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Light is shed on new fibre's potential to change technology
December 11, 2007Photonic crystal fibre's ability to create broad spectra of light, which will be the basis for important developments in technology, has been explained for the first time in an article in the leading science journal Nature-Photonics.
The fibre can change a pulse of light with a narrow range of wavelengths into a spectrum hundreds of times broader and ranging from visible light to the infra-red. This is called a supercontinuum.
This supercontinuum is one of the most exciting areas of applied physics today and the ability to create it easily will have a significant effect on technology.
This includes telecommunications, where optical systems hundreds of times more efficient than existing types will be created because signals can be transmitted and processed at many wavelengths simultaneously.
Supercontinua generated in photonic crystal fibres also help to create optical clocks which are so accurate that they lose or gain only a second every million years. Two physicists based in the US and Germany shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2005 for work in this area.
Despite these applications, the mechanism behind supercontinuum generation has remained unclear, which has stopped physicists from being even more precise in using it.
But researchers at the University of Bath have now discovered the reason for much of the broadening of the spectrum.
Dr Dmitry Skryabin and Dr Andrey Gorbach, of the Centre for Photonics and Photonic Materials in the Department of Physics, found that the generation of light across the entire visible spectrum was caused by an interaction between conventional pulse of lights and what are called solitons, special light waves that maintain their shape as they travel down the fibre.
The researchers found that the pulses of light sent down the fibre get struck behind the solitons as both pass down the fibre, because the solitons slow down as they move. This barrier caused by the solitons forces the light pulses to shorten their wavelength and so become bluer, just as the solitons' wavelength lengthens, becoming redder. This dual effect creates the broadened spectrum.
"One of the most startling effects of the photonic crystal fibre is its ability to create a strong bright spectrum of visible and infra red light from a very brief pulse of light," said Dr Skryabin.
"We have never fully understood exactly why this happens until our research showed how the pulse of light is slowed down and blocked by other activity in the fibre, forcing it to shorten its wavelength.
"Until now the creation and manipulation of the supercontinua in photonic crystal fibres have been done in an ad-hoc way without knowing exactly why different effects are observed. But now we should be able to be much more precise when using it."
Dr Skryabin believes that the interaction between light pulses and solitons has similarities with the way gravity acts on objects.
See Related Links for more on the research carried out in the Centre for Photonics and Photonic Materials.
The University of Bath
This includes telecommunications, where optical systems hundreds of times more efficient than existing types will be created because signals can be transmitted and processed at many wavelengths simultaneously.
Supercontinua generated in photonic crystal fibres also help to create optical clocks which are so accurate that they lose or gain only a second every million years. Two physicists based in the US and Germany shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2005 for work in this area.
Despite these applications, the mechanism behind supercontinuum generation has remained unclear, which has stopped physicists from being even more precise in using it.
But researchers at the University of Bath have now discovered the reason for much of the broadening of the spectrum.
Dr Dmitry Skryabin and Dr Andrey Gorbach, of the Centre for Photonics and Photonic Materials in the Department of Physics, found that the generation of light across the entire visible spectrum was caused by an interaction between conventional pulse of lights and what are called solitons, special light waves that maintain their shape as they travel down the fibre.
The researchers found that the pulses of light sent down the fibre get struck behind the solitons as both pass down the fibre, because the solitons slow down as they move. This barrier caused by the solitons forces the light pulses to shorten their wavelength and so become bluer, just as the solitons' wavelength lengthens, becoming redder. This dual effect creates the broadened spectrum.
"One of the most startling effects of the photonic crystal fibre is its ability to create a strong bright spectrum of visible and infra red light from a very brief pulse of light," said Dr Skryabin.
"We have never fully understood exactly why this happens until our research showed how the pulse of light is slowed down and blocked by other activity in the fibre, forcing it to shorten its wavelength.
"Until now the creation and manipulation of the supercontinua in photonic crystal fibres have been done in an ad-hoc way without knowing exactly why different effects are observed. But now we should be able to be much more precise when using it."
Dr Skryabin believes that the interaction between light pulses and solitons has similarities with the way gravity acts on objects.
See Related Links for more on the research carried out in the Centre for Photonics and Photonic Materials.
The University of Bath
Photonic Crystal Current Events and Photonic Crystal News RSSSupercontinuum generation and soliton dynamics milestone achieved
A research team led by Fetah Benabid, University of Bath, has observed for the first time the simultaneous emission of two resonant dispersive waves by optical solitons (waves that maintain their shape while traveling at constant speeds).
Photonic crystal biosensors detect protein-DNA interactions
Scientists at the University of Illinois have developed a new class of disposable, microplate-based optical biosensors capable of detecting protein-DNA interactions. Based on the properties of photonic crystals, the biosensors are suitable for the rapid identification of inhibitors of protein-nucleic acid and protein-protein interactions.
The photonic beetle
Researchers have been unable to build an ideal "photonic crystal" to manipulate visible light, impeding the dream of ultrafast optical computers.
Researchers bend light through waveguides in colloidal crystals
Researchers at the University of Illinois are the first to achieve optical waveguiding of near-infrared light through features embedded in self-assembled, three-dimensional photonic crystals.
Researchers set new record for brightness of quantum dots
By placing quantum dots on a specially designed photonic crystal, researchers at the University of Illinois have demonstrated enhanced fluorescence intensity by a factor of up to 108. Potential applications include high-brightness light-emitting diodes, optical switches and personalized, high-sensitivity biosensors.
Scientists demonstrate high-performing room-temperature nanolaser
Scientists at Yokohama National University in Japan have built a highly efficient room-temperature nanometer-scale laser that produces stable, continuous streams of near-infrared laser light.
UCSD Researchers Develop 'Smart Petri Dish'
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego have developed what they call a "Smart Petri Dish" that could be used to rapidly screen new drugs for toxic interactions or identify cells in the early stages of cancer circulating through a patient's blood.
Pressable photonic crystals produce full-colour fingerprints and promise enhanced security
In the future, law enforcement officials may take full-colour fingerprints using new technology developed by a University of Toronto-led team of international researchers.
Tiny holes offer surprising insights
Researchers from Berlin and Seoul store light in plasmonic crystals
Opals manufactured by beetles
The gemstone opal could be manufactured synthetically copying a technique employed by a beetle to control the appearance of its outer shell. Researchers from the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford have discovered the first case of opal in an animal, in this case in the weevil Pachyrhynchus argus, found in forests in north-eastern Queensland, Australia. This animal produces a photonic crystal structure analogous to that of opal, which gives it a relatively uniform, metallic colour. This colour derives from very thin, flat scales which occur in patches on the top and sides of the beetle's body. The scales consist of an outer shell and inner structure. The inner structure is a s
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