There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

A fast-Fourier-transform method of topography and interferometry is proposed. By computer processing of a noncontour type of fringe pattern, automatic discrimination is achieved between elevation and depression of the object or wave-front form, which has not been possible by the fringe-contour-generation techniques. The method has advantages over moire topography and conventional fringe-contour interferometry in both accuracy and sensitivity. Unlike fringe-scanning techniques, the method is easy to apply because it uses no moving components.

Fourier-transform method of fringe-pattern analysis for computer-based topography and interferometry

The theory of quasi-phase-matched second-harmonic generation is presented in both the space domain and the wave vector mismatch domain. Departures from ideal quasi-phase matching in periodicity, wavelength, angle of propagation, and temperature are examined to determine the tuning properties and acceptance bandwidths for second-harmonic generation in periodic structures. Numerical examples are tabulated for periodically poled lithium niobate. Various types of errors in the periodicity of these structures are then analyzed to find their effects on the conversion efficiency and on the shape of the tuning curve. This analysis is useful for establishing fabrication tolerances for practical quasi-phase-matched devices. A method of designing structures having desired phase-matching tuning curve shapes is also described. The method makes use of varying domain lengths to establish a varying effective nonlinear coefficient along the interaction length. >

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Quasi-phase-matched second harmonic generation: tuning and tolerances

The current status of lithium-niobate external-modulator technology is reviewed with emphasis on design, fabrication, system requirements, performance, and reliability. The technology meets the performance and reliability requirements of current 2.5-, 10-, and 40-Gb/s digital communication systems, as well as CATV analog systems. The current trend in device topology is toward higher data rates and increased levels of integration. In particular, multiple high-speed modulation functions, such as 10-Gb/s return-to-zero pulse generation plus data modulation, have been achieved in a single device.

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A review of lithium niobate modulators for fiber-optic communications systems

Domains in ferroelectrics were considered to be well understood by the middle of the last century: They were generally rectilinear, and their walls were Ising-like. Their simplicity stood in stark contrast to the more complex Bloch walls or N\'eel walls in magnets. Only within the past decade and with the introduction of atomic-resolution studies via transmission electron microscopy, electron holography, and atomic force microscopy with polarization sensitivity has their real complexity been revealed. Additional phenomena appear in recent studies, especially of magnetoelectric materials, where functional properties inside domain walls are being directly measured. In this paper these studies are reviewed, focusing attention on ferroelectrics and multiferroics but making comparisons where possible with magnetic domains and domain walls. An important part of this review will concern device applications, with the spotlight on a new paradigm of ferroic devices where the domain walls, rather than the domains, are the active element. Here magnetic wall microelectronics is already in full swing, owing largely to the work of Cowburn and of Parkin and their colleagues. These devices exploit the high domain wall mobilities in magnets and their resulting high velocities, which can be supersonic, as shown by Kreines' and co-workers 30 years ago. By comparison, nanoelectronic devices employing ferroelectric domain walls often have slower domain wall speeds, but may exploit their smaller size as well as their different functional properties. These include domain wall conductivity (metallic or even superconducting in bulk insulating or semiconducting oxides) and the fact that domain walls can be ferromagnetic while the surrounding domains are not.

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Domain wall nanoelectronics

"Mid-infrared picosecond optical parametricoscillator based on periodically poled RbTiOAsO4

We report on fabrication and characterization of a nonlinear photonic crystal with a rectangular lattice in a KTiOPO4 crystal. The structure was used to demonstrate CW tunable second harmonic generation in the blue regime.

Two-Dimensional Nonlinear Photonic Crystal in KTiOPO 4 for CW Second Harmonic Blue Light Generation

A technology based on laser-induced fluorescence combined with microstructured fiber for micrometer-size sample detection and collection is presented. The fiber-based system introduces the possibility for real-time monitoring in in-vivo measurements.

Single-fiber for minimally-invasive identification and collection of biological species

We numerically study the detrimental effect of thermal dephasing during second-harmonic generation in quasi-phase matched materials by iteratively solving the coupled wave eqations and the heat transfer equation.The variation of different experimental conditions, such as external phase-match temperature and focussing conditions is discussed.

Iterative numerical investigation of the thermal dephasing process in second harmonic generation in bulk periodically-poled crystals

Angle-tunable PPKTP OPA for signals between 1540 nm and 1720 nm was realized in a single periodicity QPM grating. Noncollinear OPA configuration increased the bandwidth from 2.4 THz to 6.9 THz.

Fredrik Laurell

Papers

"Mid-infrared picosecond optical parametricoscillator based on periodically poled RbTiOAsO4

Two-Dimensional Nonlinear Photonic Crystal in KTiOPO 4 for CW Second Harmonic Blue Light Generation

Single-fiber for minimally-invasive identification and collection of biological species

Iterative numerical investigation of the thermal dephasing process in second harmonic generation in bulk periodically-poled crystals

Broadband optical-parametrie-amplification in the mid-infrared spectral region with periodically poled KTiOPO4