this fiber can support more than 48 OAM modes, of which the effective indexes satisfy the condition for effective index separation (<10-4) and the confinement loss keeps under 10-7 dB/m over 1.3-2.0 μm. According to the comparison between fibers with same structure but comprising one or two background materials, adopting two materials to compose background is an effective method to significantly improve the performance of OAM-supporting HC-PBGF. The HC-PBGF proposed here is competitive in dealing for OAM multiplexing for optical communication systems.

Broadband and low confinement loss photonic crystal fibers supporting 48 orbital angular momentum modes

We present a new scheme to produce a tunable converge elliptical optical vortex (EOV) with a phase-only element: elliptical helical lens (EHL), which is studied theoretically and experimentally. As a result, the properties of converge EOVs can be controlled by adjusting the parameters of EHL. The topological charges of the EOVs can be directly read from the received intensity pattern. Because EHL is a hologram programmed in space light modulator (SLM), converge EOVs can be controlled just by reprogramming the SLM instead of replacing actual instruments. This work has potential applications in particle manipulation, as well as generation of OAM-entangled photons.

Fengji Gui

Papers

Design for a high birefringence photonic crystal fiber with multimode and low loss.

Design and analysis for a bend-resistant and large-mode-area photonic crystal fiber with hybrid cladding.

Higher-order modes suppression in negative curvature anti-resonance hollow core fibers by multiple resonant coupling

Broadband and low confinement loss photonic crystal fibers supporting 48 orbital angular momentum modes

Tunable converge optical elliptical vortex based on elliptical helical lens