Felix Dreisow

Control of directional evanescent coupling in fs laser written waveguides: Erratum.

We investigate the evanescent coupling of femtosecond laser written waveguides with elliptical and circular shape. A directional tuning the coupling properties is realized in a cubic array by tilting the elliptical waveguides. This allows to specifically pronounce diagonal coupling. In contrast, directional insensitive coupling is demonstrated in a circular waveguide array based on circular waveguides.

Observation of Two-Dimensional Surface Solitons in Asymmetric Waveguide Arrays

We report on the experimental observation of two-dimensional surface waves localized at the edge or in the corner of femtosecond laser-written waveguide arrays in fused silica. Increasing the power of the input beam allows one to observe a clear transition from a linear diffraction pattern to localized nonlinear surface states, which can exist at the interface only above a certain power threshold. This constitutes the first ever experimental observation of two-dimensional nonlinear surface solitons in optics.

Nonlinear refractive index of fs-laser-written waveguides in fused silica

We report on the measurement of the nonlinear refractive index of fs-laser written waveguides in fused silica by analyzing self-phase modulation of the propagating light. The nonlinear index is reduced considerably compared to the bulk material by the writing process and is furthermore highly dependant on processing parameters.

Inhibition of light tunneling in waveguide arrays.

We report the observation of almost perfect light tunneling inhibition at the edge and inside laser-written waveguide arrays due to band collapse. When the refractive index of the guiding channels is harmonically modulated along the propagation direction and out-of-phase in adjacent guides, light is trapped in the excited waveguide over a long distance due to resonances. The phenomenon can be used for tuning the localization threshold power.

Anderson localization in optical waveguide arrays with off-diagonal coupling disorder

We observe the transition from extended to Anderson-localized states in silica waveguide arrays exhibiting off-diagonal coupling disorder.

Wave localization at the boundary of disordered photonic lattices

We report on the experimental observation of reduced light-energy transport and disorder-induced localization close to a boundary of a truncated 1D disordered photonic lattice. Our observations uncover that a higher level of disorder near the boundary is required to obtain similar localization than in the bulk.

Quasi-incoherent propagation in waveguide arrays

In this letter a “quasi-incoherent” propagation in waveguide arrays is theoretically derived and experimentally verified. Depending on the initial light distribution the propagation in a waveguide array after multiwaveguide excitation exhibits an interference pattern or not. For the experimental verification the waveguide array is realized in OH rich fused silica by femtosecond laser direct writing. The light propagation within the array is directly visible due to the fluorescence of the created color centers. A precise excitation of different waveguides is achieved using a phase grating.

Spectral resolved dynamic localization in curved fs laser written waveguide arrays.

We investigate dynamic localization in curved femtosecond (fs) laser written waveguide arrays. The light propagation inside the array is directly observed by monitoring fluorescence of color centers induced during the fs writing process. In addition to monochromatic excitation the spectral response of the arrays is investigated by launching white light supercontinuum into the arrays.

All-optical routing and switching for three-dimensional photonic circuitry

The ability to efficiently transmit and rapidly process huge amounts of data has become almost indispensable to our daily lives. It turned out that all-optical networks provide a very promising platform to deal with this task. Within such networks opto-optical switches, where light is directed by light, are a crucial building block for an effective operation. In this article, we present an experimental analysis of the routing and switching behaviour of light in two-dimensional evanescently coupled waveguide arrays of Y- and T-junction geometries directly inscribed into fused silica using ultrashort laser pulses. These systems have the fundamental advantage of supporting three-dimensional network topologies, thereby breaking the limitations on complexity associated with planar structures while maintaining a high dirigibility of the light. Our results show how such arrays can be used to control the flow of optical signals within integrated photonic circuits.

Classical analogue of displaced Fock states and quantum correlations in Glauber-Fock photonic lattices.

Coherent states and their generalizations, displaced Fock states, are of fundamental importance to quantum optics. Here we present a direct observation of a classical analogue for the emergence of these states from the eigenstates of the harmonic oscillator. To this end, the light propagation in a Glauber-Fock waveguide lattice serves as equivalent for the displacement of Fock states in phase space. Theoretical calculations and analogue classical experiments show that the square-root distribution of the coupling parameter in such lattices supports a new family of intriguing quantum correlations not encountered in uniform arrays. Because of the broken shift invariance of the lattice, these correlations strongly depend on the transverse position. Consequently, quantum random walks with this extra degree of freedom may be realized in Glauber-Fock lattices.