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Acta Physica Sinica

Experimental study of slow light based on four-wave mixing wavelength conversion and dispersion in optical fibers

Yin Jing-Chan, Xiaosheng Xiao, Changxi Yang, 清华大学精密仪器与机械学系，精密测试技术与仪器国家重点实验室，北京 100084

Published Jan 1, 2010• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Slow light based on four-wave mixing (FWM) wavelength conversion and dispersion is experimentally studied. The FWM bandwidth of the highly nonlinear fiber is measured to be 40 nm, which is also the slow light tunable bandwidth. A 34 ns delay of 500 MHz sine signal is achieved in standard single mode fiber, and 198 ns delay of short pulses with 100 ps width is achieved in dispersion compensation fiber (DCF). An advancement of 209 ns for the 100 ps short pulses is also achieved in the DCF. The method to increase the slow light delay is discussed, and large delay up to microseconds is expected when wideband FWM wavelength conversion and large dispersion fibers are used. The expected large delay will help us realize high efficiency fiber delay lines and all-fiber buffers.

DOI
10.7498/aps.59.3986

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Slow light based on four-wave mixing (FWM) wavelength conversion and dispersion is experimentally studied. The FWM bandwidth of the highly nonlinear fiber is measured to be 40 nm, which is also the slow light tunable bandwidth. A 34 ns delay of 500 MHz sine signal is achieved in standard single mode fiber, and 198 ns delay of short pulses with 100 ps width is achieved in dispersion compensation fiber (DCF). An advancement of 209 ns for the 100 ps short pulses is also achieved in the DCF. The method to increase the slow light delay is discussed, and large delay up to microseconds is expected when wideband FWM wavelength conversion and large dispersion fibers are used. The expected large delay will help us realize high efficiency fiber delay lines and all-fiber buffers.
Slow light delay based on all-optical wavelength conversion using four-wave mixing (FWM) and dispersion medium is experimentally studied. Firstly, all-optical wavelength conversion with band-width of 28.4nm (from 1549.3nm to 1520.9nm) by FWM in 1500m dispersion flattened highly nonlinear fiber (DF-HNLF) is realized. Then, the maximum delay of 12.0ns is experimentally achieved by transmitting the original signal and wavelength-converted signal in 3.88 km dispersion compensating fiber (DCF). The experimental results are in good agreement with the principles.
Dynamic control of the speed of a light signal, based on stimulated Brillouin scattering in optical fibers, was theoretically studied and also experimentally demonstrated as the core object of this thesis. To date, slow light based on stimulated Brillouin scattering has shown the unmatched flexibility to offer an efficient timing tool for the development of all-optical future router. Nevertheless, the seeming perfect Brillouin slow light suffered from three major obstacles: naturally narrow signal bandwidth, strong change of signal amplitude, and significant signal distortion. The essential contribution of this work has been mostly dedicated to resolve all those impairments so as to make Brillouin slow light a completely operating all-optical delay line for practical applications. Actually, high capability of tailoring the spectral distribution of the effective Brillouin resonance makes possible to resolve partially or completely all those problems. First of all, a broadband spectral window was passively obtained in between two Brillouin gain/loss resonances by simply appending two segments of fibers showing different Brillouin frequency shifts. The global Brillouin gain of the concatenated fibers manifests a gain/loss doublet resonance showing a broad window in between gain/loss peaks. In practice, this configuration has a crucial advantage that it removes the need of the pump modulation, generally used to create a polychromatic pump source. Therefore, a broadband Brillouin slow and fast light was simple realized with a reduced distortion. Secondly, the signal amplification or attenuation associated to the signal delay was completely compensated by superposing Brillouin gain and loss resonances with identical depth but different width. As a result, the Brillouin gain led to effectively a spectral hole in the center of the broadband absorption and opened a transparent window while the sharp change in the refractive index was preserve. This way it makes possible to realize zero-gain Brillouin slow light. This configuration was also exploited to produce Brillouin fast light with a total absence of signal loss, simply by swapping the spectral position of the two pumps. At last, a signal was continuously delayed through a Brillouin fiber delay line without any distortion. Due to the strong induced dispersion, pulse broadening is a major difficulty in all slow light systems and it is impossible to compensate such broadening using a linear system. Therefore, a conventional Brillouin slow light system was combined with a nonlinear optical fiber loop mirror that gives a nonlinear quadratic transmission. Using this configuration, the inevitable pulse broadening was completely compensated at the output of the loop and a signal was delayed up to one symbol without any distortion. Brillouin slow light systems were further studied in the spectral domain. For a given Brillouin resonance the spectrum of a light pulse was optimized to better match the Brillouin bandwidth. When the time envelope of a pulse was properly shaped, it was clearly observed that the spectral width of the pulse became minimized while preserving the pulse duration. This way the maximum time delay through Brillouin slow light could be enhanced for a fixed pulse width. Brillouin fast light was even realized in total absence of any pump source, which is a plain requirement for the generation of Brillouin slow or fast light. This self-generated delay line, key contribution of this thesis, relies on both spontaneous and stimulated Brillouin scattering in optical fibers. In this implementation, a light signal was strongly boosted above the so-called Brillouin threshold, so that most power of the signal was transferred to a backward propagating wave, namely the generation of amplified spontaneous Stokes wave. Since the center frequency of the intense Stokes wave is below the signal frequency by exactly Brillouin shift of the fiber used, this wave led to a Brillouin loss band centered at the signal frequency. Consequently, the signal experienced fast light propagation and the propagation velocity of the signal was self-controlled, simply by varying the signal input power. This technique has many practical advantages such as its high simplicity of the configuration and an invariant signal power in the output of this delay line. Additionally, this system self-adapts the signal bandwidth as the spectrum of the amplified Stokes wave matches the spectral distribution of the signal. An alternative method to generate all-optical delay line was proposed instead of slow light. This scheme makes use of the combination of wavelength conversion and group velocity dispersion. This type of delay line was mainly aimed at improving the storage capability of delaying element. The wavelength of a signal was simply and efficiently converted at a desired wavelength using cross gain modulation in semiconductor optical amplifiers. Then the converted signal was delivered to a high dispersive medium and arrived at the end of the medium with relative time delay due to the group velocity dispersion. A fractional delay of 140 was continuously produced through this delay line for a signal with a duration of 100 ps, preserving signal bandwidth and wavelength. The effect of slow light on linear interactions between light and matter was experimentally investigated to clarify the current scientific argument regarding slow light-enhanced Beer-Lambert absorption. It was predicted that real slowing of the light group velocity could enhance the molecular linear absorptions so as to improve the sensitivity of this type of sensing. However, the experimental results unambiguously show that material slow light (slow light in traveling wave media) does not enhance the Beer-Lambert absorption.
All-optical tunable slow light technology has promising applications in all-optical network and optical information process. Tunable slow light based on stimulated Brillouin scattering is experimentally investigated, using highly nonlinear microstructured fiber which is designed and drawn by ourselves. The experiment setup is composed of single pump and a single-stage delay. When the pump power reaches 162.6 mW, a maximum delay of 76 ns, equal to 0.76 pulse width, is achieved in the highly nonlinear microstructured fiber of 120 m in length. In addition, by adjusting the pump power, the tunable slow light can be realized. This scheme of slow light has advantages such as large delay, being all-optical tunable and compatible with optical communications systems.
Optical buffer is a key component in all-optical information processing systems. Slow light at room temperature via four-wave mixing in semiconductor an optical amplifier (SOA) is experimentally investigated. Time delay of 0.4 ns is achieved for a sinusoidal modulation signal at 0.1GHz, corresponding to a delay-bandwidth product (DBP) of 0.04. Factors that affect the experimental results are discussed. It is found out that the variable optical delay via four-wave mixing in SOA can be controlled either electrically by changing the SOA bias, or optically by varying the pump power or pump-probe detuning.
We demonstrate a tunable optical delay that surpasses the tuning speed limit of the conventional slow-light-based optical delay. A novel nonlinear optical coupler, implemented by the four-wave mixing (FWM) Bragg scattering process, is utilized to perform destructive interference of the slow-light delayed signal pulse and a nondelayed reference pulse. As a result, the Brillouin-induced frequency-dependent phase shift, as well as the group delay of the synthesized pulse, is amplified. The group delay amplification factor, determined by the coupling ratio of the nonlinear optical coupler, can be tuned through varying the FWM pump power to provide an ultrafast response. Our experimental result demonstrates that an initial 6.2 ns Brillouin-induced optical delay can be amplified and rapidly tuned within the range of -5.2 to 27.2 ns.