Yanan Zhi

Bragg diffraction of multilayer volume holographic gratings under ultrashort laser pulse readout

The multilayer coupled wave theory is extended to systematically investigate the diffraction properties of multilayer volume holographic gratings (MVHGs) under ultrashort laser pulse readout. Solutions for the diffracted and transmitted intensities, diffraction efficiency, and the grating bandwidth are obtained in transmission MVHGs. It is shown that the diffraction characteristics depend not only on the input pulse duration but also on the number and thickness of grating layers and the gaps between holographic layers. This analysis can be implemented as a useful tool to aid with the design of multilayer volume grating-based devices employed in optical communications, pulse shaping, and processing.

An Optical 2×4 90° Hybrid Based on a Birefringent Crystal for a Coherent Receiver in a Free-Space Optical Communication System

The design and fabrication of an optical 2 × 4 90° hybrid based on birefringent crystals for a coherent receiver in a free-space optical communication system are presented. For the quadrature receiver, two pairs of 180° phase-shift outputs are obtained and one pair has a phase difference of 90° with respect to the other. The 90° hybrid comprises two pairs of stacked birefringent plates, a phase retardation plate and an analyser birefringent plate. The testing results measured by the heterodyne method verify that the 2 × 4 optical 90° hybrid can work correctly and effectively. The phase compensation and further optimization schemes are also proposed.

Absorption characteristic and nonvolatile holographic recording in LiNbO3:Cr:Cu crystals

The absorption characteristic of lithium niobate crystals doped with chromium and copper (Cr and Cu) is investigated. We find that there are two apparent absorption bands for LiNbO3:Cr:Cu crystal doped with 0.14 wt.% Cr2O3 and 0.011 wt.% CuO; one is around 480 nm, and the other is around 660 nm. With a decrease in the doping composition of Cr and an increase in the doping composition of Cu, no apparent absorption band in the shorter wavelength range exists. The higher the doping level of Cr, the larger the absorbance around 660 nm. Although a 633 nm red light is located in the absorption band around 660 nm, the absorption at 633 nm does not help the photorefractive process; i.e., unlike other doubly doped crystals, for example, LiNbO3:Fe:Mn crystal, a nonvolatile holographic recording can be realized by a 633 nm red light as the recording light and a 390 nm UV light as the sensitizing light. For LiNbO3:Cr:Cu crystals, by changing the recording light from a 633 nm red light to a 514 nm green light, sensitizing with a 390 nm UV light and a 488 nm blue light, respectively, a nonvolatile holographic recording can be realized. Doping the appropriate Cr (for example, NCr = 2.795 x 10(25) m(-3) and NCr/NCu = 1) benefits the improvement of holographic recording properties.

High-data rate laser communication field experiment in the turbulence channel

At present inter-satellite laser communications have made great success, such as SILEX, TerraSAR-X LCT etc. But satellite to ground laser communications still at the experimental stages because of the atmosphere turbulence channel and the clouds. Once the satellite to ground laser communication technology obtains a breakthrough, the all laser spacebased communication era is coming. In this paper, we suggest a DPSK modulation/self-coherent homodyne reception scheme to overcome the atmosphere turbulence. The key in the scheme lies in the phase error compensation with the external environment change. In our experiment, we use two parallel plates rotating to compensate the phase error. The communication data rate reaches 2.5Gbps in the field experiment. The real time bit error rate was obtained with the variation of the communication channel’s turbulence.

Self-homodyne interferometric detection in 2×4 optical hybrid for free-space optical communication

The time-delay self-homodyne interferometric detection used in 2×4 90° optical hybrid for free-space optical communication is presented. An asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer splits the received signal into two paths and recombines these two signals after a optical path difference. A balanced receiver follows the interferometer as a multiplier. The modulation contrast in the interferometer depends on the interference of identical wave-fronts, not on the quality of the wave-front itself. So it does not require wave-front compensation techniques, a local oscillator laser nor does it need frequency locking. The scheme can eliminate the effect of wave-front deformation on coherent detection in free-space optical communication effectively.

A synthetic aperture imaging ladar demonstrator with Ø300mm antenna and changeable footprint

A demonstrator of synthetic aperture imaging ladar (SAIL) is constructed with the maximum aperture Ø300mm of antenna telescope. This demonstrator can be set with a rectangular aperture to produce a rectangular footprint suitable for scanning format with a high resolution and a wide strip. Particularly, the demonstrator is designed not only for the farfield application but also for the verifying and testing in the near-field in the laboratory space. And a 90 degree optical hybrid is used to mitigate the external phase errors caused by turbulence and vibration along line of sight direction and the internal phase errors caused by local fiber delay line. This paper gives the details of the systematic design, and the progresses of the experiment at a target distance around 130m.

Phase detection from two phase-shifting interferograms

Phase detection is one of the most important processing steps in optical phase-shifting interferometry. It aims to reconstruct the phase field of wavefront from the interferogram. To solve this problem, many algorithms of phase detection have been proposed these years. Here, A FFT-based two-step phase shifting (TPS) algorithm is described in detail and implemented by use of experimental interferograms. This algorithm has been proposed to solve the TPS problem with random phase shift except π. By comparison with the Visibility-Function-based TPS algorithm, it proves that the FFT-based algorithm has obvious advantages in phase extracting. Meanwhile, we present a π-phase-shift supplement to the TPS algorithm, which combines the two interferograms and demodulates the phase map from a combined interferogram. So combining this quasi-two-step method and FFT-based one, one could really implement the TPS with random phase shift. Thereafter, we design an optical setup of two-channel TPS interferometer with random phase shift, which could capture the two interferograms simultaneously. At the same time, we propose a fringe-variable Jamin interferometer to detect reversed domain of ferroelectric crystal in real time. It could realize the two-step phase shifting with π radian.

Diffraction properties of ultrashort pulsed beams with arbitrary temporal profiles studied with a volume holographic grating

Using modified two-dimensional coupled-wave theory, the diffraction properties of ultrashort pulsed beams with arbitrary temporal profiles are studied with a volume holographic grating. Analytical expressions for the profiles of the transmitted and diffracted beams are obtained. It is shown that the Bragg selectivity bandwidth of the volume grating can be influenced by the geometry parameter. Numerical results are illustrated for three different temporal profiles. For different temporal profiles, the ratios of the diffraction bandwidths to input bandwidths are discussed.

High data-rate differential phase shift keying receiver for satellite-to-ground optical communication link

The high data-rate satellite-to-ground coherent optical communication link is limited because the phase integrity of a beam is impaired when passing through the atmospheric turbulence. Based on the interference of two successive data bits in an unequal arm-length Mach-Zehnder delay interferometer, the differential phase shift keying receiver is suited for high data-rate satellite-to-ground coherent optical communication links due to its immunity of the wave front impairment when passing through the atmospheric turbulence. In the time-delay self-homodyne interferometric detection used in 2×4 90 degree optical hybrid, the optical path difference corresponds to the duration of one bit. The optical path difference is stabilized to below one thousandth of the wavelength by moving a finely motorized platform with the close-loop control using the phase feedback from the outputs of the 90 degree hybrid. The 2.5 Gbps optical communication link has already been verified between two buildings over a distance of 2.4km in the worst-case atmospheric conditions. The design and experimental results are given in this paper.

A large-angle high speed scanner based on electro-optic crystal for Fresnel telescope synthetic aperture imaging ladar

The cross-orbit scanning is very important for Fresnel telescope synthetic aperture imaging ladar system. This paper presents a design of large-angle high speed scanner based on electro-optic crystal for the cross-orbit scanning in Fresnel telescope synthetic aperture imaging ladar system. The designed scanner is based on the space-charge-controlled EO effect in KTN. In the experiment the crystal temperature should be kept a little higher above Tc to obtain a large EO effect and the polarization of the laser beam should be parallel to the direction of the driving electric field. Compared with other conventional EO crystal scanner, the new scanner can greatly improve the scanner angle by several times when maintains high speed and accuracy, which will have a great potential for cross-orbit scanning applications in Fresnel telescope synthetic aperture imaging ladar system.