In recent years possible applications of the photon echo process in optical processing, data storage systems, bit-rate conversion of optical pulses, time compression of optical pulses etc. have been investigated.Much of this research aim at replacing electrical components in the framework of today's information networks with components that are entirely based on optics.It is likely that we in the future will see more and more of the electrical components linked to a fibre network being replaced by all optical components, e.g.routers and bit-rate converters.The concept of temporal compression of optical pulses, which is the subject of this thesis, could be used to increase the transmission rate through optical fibres and thereby use the full capacity of today's fibres.It should also be mentioned that more basic components, e.g.XOR gates, are studied in this research field and these components could possibly be used in future concepts of a "light-computer".In this thesis a theoretical model of time compression of both single optical pulses and optical pulse sequences using photon echoes is presented.A full analytical treatment was done for gaussian shaped pulses as a first step of building a numerical model.An analytic approximate approach was also used for both square pulses and pulse sequences.A theoretical understanding of the duration, the intensity spectrum and peak intensity of the compressed signals was reached.It is shown that the intensity spectrum of a compressed pulse sequence containing N bits is completely analogous to the pattern observed in the well-known Fraunhofer diffraction experiment with N slits.A numerical model was built and used to evaluate how non-linearities and noise affect the degree of compression.In addition theoretical models were developed to explain the effects of non-linearities and noise and the hope is that these might be used as guidelines on how to design future experiments in order to achieve highest possible degree of compression.Some of the results presented in this thesis is compared with experimental data obtained in the research group during the time this work was going on.
In recent years possible applications of the photon echo process in optical processing, data storage systems, bit-rate conversion of optical pulses, time compression of optical pulses etc. have been investigated.Much of this research aim at replacing electrical components in the framework of today's information networks with components that are entirely based on optics.It is likely that we in the future will see more and more of the electrical components linked to a fibre network being replaced by all optical components, e.g.routers and bit-rate converters.The concept of temporal compression of optical pulses, which is the subject of this thesis, could be used to increase the transmission rate through optical fibres and thereby use the full capacity of today's fibres.It should also be mentioned that more basic components, e.g.XOR gates, are studied in this research field and these components could possibly be used in future concepts of a "light-computer".In this thesis a theoretical model of time compression of both single optical pulses and optical pulse sequences using photon echoes is presented.A full analytical treatment was done for gaussian shaped pulses as a first step of building a numerical model.An analytic approximate approach was also used for both square pulses and pulse sequences.A theoretical understanding of the duration, the intensity spectrum and peak intensity of the compressed signals was reached.It is shown that the intensity spectrum of a compressed pulse sequence containing N bits is completely analogous to the pattern observed in the well-known Fraunhofer diffraction experiment with N slits.A numerical model was built and used to evaluate how non-linearities and noise affect the degree of compression.In addition theoretical models were developed to explain the effects of non-linearities and noise and the hope is that these might be used as guidelines on how to design future experiments in order to achieve highest possible degree of compression.Some of the results presented in this thesis is compared with experimental data obtained in the research group during the time this work was going on.
Single pulse compression and multi-bit pulse compression using the photon echo process was investigated.A single pulse could be compressed by a factor of 454 from 10 microseconds to 22 nanoseconds.A 1 O-bits pulse train was compressed by a factor of 92 from 20 microseconds in total length to 212 nanoseconds.The compression factors obtained during this work were an order of magnitude better than those published previously both for single pulse and multi-bit pulse train compression.Observation of the side-band under the envelope of the photon echo signal in multi-bit pulse compression indicates that the bit information is retained in the compression.Some improvements were achieved by optimising the experimental setup during the work.The experimental results were discussed theoretically and were good in agreement with theoretical calculations.The space-time duality of photon echo compression was also analysed in this thesis.The storage material used in the experiment is a Y AG crystal doped with the trivalent rare earth thulium ion with a concentration at 0.1-at.%.The crystal was kept at 4K during the experiment.The absorption, an important characteristic of the crystal was initially measured.The maximum absorption was about 40%, in the range between 7931.50A and 7931.60A with a full width ofhalfmaximum of3.5 A, which corresponds to 19 GHz.A homemade external cavity diode laser equipped with an intra-high coherency and ultrahigh-speed frequency chirping properties was used in the experiments.This system with an intra-cavity electro-optic crystal (EOC) was employed for the optical data compression because of its advantages of simplicity, high quantum efficiency, low cost, and compact size, which is necessary for practical applications in the future.Some critical properties for this laser were investigated.The laser line-width was measured to be 350 KHz over a 200 microseconds duration using the spectral hole burning method and a voltage-chirping rate of about 7 MHz/V was determined by calculations and experimental measurements.
This diploma paper gives a survey of the possibilities to do optical processing and data storage with the photon echo concept, and results from experiments and numerical calculations performed within this area of research.Bitwise logical 'and' operations of two eight-bit words has been performed experimentally.Optical pulse sequences have been reemitted from a sample unchanged, reversed, compressed and expanded, and pulse sequences have been convoluted and correlated with each other experimentally by means of the photon echo process.
Photon echoes have been studied both experimentally and theoretically, with the main part of the work centred around the concept of using photon echoes for all-optical data storage and processing. The four basic Boolean operators, AND, OR, NOT and XOR have been experimentally demonstrated using photon echoes. These constitute a complete set of Boolean operators. Selective erasure of digital data bits stored using photon echoes have been performed experimentally using three different laser systems with increasing frequency stabilities spanning three orders of magnitude, and the demands put on laser phase- and frequency stability using the suggested erasure method, have been studied. The effects of laser phase- and frequency fluctuations on both ordinary stimulated echoes and on coherently added echoes, have been analysed theoretically using the theory of stochastic processes. The resulting bit error rates in digital optical data processing systems due to such fluctuations have been considered. It has been shown possible experimentally to amplify photon echoes using fibre amplifiers, and to regenerate echoes from echoes amplified with this method. The advantages and limitations of this method for regeneration of photon echoes have been studied.
This thesis encompasses a broad area of physics including linear and nonlinear optics, photonics and quantum physics. It combines the phenomena of nonlinearoptical frequency conversion with waveguiding and coupling, taking advantage of new opportunities presented by advances in fabrication technologies of micro- and nano-waveguides. In this dissertation an in-depth analysis of quantum and classical properties of light traveling in nonlinear optical waveguides, directional couplers and waveguide arrays is performed. The concepts of spatial and temporal dispersion, waveguiding in structures with subwavelength dimensions and nonlinear interactions between different frequencies of light are studied both theoretically and experimentally. Some sections of this thesis include development and implementation of novel physical ideas, while other sections are focused on comprehensive experimental and numerical analysis of advanced theoretical concepts. The results presented in this dissertation demonstrate new physical phenomena with potential applications in the areas of telecommunications and quantum information. The research performed in this thesis opens opportunities for frequency conversion with world-leading power efficiency, including operation with ultrashort pulses for a variety of wavelengths to suit a wide range of perspective application requirements. It also shows an approach for simple and energy efficient spatio-temporal optical signal control, which can find applications in next generation telecommunications networks. Furthermore, the results obtained in this dissertation demonstrate the possibility for flexible shaping of quantum statistics of photons generated in photonic waveguiding structures through spontaneous frequency conversion, contributing to the development of integrated quantum circuits. The new methods of frequency conversion in micro- and nano-scale waveguides and optical circuits have potential to advance the performance, energy efficiency, and security of future optical communication networks and computing systems.
Creating and controlling well-defined single-photon states is important for many quantum enhanced technologies. Information can be encoded in any degree of freedom associated with a single-photon field excitation, for example in the polarization or transverse spatial mode structure. The ability to encode multiple qubits in these states is desirable for high data transmission rates and increased information processing capacity. The spectral-temporal domain offers a large Hilbert space for encoding information, well suited to integrated optical architectures owing to the low cross-talk between channels. Indeed, time-frequency encoding is an integral component of existing information technologies infrastructure. Thus, complete, coherent control of the spectral-temporal mode structure of light is essential to advancing optical quantum technologies. Arbitrary control of single-photon states has been demonstrated in the polarization and spatial-momentum degrees of freedom however, is yet to be established in the spectral-temporal domain. Recently it was shown that spectral-temporal pulse shaping is experimentally feasible using nonlinear optical methods. However, such techniques can introduce noise photons, are challenging to implement deterministically and require specially prepared auxiliary pump pulses. Furthermore, they are typically only possible at relatively low repetition rates to avoid damage of nonlinear optical materials. Here, we demonstrate deterministic pulse shaping of single-photon wave packets by introducing a time-varying phase. Applying linear or quadratic phase to the wave packet introduces a spectral shift or spectral broadening, respectively. Achieving significant spectral manipulation requires temporal-phase modulation on the order of π. The phase must also vary on the same time scale as the optical pulses, approximately 1 ps in duration here. This relatively rapid phase variation is achieved using a fast electro-optic phase modulator. The modulator is driven by a time-varying voltage that is synchronized with a pulse train of single-photon wave packets for accurate temporal phase control. In this thesis, we experimentally demonstrate control of the spectral-temporal state of single-photon wave packets using this method. Heralded single-photon wave packets are generated by spontaneous parametric down conversion pumped by a frequency-doubled Titanium-Sapphire laser oscillator with 80 MHz repetition rate. To achieve significant modulation of single-photon pulses a 10 V peak-to-peak radio-frequency signal of 40 GHz drives the phase modulator, which requires approximately 3.6 V to achieve a π phase shift. The signal is synchronized with the oscillator pulse train using custom designed electronics. Details of these electronics are presented, resulting in a robust phase and amplitude controllable 40 GHz voltage source, phase locked to the single-photon pulse train. To demonstrate the utility of this pulse-shaping method we experimentally show spectral shearing of almost 1 nm for single-photon wave packets with 830 nm central wavelength and 1 nm bandwidth. Measurement of the second-order intensity correlation before and after the wave-packet manipulation remains constant within uncertainty of the measurement, showing that the quantum nature of the single-photon source is not deteriorated by the modulator. Preservation of the wave-packet coherence is verified by two-photon interference between spectrally sheared and non-modulated single-photons.
We present the results of analytical and numerical calculations of the amplitude and temporal shape of photon echoes produced in optically thick absorbing media. In particular, we are interested in echo output signals that mimic the temporal shape of one of the input pulses (the data pulse). Echo recall efficiencies of temporally structured data pulses exceeding unity can be obtained in optically thick media while preserving the information content of the data pulse. We find that the relationship between the maximum echo efficiency and the Beer's length at which that maximum is attained is nearly linear. This linear relation holds well beyond the optimal absorption length predicted by linear theory for both two-pulse photon echoes and three-pulse stimulated photon echoes. These results have significance in the development of optical coherent transient memory and processing systems, where previous calculations predicted recall efficiencies of only a few percent.