We investigate the propagation of short, intense laser pulses in arrays of coupled silica waveguides, in the anomalous dispersion regime. The nonlinearity induces trapping of the pulse in a single waveguide, over a wide range of input parameters. A sharp transition is observed for single waveguide excitation, from strong diffraction at low powers to strong localization at high powers.

We demonstrate single mode three-dimensional optics fabricated via direct-write lithography in diffusive photopolymers, including uniform waveguides, symmetrical waveguide tapers, 90 OCIS codes: sharp waveguide bends and waveguides through thin hybrid subcomponents. (130.3120) Integrated optics devices; (230.7370) Waveguides; (140.3450) Laser-induced chemistry.

Microdisk structures have been used to achieve low-threshold lasing. For these microcavity lasers, the spontaneous emission coupling factor p is an important parameter since it determines the threshold current of the laser. Theoretical calculation of p based on the exact solution of the modes in a microdisk is complicated. A simple, approximate method for solving the waveguide modes and the den...

We report performance characteristics of a thulium doped ZBLAN waveguide laser that supports the largest fundamental modes reported in a rare-earth doped planar waveguide laser (to the best of our knowledge). The high mode quality of waveguides up to 45 um diameter (~1075 μm(2) mode-field area) is validated by a measured beam quality of M(2)~1.1 ± 0.1. Benefits of these large mode-areas are dem...

A germanium (Ge) strip waveguide on a silicon (Si) substrate is integrated with a microfluidic chip to detect cocaine in tetrachloroethylene (PCE) solutions. In the evanescent field of the waveguide, cocaine absorbs the light near 5.8 μm, which is emitted from a quantum cascade laser. This device is ideal for (bio-)chemical sensing applications.

A novel design for a dc-excited cw CO(2) metal waveguide laser has been developed in which a slotted hollow cathode also doubles as a metal waveguide for the cavity modes. This design has been implemented in a compact structure that produces over 1 W of cw 10.6-microm radiation. The discharge characteristics, laser gain, and laser output have been studied as functions of various discharge param...

We demonstrate an all optical waveguide imprinted by a low power Laguerre Gaussian control laser beam using a coherent Raman process in warm atomic rubidium vapor. We show that the signal beam propagates with a small spot size over several diffraction lengths. We also show that the coupling efficiency of the signal beam into the waveguide varies linearly with the signal power.

A 1542-nm planar-waveguide external cavity laser (PW-ECL) is shown to have a sufficiently low level of noise to be suitable for precision measurement applications. Its frequency noise and intensity noise was comparable or better than the non-planar ring oscillator (NPRO) and fiber laser between 0.1 mHz to 100 kHz. Controllability of the PW-ECL was demonstrated by stabilizing its frequency to ac...

We review our recent work on the various nonlinear optical processes that occur as an intense laser propagates through a relativistic plasma. These include the experimental observations of electron acceleration driven by laser-wakefield generation, relativistic self-focusing, waveguide formation and laser self-channeling.

We report quasi-phase-matched difference-frequency generation of 2.1 pm radiation at room temperature using the & nonlinear coefficient in a periodically poled lithium niobate channel waveguide. A tunable Ti:A1203 laser (ilzO.8 ,um) and a Nd:YAG laser (I = 1.32 pm) were the pump and signal sources, respectively. With 160 mW of 0.81 pm and 1 mW of 1.32 pm radiation coupled into the waveguide, 1....