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Optics Letters

Local control of light polarization with low-temperature fiber optics

Andrew Mack, Jason Riordon, Cory R. Dean, Richard Talbot, G. Gervais

Published Apr 25, 2007• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A fiber-optic-based polarization control system that uses a backreflection measurement scheme at low temperatures has been developed. This provides a stringent test of the light polarization state at the output of the fiber, allowing for determination and control of the degree of circular polarization; i.e., it can generate linear, right, or left circular polarization with cryogenic fibers. This polarization controller is paving the way toward the control and manipulation of nuclear spins in semiconductors via the optical Overhauser effect and could be used, for example, for the purpose of quantum information processing with the large nuclear spins of GaAs.

DOI
10.1364/ol.32.001378

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A fiber-optic-based polarization control system that uses a backreflection measurement scheme at low temperatures has been developed. This provides a stringent test of the light polarization state at the output of the fiber, allowing for determination and control of the degree of circular polarization; i.e., it can generate linear, right, or left circular polarization with cryogenic fibers. This polarization controller is paving the way toward the control and manipulation of nuclear spins in semiconductors via the optical Overhauser effect and could be used, for example, for the purpose of quantum information processing with the large nuclear spins of GaAs.
Birefringence in optical fibers poses a challenge to controllably delivering polarized light. Strain-induced birefringence caused by bends in the fiber, vibrations, or a large temperature gradient can significantly alter the polarization, making it particularly difficult to deliver polarization states to low-temperature environments by fiber. In this paper, we investigate the transmission of polarized light through a fiber and discuss a method we have developed for delivering arbitrarily polarized light to the base stage of a dilution refrigerator using a standard optical fiber. We have created a compact, cryogenic optical system to identify the polarization of the delivered light, while room-temperature waveplates and a mathematical fiber model are used to fully characterize and compensate for the fiber's birefringent effects. We show here that we are able to deliver horizontal, vertical, diagonal, anti-diagonal, right circular, and left circular polarization states to milli-Kelvin temperatures, with state fidelities of greater than 0.96 being achieved in all cases. Additionally, we demonstrate that we can deliver randomly selected elliptical states through a standard fiber to the refrigerator. This opens up new opportunities for fiber-based optical experiments using polarized light, such as quantum information experiments using quantum states encoded in the polarization of single photons.
The polarization rotation of a linearly polarized optical (probe) field caused by a left-circularly polarized pumping beam is studied in an opened two-level system of a 87 Rb atom. Letting a linearly polarized optical field (probe) and left-circularly polarized pumping beams co-propagate through a Rb vapor, we observe the featurable polarization rotation signals of the linearly polarized probe field via the asymmetric optical pumping with low intensities. Based on this phenomenon, a polarization-controlled light switching can be demonstrated at a low light level. Such a scheme of polarization rotation can be extended in a solid or semi-conduct material and find a practical application in all-optical information processing.
Semiconductor quantum wells exhibit numerous nonlinear optical effects that are potentially useful in electro-optical or all-optical devices. In general, the underlying physical mechanisms are complex many-particle processes and can be viewed as interesting research subjects in their own right. One example of such a device is the all-optical polarization switch that has been demonstrated [1]. In that device, conventional (i.e. non-strained) GaAs quantum wells are used in conjunction with two polarizers to switch the throughput of a weak probe pulse with a strong pump pulse. The switching is due to an effective polarization rotation of the probe light by the pump light. The basic idea underlying this effective polarization rotation can be based on a simplified picture of two spin-degenerate heavy-hole exciton transitions. A linearly polarized probe pulse, which consists of right ("+") and left ("-") circularly polarized components, would not undergo polarization rotation, because it couples to both transitions in the same way. If, however, a circularly polarized pump beam modifies, for example, the transition frequency of the "+" transition, the absorption of the "+" component of the probe light differs from that of the "-" component. This leads to an effective polarization rotation.
In this dissertation, the polarization-state control in coherent optical fiber communications is studied. A new automatic polarization-state control scheme called "polarization recombing" is proposed and experimentally verified. The system consists of a polarization beam splitter (a Wallaston prism), a 90° linear polarization rotator, and endless phase shifter, and a beam combiner. It features a very simple (probably the simplest) principle for polarization-state control and endlessness (resetting-free) in control is achieved. IN addition, in this scheme, the polarization-state of output light is always linear with a fixed inclination angle regardless of changes in the polarization-state of the incoming light. Such a characteristic is achieved without the aid of a polarimeter and is particularly useful in homodyne phase diversity receiver because a stable linearly polarized light is necessary for generating two lights having 90° phase difference. This feature has been demonstrated in simulated self-homodyne DPSK phase diversity receiver. It is fund that the scheme functions satisfactorily and the receiver sensitivity fluctuation is kept within 0.5 dB. at 200 Mbits/sec.