Erbium-doped optical fibre (EDOF) is an important platform to study the intensity-dependent nonlinear propagation and nonlinear polarisation rotation, optical switching and four-wave mixing. The source thesis contains both theoretical and computational work. In this paper the work is presented in the format of a research paper that is published by the University Grants Commission. The nonlinear coefficient is expressed in terms of the nonlinear refractive-index coefficient, the operating wavelength and the effective mode area, and the resulting nonlinear phase response is investigated. The consideration of the passive attenuation and the active gain in the theoretical model, and the computational analysis carried out on the basis of MATLAB are discussed. The nonlinear coefficient varies from 1.758 to 1.471 W−1 km−1 over the wavelength range 1480-1630 nm, while at 1550 nm it varies from 2.189 to 1.368 W−1 km−1 for effective mode area increasing from 50 to 80 µm2. The nonlinear phase shift goes up to 0.160 rad at 100 mW, compared to 0.016 rad at 10 mW. For the same input-power range, the nonlinear polarisation rotation increases from 2.4° to 24.0°. The optical-switching analysis shows a transmission of 90% and an extinction ratio of 9.54 dB at 100 mW. Four-wave-mixing analysis shows that the relative FWM response increases from 0.10 to 1.00 when the input power is increased from 10 to 100 mW and decreases from 0.90 to 0.15 when the assumed chromatic-dispersion value is changed from -20 to +15 ps/nm/km. The results show the inter-related roles of nonlinear coefficient, optical power, wavelength, polarisation evolution and chromatic dispersion in erbium-doped fibre systems. Erbium-doped fibre, nonlinear coefficient, Kerr nonlinearity, nonlinear polarisation rotation, optical switching, four-wave mixing, chromatic dispersion.
Summary form only given: Amplification in rare-earth doped solid state planar optical structures has attracted a lot of interest in recent years due to the fact that the rare earth ions show sharp absorption and emission bands and relatively long luminescence lifetimes. In particular the erbium (Er) ion is very attractive because of its intra 4f-transition from the first excited state to the ground state around 1.53 mum (4I13/2-4I15/2). The main problem of the erbium doped waveguide amplifiers (EDWAs) is that high values of the Er3+concentration are required to reach high gain figures in a compact length, but in this way the concentration quenching effects become very considerable and detrimental to the optical gain, since they reduce the population in the first excited state. A good solution to overcome this dramatic drawback is to consider erbium doped photonic crystal amplifier (EDPCA). In fact the small group velocity of electromagnetic eigenmodes brings about the enhancement of stimulated emission if the photonic crystals are doped by active media as the rare earth ions E3+r or Yt3+. This phenomenon originates from the long interaction time between radiation field and the matter caused by the small group velocity near the edge of the photonic band gap. The efficient confinement of light is achievable not only by tuning the input signal at the band edge of the gap of the photonic crystal but it is also obtainable by introducing local defects inside photonic crystals. The density of electromagnetic states inside a cavity is significantly modified and the spontaneous emission of atoms in a cavity can be either enhanced or inhibited. Erbium doped silica-titania one-dimensional photonic crystal microcavities have been analyzed by solving the erbium rate equations and the Maxwell equations by means of an auxiliary differential equation finite difference time domain technique. Since the performance of optical amplifiers depends on the populations of the energy levels participating in radiative transitions, determined principally by the distribution and concentration of the rare-earth ions and by the pumping conditions, the relations between these parameters and the transmittance of the EDPCMA have been studied
The optical-pumping theory of the passage of polarised radiation through a resonant medium was developed in the irreducible tensorial formalism. Transitions with arbitrary momenta J 1.2 are considered in the cubic approximation. For transitions with small values of momenta (J 1 =1 to J 2 =0; J 1 = 1 / 2 to J 2 = 1 / 2 ) the vector form of the equation system in density-matrix notation allows the problem to be solved exactly for light intensity. In the general case of an elliptically polarised wave, the equation systems for the interaction between circular components of polarisation of light in a resonant medium are obtained. Numerical calculations for deformation and rotation of the polarisation ellipse in a medium subject to saturation effects are also carried out. Irrespective of the initial state the polarisation tends either to a linear or to a circular form as it propagates, depending on times of collisional relaxation of orientation and alignment. The polarisation of linearly and circularly polarised waves does not change as the waves propagate, but the values of the saturation power for these polarisations differ considerably.
This thesis investigates the potential of Er:YSO and Er:Si for quantum communication and computation applications. Erbium uniquely possess optical transitions in the 1.5 um region, making it suitable for both fibre telecommunication and silicon photonics. The properties of the
I15/2↔I13/2 optical transition in Er:YSO have already been extensively studied. Over two decades ago, improvements in
Er3+ dephasing time at 1.5 um were achieved by applying a 5T field along the D1 axis. More recently, a record 4.4 ms coherence time on the same optical transition was achieved using a 7T field. These investigations, among others, illustrate that large Er electron spins become thermally polarised with sufficient magnetic field. However, no long lived and coherent spin transitions associated with the Er ions had previously been identified, and such transitions are necessary for on-demand quantum state storage. To address this requirement, the optical and hyperfine transition properties of 167-Er:YSO were investigated in large magnetic fields. In a field of 7T, spectral hole lifetimes of 1 minute and hyperfine population lifetimes of 12 minutes were observed. These measurements illustrate the effect of spin-lattice relaxation in this system, and how it can be mitigated. Efficient spin-polarisation of the entire 167-Er hyperfine ensemble is also demonstrated. This is the first such demonstration in rare earth systems, and a key requirement for broadband optical storage. Moreover, a 1.3 second coherence time was recorded for an 167-Er:YSO hyperfine transition at 7T and 1.4 K. This is an improvement of several orders-of-magnitude over previous coherence measurements on spin-transitions in Er doped solids. This is also sufficient for maximal entanglement rates in quantum repeater networks that span distances of 1000 km or greater. With an optical transition at 1.5 um, Er is also an ideal candidate to connect silicon based quantum computers to the future quantum Internet. In particular, single Er:Si ions could be used to develop an optical-spin bus between P:Si qubits and fibre based quantum networks. Presented here is the first spectroscopic investigation of single Er:Si ions. This required a novel opto-electronic approach to single ion detection, where the Er ions are implanted into a nanometre scale fin-shaped Field Effect Transistor. With this approach it was possible to develop high resolution optical spectra, where both the electronic and hyperfine levels of individual Er ions were resolved. Long optical and spin coherence times are also important requirements for an optical-spin bus. To address the first requirement, an investigation of the optical lineshape was undertaken. Here it was determined that sources of Stark noise external to the transistor channel contribute a significant amount to optical homogeneous linewidth. However, the dominant noise contribution was determined to be short-range (from within the 30 nm wide channel) and the total homogeneous linewidth was measured to be 50 MHz. The site structure of an individual Er:Si ion was then analysed, using magnetic field rotation patterns and optical transitions between multiple crystal field levels. This site was determined to have approximately axial (
C3) symmetry. The purpose of this study was to determine a magnetic field regime in which the Er electrons spin can be polarised, which is necessary for realising of long hyperfine lifetimes and coherence times.