Squeezed states generation by nonlinear plasmonic waveguides: a novel analysis including loss, phase mismatch and source depletion.

In this article, a full numerical method to study the squeezing procedure through second harmonic generation process is proposed. The method includes complex nonlinear coupling coefficient, phase mismatch, and pump depletion. Attention has been also paid to the effects of accumulated noises in this work. The final form of the numerical formula seems to be much simpler than the analytical solutions previously reported. The function of this numerical method shows that it works accurately for different mechanisms of squeezed state generations and does not suffer from instabilities usually encountered even for non-uniform, coarse steps. The proposed method is used to examine the squeezing procedure in an engineered nonlinear plasmonic waveguide. The results show that using the nonlinear plasmonic waveguide, it is possible to generate the squeezed states for the pump and the second harmonic modes with high efficiency in a propagation length as short as 2 mm which is much shorter than the needed length for the traditional nonlinear lithium niobate- based optical waveguides being of the order of 100 mm. This new method of squeezed states generation may find applications in optical communication with a noise level well below the standard quantum limit, in quantum teleportation, and in super sensitive interferometry.

Pulse distortion caused by waveguide inhomogeneity in nonlinear optical wavelength converters.

Low-noise integrated all-optical wavelength converters that can be operated in short pulse regime are essential tools to overcome contention resolution in a modern communication network, based on wavelength division multiplexing. Any imperfect functionality in such devices causes non-ideal optical power transfer to the converted data pulses. All imperfections during the preparation and operation of the wavelength converters can be addressed to the waveguide inhomogeneity which distorts data pulses to be converted. This paper reports different waveguide inhomogeneity effects on the pulse distortion while using periodically poled lithium niobate waveguide as wavelength converters. Three types of [Formula: see text]-based nonlinear optical processes, including second harmonic generation, difference frequency generation, and cascaded second harmonic generation/difference frequency generation are numerically studied to show that any constant, linear, and quadratic waveguide inhomogeneity causes short pulse (down to 1 ns) distortion in such wavelength converters. In addition, it is shown that the reconstruction of [Formula: see text]-shaped generated pulses is possible, when suitable upside-down quadratic variations of obtained inhomogeneity are deliberately induced in the waveguide. Notably, for pulsed second harmonic generation, the generated pulse can be compressed using an upside-down quadratic phase mismatch.

Adjustable Propagation Length Enhancement of the Surface Plasmon Polariton Wave via Phase Sensitive Optical Parametric Amplification.

The adjustable propagation length enhancement of the surface plasmon polariton (SPP) mode under the effects of the initial relative phase (ψ0) between interacting waves in difference frequency generation (DFG) based optical parametric amplification (OPA) are numerically considered. The waveguide is a silver coated PPLN planar waveguide. Obtained results indicate ultra long propagation length for the SPP mode could be achieved via manipulation of ψ0 in exact quasi phase matching (QPM) case up to 30 mm for initial pump intensity about 66 MW/cm for degenerate DFG (dDFG). For chirped QPM by mitigating the high depletion of the pump intensity, it is possible to enhance the SPP propagation length up to 43 mm for initial pump intensity about 135 MW/cm. In this case ψ0 does not affect the SPP propagation length except around a narrow range of unsuitable phases. The unsuitable phase is [Formula: see text] for exact QPM but is pump dependent for chirped QPM case. Using this unsuitable phase is the key parameter to the SPP propagation length enhancement via controlling ψ0. In this case with a high pump intensity, the pump and the SPP modes interact at longer distances which leads to the SPP propagation length enhancement.

Ultralong propagation of a surface plasmon polariton wave within an ultrawide bandwidth via phase-sensitive optical parametric amplification.

The propagation length enhancement of surface plasmon polariton (SPP) waves could lead to practical applications. This Letter proposes the numerically verified phase-sensitive nonlinear χ(2)-based optical parametric amplification (OPA) for ultralong propagation of a SPP wave within an ultrawide bandwidth. The strong nonlinear interaction between the SPP mode and the hybrid guided mode, which limits the length enhancement, is mitigated in a silver-coated linearly chirped periodically poled lithium niobate planar waveguide via slowly phase-matched OPA. Obtained results indicate an ultralong propagation length for a SPP mode of about 4 cm when a 135 MW/cm pump intensity is launched. The acceptance bandwidth of the amplified SPP shows its dependency on the pump intensity; for a pump intensity range between 70 and 135 MW/cm, the acceptance bandwidth is still ultrawide, varying from 28 to 18 nm, respectively.