Photon-Echo in Er-Doped Fibers: A new Approach to Femtosecond Time-Domain Optical Signal Processing,
Abstract
Recently, interest in photon echo has been revived because of its potential application in time-domain optical memories. Several demonstrations have been reported in gases and also bulk organic and inorganic materials at cryogenic temperatures. In this paper, we report the observation of accumulated photon echo in Er doped optical fibers and demonstrate that these fibers can be used to store information on the subpicosecond time scale. Optical fibers have proved to be very attractive for studies of nonlinear optical phenomena such as optical Kerr effect, stimulated Raman and Brillouin scattering, four wave-mixing and even second harmonic generation. The great advantage of optical fibers over bulk media is in the ability to focus the light in a small core area and to propagate it without diffraction over lengths that can be as long as kilometers. By using rare-earth doped fibers, other new, stronger nonlinearities than those originated from the silica base are introduced by the dopant. As a consequence, coherent effects should be important when pulses shorter or comparable to the dephasing time of the impurity ions propagate in the fiber.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 22, 1992
- Accession Number
- ADP008272
Entities
People
- E. W. Chase
- J. P. Heritage
- M. A. Saifi
- V. L. Da Silva
- Y. Silberberg