Time evolution of Raman spectra depending on temperature were carried out on iron-doped photorefractive lithium niobate crystals with different Li content in the melt. The frequency shift of Raman lines are observed with time giving the possibility to calculate the saturation values of the photorefractive space charge field showing a linear decrease with temperature. Space charge field values are much lower for near-stoichiometric compsition sample comparing to near-congruent ones.
Integrated-optic 1×2 switch utilizing electro-optically controllable Y-fed directional coupler has been fabricated in LiNbO3 substrates with proton exchange technology. Such an integrated-optic switch has the newly designed Y-branching power divider allowing for high switching contrast at the both optical output ports and low driving voltage. To obtain an acceptable value of the interaction-length-to-coupling-length ratio, the novel trimming procedure is proposed. A rather high switching contrast ≥ 23 dB (power extinction ratio) at any output port and 2.5 dB insertion losses were obtained for a device with the 9 mm electrodes length.
Temperature stability of magneto-optic sensor at a marked transient temperature gradient has been investigated. Our experimental study leads to the conclusion that the polarized gyro architecture with two quarter-wave retarders on the opposite sides of the fiber loop of Sagnac interferometer must be used to obtain a fiber-optic current sensor with the lowdrift behavior.
Multi-function integrated optics chips consisting of a linear polarizer, phase electro-optic modulators and Y-branching
power divider were fabricated in x-cut LiNbO3 wafers with the aid of annealed proton exchange technique. Insertion
losses, power transfer coefficient, splitting ratio and its spectral dependence were measured for Y-branching power
dividers of different branching topologies based on channel waveguides. The parasitic spectral selectivity and
photorefractive damage were suppressed by optimization of branching topology, introducing an extra taper with variable
parameters.
Using open-aperture (OA) and closed-aperture (CA) Z-scan techniques, the nonlinear absorption and refraction in pure,
Mg- and Zr-doped congruent LiNbO3 crystals were evaluated with cw-laser beams. The CA Z-scan technique is used for
a study of the strong nonlinearities including thermo-optical and photorefractive nonlinearity in LiNbO3 crystals.
Theoretical calculations together with the measurements make possible to characterize quantitatively the thermo-optical
nonlinearity and to determine the threshold dopant concentration of the photorefractive damage which is very important
for nonlinear optical applications.
An optical voltage sensor is proposed that exploits the electric field dependence of transmission of a Mach-Zehnder
interferometer fabricated on basis of the channel waveguides in electro-optic LiNbO3. The device works in a
transmission scheme, utilizing the long fibre transmission lines for input and output optical signals. The sensor has been
used to measure AC electric fields in a range from 0.005 to 56 kV/cm, resulting in a linear sensitivity that may be further
improved by tailoring of the optical and geometrical parameters of the fibre-pigtailed Mach-Zehnder interferometer.
The operation of Fiber Optic Gyro is based on the Sagnac Effect which states that light beams propagating
along opposite directions in a rotating frame experience an optical path length difference. These two counter-propagating
waves propagate within a closed fiber coil, and when this coil rotates the resultant phase difference is proportional to the
rotation rate Ω. Fiber optic gyroscopes are desirable devices for many navigation and guidance applications because,
being solid state devices, they have several major advantages including light weight, long working lifetimes, no moving
parts and operate using low voltage power. In this paper the Optolink's single-axis and three-axis fiber optic gyroscopes
are described. The Optolink's FOGs consist of the light-emitting diode, one or three photodetectors, circulators and
polarization maintaining fiber couplers to divide the light into two or three parts, one or three sets of ring interferometers
to sense one or three orthogonal angular rates, and installed PCB signal processing circuits. The ring interferometer
consists of a multifunction integrated optic chip and polarization maintaining fiber coil, both these components are
designed and fabricated by Optolink. The results illustrate the versatility of the technology, showing its potential to meet
both the low-cost, compact sized needs of tactical guidance, as well as the very high performance needs of inertial
navigation and precision applications. The optic and electronic blocks of closed-loop gyroscopes with integrated optic
components are also considered in this paper.
Photorefractive damage and photoconductivity in as-grown, reduced and oxidized iron doped lithium niobate (LiNbO3,
LN) crystals, in two series of samples with 0.03 and 0.05 wt% iron concentrations, respectively have been studied with
the closed-aperture Z-scan technique. The photoconductivity in the various crystals was directly deduced from the
dynamic distortion of the beam spot of a red laser light passing throughout the sample, placed at the focal point, followed
by a pin-hole and recording in the far field zone behind the crystal. The most important experimental result points out a
non-linear increase of the photoconductivity with the laser power density and with the iron concentration in the crystal.
To explain these experimental findings, we use the theoretical model taking into account the photoionization of iron ions
and intrinsic defects, namely polarons, bipolarons and hole polarons.
The fiber optical dew point hygrometer based on change of reflection coefficient for fiber cut has been developed and
examined. We proposed and verified the model of condensation detector functioning principle. Experimental frost point
measurements on air with different frost points have been performed.
Electro-optic Mach-Zehnder interferometric (MZI) modulators have been fabricated by proton exchange in LiTaO3. Electro-optic efficiency of these modulators has been found to be depending on phase composition of HxLi1-xTaO3 waveguide in full accordance with the data of Raman scattering spectroscopy on microscopic contributions in electro-optic effect for the different HxLi1-xTaO3 phases. These spectroscopy data were used to found an appropriate phase composition and, thus, optimize MZI modulators. The experimental samples of MZI modulator fabricated at the optimal technological conditions exhibit the improved electro-optical efficiency with far superior photorefractive resistance compared to the LiNbO3 waveguides and modulators.
We report an experimental observation of propagation of light in waveguide formed on Y-cut LiNbO3 crystal by helium implantation and combined proton and copper exchange. The buffer layer formed in result of ion implantation enjoys depolarization properties and provides intermode energy exchange. The parameters of this buffer layer is defined from mode spectroscopy. Mode diffraction on the 2-D grating-like periodical structure formed by defects of layer is observed. Appearance of such defects we explain by features of copper-doped helium-implanted optical LiNbO3 waveguide fabrication process.
In this paper, we report characterization of insertion losses, mode profiles and intensity distributions in channel LiNbO3 optical waveguide fabricated by High-Temperature Proton Exchange (HTPE). Optimal fabrication parameters were chosen in accordance with results obtained for test samples of a planar waveguide. A target wavelength of our optimization procedure was 810 - 840 nm, as fabrication of phase modulator used in sensor is developed. The guided mode intensity has been mapped by scanning near-field optical microscopy with a sub-wavelength resolution (<100 nm), simultaneously with observation of the topography of the scanned area (100 μm x 100 μm). These measurements offer important information about loss mechanisms in our waveguides.
Reflection second-harmonic generation (SHG) from the polished waveguide end face is used to investigate the second-order nonlinear optical properties of different types of PE LiNbO3 and LiTaO3 waveguides in different HxLi1-xNbO3 and HxLi1-xTaO3 phases: as-exchanged and annealed proton-exchanged (APE) waveguides, high-temperature proton-exchanged (HTPE) waveguides, as well as reverse proton exchanged (RPE) waveguides. A detailed correlation is done between the nonlinear properties, the processing conditions, crystal structure parameters, the refractive index changes and the optical losses of the waveguides. The intensity of reflected SH signal, strongly reduced after the initial proton exchange in both LiNbO3 and LiTaO3, is found to be restored and even increased after annealing. However, this apparent increase of the nonlinearity is accompanied by high scattering and a strong degradation of the quality of the SHG reflected beam in the region of initial step-like PE waveguides. The recently proposed HTPE technique has been shown to produce high-quality alpha-phase PE LiNbO3 or PE LiTaO3 waveguides with essentially undegraded nonlinear optical properties. It has been also shown that the nonlinear properties of annealed proton exchanged LiNbO3 and LiTaO3 waveguides can be effectively recovered by the reverse proton exchange technique.
We present a broadband DBR recorded with violet light (441.6 nm) by use of a holographic technique into Tiindiffused channel LiNbO3 waveguides, which were doped by proton-assisted copper exchange, giving unique possibility to reach an extremely high modulation of refractive index (≥5x10-4) within photorefractive grating. In a first approach we obtain a reflectivity of 17 % and bandwidth (FWHM) of 1.2 nm for IR light with center wavelength 1534.3 nm. Finally, we present the experimental data on specific spectral response of an asymmetric Fabry-Perot interferometer formed by broadband DBR and air-waveguide interface.
Multifunctional integrated optical chip (MIOC) for fiber optical gyroscope with linear digital output is developed. The technology is based on recently proposed High-Temperature Proton Exchange method. MIOC is used for industrial closed-loop fiber optic gyro.
The copper exchange effects in waveguides containing different HxLi1-xNbO3 phases are investigated. We have used x-ray diffraction, m-line spectroscopy in the visible, near UV and IR regions and holographic characterization methods. The crucial dependence of holographic sensitivity on phase composition has been found to be the specific feature of Cu:H:LiNbO3 waveguides. It is established, that the main peculiarities of optical and photorefractive properties are caused by simultaneous formation of Cu+ defects and (OH--Cu+) pair defects.
The single crystalline solid solutions HxLi1-xNbO3 prepared by proton exchange exhibit very complex structural chemistry which is different from known for powders. The HxLi1-xNbO3 layers present up to seven different crystallographic phases. the correlation between the crystalline structure, refractive indices, proton concentration and ferroelectric properties has been experimentally determined, that allows to predict the characteristics of great variety of waveguides.
The results of the detailed investigation of influence of the composition compound variation on photorefractive effect in nominally pure LiNbO3 crystals at continuous-wave illumination are reported. The investigation indicates clear photorefraction amplitude (Delta) ns increase with the growth of the light intensity J for any studied crystals. The main result of our investigation consists in discovering of a direct linear correlation between (delta) ((Delta) ns)/(delta) J and density N of such intrinsic defects as NbLi. This effect is independent from the accidental iron contamination. Therefore at low J the (Delta) ns value decreases with growth N while at high J the opposite dependency is observed. The threshold intensity value of such transformation correlates with the crystal optical quality. It has been established that these photorefraction changes are connected with the light induced absorption on the secondary centers caused by the existence of the metastable small polarons at room temperature during illumination.
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