Creation of memory-memory entanglement in a metropolitan quantum network.

Towards realizing the future quantum internet1,2, a pivotal milestone entails the transition from two-node proof-of-principle experiments conducted in laboratories to comprehensive multi-node set-ups on large scales. Here we report the creation of memory-memory entanglement in a multi-node quantum network over a metropolitan area. We use three independent memory nodes, each of which is equipped with an atomic ensemble quantum memory3 that has telecom conversion, together with a photonic server where detection of a single photon heralds the success of entanglement generation. The memory nodes are maximally separated apart for 12.5 kilometres. We actively stabilize the phase variance owing to fibre links and control lasers. We demonstrate concurrent entanglement generation between any two memory nodes. The memory lifetime is longer than the round-trip communication time. Our work provides a metropolitan-scale testbed for the evaluation and exploration of multi-node quantum network protocols and starts a stage of quantum internet research.

High-energy single-longitudinal-mode Q-switched double-cladding fiber laser based on the injection seeding technique.

This paper demonstrates a high-energy, single-longitudinal-mode (SLM), actively Q-switched fiber laser based on the injection seeding technique. The large-mode-area double-cladding fiber is used as the gain medium to improve energy storage. Simultaneously, by using the linear electro-optic effect of the negative uniaxial crystal (ß-B a B 2 O 4, BBO), a matching frequency-shift-free Q-switch with high damage threshold and high extinction-ratio is designed. Before reaching the stimulated Brillouin scattering threshold, the SLM Q-switched pulses can be achieved with energy higher than 15 µJ over a wide range of repetition rates from 10 to 80 kHz, and the maximum output power reaches 1.2 W at the repetition rate of 80 kHz, which may be the highest output pulse energy for such a SLM Q-switched fiber laser so far, to our best knowledge.

Effects of the cone angle on the SERS detection sensitivity of tapered fiber probes.

In this paper, we investigate the effects of taper angle on the SERS detection sensitivity using tapered fiber probes with single-layer uniform gold spherical nanoparticles (GSNs). We show that the photothermal damage caused by excessive excitation laser power is the main factor that restricts the improvement of detection sensitivity of tapered fiber probes. Only when the cone angle is appropriate can a balance be achieved between increasing the excitation laser power and suppression of the transmission and scattering losses of the nanoparticles on the tapered fiber surface, thereby obtaining the best SERS detection sensitivity. Furthermore, the optimal cone angle depends on the complex refractive index of the equivalent composite dielectric (ECD) layer containing GSNs. For three SERS fiber probes with different ECD layers, the optimal cone angles measured are between 11-13°.

848 kHz repetition-rate narrowband dissipative soliton ps-pulsed Figure-9 fiber laser.

In this paper, we study the limitations of decreasing the repetition rate for the narrowband dissipative soliton picosecond (ps) pulsed Figure-9 fiber laser with periodically saturable absorber (SA), and demonstrate how to decrease the repetition rate of this kind of fiber laser. By asymmetrically increasing the passive fiber length of nonlinear amplifying loop mirror (NALM) to lower SA saturation power, Q-switching instability can be avoided, thus effectively reducing the repetition rate of ps pulses. To combat noise-like pulse caused by excessive reduction of SA saturation power, we invoke the non-reciprocal output characteristics of periodic SA, and combined with increasing the intracavity fiber length outside the SA, we further reduce the laser repetition rate. Repetition rates for ∼10 and ∼20 ps pulses are reduced to 1.7 MHz and 848 kHz, respectively, which are, to the best of our knowledge, the lowest repetition rates of Figure-9 lasers reported thus far.

Approach to high pulse energy emission of the self-starting mode-locked figure-9 fiber laser.

The figure-9 fiber laser exhibits excellent performance, but improvement of its output pulse energy is restricted by the laser structure design that ensures self-starting mode-locking. In this paper, we propose and verify a novel method to increase the pulse energy of the self-starting figure-9 fiber laser. By reducing the linear phase shift step-by-step in a self-starting figure-9 laser and synchronously increasing the pump power, the output pulse energy can be increased while the laser can always operate in the single-pulse mode-locking region. Using a 112-MHz dispersion-managed soliton figure-9 fiber laser, the effectiveness of our proposed method is verified, and the laser output pulse energy has been successfully increased to 1.4 nJ, which is 5.6 times the pulse energy before the boost. The entire self-starting mode-locking of the laser including the program-controlled joint adjustment is less than 1s with 100% success rate of more than 100 tests. This method can in principle solve the limitation on the output pulse energy caused by the self-start of the figure-9 laser.

Narrow-bandwidth actively Q-switched all-fiber laser by suppressing ASE gain self-saturation.

This paper proposes and demonstrates a novel method to produce the narrow-bandwidth, narrow-pulse-width and high-repetition-rate pulses with actively Q-switched ring-cavity all-fiber lasers. By using a specially designed low-reflectivity cladding power stripper in the cavity, and inserting a length-optimized ytterbium-doped single-cladding fiber self-pumped by the backward amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) from the YDF to improve the amplification of the initial weak ASE feedback by the narrowband filter, the ASE gain self-saturation can be suppressed efficiently, and the lasing pulses can be established quickly within the opening time of Q-switch even operating for very high repetition-rate. With the proposed technique, watt-level Q-switched pulses with bandwidth and pulse width narrowed to 0.15 nm and 9 ns, and repetition rate up to 175 kHz are achieved.

Reducing the pulse repetition rate of picosecond dissipative soliton passively mode-locked fiber laser.

This paper proposes and demonstrates a method to reduce the repetition rate of all- polarization-maintaining (PM) linear-cavity picosecond dissipative soliton passively mode-locked fiber lasers. An optical coupler (OC) is inserted into the cavity to extract pulse energy, and the cavity length is increased using a low-nonlinear coefficient large-mode field fiber at the rear end of the OC, where the propagated pulse has lower energy. This enables the nonlinear phase shift to be within the tolerated value of the single pulse mode-locking even with a considerably increased cavity length; this allows reducing the laser repetition rate considerably without substantially changing the pulse characteristics. Using the proposed method, for a 0.3-nm filter bandwidth, the laser repetition rate is successfully reduced to 1.77 MHz with a nearly Fourier-transform limited pulse duration of 10 ps; it can be further reduced by optimizing the OC split ratio. The proposed method can be applied to reduce the repetition rate for a picosecond dissipative soliton passively mode-locked fiber laser with an arbitrary bandwidth filter.

Optical frequency combs based on a period-doubling mode-locked Er-doped fiber laser.

The phase-locking mechanism and results of a frequency comb based on a period-doubling mode-locked (PD-ML) fiber laser were investigated. A mode-locked fiber laser was designed to switch from fundamental mode locking (FML) to PD-ML with similar output pulses by simply changing the pump. Experimental results show that the new comb teeth generated in the PD-ML are strongly correlated with the original teeth and have a consistent carrier-envelope offset (CEO) frequency. Controlling the pump and cavity length is also suited for phase-locking the PD-ML laser. With the same f-to-2f heterodyne beat system and locking circuit, phase locking of both PD-ML and FML-based optical combs with two repetition rates, and switching between them, were obtained by changing the pump only.

A highly reproducible and sensitive fiber SERS probe fabricated by direct synthesis of closely packed AgNPs on the silanized fiber taper.

A surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) tapered fiber probe has been developed by using a chemically-etched tapered fiber tip and silanization of the surface of the fiber taper, followed by the hydrothermal growth of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on the silanized fiber taper. 4-Aminothiophenol (4-ATP) was selected as the target analyte to study the SERS responses of the prepared fiber SERS probe in an optrode remote detection mode. The experimental results show that the prepared fiber probe exhibited the ability to detect the 4-ATP molecule at a concentration as low as 10-9 M and good reproducibility with the relative standard deviation (RSD) values being less than 9.1% for the strongest Raman peak. This work gives a novel and reliable way to realize a fiber SERS probe with high sensitivity, long-term stability, good reproducibility, and superior recyclability, exhibiting potential in SERS-based in situ detection application.

Q-switched fiber laser based on an acousto-optic modulator with injection seeding technique.

The operation mechanism and the pulse property of an actively Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser based on an acousto-optic modulator (AOM) switch with the injection seeding technique are investigated. Our results show that the Q-switched pulses can be locked to oscillate near a fixed frequency higher than that of the seed laser, though the frequency-shift effect of the AOM impedes stable cavity mode oscillations. The operation mechanism of such Q-switch fiber lasers can be explained by the mutual locking-in among the shifted frequency components originated from the injected coherence seed with the help of the gain dynamics of the Q-switch cavity. Moreover, narrow-linewidth Q-switched pulses with different repetition rates can be obtained with different cavity lengths for incredibly stable output pulses without any use of cavity-stabilized techniques.

Highly sensitive fibre surface-enhanced Raman scattering probes fabricated using laser-induced self-assembly in a meniscus.

Fibre surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) probes have the advantages of flexibility, compactness, remote sensing capability and good repeatability in SERS detection and thus have a range of different applications. However, it is difficult to realize simple, low-cost and high-throughput preparations of fibre SERS probes with high sensitivity and desirable repeatability using the currently available fabrication techniques, which restricts their practical applications. We report here a simple, low-cost method using laser-induced self-assembly to realize the fast fabrication of fibre SERS probes with high sensitivity and excellent reproducibility. By lifting the fibre facet above a pre-synthesized nanoparticle colloid, a meniscus can be formed with the help of the surface tension of the liquid. Using irradiation from an induced laser guided by the fibre, localized thermal effects on the nanoparticles in the meniscus control the growth of the fibre probes and the electromagnetic interactions among the closely spaced nanoparticles assist the arrangement of nanoparticle clusters on the fibre facet. The prepared fibre probes showed a very high SERS sensitivity of 10(-10) M for p-aminothiophenol using a portable commericial Raman spectrometer with a short integration time of 2 s. They also showed excellent repeatability with relative standard deviations <2.8% in the SERS peak intensities for different detections with the same probe and 7.8% for different fibre probes fabricated under the same conditions.

Tapered Optical Fiber Probe Assembled with Plasmonic Nanostructures for Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Application.

Optical fiber-Raman devices integrated with plasmonic nanostructures have promising potentials for in situ probing remote liquid samples and biological samples. In this system, the fiber probe is required to simultaneously demonstrate stable surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) signals and high sensitivity toward the target species. Here we demonstrate a generic approach to integrate presynthesized plasmonic nanostructures with tapered fiber probes that are prepared by a dipping-etching method, through reversed electrostatic attraction between the silane couple agent modified silica fiber probe and the nanostructures. Using this approach, both negatively and positively charged plasmonic nanostructures with various morphologies (such as Au nanosphere, Ag nanocube, Au nanorod, Au@Ag core-shell nanorod) can be stably assembled on the tapered silica fiber probes. Attributed to the electrostatic force between the plasmonic units and the fiber surface, the nanostructures do not disperse in liquid samples easily, making the relative standard deviation of SERS signals as low as 2% in analyte solution. Importantly, the detection sensitivity of the system can be optimized by adjusting the cone angle (from 3.6° to 22°) and the morphology of nanostructures assembled on the fiber. Thus, the nanostructures-sensitized optical fiber-Raman probes show great potentials in the applications of SERS-based environmental detection of liquid samples.

Analytical theory for the nonlinear optical response of a Kerr-type standing-wave cavity side-coupling to a MIM waveguide.

In this article, an analytical theory to describe the nonlinear dynamic response characteristics of a typical SPP waveguide-cavity structure formed by a Kerr-type standing-wave cavity side-coupling to a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) waveguide is proposed by combining the temporal coupled mode theory and the Kerr nonlinearity. With the analytical theory, the optical bistability with the hysteresis behavior is successfully predicted, and the optical bistability evolutions and its dynamic physical mechanism are also phenomenologically analyzed. Moreover, the influence of the quality factors Q0 and Q1 on the first-turnning point (FTP) power of optical bistability and the bistable region width, the approaches to decrease the FTP power and to broaden the bistable region are also discussed in detail with our analytical theory. This work can help us understand the physical mechanism of the nonlinear dynamical response at nanoscale, and may be useful to design nonlinear nanophotonic systems for applications in ultra-compact all-optical devices and storages.

Investigations of the fabrication and the surface-enhanced Raman scattering detection applications for tapered fiber probes prepared with the laser-induced chemical deposition method.

The process of depositing nanoparticles onto tapered fiber probes with the laser-induced chemical deposition method (LICDM) and the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) detection performance of the prepared probes are experimentally investigated in this paper. Our results show that the nanoparticle-deposited tapered fiber probes prepared with the LICDM method depend strongly on the value of the cone angle. For small-angle tapered probes the nanoparticle-deposited areas are only focused at the taper tips, because the taper surfaces are mainly covered by a relatively low-intensity evanescent field. By lengthening the reaction time or increasing the induced power or solution concentration, it is still possible to deposit nanoparticles on small-angle tapers with the light-scattering effect. With 4-aminothiophenol as the testing molecule, it was found that for given preparation conditions, the cone angles for the tapered probes with the highest SERS spectral intensities for different excitation laser powers are almost the same. However, such an optimal cone angle is determined by the combined effects of both the localized surface plasmon resonance strength and the transmission loss generated by the nanoparticles deposited.

All-optical logic gates based on two-dimensional low-refractive-index nonlinear photonic crystal slabs.

This article demonstrates theoretical design of ultracompact all-optical AND, NAND, OR, and NOR gates with two-dimensional nonlinear photonic crystal slabs. Compound Ag-polymer film with a low refractive index and large third-order nonlinearity is adopted as our nonlinear material and photonic crystal cavities with a relatively high quality factor of about 2000 is designed on this polymer slab. Numerical simulations show that all-optical logic gates with low pump-power in the order of tens of MW/cm2 can be achieved. These design results may provide very useful schemes and approaches for the realization of all-optical logic gates with low-cost, low-pump-power, high-contrast and ultrafast response-time.

Widely tunable mid-IR difference-frequency generation based on fiber lasers.

A wide tuning technique for mid-IR difference-frequency generation (DFG) with uniform grating periodically poled LiNbO(3) (PPLN) is presented. Based on the dispersion property of the PPLN, the quasi-phase matching (QPM) band for the pump can evolve to two separate bands, and the spacing between them can be increased with the decrease of the crystal temperature. Two such separate QPM bands can be used for increasing the idler tuning range when the crystal temperature is set to adapt the pump tuning. With the technique, an idler tuning range of 690nm is experimentally achieved with fiber laser fundamental lights.

Mid-IR multiwavelength difference frequency generation based on fiber lasers.

A mid-IR multiwavelength difference frequency generation (DFG) laser source with fiber laser fundamental lights is demonstrated by using the dispersion property of PPLN to broaden the quasi-phase-matching (QPM) acceptance bandwidth (BW). Our results show that the QPM BW for the pump YDFL is much larger than that for the signal EDFL. Using a multiwavelength YDFL and a single-wavelength EDFL as the pump and the signal lights, the DFG laser source can simultaneously emit 14 mid-IR wavelengths with the spacing of 14 nm at a fixed PPLN temperature. Moreover, mid-IR multiwavelength lasing lines can be synchronously tuned between 3.28 and 3.47 microm.