R. H. Stolen

Raman gain in glass optical waveguides

The small signal Raman gain in a single‐mode glass waveguide amplifier has been measured directly. The measured gain is in good agreement with that calculated from the Raman cross section. The cross section was determined by a comparison of the spontaneous Raman scattering of fused quartz and benzene.

Parametric amplification and frequency conversion in optical fibers

We find that the parametric four-photon gain for light pulses decreases for fibers longer than a characteristic length. This length is related to the common experimental observation that stimulated parametric emission is usually prominent only in short fibers while in long fibers stimulated Raman scattering dominates. Despite the fact that the actual process involves an intensity dependent bandwidth and broadening of the pump linewidth from self-phase modulation, it is possible to develop a simple expression for the characteristic length which requires only the initial pump linewidth and the low-power parametric bandwidth. This bandwidth can often be estimated from the pump wavelength and the measured frequency shift between the pump and the generated waves. Expressions for gain and amplification are derived from coupled wave equations and in the Appendixes it is shown that these are of the same form as the planewave equations, but modified by coupling coefficients called overlap integrals.

Raman response function of silica-core fibers

For analyzing the propagation of ultrashort optical pulses, Raman gain is conveniently described as a response function in the time domain. In this paper we develop the Raman response function for silica-core fibers and use it to study the effect of Raman gain in regimes of normal and anomalous dispersion.

Stimulated Brillouin scattering in optical fibers

Observations of backward stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in glass optical fibers are reported. Threshold for SBS has been achieved with less than 1 W of input power at 5355 A. Relaxation behavior in the SBS signal has also been observed and is attributed to finite‐cell‐length oscillation. Experimental results are compared with theory, and the implied limitation to optical fiber transmission is discussed.

Compression of optical pulses chirped by self-phase modulation in fibers

The use of self-phase modulation in a single-mode fiber to chirp an optical pulse, which is then compressed with a grating-pair compressor, has been shown to be a practical technique for the production of optical pulses at least as short as 30 fsec. We report the results of a theoretical analysis of this process. Numerical results are presented for the achievable compression and compressed pulse quality as functions of fiber length and input pulse intensity. These results are given in normalized units such that they can be scaled to describe a wide variety of experimental situations and can be used to determine the optimum fiber length and compressor parameters for any given input pulse. Specific numerical examples are presented that suggest that the technique will generally be useful for input pulses shorter than about 100 psec. For energies of a few nanojoules per pulse, the compressed pulse widths will typically be in the femtosecond regime.

Raman Oscillation in Glass Optical Waveguide

Stimulated Raman emission in the visible has been observed in glass‐fiber optical waveguides. Even though the Raman cross section is quite small, relatively low threshold for Raman emission can be achieved because high optical power densities are maintained over long lengths of waveguide. The broad stimulated gain bandwidths available in glass should permit the construction of wide‐band fiber amplifiers and Raman oscillators tunable over a range of 100 A.

The soliton laser

By incorporating a length of single-mode, polarization-preserving fiber into the feedback loop of a mode-locked color-center laser (lambda~1.4-1.6 microm), we have created a device that we call the soliton laser. Pulse width (2.0 to 0.21psec obtained to date) is determined by fiber length, in accordance with N = 2 soliton behavior. Production of <50-fsec-wide pulses is indicated for compression in an additional, external fiber.

Compression of femtosecond optical pulses

We describe the generation and measurement of optical pulses as short as 30 fs. The pulses are produced using self‐phase modulation in a short 15‐cm optical fiber followed by a grating compressor.

Intensity discrimination of optical pulses with birefringent fibers

An intensity discriminator for optical pulses can be made with a birefringent fiber. Such a discriminator would be useful for separating the intense subpicosecond pulses formed by solitonlike compression from the weaker uncompressed background. The discriminator utilizes an intensity-dependent state of polarization out of the fiber.

Polarization effects in fiber Raman and Brillouin lasers

Raman and Brillouin gains in fibers are a factor of 2 higher if linear polarization is maintained. Birefringent single-mode fibers are used to demonstrate this gain difference. Threshold powers of 200 mW have been achieved in Raman oscillators.