Spectral splitting of optical pulses inside a dispersive medium at a temporal boundary

Plansinis, Brent W.; Donaldson, William R.; Agrawal, Govind P.

doi:10.1109/JQE.2016.2626081

Title: Spectral splitting of optical pulses inside a dispersive medium at a temporal boundary

Abstract

We show numerically that the spectrum of an optical pulse splits into multiple, widely separated, spectral bands when it arrives at a temporal boundary across which refractive index changes suddenly. At the same time, the pulse breaks into several temporally separated pulses traveling at different speeds. The number of such pulses depends on the dispersive properties of the medium. We study the effect of second- and third-order dispersion in detail but also consider briefly the impact of other higher-order terms. As a result, a temporal waveguide formed with two temporal boundaries can reflect the temporally separated pulses again and again, increasing the number of pulses trapped within the temporal waveguide.

Authors:

^[1]; Donaldson, William R. ^[1]; Agrawal, Govind P. ^[1]

Univ. of Rochester, Rochester, NY (United States)

Publication Date:: Mon Nov 07 00:00:00 EST 2016

Research Org.:: Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States). Lab. for Laser Energetics

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

OSTI Identifier:: 1341900

Report Number(s):: 1317
Journal ID: ISSN 0018-9197; 2016-198; 2272; 1317

Grant/Contract Number:: NA0001944

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 52; Journal Issue: 12; Journal ID: ISSN 0018-9197

Publisher:: IEEE

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; nonlinear optics; optical frequency conversion; dispersive propagation; ultrafast optics

Citation Formats


                    Plansinis, Brent W., Donaldson, William R., and Agrawal, Govind P. Spectral splitting of optical pulses inside a dispersive medium at a temporal boundary.  United States: N. p., 2016. 
Web.  doi:10.1109/JQE.2016.2626081.

Copy to clipboard


                    Plansinis, Brent W., Donaldson, William R., & Agrawal, Govind P. Spectral splitting of optical pulses inside a dispersive medium at a temporal boundary.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1109/JQE.2016.2626081

Copy to clipboard


                    Plansinis, Brent W., Donaldson, William R., and Agrawal, Govind P. Mon .  
"Spectral splitting of optical pulses inside a dispersive medium at a temporal boundary".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1109/JQE.2016.2626081.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1341900.

Copy to clipboard


                    
@article{osti_1341900,

  title        = {Spectral splitting of optical pulses inside a dispersive medium at a temporal boundary},

  author       = {Plansinis, Brent W. and Donaldson, William R. and Agrawal, Govind P.},

  abstractNote = {We show numerically that the spectrum of an optical pulse splits into multiple, widely separated, spectral bands when it arrives at a temporal boundary across which refractive index changes suddenly. At the same time, the pulse breaks into several temporally separated pulses traveling at different speeds. The number of such pulses depends on the dispersive properties of the medium. We study the effect of second- and third-order dispersion in detail but also consider briefly the impact of other higher-order terms. As a result, a temporal waveguide formed with two temporal boundaries can reflect the temporally separated pulses again and again, increasing the number of pulses trapped within the temporal waveguide.},

  doi          = {10.1109/JQE.2016.2626081},

  journal      = {IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics},

  number       = 12,

  volume       = 52,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Mon Nov 07 00:00:00 EST 2016},

  month        = {Mon Nov 07 00:00:00 EST 2016}

}

Copy to clipboard

Journal Article:

Free Publicly Available Full Text

Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Publisher's Version of Record

https://doi.org/10.1109/JQE.2016.2626081

Other availability

Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 13 works

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Export Metadata

Save to My Library

Works referencing / citing this record:

Scattering of surface plasmons on graphene by abrupt free-carrier generation
journal, July 2019

Shirokova, A. V.; Maslov, A. V.; Bakunov, M. I.
Physical Review B, Vol. 100, Issue 4
DOI: 10.1103/physrevb.100.045424

Similar Records in DOE PAGES and OSTI.GOV collections:

Temporal waveguides for optical pulses

Journal Article Plansinis, Brent W. ; Donaldson, William R. ; Agrawal, Govind P. - Journal of the Optical Society of America. Part B, Optical Physics

Here we discuss, temporal total internal reflection (TIR), in analogy to the conventional TIR of an optical beam at a dielectric interface, is the total reflection of an optical pulse inside a dispersive medium at a temporal boundary across which the refractive index changes. A pair of such boundaries separated in time acts as the temporal analog of planar dielectric waveguides. We study the propagation of optical pulses inside such temporal waveguides, both analytically and numerically, and show that the waveguide supports a finite number of temporal modes. We also discuss how a single-mode temporal waveguide can be created inmore »« less
Cited by 32
https://doi.org/10.1364/JOSAB.33.001112

Full Text Available
Cross-phase-modulation-induced temporal reflection and waveguiding of optical pulses

Journal Article Plansinis, Brent W. ; Donaldson, William R. ; Agrawal, Govind P. - Journal of the Optical Society of America. Part B, Optical Physics

Cross-phase modulation (XPM) is commonly viewed as a nonlinear process that chirps a probe pulse and modifies its spectrum when an intense pump pulse overlaps with it. Here we present an alternative view of XPM in which the pump pulse creates a moving refractive-index boundary that splits the probe pulse into two parts with distinct optical spectra through temporal reflection and refraction inside a dispersive nonlinear medium. The probe even undergoes a temporal version of total internal reflection for sufficiently intense pump pulses, a phenomenon that can be exploited for making temporal waveguides. In this paper we investigate the practicalmore »« less
Cited by 14
https://doi.org/10.1364/JOSAB.35.000436

Full Text Available
Single-pulse interference caused by temporal reflection at moving refractive-index boundaries

Journal Article Plansinis, Brent W. ; Donaldson, William R. ; Agrawal, Govind P. - Journal of the Optical Society of America. Part B, Optical Physics

Here, we show numerically and analytically that temporal reflections from a moving refractive-index boundary act as an analog of Lloyd’s mirror, allowing a single pulse to produce interference fringes in time as it propagates inside a dispersive medium. This interference can be viewed as the pulse interfering with a virtual pulse that is identical to the first, except for a π-phase shift. Furthermore, if a second moving refractive-index boundary is added to create the analog of an optical waveguide, a single pulse can be self-imaged or made to produce two or more pulses by adjusting the propagation length in amore » process similar to the Talbot effect.« less
Cited by 4
https://doi.org/10.1364/JOSAB.34.002274

Full Text Available
What is the temporal analog of reflection and refraction of optical beams?

Journal Article Plansinis, B. W. ; Donaldson, W. R. ; Agrawal, G. P. - Physical Review Letters

It is shown numerically and analytically that when an optical pulse approaches a moving temporal boundary across which the refractive index changes, it undergoes a temporal equivalent of reflection and refraction of optical beams at a spatial boundary. The main difference is that the role of angles is played by changes in the frequency. The frequency dependence of the dispersion of the material in which the pulse is propagating plays a fundamental role in determining the frequency shifts experienced by the reflected and refracted pulses. As a result, our analytic expressions for these frequency shifts allow us to find themore »« less
Cited by 80
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.183901

Full Text Available
Spatial and temporal pulse propagation for dispersive paraxial optical systems

Journal Article Marcus, G. - Optics Express

The formalism for pulse propagation through dispersive paraxial optical systems first presented by Kostenbauder (IEEE J. Quant. Elec. 261148–1157 (1990)) using 4 × 4 ray-pulse matrices is extended to 6 × 6 matrices and includes non-separable spatial-temporal couplings in both transverse dimensions as well as temporal dispersive effects up to a quadratic phase. The eikonal in a modified Huygens integral in the Fresnell approximation is derived and can be used to propagate pulses through complicated dispersive optical systems within the paraxial approximation. Additionally, a simple formula for the propagation of ultrashort pulses having a Gaussian profile both spatially and temporallymore » is presented.« less
Cited by 6
https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.24.007752

Full Text Available

Similar Records

Title: Spectral splitting of optical pulses inside a dispersive medium at a temporal boundary

Abstract

Citation Formats

Scattering of surface plasmons on graphene by abrupt free-carrier generation journal, July 2019

Scattering of surface plasmons on graphene by abrupt free-carrier generation
journal, July 2019