Philippe Delaye

Stimulated Raman scattering in an ethanol core microstructured optical fiber

We show that high efficiency stimulated Raman scattering can be obtained using hollow core photonic crystal fiber with the core filled with a low refractive index nonlinear liquid. This new architecture opens new perspectives in the development of nonlinear functions as any kind of nonlinear liquid media can now be used to implement them, with original properties not accessible with silica core fibers.

Photorefractive detection of tagged photons in ultrasound modulated optical tomography of thick biological tissues

We present a new and simple method to obtain ultrasound modulated optical tomography images in thick biological tissues with the use of a photorefractive crystal. The technique offers the advantage of spatially adapting the output speckle wavefront by analysing the signal diffracted by the interference pattern between this output field and a reference beam, recorded inside the photorefractive crystal. Averaging out due to random phases of the speckle grains vanishes, and we can use a fast single photodetector to measure the ultrasound modulated optical contrast. This technique offers a promising way to make direct measurements within the decorrelation time scale of living tissues.

Light localization induced enhancement of third order nonlinearities in a GaAs photonic crystal waveguide

Nonlinear propagation experiments in GaAs photonic crystal waveguides (PCW) were performed, which exhibit a large enhancement of third order nonlinearities, due to light propagation in a slow mode regime, such as two-photon absorption (TPA), optical Kerr effect and refractive index changes due to free-carriers generated by TPA. A theoretical model has been established that shows a very good quantitative agreement with experimental data and demonstrates the important role that the group velocity plays. These observations give a strong insight into the use of PCWs for optical switching devices.

Growth, spectroscopic and photorefractive investigation of vanadium-doped cadmium telluride

We present new results on the growth of semi-insulating vanadium-doped cadmium telluride crystals and their characterization by different optical techniques such as photoinduced current transient spectroscopy, absorption, photoconductivity spectra, and photorefractive wave mixing. Our joint research program aims at developing optimized crystals for efficient optical processing in the near infrared through the photorefractive effect.

Novel theoretical aspects on photorefractive ultrasonic detection and implementation of a sensor with an optimum sensitivity

We here expose theoretical and experimental results on homodyne detection using near-infrared laser sources, at 1.06, 1.32, and 1.55 μm wavelengths. The used photorefractive crystals are two large size CdZnTe:V samples. With speckled beams such as the ones scattered by diffusive objects, we reach a detection limit which, at 1.55 μm, is only 1.6 times above the one obtained with plane waves in a classical interferometer and only 2 and 2.2 times above at 1.32 and 1.06 μm, respectively. It is then demonstrated that the electron–hole competition, which varies enormously between these three wavelengths and gives a nearly zero two-wave-mixing gain at 1.32 μm, does not influence the sensitivity of the system. Moreover, we show that the frequency cutoff of the system is four times higher in the attenuation regime than in the amplification one.

Theoretical description of the photorefractive detection of the ultrasound modulated photons in scattering media

Acousto-optic imaging of thick biological tissues can be obtained in real-time with an adaptive-wavefront holographic setup, where the holographic media is a self-developping photorefractive crystal. As a consequence, the interference signal resulting from the acousto-optic effect can be easily collected with a high etendue and fast single photodetector. We present a statistical model of the field propagating through the scattering media and show why the various acoustic frequency components contained in the speckle output pattern are uncorrelated. We then give a detailed description of the signal measured through the photorefractive effect, in order to explain the quadratic pressure response observed for the two commonly used configurations setup e.g an amplitude or a phase modulation of the ultrasound.

Kerr and four-wave mixing spectroscopy at the band edge of one-dimensional photonic crystals

Kerr and four-wave mixing spectroscopy is shown to be a powerful technique to quantify the strong enhancement of the third-order optical nonlinear susceptibilities at the band edge of photonic crystals. Local field factors of about 5 are demonstrated for crossed Kerr effect and a narrow resonance peak observed for the conjugate reflectivity. Moreover, a reduction of the effective nonlinear susceptibility of the four-wave mixing process with increasing pump intensities is measured, which is due to different Kerr-induced blueshifts of the band edge for forward and backward pump beams and signal and conjugate beams. This observation definitely demonstrates the need for considering all the nonlinear processes for the optimization of nonlinear photonic crystals for a given application in optical signal processing.

Transfer-matrix modeling of four-wave mixing at the band edge of a one-dimensional photonic crystal

We present a modeling of a degenerate four-wave-mixing nonlinear process in one-dimensional photonic crystals. The model is based on the nonlinear extension of the transfer-matrix description of propagation in the structure. The influence of light localization, near the band edge of the structure, on the enhancement of the phase-conjugate reflectivity is studied. The phase-conjugate reflectivity is shown to increase as the eighth power of the number of layers with an additional large dependence on the index contrast of the structure. In both cases the enhancement is accompanied by a strong reduction of the resonance width, which may lead to some limitation of the enhancement when ultrashort pulses are used. A strong influence of the losses on the nonlinear efficiency of the structure is also predicted with a great importance of scattering losses at the multiple interfaces of the structure.

Continuous-wave two-beam coupling in InP:Fe and GaAs: evidence for thermal hole–electron competition in InP:Fe

We show that even if there is no direct hole–electron competition in InP:Fe the gain is lower than expected. We attribute this reduction of the gain to a thermally induced hole–electron competition that involves the excited state of Fe2+ (5T2). We present a new model for the photorefractive effect in InP:Fe, which we use to interpret our beam-coupling results. Some material parameters of the InP:Fe sample and particularly of the excited state are deduced. The same energy-transfer measurements conducted in GaAs give us the ratio of hole and electron photoionization cross sections.

Acousto-optical coherence tomography using random phase jumps on ultrasound and light

Imaging objects embedded within highly scattering media by coupling light and ultrasounds (US) is a challenging approach. In deed, US enable direct access to the spatial localization, though resolution can be poor along their axis (cm). Up to now, several configurations have been studied, giving a millimetric axial resolution by applying to the US a microsecond pulse regime, as is the case with conventional echography. We introduce a new approach called Acousto-Optical Coherence Tomography (AOCT), enabling us to get a millimetric resolution with continuous US and light beams by applying random phase jumps on US and light. An experimental demonstration is performed with a self-adaptive holographic setup containing a photorefractive GaAs bulk crystal and a single large area photodetector.