Spatial beam self-cleaning in multimode fibres

Multimode optical fibres are enjoying a renewed attention, boosted by the urgent need to overcome the current capacity crunch of single-mode fibre systems and by recent advances in multimode complex nonlinear optics [1-13]. In this work, we demonstrate that standard multimode fibres can be used as ultrafast all-optical tool for transverse beam manipulation of high power laser pulses. Our experimental data show that the Kerr effect in a graded-index multimode fibre is the driving mechanism for overcoming speckle distortions, leading to a somewhat counter-intuitive effect resulting in a spatially clean output beam robust against fibre bending. Our observations demonstrate that nonlinear beam …

Experimental generation of optical flaticon pulses

International audience; We experimentally investigate the nonlinear reshaping of a continuous wave which leads to chirp-free and flat-top intense pulses or flaticons exhibiting strong temporal oscillations at their edges and a stable self-similar expansion upon propagation of their central region. This study was performed in the normal dispersion regime of a non-zero dispersion-shifted fiber and involved a sinusoidal phase modulation of the continuous wave. Our fiber optics experiment is analogous to considering the collision between oppositely directed currents near the beach, and it may open the way to new investigations in the field of hydrodynamics.

Generation of vector dark-soliton trains by induced modulational instability in a highly birefringent fiber

International audience; We present a set of experimental observations that demonstrate the generation of vector trains of dark-soliton pulses in the orthogonal axes of a highly birefringent optical fiber. We generated dark-soliton trains with terahertz repetition rate in the normal group-velocity dispersion regime by inducing a polarization modulational instability by mixing two intense, orthogonal continuous laser beams. Numerical solutions of the propagation equations were used to optimize the emission of vector dark pulses at the fiber output.

Nonlinear beam self-cleaning in a coupled cavity composite laser based on multimode fiber

International audience; We study a coupled cavity laser configuration where a passively Q-switched Nd:YAG microchip laser is combined with an extended cavity, including a doped multimode fiber. For appropriate coupling levels with the extended cavity, we observed that beam self-cleaning was induced in the multimode fiber thanks to nonlinear modal coupling, leading to a quasi-single mode laser output. In the regime of beam self-cleaning, laser pulse duration was reduced from 525 to 225 ps. We also observed a Q-switched mode-locked operation, where spatial self-cleaning was accompanied by far-detuned nonlinear frequency conversion in the active multimode fiber.

Propagation, Stability and Interactions of Novel Three-Wave Parametric Solitons

International audience; We found a new class of analytic soliton solutions that describe the parametric wave mixing of optical pulses in quadratic nonlinear crystals. We analyze the stability properties, interactions and collisions of these solitons.

Electrostrictive cross-phase modulation of periodic pulse trains in optical fibers

Electrostriction-induced cross-phase modulation between subsequent bits of a nonreturn-to-zero pulse train in optical fibers leads to nonlinear frequency shifts of opposite sign for the 1’s and the 0’s. Direct experimental measurements of the electrostrictive and Kerr-induced nonlinear phase shift across the bit profiles agree well with the theoretical modeling.

Flaticon pulses in optical fibers

International audience; We experimentally investigate the nonlinear reshaping of a continuous wave which leads to chirp-free and flat-top intense pulses or flaticons exhibiting strong temporal oscillations at their edges and a stable self-similar expansion upon propagation of their central region.

Kerr frequency comb generation in the normal dispersion regime of dispersion oscillating telecom fiber

The generation of optical frequency combs has a variety of applications from optical metrology to spectroscopy and wavelength division multiplexing. Nonlinear methods to generate frequency combs are based on multiple four-wave mixing (FWM) in highly nonlinear waveguides [1]. The mechanism for the generation of a wideband comb from a CW pump is Kerr-induced phase-matching of the FWM interaction or modulation instability (MI), which requires operating in the anomalous dispersion regime. Such restriction can be circumvented with a cavity geometry, where MI [2] and comb generation [3] may also be observed in the normal dispersion region. Alternatively, one may obtain MI and unequally spaced Ker…

Modulational Instability and Stimulated Raman Scattering in Normally Dispersive Highly Birefringent Fibers

Abstract The nonlinear interaction of two laser beams in normally dispersive highly birefringent optical fibers leads to a large set of fascinating physical effects such as modulational instability (MI) and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS). These two nonlinear phenomena have a positive role as a mechanism for the generation of short optical pulses and represent a drawback in fiber-optics transmissions. Indeed, we will show that an induced process of modulational instability may be exploited for the generation of THz train of vector dark solitons. The technique of frequency-resolved optical gating is used to completely characterize the intensity and phase of the dark soliton trains. On the …

A universal all-fiber omnipolarizer

The all-optical control of light polarization is nowadays a fundamental issue which finds important applications in optical networks. In this field, the research has moved on the development of nonlinear methods of re-polarization of a partially coherent and initially depolarized light [1]. The main drawback of most of these devices is that they suffer from a large amount of output Relative-Intensity-Noise (RIN). However, a class of polarizers have been recently proposed which is based on the nonlinear interaction between two optical beams counter-propagating in a fiber [2]: in these devices the arbitrary state of polarization (SOP) of one of the two beams (signal) is attracted towards a sp…

Observation of induced modulational polarization instabilities and pulse-train generation in the normal-dispersion regime of a birefringent optical fiber

Four-photon mixing in a low-birefringence fiber is strongly influenced by the orientation of the pump and signal waves with respect to the fiber axes. We experimentally investigated the dependence of the modulational gain spectra on pump power and polarization by mixing orthogonal pump and probe light beams in a birefringent optical fiber. With a pump on the fast fiber axis, a cascade of sidebands was generated in the regime of normal fiber dispersion. These sidebands are shown to correspond to 0.2–0.3-THz trains of pulses with complex polarization profiles. The analysis reveals that, at particular values of the input pump and probe powers and signal frequency detuning, trains of dark-solit…

Modal attraction on low order modes by Kerr effect in a graded refractive index multimode fiber

Modal attraction towards low order modes in a GRIN multimode fiber was experimentally observed at high power and characterized, thus enriching the dynamics of the Kerr self-cleaning effect leading to quasi fundamental mode generation.

Observation of Geometric Parametric Instability Induced by the Periodic Spatial Self-Imaging of Multimode Waves

Spatio-temporal mode coupling in highly multimode physical systems permits new routes for exploring complex instabilities and forming coherent wave structures. We present here the first experimental demonstration of multiple geometric parametric instability sidebands, generated in the frequency domain through resonant space-time coupling, owing to the natural periodic spatial self-imaging of a multimode quasi-continuous-wave beam in a standard graded-index multimode fiber. The input beam was launched in the fiber by means of an amplified microchip laser emitting sub-nanosecond pulses at 1064 nm. The experimentally observed frequency spacing among sidebands agrees well with analytical predic…

Bloch wave theory of modulational polarization instabilities in birefringent optical fibers

The modulational instability gain spectra, of an arbitrarily polarized intense pump wave that experiences periodic nonlinear polarization rotation in a birefringent optical fiber, are derived by Floquet analysis. The predictions of the linearized analysis are confirmed by numerical simulations of the coupled nonlinear Schr\"odinger equations.

SIGNAL PROCESSING IN PHOTONIC CRYSTALS AND NANOSTRUCTURES

Optical devices employing photonic crystals and novel nanostructure materials may exhibit useful properties for applications to all-optical signal processing. In this work we analyze as a first example four-wave mixing of polarized beams in photonic crystal fibers. We show that by properly tuning the pump wavelength and the linear dispersion properties of the fiber one may obtain broadband parametric amplification and frequency conversion. Next we consider the in-line periodic amplification of short optical pulses by means of quantum-dot semiconductor optical amplifiers. We show by numerical simulations that pattern-free amplification of a 40 Gbit/s soliton signal at 1300 nm is possible wi…

Demonstration of Stimulated-Raman-scattering suppression in optical fibers in a multifrequency pumping configuration

International audience; We analyze the stimulated-Raman-scattering-(SRS) process induced by a linearly polarized multifrequency pump field in a normally dispersive single-mode fiber. We show, by theoretical analysis and numerical simulations, that the SRS process may be either controlled by switching all the generated Stokes radiations to the lowest-frequency pump or suppressed for all the frequency components of the pump field. The suppression process is achieved by an appropriate choice of the frequency separation between the pumps and a particular power distribution among the frequency components of the pump field. We present experimental spectra showing the effectiveness of this suppres…

Spatial and spectral nonlinear shaping of multimode waves

We demonstrate a novel nonlinear dynamics of multimode fibers that reshapes their spectral and spatial beam profiles, based on spatiotemporal modulation instability. Sidebands ranging from the visible to the near-infrared are carried by one and the same spatial bell-shaped profile.

Nonlinear polarization effects in optical fibers: polarization attraction and modulation instability [Invited]

We review polarization stabilization techniques based on the polarization attraction effect in low-birefringence fibers. Polarization attraction or pulling may be based on cross-polarization modulation, on parametric amplification, and on Raman or Brillouin scattering. We also review methods for laser frequency conversion based on polarization modulation instabilities in low- and high-birefringence fibers, and photonic crystal fibers. Polarization instabilities in nonlinear fibers may also be exploited for sensing applications.

Even harmonic pulse train generation by cross-polarization-modulation seeded instability in optical fibers

International audience; We show that, by properly adjusting the relative state of polarization of the pump and of a weak modulation, with a frequency such that at least one of its even harmonics falls within the band of modulation instability, one obtains a fully modulated wave at the second or higher even harmonic of the initial modulation. An application of this principle to the generation of a 80-GHz optical pulse train with high extinction ratio from a 40-GHz weakly modulated pump is experimentally demonstrated using a nonzero dispersion shifted fiber in the telecom C band.

Multidimensional shaping of spatiotemporal waves in multimode nonlinear fibers

Recent experiments have shown that nonlinear wave propagation in multimode optical fibers leads to complex spatio-temporal phenomena. In this talk, we introduce new approaches for the control and optimization of nonlinear beam reshaping in the spatial, temporal and spectral dimensions. The first approach applies to spatial beam self-cleaning the technique of transverse wavefront shaping, which permits to launch an optimized input mode combination, that results in the stable generation of a whole nonlinear mode alphabet at the fiber output. The second approach introduces a longitudinal tapering of the core diameter of multimode active and passive fibers, which permits to generate ultra-wideb…

Buildup of terahertz vector dark-soliton trains from induced modulation instability in highly birefringent optical fiber.

We present the experimental observation of generation of vector dark-soliton pulse trains with terahertz repetition rates in the normal dispersion regime of an optical fiber. The polarization solitons build up from induced cross-phase modulation instability of two orthogonal pumps in a highly birefringent fiber.

Baseband modulation instability as the origin of rogue waves

International audience; We study the existence and properties of rogue-wave solutions in different nonlinear wave evolution models that are commonly used in optics and hydrodynamics. In particular, we consider the Fokas-Lenells equation, the defocusing vector nonlinear Schrödinger equation, and the long-wave-shortwave resonance equation. We show that rogue-wave solutions in all of these models exist in the subset of parameters where modulation instability is present if and only if the unstable sideband spectrum also contains cw or zero-frequency perturbations as a limiting case (baseband instability). We numerically confirm that rogue waves may only be excited from a weakly perturbed cw whe…

Manakov Polarization Modulation Instability in Normal Dispersion Optical Fiber

We observed polarization modulation instability in the normal dispersion regime of randomly birefringent multi-km telecom optical fiber. The instability is pumped by two wavelength multiplexed and orthogonally polarized intense continuous lasers.

Spatiotemporal light-beam compression from nonlinear mode coupling

We experimentally demonstrate simultaneous spatial and temporal compression in the propagation of light pulses in multimode nonlinear optical fibers. We reveal that the spatial beam self-cleaning recently discovered in graded-index multimode fibers is accompanied by significant temporal reshaping and up to four-fold shortening of the injected sub-nanosecond laser pulses. Since the nonlinear coupling among the modes strongly depends on the instantaneous power, we explore the entire range of the nonlinear dynamics with a single optical pulse, where the optical power is continuously varied across the pulse profile.

Shallow water rogue wavetrains in nonlinear optical fibers

International audience; In addition to deep-water rogue waves which develop from the modulation instability of an optical CW, wave propagation in optical fibers may also produce shallow water rogue waves. These extreme wave events are generated in the modulationally stable normal dispersion regime. A suitable phase or frequency modulation of a CW laser leads to chirp-free and flat-top pulses or flaticons which exhibit a stable self-similar evolution. Upon collision, flaticons at different carrier frequencies, which may also occur in wavelength division multiplexed transmission systems, merge into a single, high-intensity, temporally and spatially localized rogue pulse.

Shallow water rogue waves in nonlinear optical fibers

The dynamics of extreme waves, often known as freak or rogue waves (RW), is presently a subject of intensive research. In oceanography, RW are mostly known as a sudden deep-water event which is responsible for ship wreakages and can be modeled by the 1D Nonlinear Schrodinger Equation (NLSE). In this framework, an ideal testbed is provided by optical pulse propagation in nonlinear optical fibers: extreme solitary wave emissions during supercontinuum generation or the first experimental observation of the Peregrine solitons have indeed been carried out exploiting the modulation instability occuring in fibers with anomalous dispersion.

Parametric instabilities and vector solitons in composite PCF with zero phase birefringence and nonzero group birefringence

International audience

Cross-phase modulational instability induced by Raman scattering in highly birefringent fiber

We report experimental and theoretical studies of Raman-induced cross-phase modulational instabilities (XPMI) in a high-birefringence, normally dispersive optical fiber. Experimental results reveal that the Raman-Stokes wave, generated by a quasi-CW pump beam, interacts with the latter to create a novel type of XPMI sidebands. These sidebands are characterized by a narrow gain bandwidth. The sideband frequencies are well reproduced by a linear stability analysis as well as by full numerical solutions of the coupled generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equations.

Optimization of soliton transmissions in dispersion-managed fiber links

We propose a simple optimization criterion (including the best launch point position in-between amplifiers) for the design of soliton transmission lines. The present approach is shown to minimize energy scattering from the solitons into the continuum.

Seeded intermodal four-wave mixing in a highly multimode fiber

International audience; We experimentally and theoretically investigate the process of seeded intermodal four-wave mixing in a graded-index multimode fiber, pumped in the normal dispersion regime. By using a fiber with a 100-mu m core diameter, we generate a parametric sideband in the C-band (1530-1565 nm), hence allowing the use of an erbium-based laser to seed the mixing process. To limit nonlinear coupling between the pump and the seed to low-order fiber modes, the waist diameter of the pump beam is properly adjusted. We observe that the superimposed seed stimulates the generation of new spectral sidebands. A detailed characterization of the spectral and spatial properties of these sideb…

Spatiotemporal Nonlinear Beam Shaping

The reshaping of multimode waves in optical fibers is a process where the spatial and spectral degrees of freedom are inherently coupled. Our experiments demonstrate that pumping a graded-index multimode fiber with sub-ns pulses from a microchip Nd:YAG laser leads to supercontinuum generation with a uniform bell-shaped spatial beam profile.

Nonlinear repolarization dynamics in optical fibers:transient polarization attraction

COST 241 intercomparison of nonlinear refractive index measurements in dispersion shifted optical fibres at =1550 nm

COST 241 measurements of the nonlinear refractive index, n/sub 2/, exhibit a large scatter depending on the specific measurement technique. This is largely due to the electrostrictive contribution to the Kerr nonlinearity, as is revealed by the resonant behaviour of n/sub 2/ (with peak values up to 3.9 10/sup -20/ m/sup 2/ W/sup -1/) observed with signal modulation frequencies in the 0.11 GHz range.

Testing and extrapolating the nonlinear robustness of modulation formats

The comparison of the robustness of modulation formats in fiber transmission systems facing nonlinear impairments and noise is carried out experimentally using a test link. Special techniques may be necessary when extrapolating by numerical simulations.

Quasi-soliton spatial autoguidé en milieu non lineaire quadratique

International audience; Nous démontrons ici des phénomènes d'autoguidage optique existant dans les milieux à non-linéarités quadratiques. En plus de la formation puis disparition d'un phénomène auto confiné, nous observons des effets de commutation ultrarapide et de démultiplication spatiale, ainsi qu'une restructuration temporelle suivie d'élargissements spectraux.

Parabolic pulse generation with dispersion decreasing optical fiber

We experimentally demonstrate the possibility to generate parabolic pulses via a single dispersion decreasing optical fiber with normal dispersion. We numerically and experimentally outline the influence of the dispersion profile.

Nonlinear repolarization dynamics in optical fibers: transient polarization attraction

International audience; In this work, we present a theoretical and experimental study of the response of a lossless polarizer to a signal beam with a time-varying state of polarization (SOP). By lossless polarizer, we mean a nonlinear conservative medium (e.g., an optical fiber) that is counterpumped by an intense and fully polarized pump beam. Such a medium transforms input uniform or random distributions of the SOP of an intense signal beam into output distributions that are tightly localized around a well-defined SOP. We introduce and characterize an important parameter of a lossless polarizer--its response time. Whenever the fluctuations of the SOP of the input signal beam are slower th…

Spatiotemporal Nonlinear Interactions in Multimode Fibers

International audience

Nonlinear spatial self-cleaning in multimode amplifying fiber and fiber laser cavity

During the last years, multimode fibers (MMFs) were used as an experimental platform for the observation of complex nonlinear propagation phenomena, thanks to their additional spatiotemporal degrees of freedom with respect to single mode fibers. Multimode solitons [1], geometric parametric instability [2], self-induced beam cleaning (SBC) [3] and supercontinuum generation have been reported [4]. In all of these situations considered so far the MMFs were standard graded-index fibers: the intermodal interactions took place in a conservative system (propagation losses were negligible). In this work we have experimentally investigated the Kerr SBC in three dissipative systems: a MMF with signif…

Dispersion-optimized multicladding silicon nitride waveguides for nonlinear frequency generation from ultraviolet to mid-infrared

Nonlinear frequency conversion spanning from the ultraviolet to the mid-infrared (beyond 2.4 μm) is experimentally demonstrated in multicladding silicon nitride (𝑆𝑖𝑋𝑁𝑌) waveguides. By adjusting the waveguide cross-section the chromatic dispersion is flattened, which enhances both the efficiency and the bandwidth of the nonlinear conversion. How accurately the dispersion is tailored is assessed through chromatic dispersion measurements and an experiment/simulation comparison of the dispersive waves' wavelength locations. Undesirable fluctuations of both the refractive index and the dimensions of the waveguide during the fabrication process result in a dispersion unpredictability of at l…

Dynamics of the transition from polarization disorder to antiphase polarization domains in vector fiber lasers

We demonstrate that nonlinear polarization coupling in a fiber ring laser without polarization-selective elements, subject to the effects of average anomalous dispersion, Kerr effect, and nonlinear gain saturation, can lead to the antisynchronization of spatiotemporal chaos into a wide variety of ordered laminar states of orthogonal polarization temporal domains. These antiphase polarization domains include stable lattices of soliton trains with high duty cycle at repetition rates of hundreds of MHz, as well as sparse trains of coupled dark and bright solitary waves.

Frequency tunable polarization and intermodal modulation instability in high birefringence holey fiber

International audience; We present an experimental analysis of polarization and intermodal noise-seeded parametric amplification, in which dispersion is phase matched by group velocity mismatch between either polarization or spatial modes in birefringent holey fiber with elliptical core composed of a triple defect. By injecting quasi-CW intense linearly polarized pump pulses either parallel or at 45 degrees with respect to the fiber polarization axes, we observed the simultaneous generation of polarization or intermodal modulation instability sidebands. Furthermore, by shifting the pump wavelength from 532 to 625 nm, we observed a shift of polarization sidebands from 3 to 8 THz, whereas int…

Observation of Manakov polarization modulation instability in the normal dispersion regime of randomly birefringent telecom optical fiber

Large-signal enhanced frequency conversion in birefringent optical fibers: theory and experiments

Strong frequency conversion among light waves propagating in a low-birefringence optical fiber in the normal-dispersion regime is experimentally investigated. Modulational gain spectra are obtained by injection of a signal orthogonally polarized with respect to a pump beam aligned with the slow fiber axis. Measurements reveal that, for signal power levels above a certain threshold value, peak conversion is obtained at pump signal frequency detunings far from the phase-matching condition. The large-signal three-wave mixing regime is well described by integrable nonlinear coupled-wave equations.

Spatial beam cleaning in quadratic nonlinear medium

We show experimentally that a laser beam scrambled by propagation in a short segment of multimode fiber may be cleaned by the nonlinear propagation in KTP cristal with type-II second-harmonic generation.

Shallow water optical rogue waves: Optical tsunamis

Roadmap on optical rogue waves and extreme events

Nail Akhmediev et al. ; 38 págs.; 28 figs.

Multidimensional Shaping of SpatiotemporalWaves in Multimode Nonlinear Fibers (invited)

International audience

Duty-ratio control of Nonlinear phase noise in dispersion-managed WDM transmissions using RZ-DPSK modulation at 10 Gb/s

International audience; The authors compare analytical and numerical estimates, showing that the nonlinear phase noise of short optical pulses associated with the coupling between amplified spontaneous emission noise and fiber nonlinearity may be controlled by adjusting the duty cycle of the return-to-zero (RZ) signal modulation format. The impact of this effect in the optimization of the performance of 10-Gb/s dispersion-managed wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) systems using RZ-differential phase-shift keying (DPSK) modulation is discussed. By extensive numerical simulations, it is shown that the transmission quality of ultradense WDM systems using the RZ-DPSK modulation format may be…

Polarization modulation instability in a Manakov fiber system

International audience; The Manakov model is the simplest multicomponent model of nonlinear wave theory: It describes elementary stable soliton propagation and multisoliton solutions, and it applies to nonlinear optics, hydrodynamics, and Bose-Einstein condensates. It is also of fundamental interest as an asymptotic model in the context of the widely used wavelength-division-multiplexed optical fiber transmission systems. However, although its physical relevance was confirmed by the experimental observation of Manakov (vector) solitons in a planar waveguide in 1996, there have in fact been no quantitative experiments confirming its validity for nonlinear dynamics other than soliton formatio…

Une nouvelle famille d'ondes scélérates dans les fibres optiques

National audience; Nous démontrons une nouvelle famile d'ondes scélérates qui peut émerger dans les fibres optiques à dispersion normale.

Parametric Frequency Conversion of Short Optical Pulses Controlled by a CW Background

International audience; We predict that parametric sum-frequency generation of an ultra-short pulse may result from the mixing of an ultra-short optical pulse with a quasi-continuous wave control. We analytically show that the intensity, time duration and group velocity of the generated idler pulse may be controlled in a stable manner by adjusting the intensity level of the background pump.

Performance Comparison of SSMF and UltraWave Fibers for Ultra-Long-Haul 40-Gb/s WDM Transmission

International audience; We experimentally compare the performance of standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) and UltraWave fiber (UWF) for ultra-long-haul (ULH) 40-Gb/s wavelength-division-multiplexing transmissions. We used the carrier-suppressed return-to-zero amplitude-shift-keying (CSRZ-ASK) and the carrier-suppressed return-to-zero differential-phase-shift-keying (CSRZ-DPSK) formats, which are particularly well-adapted to 40-Gb/s pulse-overlapped propagation. We demonstrate that transmission distance well beyond 2000 km can be reached on UWF with both the CSRZ-ASK and CSRZ-DPSK formats, or on SSMF with the CSRZ-DPSK format only, thus indicating that SSMF-based infrastructure of incumbent car…

Stable control of pulse speed in parametric three-wave solitons.

International audience; We analyze the control of the propagation speed of three wave packets interacting in a medium with quadratic nonlinearity and dispersion. We find analytical expressions for mutually trapped pulses with a common velocity in the form of a three-parameter family of solutions of the three-wave resonant interaction. The stability of these novel parametric solitons is simply related to the value of their common group velocity.

Nonlinear virtues of multimode fibre

The finding that multimode optical fibres support a rich and complex mix of spatial and temporal nonlinear phenomena could yield a plethora of promising applications.

Spatio-temporal beam dynamics in multimode nonlinear optical fibers

We overview recent advances in the spatio-temporal nonlinear dynamics of optical pulses propagating in multimode optical fibers. The Kerr effect leads to spatial beam self-cleaning in a graded-index multimode optical fiber, followed by sideband series generation spanning multiple octaves. Effectively single mode supercontinuum spanning from the visible to the mid-infrared was also demonstrated. Enhancement of Kerr beam self-cleaning was observed in active fiber with quasi-step index profile. Moreover, mutual self-cleaning was recently reported for both the fundamental and the second harmonic beams in optically poled multimode fibers with cubic and quadratic nonlinearity.

Generation of High-Repetition-Rate Dark Soliton Trains and Frequency Conversion in Optical Fibers

Induced modurational polarization instability in birefringent fibers leads to trains of dark soliton-like pulses. Optimal large-signal cw and soliton frequency conversion is also analysed.

Doublement d'impulsion dans une fibre à dispersion oscillante

National audience; En exploitant une fibre à dispersion oscillante fonctionnant au point d’éclatement spectral des bandes de gain, nous montrons numériquement qu’il est possible de créer à partir d’une impulsion pompe un doublet de deux impulsions picosecondes avec un délai les séparant pouvant être ajusté sur une large plage.

NONLINEAR OPTICS Nonlinear virtues of multimode fibre

The finding that multimode optical bres support a rich and complex mix of spatial and temporal nonlinear phenomena could yield a plethora of promising applications.

CONVERSIONS DE FREQUENCE ULTRA LARGE BANDE PAR MELANGE A QUATRE ONDES INTERMODAL EN CASCADE DANS LES FIBRES MULTIMODES

International audience; Nous mettons en évidence des effets de conversion spectrale paramétrique avec des décalages spectraux très importants (~200THz) dans une fibre à gradient d'indice qui, pompée avec une source laser picoseconde à 1064nm, supporte quatre modes de propagation. À travers des études expérimentales, analytiques et numériques détaillées, nous montrons que les multiples raies paramétriques sont générées par un processus en cascade complexe faisant intervenir des mélanges à quatre ondes intermodaux. Les longueurs d'onde paramétriques résultantes s'étendent dans le visible jusqu'à 410nm et dans le proche infrarouge jusqu'à 1355nm. MOTS-CLEFS : dynamique spatio-temporelle ; conv…

Polarization-domain-wall complexes in fiber lasers

To study the possible build-up of polarization-domain-walls (PDWs) in fiber laser cavities, an erbium-doped fiber ring laser was used and a wide range of vector polarization dynamics that can be selected at a given pump power, by using the degrees of freedom of two intracavity polarization controllers (PC) was investigated. A simple theoretical model that explains polarization switching in fiber ring lasers featuring a normally dispersive cavity with a typical, moderate, level of birefringence is presented. Such polarization dynamics, based on a special class of polarization-domain-wall structures, agrees qualitatively well with experimental observations. The paper stresses on the complex a…

Nonlinear pulse shaping in normally dispersive fibers : experimental examples

International audience; While the combination of Kerr nonlinearity with dispersion in optical fibers can seriously impair high speed optical transmissions, it also provides an attractive solution to generate new temporal and spectral waveforms. We explain in this talk how to take advantage of the progressive temporal and spectral reshapings that occur upon propagation in a normally dispersive fiber. We base our discussion on several experimental results obtained at telecommunication wavelengths.

Vector Modulational Instabilities and Soliton Experiments

In optical fibers, the interaction between nonlinear and dispersive effects leads to phenomena such as modulational instability (MI)[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6], in which a continuous or quasi-continuous wave undergoes a modulation of its amplitude or phase in the presence of noise or any other small perturbation. The perturbation can originate from quantum noise (spontaneous-MI) or from a frequency shifted signal wave (induced-MI). MI has been observed for the first time for a single pump wave propagating in a standard non birefringe.nt fiber (scalar MI)[7]. It has been shown that scalar MI only occurs when the group velocity dispersion (GVD) is negative (anomalous dispersion regime).

Spectral sideband splitting inn strongly dispersion oscillating fibers

Vidéo de la présentation donnée : https://youtu.be/SBA2WLKw5jw; International audience

Inelastic scattering and interactions of three-wave parametric solitons.

We study the interactions of velocity-locked three-wave parametric solitons in a medium with quadratic nonlinearity and dispersion. We reveal that the inelastic scattering between three-wave solitons and linear waves may be described in terms of analytical solutions with dynamically varying group velocity, or boomerons. Moreover, we demonstrate the elastic nature of three-wave soliton-soliton collisions and interactions.

Highly efficient few-mode spatial beam self-cleaning at 15µm

We experimentally demonstrate that spatial beam self-cleaning can be highly efficient when obtained with a few-mode excitation in graded-index multimode optical fibers. By using 160 ps long, highly chirped (6 nm bandwidth at -3dB) optical pulses at 1562 nm, we demonstrate a one-decade reduction of the power threshold for spatial beam self-cleaning, with respect to previous experiments using pulses with laser wavelengths at 1030-1064 nm. Self-cleaned beams remain spatio-temporally stable for more than a decade of their peak power variation. The impact of input pulse temporal duration is also studied.

Nonlinear Multimode Fiber Optics

We overview recent advances in the nonlinear optics of multimode optical fibers, including ultrabroadband sideband and supercontinuum generation, Kerr and Raman beam cleanup, modal modulation instabilities, four wave mixing, and second harmonic beam cleaning.

Cascaded intermodal four-wave mixing in a few-mode fiber

During the last few years, intensive works on multimode fibers allowed for the observation of a series of complex and novel nonlinear spatiotemporal phenomena such as: multimode solitons, geometric parametric instability, supercontinuum generation, and self-induced beam cleaning [1-4]. Among these phenomena, intermodal four-wave mixing (IMFWM) demonstrated larger frequency shifts in comparison with single-mode fibers. In this work, we studied IMFWM in a few-mode graded-index fiber (GRIN-FMF) pumped in the normal dispersion regime at 1064 nm. We report parametric sidebands detuned by hundreds of THz from the pump.

Nonlinear parametric resonances in quasiperiodic dispersion oscillating fibers

We numerically study the evolution of the spectrum of parametric resonance or modulation instability sidebands in quasiperiodic dispersion oscillating fibers. We separately consider a linear variation along the fiber of either the spatial period, the average dispersion, or the amplitude of the dispersion oscillation. We found that this linear variation of the dispersion oscillating fiber parameters may provide different novel mechanisms for the splitting of the resonance sideband spectrum, owing to coherent interference between quasi-resonant waves that are generated at different points along the fiber. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Optical Fibers Enter a New Space-Time Era

We show experimentally a new type of parametric instability associated with the original phenomenon of beam self-cleaning in multimode fibers. Our experimental results are in good agreement with numerical solutions of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation.

Spatial Beam Evolution in Nonlinear Multimode Fibers

We discuss some recent results illustrating the role of input wave-front shaping, propagation dynamics and output beam diagnostics in order to observe spatial beam cleaning in nonlinear multimode fibers and amplifiers.

Theory of parabolic pulse propagation in nonlinear dispersion decreasing optical fiber amplifiers

Optical fibers ; Nonlinear optics ; Optical fiber amplifiers ; Optical amplifier ; Optical solitons ; Electromagnetic wave propagation ; Pulse propagation ;; International audience; We show that pulse spectral broadening in normally dispersive nonlinear fiber amplifiers may be enhanced by introducing a suitable dispersion tapering. We obtain an analytical dispersion profile that permits one to reduce pulse propagation in a varying dispersion fiber to the case of an equivalent fiber with constant parameters.

Second harmonic generation and beam cleaning in optically poled multimode graded-index fibers

Recent experimental results have confirmed that nonlinear effects in multimode graded-index (MM-GRIN) fibers lead to a wealth of observable spatiotemporal effects. In spite of the large number of modes supported by the fiber, by increasing the input power the transverse profile evolves in a clean bell-shaped beam [1, 2]. Next, the input laser line experiences a strong spectral broadening and Geometric Parametric Instability (GPl) peaks are observed [3].

Role of Polarization Mode Dispersion on Modulational Instability in Optical Fibers

We introduce the theory of modulational instability (MI) of electromagnetic waves in fibers with random polarization mode dispersion. Applying a linear stability analysis and stochastic calculus, we show that the MI gain spectrum reads as the maximal eigenvalue of a constant effective matrix. In the limiting cases of small or large fluctuations, we give explicit expressions for the MI gain spectra. In the general configurations, we give the explicit form of the effective matrix and numerically compute the maximal eigenvalue. In the anomalous dispersion regime, polarization dispersion widens the unstable bandwidth. Depending on the type of variations of the birefringence parameters, polariza…

Nonlinear dynamics in multimode optical fibers (invited)

International audience

Spatio-Temporal Beam Mapping for Studying Nonlinear Dynamics in Graded Index Multimode Fiber

We experimentally demonstrate high-resolution mapping of the spatio-temporal dynamics of the beam cleaning process in graded index multimode fibers. This high-resolution characterization reveals the time-dependent nature of the beam self-cleaning process.

Spatiotemporal pulse shaping with multimode nonlinear guided waves

We experimentally and theoretically investigate complex temporal pulse reshaping that accompanies Kerr beam self-cleaning in multimode optical fibers. We also study the output beam shape dependence on initial conditions.

Optical Dark Rogue Wave

AbstractPhotonics enables to develop simple lab experiments that mimic water rogue wave generation phenomena, as well as relativistic gravitational effects such as event horizons, gravitational lensing and Hawking radiation. The basis for analog gravity experiments is light propagation through an effective moving medium obtained via the nonlinear response of the material. So far, analogue gravity kinematics was reproduced in scalar optical wave propagation test models. Multimode and spatiotemporal nonlinear interactions exhibit a rich spectrum of excitations, which may substantially expand the range of rogue wave phenomena and lead to novel space-time analogies, for example with multi-parti…

Experiments and theory of tunable broadband parametric gain in photonic crystal fibers

International audience

All-optical regeneration of polarization of a 40 Gbit/s return-to-zero telecommunication signal

International audience; We report all-optical regeneration of the state of polarization of a 40 Gbit/s return-to-zero telecommunication signal. The device discussed here consists of a 6.2-km-long nonzero dispersion-shifted fiber, with low polarization mode dispersion, pumped from the output end by a backward propagating wave coming from either an external continuous source or a reflection of the signal. An initially scrambled signal acquires a degree of polarization close to 100% toward the polarization generator output. All-optical regeneration is confirmed by means of polarization and bit-error-rate measurements as well as real-time observation of the eye diagrams. We show that the physic…

Gain sideband splitting in dispersion oscillating fibers

International audience; We analyze the modulation instability spectrum in a varying dispersion optical fiber as a function of the dispersion oscillation amplitude, and predict a novel sideband splitting into different sub-sidebands for relatively large dispersion oscillations

Second harmonic generation in multimode graded-index fibers: spatial beam cleaning and multiple harmonic sideband generation

We study experimentally and numerically the spectral and spatial dynamics of second harmonic generation in an all-optically poled multimode graded-index fiber. In contrast with poled single-mode fibers, in a multimode graded-index fiber a pump can generate a series of sharp sidebands around its second harmonic (SH) that originate from the sub-millimetric periodic evolution of the intensity at the fundamental frequency. The mutual interaction between the fundamental and its SH may also strongly affect the spatial distribution of guided light for both colors: when increasing the pump power, both fundamental and SH output beams evolve from disordered multimode speckles into two bell-shaped bea…

Les bandes de gain paramétrique dans une fibre à dispersion oscillante

National audience; Nous discuterons différents régimes de propagation où la forme et la complexité des bandes d’IM varient significativement. Nous présenterons notamment des résultats d’expériences menées aux longueurs d’ondes des télécommunications optiques. Enfin, nous exploiterons ce processus dans le cadre d’une d’une conversion de fréquence combinée à une compression temporelle d’un train d’impulsion à haut débit.

Gain sideband splitting in dispersion oscillating fibers

International audience; We analyze the modulation instability spectrum in a varying dispersion optical fiber as a function of the dispersion oscillation amplitude. For large dispersion oscillations, we predict a novel sideband splitting into different sub-sidebands. The emergence of the new sidebands is observed whenever the classical perturbation analysis for parametric resonances predicts vanishing sideband amplitudes. The numerical results are in good quantitative agreement with Floquet or Bloch stability analysis of four-wave mixing in the periodic dispersion fiber. We have also shown that linear gain or loss may have a dramatic influence in reshaping the new sidebands.

Beneficial impact of wave-breaking for coherent continuum formation in normally dispersive nonlinear fibers

International audience; We study the evolution of a pulse propagating in a normally dispersive fiber in the presence of Kerr nonlinearity. We review the temporal and spectral impact of optical wave-breaking in the development of a continuum. The impact of linear losses or gain is also investigated.

Transition from polarization disorder to antiphase polarization domains in a fiber laser

Adjusting polarization coupling in a fiber ring laser may lead to anti-synchronization of spatio-temporal disorder into ordered laminar states of orthogonal polarization temporal domains, as well as stable lattices of soliton trains.

Managing Group and Phase Birefringence for Nonlinear Optics in Photonic Crystal Fibers

A novel design of birefringent photonic crystal fibers with stress applying parts permits to manage the wavelength dependence of group and phase birefringence. Applications to vector frequency conversion and soliton polarization instabilities are discussed.

Intensity noise-driven nonlinear fiber polarization scrambler

We propose and analyze a novel all-optical fiber polarization scrambler based on the transfer (via the Kerr effect) of the intensity fluctuations of an incoherent pump beam into polarization fluctuations of a frequency-shifted signal beam, copropagating in a randomly birefringent telecom fiber. Optimal signal polarization scrambling results whenever the input signal and pump beams have nearly orthogonal states of polarization. The nonlinear polarization scrambler may operate on either cw or high-bit-rate pulsed signals.

Instabilités optiques dans les fibres a dispersion oscillante

Control of signal coherence in parametric frequency mixing with incoherent pumps: Narrowband mid-infrared light generation by downconversion of broadband amplified spontaneous emission source at 1550 nm

International audience; We study, with numerical simulations using the generalized nonlinear envelope equation, the processes of optical parametric and difference- and sum-frequency generation (SFG) with incoherent pumps in optical media with both quadratic and third-order nonlinearity, such as periodically poled lithium niobate. With ultrabroadband amplified spontaneous emission pumps or continua (spectral widths > 10 THz), group-velocity matching of a near-IR pump and a short-wavelength mid-IR (MIR) idler in optical parametric generation may lead to more than 15-fold relative spectral narrowing of the generated MIR signal. Moreover, the SFG process may also lead to 6-fold signal coherence…

Wavelength conversion and temporal compression of a pulse train using a dispersion oscillating fiber

International audience; We demonstrate the generation of a picosecond pulse train taking advantage of the cross gain occurring in a dispersion oscillating fibre. The resulting frequency-converted signal is detuned by more than 20 nm from the pump and can be temporally compressed by a factor 2 compared to the input sinusoidal pump wave.

A universal optical all-fiber omnipolarizer

International audience; Wherever the polarization properties of a light beam are of concern, polarizers and polarizing beamsplitters (PBS) are indispensable devices in linear-, nonlinear- and quantum-optical schemes. By the very nature of their operation principle, transformation of incoming unpolarized or partially polarized beams through these devices introduces large intensity variations in the fully polarized outcoming beam(s). Such intensity fluctuations are often detrimental, particularly when light is post-processed by nonlinear crystals or other polarization-sensitive optic elements. Here we demonstrate the unexpected capability of light to self-organize its own state-of-polarizatio…

All-Optical Polarization Control for Telecom Applications

We describe a phenomenon of self-organization of the light state-of-polarization in optical fibers based on a nonlinear cross-polarization interaction between an incident signal and its backward replica. Several proof-of-principles for telecom applications are reported.

Dark-soliton-like pulse-train generation from induced modulational polarization instability in a birefringent fiber

Theory and experiments show that the nonlinear development of the modulational polarization instability of an intense light beam in a normally dispersive, low-birefringence optical fiber leads to ultrashort dark-soliton-like trains with repetition rates in the terahertz range in the polarization orthogonal to the pump.

Nonlinear dynamics of spatio-temporal waves in multimode fibres

International audience

Experimental evidence of the real multimode nature of geometric parametric instability

We show experimentally that geometric parametric instability in graded-index multimode fibers is composed by several multimode spectral components. The experimental observation is obtained by using a new 3D technique of high-resolution spatial and spectral analysis.

Kerr Beam Self-Cleaning in Multimode Fibers

We overview recent experimental results of beam self-cleaning observed in various types of multimode fibers. We analyze the output spatial beam shapes and their connection with the refractive index profile of the fibers.

Kerr self-cleaning of pulsed beam in an ytterbium doped multimode fiber

International audience; We experimentally demonstrate that Kerr spatial self-cleaning of a pulsed beam can be obtained in an amplifying multimode optical fiber. An input peak power of 500 W only was sufficient to produce a quasi-single-mode emission from the double-clad ytterbium doped multimode fiber (YMMF) with non-parabolic refractive index profile. We compare the self-cleaning behavior observed in the same fiber with loss and with gain. Laser gain introduces new opportunities to achieve spatial self-cleaning of light in multimode fibers at a relatively low power threshold.

Polarization Domain Wall Solitons with Counterpropagating Laser Beams

The coupling between two intense laser beams in a nonlinear dielectric leads to a host of physical effects. In particular, the interaction between the polarization states of two counterpropagating ligth beams may generate polarization domain wall (PDW7) solitons [1]. We present what we believe is the first experimental observation of PDW7 soliton formation in a nonlinear dielectric medium.

Stable coupled conjugate solitary waves in optical fibers.

Four-wave mixing of an intense continuous-wave pump beam with an ultrashort soliton signal in an optical fiber is theoretically analyzed. A novel class of stable two-color coupled solitary waves is found. These vector parametric solitons represent the optimal frequency conversion of an ultrashort pulse. © 1998 Optical Society of America.

Nonlinear parametric resonances in aperiodic dispersion oscillating fibers

International audience

Adaptive Kerr-Assisted Transverse Mode Selection in Multimode Fibers

Multimode optical fibers (MMFs) have recently regained interest because of the degrees of freedom associated with their different eigenmodes. In the nonlinear propagation regime in particular, new phenomena have been unveiled in graded-index (GRIN) MMFs such as geometric parametric instabilities and Kerr beam self-cleaning [1, 2]. The speckled pattern observed at the output of the MMF at low powers, is transformed at high powers into a bell-shaped beam close to the fundamental mode. Recent work has also demonstrated that Kerr beam self-cleaning can lead to a low-order spatial mode, different from a bell-shape, by adjusting the laser beam in-coupling conditions [3]. An attractive way to syst…

A universal all-fiber Omnipolarizer

We report the experimental observation of self-polarization of light in optical fibers through a counter-propagating four-wave mixing between an incident signal and its backward replica. An efficient self-polarization of a 40-Gbit/s signal is demonstrated.

Theory of modal attraction in bimodal birefringent optical fibers

Nonlinear mode coupling among two beams of different wavelength that copropagate in a bimodal highly birefringent optical fiber may lead to the effect of modal attraction. Under such circumstances, the modal distribution of light at a pump wavelength is replicated at the signal wavelength, nearly irrespective of the input mode excitation conditions of the signal.

Spatiotemporal beam shaping in nonlinear multimode fibers

Kerr beam self-cleaning in graded-index multimode fibers is accompanied by power-dependent temporal pulse reshaping. We explore the complex nonlinear dynamics with a single long pulse, where the optical power is continuously varied across its profile.

Stabilisation of dispersion-managed soliton transmissions by nonlinear gain

Nonlinear gain is shown to be effective in suppressing the radiative background that may not be separated from the signal when the average dispersion is close to zero in dispersion-managed soliton transmissions. By correctly combining nonlinear gain and filtering, the instability introduced by guiding filters can be avoided.

Coherent vector pi-pulse in optical amplifiers

We obtain an exact vector solitary solution for the amplification of an optical pulse with a time width short compared with both population and polarization decay time. This dissipative soliton results from the balance between the gain from inverted resonant two-level atoms and the linear loss of the host material. We suppose that the excited state of the active centers is degenerate on the projection of the angular moment. Numerical simulations demonstrate the stability of these vector dissipative solitons in the presence of both linear birefringence and group velocity dispersion of the host material.

Nonlinear Dynamics in multimode fibers

International audience

Nonlinear femtosecond pulse propagation in an all-solid photonic bandgap fiber

Nonlinear femtosecond pulse propagation in an all-solid photonic bandgap fiber is experimentally and numerically investigated. Guiding light in such fiber occurs via two mechanisms: photonic bandgap in the central silica core or total internal reflection in the germanium doped inclusions. By properly combining spectral filtering, dispersion tailoring and pump coupling into the fiber modes, we experimentally demonstrate efficient supercontinuum generation with controllable spectral bandwidth.

Performance Comparision of Duobinary Modulation Formats for 40Gb/s Long-Haul WDM Transmissions

International audience

Multi-level optimization of a fiber transmission system via nonlinearity management

Nonlinearity management is explored as a complete tool to obtain maximum transmission reach in a WDM fiber transmission system, making it possible to optimize multiple system parameters, including optimal dispersion pre-compensation, with fast simulations based on the continuous-wave approximation. © 2006 Optical Society of America.

Input pulse optimization in wavelength-division-multiplexed soliton transmissions

Abstract Amplitudes of input pulses in different channels of wavelength-division-multiplexed soliton transmissions should be adjusted according to their wavelength shift. The optimal distribution of input amplitudes maintains the initial time width and minimizes the radiations. Numerical simulations indicate that using this simple method, WDM transmission capacities of 80 Gbit/s over transoceanic distances may be possible in dispersion-managed fiber links without introducing any in-line soliton controls.

Émergence de flaticons dans les fibres optiques

Conférence pouvant être vue sur http://youtu.be/p9OnhcHQ3Mw; National audience; Nous étudions expérimentalement la propagation non-linéaire d'une onde continue menant à l'émergence d'impulsions au sommet plat et sans dérive de fréquence. Ces impulsions, appelées flaticons, subissent une évolution auto-similaire de leur partie centrale et présentent des oscillations temporelles marquées dans leurs flancs.

Parabolic pulse generation with active or passive dispersion decreasing optical fibers

International audience; We experimentally demonstrate the possibility to generate parabolic pulses via a single dispersion decreasing optical fiber with normal dispersion. We numerically and experimentally investigate the influence of the dispersion profile, and we show that a hybrid configuration combining dispersion decrease and gain has several benefits on the parabolic generated pulses.