• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.330-335
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• 2020

We have investigated optimization of the working distance (WD) for a highly miniaturized imaging probe for endoscopic optical coherence tomography (OCT). The WD is the axial distance from the distal end of the imaging probe to its beam focus, which is demanded for dimensional margins of protective structures, operational safety, or full utilization of the axial imaging range of OCT. With an objective lens smaller than a few hundred micrometers in diameter, a micro-optic imaging probe naturally exhibits a very short WD due to the down-scaled optical structure. For a maximized WD careful design is required with the optical aperture of the objective lens optimally filled by the incident beam. The diffraction-involved effect was taken into account in our analysis of the apertured beam. In this study, we developed a simple design formula on the maximum achievable WD based on our diffraction simulation. It was found that the maximum WD is proportional to the aperture size squared. In experiment, we designed and fabricated very compact OCT probes with long WDs. Our 165-㎛-thick fiber-optic probes provided WDs of 3 mm or longer w ith reasonable OCT imaging performance.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.310-316
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• 2020

We propose and experimentally demonstrate an all-optical radio frequency (RF) spectrum broadening system based on time compression. By utilizing the procedure of dispersion compensation values, the frequency domain is broadened by compressing the linear chirp optical pulse which has been multiplexed by the radio frequency. A detailed mathematical description elucidates that the time compression is a very preferred scheme for spectrum broadening. We also report experimental results to prove this method, magnification factor at 2.7, 8 and 11 have been tested with different dispersion values of fiber, the experimental results agree well with the theoretical results. The proposed system is flexible and the magnification factor is determined by the dispersion values, the proposed scheme is a linear system. In addition, the influence of key parameters, for instance optical bandwidth and the sideband suppression ratio (SSR), are discussed. Magnification factor 11 of the proposed system is demonstrated.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.134-139
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• 2018

A novel approach for frequency-tripling vector signal generation via balanced detection without precoding and optical filter is proposed. The scheme is mainly utilizing an integrated dual-polarization quadrature phase shift keying (DPQPSK) modulator. In the DPQPSK modulator, one QPSK modulator is driven by an RF signal to generate high-order optical sidebands, while the other QPSK modulator is modulated by I/Q data streams to produce baseband vector signal as an optical carrier. After that, a frequency-tripling 16-quadrature-amplitude-modulation (16QAM) vector millimeter-wave (mm-wave) signal can be obtained by balanced detection. The proposed scheme can reduce the complexity of transmitter digital signal processing. The results show that, a 4 Gbaud baseband 16QAM vector signal can be generated at 30 GHz by frequency-tripling. After 10 km single-mode fiber (SMF) transmission, the constellation and eye diagrams of the generated vector signal perform well and a bit-error-rate (BER) below than 1e-3 can be achieved.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.384-390
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• 2021

This paper presents a wide-range tunable wavelength-locking technology based on optoelectronic oscillation (OEO) loops for optical fiber sensors and microwave photonics applications, explains the theoretical fundamentals of the design, and demonstrates a method for locking the relative wavelength differences between a leader semiconductor laser and its follower lasers. The input of the OEO loop in the proposed scheme (the relative wavelength difference) determines the radio-frequency (RF) signal frequency of the oscillation output, which is quantized into an injection current signal for feedback to control the wavelength drift of follower lasers so that they follow the wavelength change of the leader laser. The results from a 10-hour continuous experiment in a field environment show that the wavelength-locking accuracy reached ±0.38 GHz with an Allan deviation of 6.1 pm over 2 hours, and the wavelength jitter between the leader and follower lasers was suppressed within 0.01 nm, even though the test equipment was not isolated from vibrations and the temperature was not controlled. Moreover, the tunable range of wavelength locking was maintained from 10 to 17 nm for nonideal electrical devices with limited bandwidth.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.16-21
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• 2019

We present a broad-bandwidth comb-spacing-swept source (CSWS) based on a differential polarization delay line (DPDL) for interferometric three-dimensional (3D) imaging. The comb spacing of the CSWS is repeatedly swept by the tunable DPDL in the multiwavelength source to provide depth-scanning optical coherence tomography (OCT). As the polarization differential delay of the DPDL is tuned from 5 to 15 ps, the comb spacing along the wavelength continuously varies from 1.6 to 0.53 nm, respectively. The wavelength range of various semiconductor optical amplifiers and the cavity feedback ratio of the tunable fiber coupler are experimentally selected to obtain optimal conditions for a broader 3-dB bandwidth of the multiwavelength spectrum and thus provide a higher axial resolution of $35{\mu}m$ in interferometric OCT imaging. The proposed CSWS-OCT has a simple imaging interferometer configuration without reference-path scanning and a simple imaging process without the complex Fourier transform. 3D surface images of a via-hole structure on a printed circuit board and the top surface of a coin were acquired.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.247-252
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• 2018

We report amplification of a small signal in a diode-pumped Cs vapor cell with 500 torr of ethane buffer gas, in the low-pump-power regime of 200 mW or less. For efficient amplifier operation, the pump and signal beams were coupled to a single-mode optical fiber, and completely overlapped in the Cs vapor cell. We investigated the amplification of the small signal according to cell temperature, signal power, and pump power. An amplification factor of 56 was achieved under the conditions of cell temperature of $115^{\circ}C$, signal power of 0.1 mW, and pump power of 200 mW.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.5 no.6
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• pp.721-729
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• 2021

We demonstrate a Pr³⁺:YLF 639.7-nm laser with single-frequency output based on the Q-switched pre-lase technology, pumped by a fiber-coupled GaN blue laser diode. The pre-lase technology is realized by the step-type loss of the acousto-optical Q-switched device. The conclusions of the theoretical research are verified experimentally. The mode-suppression ratio was 44 dB at the single-frequency laser output. Detection by interferometer verified the realization of the stable single-frequency laser. In addition, the emission spectrum had a linewidth of 139.9 MHz, measured by Fabry-Perot interferometer. The single-frequency laser's single-peak power was over 19.7 W with 98.8-ns pulse duration, obtained under an absorption power of 1.74 W.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.479-488
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• 2022

To account for the internal thermal effects of solid-state lasers, a method using a back propagation (BP) neural network integrated with a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is developed, which is a new wavefront distortion correction technique. In particular, by using a slab laser model, a series of fiber pumped sources are employed to form a controlled array to pump the gain medium, allowing the internal temperature field of the gain medium to be designed by altering the power of each pump source. Furthermore, the BP artificial neural network is employed to construct a nonlinear mapping relationship between the power matrix of the pump array and the thermally induced wavefront aberration. Lastly, the suppression of thermally induced wavefront distortion can be achieved by changing the power matrix of the pump array and obtaining the optimal pump light intensity distribution combined using the PSO algorithm. The minimal beam quality β can be obtained by optimally distributing the pumping light. Compared with the method of designing uniform pumping light into the gain medium, the theoretically computed single pass beam quality β value is optimized from 5.34 to 1.28. In this numerical analysis, experiments are conducted to validate the relationship between the thermally generated wavefront and certain pumping light distributions.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.407-412
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• 2022

We report on a diode-laser-pumped mode-locked Yb:KGW laser system, which delivers ultrashort pulses down to 89 fs at a repetition rate of 63 MHz, with an average power of up to 5.6 W. A fiber-coupled diode laser at 981 nm, operated with a compact driver, is used to optically pump the gain crystal via an off-axis parabolic mirror. A semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror is used to initiate the pulsed operation. Laser characteristics such as the pulse duration, spectrum bandwidth, and output power are investigated by varying the intracavity dispersions via changing the number of bounces between negative-dispersive mirrors within the cavity. Short pulses with a duration of 89 fs, a center wavelength of 1,027 nm, and 3.6 W of output power are produced at a group-velocity dispersion (GVD) of -3,300 fs². As the negative GVD increases, the pulse duration lengthens but the output power at the single-pulse condition can be enhanced, reaching 5.6 W at a GVD of -6,600 fs². Because of pulse broadening at high negative GVDs, the highest peak intensity is achievable at a moderate GVD with our system.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.182-190
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• 2005

The fiber Raman amplifier(FRA) is a distinctly advantageous technology. Due to its wider, flexible gain bandwidth, and intrinsically lower noise characteristics, FRA has become an indispensable technology of today. Various FRA modeling methods, with different levels of convergence speed and accuracy, have been proposed in order to gain valuable insights for the FRA dynamics and optimum design before real implementation. Still, all these approaches share the common platform of coupled ordinary differential equations(ODE) for the Raman equation set that must be solved along the long length of fiber propagation axis. The ODE platform has classically set the bar for achievable convergence speed, resulting exhaustive calculation efforts. In this work, we propose an alternative, highly efficient framework for FRA analysis. In treating the Raman gain as the perturbation factor in an adiabatic process, we achieved implementation of the algorithm by deriving a recursive relation for the integrals of power inside fiber with the effective length and by constructing a matrix formalism for the solution of the given FRA problem. Finally, by adiabatically turning on the Raman process in the fiber as increasing the order of iterations, the FRA solution can be obtained along the iteration axis for the whole length of fiber rather than along the fiber propagation axis, enabling faster convergence speed, at the equivalent accuracy achievable with the methods based on coupled ODEs. Performance comparison in all co-, counter-, bi-directionally pumped multi-channel FRA shows more than 102 times faster with the convergence speed of the Average power method at the same level of accuracy(relative deviation < 0.03dB).