Nonlinear Optical Materials and Devices for Applications in Information Technology

375 Pages·1995·14.794 MB·English

by  Christos Flytzanis (auth.), A. Miller, K. R. Welford, B. Daino (eds.)

Nonlinear Optical Materials and Devices
for Applications in Information Technology
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Series E: Applied Sciences -Vol. 289
Nonlinear Optical Materials
and Devices for
Applications in Information
Technology
edited by
A. Miller
Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of St Andrews, U.K.
K. R. Welford
Defence Research Agency,
Malvern, U.K.
and
B. Daino
Fondazione Ugo Bordoni,
Rome, Italy
SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on
Nonlinear Optical Materials and Devices for Applications in Information Technology
Erice, Sicily, Italy
July 13-26, 1993
A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 978-90-481-4544-7 ISBN 978-94-017-2446-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-2446-3
Printed on acid-free paper
All Rights Reserved
© 1995 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1995
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo
copying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written
permission from the copyright owner.
Table of Contents
Preface XI
Fundamentals of Nonlinear Optics
C. Flytzanis
I. General Introduction 1
2. Nonlinear propagation 6
2.1. Basic nonlinear propagation equation 6
2.2. Second order processes 8
2.2.1. Manley-Rowe relations 9
2.2.2. Second harmonic generation 10
2.2.3. Phase matching 12
2.2.4. Second harmonic reflection 13
2.2.5. Sum, difference frequency and parametric amplification 13
2.3. Third order processes 15
2. 3 .1. Degenerate four wave interactions 17
2.3.2. Light self-action 21
2.4. Parametric processes 24
2.4.1. Electrooptics 25
2.4.2. Magnetooptics 26
2.4.3. Acoustooptics 27
3. Nonlinear polarisation 28
3 .1. Phenomenological description 28
3 .1.1. Response functions and susceptibilities 28
3 .1.2. Kramers-Kronig relations 31
3.1.3. Nonlocality 32
3.2. Microscopic description 34
3 .2.1. Dipole aproximation 34
3.2.2. Susceptibilities and local field corrections 38
3.2.3. Resonant regime 40
3.2.4. Nonresonant regime and nonlinear polarization mechanisms 46
4. Nonlinear optical materials 49
4.1. General aspects 49
4.2. Second order nonlinearities 52
4.2.1. Covalent crystals 53
4.2.2. Ionic crystals 54
4.2.3. Molecular crystals 55
4.2.4. Disordered oriented m~1dia 57
vi
4.3. Third order nonlinearities 59
4.3.1. Semiconductors 61
4.3.2. Composites 62
4.3.3. Linear conjugated polymers 64
43.4. Cascading of second-order nonlinearities 65
4.4. Hybrid nonlinearities 66
4.5. General remarks 67
Nonlinear Phenomena in Optical Fibres
N.J. Doran 75
1. Optical fibres and optical communications 75
1.1. Propagation in optical fibres 75
I. 2. Communications systems 79
2. Nonlinear optics in fibres 81
2.1. Why silica fibres? 81
2.2. Nonlinear refractive index effects in fibres 83
2.3. Solitons: basic principles 86
3. Nonlinear effects applied to optical processing 90
4. Soliton communications systems 93
4.1. Solitons in long distance amplified transmission -fundamental features 93
4.2. Soliton system design features 93
Giant Optical Nonlinearities in Nematic Liquid Crystals
E. Santamato 103
I. Introduction 103
2. The liquid crystal mesophases 105
3. Microscopic approach 106
4. Macroscopic approach 108
5. Anchoring forces 110
6. Dynamically effects 112
1. External fields 113
8. The Freedericksz effect 114
9. The optical reorientation 117
10. The Geometricl optics approximation 120
10.1. Plane wave, normal incidence, elliptical polarization 120
10.2. Plane wave, oblique incidence, linear polarization 124
11. Thermal indexing 126
12. Optical bistability 128
13. Transverse effects 129
13.1. Optical Freedericksz transition in narrow beams 130
13.2. Self-phase modulation 130
13.3. Index grating 132
13.4. Pattern formation 133
vii
Photo-Induced Refractive Index Changes in Bulk Semiconductors
H. M. VanDriel 141
1. Introduction 141
2. Refractive index changes; a nonlinear optics perspective 143
3. Measurement techniques 147
4. Two level atom picture of induced refractive index changes 148
5. Contributions to refractive index changes in semiconductors 151
5. 1. Electronic energy levels 151
5.2. Nonresonant effects 153
5. 3. Resonant effects 156
5.4. Intraband carrier effects 165
5. 5. Lattice thermal effects 167
6. Time-resolved effects 169
6.1. Time resolved beam deflection and induced diffraction results 170
6. 1.1. Instantaneous behavior 172
6.1.2. Intermediate time behavior 172
6.1.3. Longtime behavior 175
7. Conclusions 177
Nonlinear Optical Effects in Active Semiconductor Devices
P. Spano 183
1. Introduction to optical nonlinearities in active semiconductor devices 183
2. Theoretical approach to nonlinearities in active semiconductor media 185
3. Measurements of optical nonlinearities in active semiconductor devices 189
4. Effects ofnonlinearities on laser dynamics 192
5. Examples of new devices based on optical nonlinearities in active
semiconductor devices: frequency translators 193
6. Frequency tranlators based on saturation phenomena 195
6.1. Saturation in amplifiers 195
6.2. Saturation in lasers 196
7. Frequency conversion by four-wave mixing 199
7 .1. Frequency conversion in travelling wave amplifiers 199
7.2. Frequency conversion in lasers 200
8. Conclusions 201
Electron States in Biased Heterostructure&
R. Ferreira and G. Bastard 207
1. Band structure of semiconductor super lattices 209
2. Stark effects in semiconductor quantum wells 217
3. Electric field effects in double quantum wells 226
4. Electric field effects in superlattices 229
viii
Quantum Well Optical Switching Devices
D. A. B. Miller 255
l. Introduction to quantum wells 255
l . 1. Semiconductor band structure and heterostructures 255
1.2. Quantum well structures and growth 256
1.3. Particle-in-a-box quantum well physics 257
2. Linear optical properties of quantum wells 259
2.1. Optica absorption neglecting excitons 259
2.2. Consequencies ofheavy and light holes 261
2.3. Optical absorption including excitons 261
3. Nonlinear optics in quantum wells 265
4. Quantum well electroabsorption physics 268
4 .1. Electric fields parallel to the layers 268
4.2. Electric fields perpendiculr to the layers 270
5. Quantum well modulators 272
6. Self-electrooptic effect devices 276
7. Conclusions 281
Integrated Optics and All-optical Waveguide Switching
G. Stegeman and P LiKamWa 285
l. Introduction 285
2. Integrated optics 285
2.1. Planar (slab) waveguides 285
2.2. Channel waveguides 290
2.3. Coupled mode theory 293
3. Nonlinear refractive index effects in waveguides 294
4. Theory of the nonlinear directional coupler 296
5. Ultrafast Kerr materials 300
6. Nonlinear directional coupler in AlGaAs 305
7. Zero-gap nolineaar coupler: theory 310
8. Zero gap directional coupler: experiment 313
9. Summary 317
Digital Optical Computing
B. S. Wherrett 321
l. Contents 321
2. Optics in computing 322
2.1. The motivation for optics 322
2.2. Chronological perspective 323
2. 3. Interconnections 325
2.4. Example prototype optical schemes 326
2.5. Switching networks 329
ix
3. Optical memory and logic 332
3 .I. Logic and algorithms 332
3. 2. Optical data representations 335
3.3. Cascadability, optical gain and restoring logic 336
3.4. Optical volatile memory and synchronised data flow 338
4. Digital optical computing architectures 338
4. I. An architecture history 338
4.2. Optically implemented computational demonstrators 340
4.2.1. SPOC 341
4.2.2. DOCIP 341
4.2.3. ODP 344
4.2.4. Symbolic substitution 346
4.2.5. OPALS 347
4.2.6. 0-CLIP 348
4.2.7. EX-CLIP 352
4.2.8. SPE-4K 353
4.3. Vector-matrix architectures 354
4.3.1 ODVM 354
4.3.2 DOC II 355
4.3.3 DOC III 356
4.4. Analogue processing 356
5. Summary 356
6. Bibliography 358