Nonlinear Photonics in Midinfrared Quantum Cascade Lasers

Photonics is the discipline of electrons and photons working in tandem to create new physics, new devices and new applications. This textbook employs a pedagogical approach that facilitates access to the fundamentals of quantum photonics. Beginning with a review of the quantum properties of photons and electrons, the book then introduces the concept of their non-locality at the quantum level.

This thesis examines laser generation from the ultraviolet to the short edge of the mid-infrared band by exploiting the nonlinear effects in photonic crystal fibers (PCFs). Several different physical mechanisms are investigated by using homemade PCFs with elaborately customized dispersion profiles.

This thesis provides deep insights into currently controversial questions in laser filamentation, a highly complex phenomenon involving nonlinear optical effects and plasma physics. First, based on the concrete picture of a femtosecond laser beam which self-pinches its radial intensity distribution, the thesis delivers a novel explanation for the remarkable and previously unexplained phenomenon of pulse self-compression in filaments. Moreover, the work addresses the impact of a non-adiabatic change of both nonlinearity and dispersion on such an intense femtosecond pulse transiting from a gaseous dielectric material to a solid one. Finally, and probably most importantly, the author presents a simple and highly practical theoretical approach for quantitatively estimating the influence of higher-order nonlinear optical effects in optics. These results shed new light on recent experimental observations, which are still hotly debated and may completely change our understanding of filamentation, causing a paradigm change concerning the role of higher-order nonlinearities in optics.

This book is a collection of original research articles on silicon photonics. This book should be of interest to academic researchers and engineers.

Deals with photonics in free space and special media such as anisotropic crystals.
* Covers all important topics from Fourier optics, such as the properties of lenses, optical image processing, and holography to the Gaussian beam, light propagation in anisotropic media, external field effects, polarization of light and its major applications.