No Arabic abstract
In a nonlinear three-wave mixing process, the interacting waves can accumulate an adiabatic geometric phase (AGP) if the nonlinear coefficient of the crystal is modulated in a proper manner along the nonlinear crystal. This concept was studied so far only for the case in which the pump wave is much stronger than the two other waves, hence can be assumed to be constant. Here we extend this analysis for the fully nonlinear process, in which all three waves can be depleted and we show that the sign and magnitude of the AGP can be controlled by the period, phase and duty cycle of the nonlinear modulation pattern. In this fully nonlinear interaction, all the states of the system can be mapped onto a closed surface. Specifically, we study a process in which the eigenstate of the system follows a circular rotation on the surface. Our analysis reveals that the AGP equals to the difference between the total phase accumulated along the circular trajectory and that along its vertical projection, which is universal for the undepleted (linear) and depleted (nonlinear) cases. Moreover, the analysis reveals that the AGPs in the processes of sum-frequency generation and difference-frequency generation have opposite chirality. Finally, we utilize the AGP in the fully nonlinear case for splitting the beam into different diffraction orders in the far field.
We implement a simple and powerful approach to characterize the domain distribution in the bulk of quadratic ferroelectric crystals via far-field second-harmonic spectroscopy. The approach is demonstrated in a lithium tantalate sample with periodic electric field poling and random mark-to-space ratio.
We demonstrate the spin to orbital angular momentum transfer in the nonlinear mixing of structured light beams. A vector vortex is coupled to a circularly polarized Gaussian beam in noncollinear second harmonic generation under type-II phase match. The second harmonic beam inherits the Hermite-Gaussian components of the vector vortex, however, the relative phase between them is determined by the polarization state of the Gaussian beam. This effect creates an interesting crosstalk between spin and orbital degrees of freedom, allowing the angular momentum transfer between them. Our experimental results match the theoretical predictions for the nonlinear optical response.
The pseudo-spin dynamics of propagating exciton-polaritons in semiconductor microcavities are known to be strongly influenced by TE-TM splitting. As a vivid consequence, in the Rayleigh scattering regime, the TE-TM splitting gives rise to the optical spin Hall effect (OSHE). Much less is known about its role in the nonlinear optical regime in which four-wave mixing for example allows the formation of spatial patterns in the polariton density, such that hexagons and two-spot patterns are observable in the far field. Here we present a detailed analysis of spin-dependent four-wave mixing processes, by combining the (linear) physics of TE-TM splitting with spin-dependent nonlinear processes, i.e., exciton-exciton interaction and fermionic phase-space filling. Our combined theoretical and experimental study elucidates the complex physics of the four-wave mixing processes that govern polarization and orientation of off-axis modes.
We show that a temporal soliton can induce resonant radiation by three-wave mixing nonlinearities. This constitutes a new class of resonant radiation whose spectral positions are parametrically tunable. The experimental verification is done in a periodically poled lithium niobate crystal, where a femtosecond near-IR soliton is excited and resonant radiation waves are observed exactly at the calculated soliton phase-matching wavelengths via the sum- and difference-frequency generation nonlinearities. This extends the supercontinuum bandwidth well into the mid-IR to span 550-5000 nm and the mid-IR edge is parametrically tunable over 1000 nm by changing the three-wave mixing phase-matching condition. The results are important for bright and broadband supercontinuum generation and for frequency comb generation in quadratic nonlinear microresonators.
Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) and Kerr-nonlinear four wave-mixing (FWM) are among the most important and widely studied nonlinear effects in optical fibres. At high powers SBS can be cascaded producing multiple Stokes waves spaced by the Brillouin frequency shift. Here, we investigate the complex nonlinear interaction of the cascade of Stokes waves, generated in a Fabry-Perot chalcogenide fibre resonator through the combined action of SBS and FWM. We demonstrate the existence of parameter regimes, in which pump and Stokes waves attain a phase-locked steady state. Real-time measurements of 40ps pulses with 8GHz repetition rate are presented, confirming short-and long-term stability. Numerical simulations qualitatively agree with experiments and show the significance of FWM in phase-locking of pump and Stokes waves. Our findings can be applied for the design of novel picosecond pulse sources with GHz repetition rate for optical communication systems.