Experimental realization of transverse mode conversion using optically induced transient long-period gratings
Abstract
We present the experimental realization of transverse mode conversion in an optical fiber via an optically induced long-period grating. The transient gratings are generated by femtosecond laser pulses, exploiting the Kerr effect to translate intensity patterns emerging from multimode interference into a spatial refractive index modulation. Since these modulations exist only while the pump beam is present, they can be used for optical switching of transverse modes. As only a localized part of the grating was written at a time and the probe beam was co-propagating with the pump beam the required pulse energies could be reduced to 120\,nJ which is about a factor of 600 lower than in previous quasi-continuous-wave experiments. Accompanying numerical simulations allow a better understanding of the involved effects and show excellent agreement to the experimental results.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1308.3441,
title = {Experimental realization of transverse mode conversion using optically induced transient long-period gratings},
author = {Tim Hellwig and Martin Schnack and Till Walbaum and Sven Dobner and Carsten Fallnich},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1308.3441},
year = {2014}
}