- Max-Planck-Institut für die Physik des Lichts
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- Mitarbeiter
- Philip Russell
- Emeritus Director
- Room: A 2.134
- Tel.: +49 9131 7133 200
- Personal Assistant: Bettina Schwender
Director of the Russell Division – Photonic Crystal Fibres
Professor Philip Russell is a founding Director of the Max-Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL), which began operations in January 2009. Since 2005 he has also held the Krupp Chair in Experimental Physics at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. He obtained his D.Phil. degree in 1979 at the University of Oxford, spending three years as a Research Fellow at Oriel College, Oxford. In 1982 and 1983 he was a Humboldt Fellow at the Technical University Hamburg-Harburg (Germany), and from 1984 to 1986 he worked at the University of Nice (France) and the IBM TJ Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York. From 1986 to 1996 he was based mainly at the University of Southampton, first of all in the Optical Fibre Group and then in the Optoelectronics Research Centre. From 1996 to 2005 he was professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Bath, where he established the Centre for Photonics and Photonic Materials. His research interests currently focus on scientific applications of photonic crystal fibres and related structures. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and The Optical Society (OSA) and has won several international awards for his research including the 2000 OSA Joseph Fraunhofer Award/Robert M. Burley Prize, the 2005 Thomas Young Prize of the Institute for Physics (UK), the 2005 Körber Prize for European Science, the 2013 EPS Prize for Research into the Science of Light, the 2014 Berthold Leibinger Zukunftspreis and the 2015 IEEE Photonics Award. He was OSA's President in 2015, the International Year of Light.
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2021
Synchronization of gigahertz core resonances in multiple photonic crystal fiber cores by timing-modulated harmonic mode locking
Dung-Han Yeh, Wenbin He, Meng Pang, Xin Jiang, Philip St.J. Russell
Optica 8 (12) 1581-1585 (2021) | Journal
Synchronization of mechanical oscillators by optical forces is a topic that has been much explored in recent years, for example, in the context of SiN microdisk resonators. Here we report stable long-term synchronization of the core vibrations of three different photonic crystal fibers, driven intra-cavity by a 2 GHz train of timing-modulated pulses in a high harmonic opto-acoustically mode-locked fiber laser. The core resonances are equally spaced in frequency and are coupled purely by the optical field. Under the correct conditions, they become stably synchronized, being simultaneously driven by the timing-modulated pulse train. Floquet–Bloch theory, in which the pulses are treated as particles trapped in potential wells and coupled by optomechanical back-action, describes the complex temporal dynamics observed in the experiments. This unique system provides a novel means of modifying the temporal structure of pulse trains running at few-gigahertz repetition rates.
Twist and strain tuning of third harmonic generation in glass nanostrand with two sub-wavelength hollow channels
Yang Chen, Jonas Hammer, Nicolas Joly, Philip Russell
OPTICS LETTERS 46 (20) 5288-5291 (2021) | Journal
A major challenge in third harmonic generation and its converse, parametric down-conversion, is how to arrange phase matching between signals at omega and 3 omega while maintaining a high nonlinear overlap. In this Letter, we present a design consisting of a nanostrand of glass with two hollow channels. The fundamental and third harmonic modal fields, enhanced in the region between the channels, have high nonlinear overlap, while the phase-matching wavelength can be coarse-tuned by gas pressure and fine-tuned by axial strain and mechanical twist, which, remarkably, have opposite effects. The ability to adjust the phase-matching condition may facilitate efficient generation of entangled photon triplets. (C) 2021 Optical Society of America.
Deep-UV-enhanced supercontinuum generated in a tapered gas-filled photonic crystal fiber
Mallika Irene Suresh, Jonas Hammer, Nicolas Y. Joly, Philip Russell, Francesco Tani
OPTICS LETTERS 46 (18) 4526-4529 (2021) | Journal
We present the use of a linearly down-tapered gas-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fiber in a single stage, pumped with pulses froma compact infrared (IR) laser source, to generate a supercontinuum (SC) carrying significant spectral power in the deep ultraviolet (UV) [200-300 nm]. The generated SC extends from the near IR down to similar to 213 nm with 0.58 mW/nm and down to similar to 220 nm with 0.83 mW/nm in the deepUV. (C) 2021 Optical Society of America
Optical signatures of the coupled spin-mechanics of a levitated magnetic microparticle
Vanessa Wachter, Victor A. S. V. Bittencourt, Shangran Xie, Sanchar Sharma, Nicolas Joly, Philip Russell, Florian Marquardt, Silvia Viola-Kusminskiy
Journal of the Optical Society of America B-Optical Physics 38 (12) (2021) | Journal | PDF
We propose a platform that combines the fields of cavity optomagnonics and levitated optome-<br>chanics in order to control and probe the coupled spin-mechanics of magnetic dielectric particles. We theoretically study the dynamics of a levitated Faraday-active dielectric microsphere serving as an optomagnonic cavity, placed in an external magnetic field and driven by an external laser. We find that the optically driven magnetization dynamics induces angular oscillations of the particle with low associated damping. Further, we show that the magnetization and angular motion dynamics<br>can be probed via the power spectrum of the outgoing light. Namely, the characteristic frequencies attributed to the angular oscillations and the spin dynamics are imprinted in the light spectrum by two main resonance peaks. Additionally, we demonstrate that a ferromagnetic resonance setup with an oscillatory perpendicular magnetic field can enhance the resonance peak corresponding to<br>the spin oscillations and induce fast rotations of the particle around its anisotropy axis.
Reconfigurable millimeter-range optical binding of dielectric microparticles in hollow-core photonic crystal fiber
Abhinav Sharma, Shangran Xie, Philip St.J. Russell
Optics Letters 46 3909 (2021) | Journal
Optical binding of microparticles offers a versatile playground for investigating the optomechanics of levitated multi-particle systems. We report millimeter-range optical binding of polystyrene microparticles in hollow-core photonic crystal fiber. The first particle scatters the incident LP<sub>01</sub> mode into several LP<sub>0n</sub> modes, creating a beat pattern that exerts a position-dependent force on the second particle. Particle binding results from the interplay of the forces created by counterpropagating beams. A femtosecond trapping laser is used so that group velocity walk-off eliminates disturbance caused by higher order modes accidentally excited at the fiber input. The inter-particle distance can be optically switched over 2 orders of magnitude (from 42 µm to 3 mm), and the bound particle pairs can be translated along the fiber by unbalancing the powers in the counterpropagating trapping beams. The frequency response of a bound particle pair is investigated at low gas pressure by driving with an intensity-modulated control beam. The system offers new degrees of freedom for manipulating the dynamics and configurations of optically levitated microparticle arrays.
Tumbling and anomalous alignment of optically levitated anisotropic microparticles in chiral hollow-core photonic crystal fiber
Shangran Xie, Abhinav Sharma, Maria N. Romodina, Nicolas Y. Joly, Philip Russell
SCIENCE ADVANCES 7 (28) eabf6053 (2021) | Journal | PDF
The complex tumbling motion of spinning nonspherical objects is a topic of enduring interest, both in popular culture and in advanced scientific research. Here, we report all-optical control of the spin, precession, and nutation of vaterite microparticles levitated by counterpropagating circularly polarized laser beams guided in chiral hollow-core fiber. The circularly polarized light causes the anisotropic particles to spin about the fiber axis, while, regulated by minimization of free energy, dipole forces tend to align the extraordinary optical axis of positive uniaxial particles into the plane of rotating electric field. The end result is that, accompanied by oscillatory nutation, the optical axis reaches a stable tilt angle with respect to the plane of the electric field. The results reveal new possibilities for manipulating optical alignment through rotational degrees of freedom, with applications in the control of micromotors and microgyroscopes, laser alignment of polyatomic molecules, and study of rotational cell mechanics.
Scaling rules for high quality soliton self-compression in hollow-core fibers
Daniel Schade, Felix Köttig, Johannes Köhler, Michael H. Frosz, Philip St.J. Russell, Francesco Tani
Optics Express 29 (12) 19147-19158 (2021) | Journal
Soliton dynamics can be used to temporally compress laser pulses to few fs durations in many different spectral regions. Here we study analytically, numerically and experimentally the scaling of soliton dynamics in noble gas-filled hollow-core fibers. We identify an optimal parameter region, taking account of higher-order dispersion, photoionization, self-focusing, and modulational instability. Although for single-shots the effects of photoionization can be reduced by using lighter noble gases, they become increasingly important as the repetition rate rises. For the same optical nonlinearity, the higher pressure and longer diffusion times of the lighter gases can considerably enhance the long-term effects of ionization, as a result of pulse-by-pulse buildup of refractive index changes. To illustrate the counter-intuitive nature of these predictions, we compressed 250 fs pulses at 1030 nm in an 80-cm-long hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (core radius 15 µm) to ∼5 fs duration in argon and neon, and found that, although neon performed better at a repetition rate of 1 MHz, stable compression in argon was still possible up to 10 MHz.
Synthesis and dissociation of soliton molecules in parallel optical-soliton reactors
W He, M Pang, D.-H. Yeh, J Huang, Philip St. J. Russell
Light: Science & Applications 10 120 (2021) | Journal
Mode-locked lasers have been widely used to explore interactions between optical solitons, including bound-soliton<br>states that may be regarded as “photonic molecules”. Conventional mode-locked lasers normally, however, host at<br>most only a few solitons, which means that stochastic behaviours involving large numbers of solitons cannot easily be<br>studied under controlled experimental conditions. Here we report the use of an optoacoustically mode-locked fibre<br>laser to create hundreds of temporal traps or “reactors” in parallel, within each of which multiple solitons can be<br>isolated and controlled both globally and individually using all-optical methods. We achieve on-demand synthesis and<br>dissociation of soliton molecules within these reactors, in this way unfolding a novel panorama of diverse dynamics in<br>which the statistics of multi-soliton interactions can be studied. The results are of crucial importance in understanding<br>dynamical soliton interactions and may motivate potential applications for all-optical control of ultrafast light fields in<br>optical resonators.
Doppler optical frequency domain reflectometry for remote fiber sensing
Max Koeppel, Abhinav Sharma, Jasper Podschus, Sanju Sundaramahalingam, Nicolas Y. Joly, Shangran Xie, Philip Russell, Bernhard Schmauss
Optics Express 29 (10) 14615-14629 (2021) | Journal | PDF
Coherent optical frequency domain reflectometry has been widely used to locate static reflectors with high spatial resolution. Here, we present a new type of Doppler optical frequency domain reflectometry that offers simultaneous measurement of the position and speed of moving objects. The system is exploited to track optically levitated "flying" particles inside a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber. As an example, we demonstrate distributed temperature sensing with sub-mm-scale spatial resolution and a standard deviation of similar to 10 degrees C up to 200 degrees C. (C) 2021 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement
Efficient self-compression of ultrashort near-UV pulses in air-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fibers
Jie Luan, Philip St. J. Russell, David Novoa
Optics Express 29 (9) 13787-13793 (2021) | Journal
We report generation of ultrashort near-UV pulses by soliton self-compression in kagomé-style hollow-core photonic crystal fibers filled with ambient air. Pump pulses with the energy of 2.6 µJ and duration of 54 fs at 400 nm were compressed temporally by a factor of 5, to a duration of ∼11 fs. The experimental results are supported by numerical simulations, showing that both Raman and Kerr effects play a role in the compression dynamics. The convenience of using ambient air and the absence of glass windows that would distort the compressed pulses makes the setup highly attractive as the basis of an efficient table-top UV pulse compressor.
Broadband mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in dispersion-engineered As2S3-silica nanospike waveguides pumped by 2.8 μm femtosecond laser
Pan Wang, Jiapeng Huang, Shangran Xie, Johann Troles, Philip St. J. Russell
Photonics Research 9 (4) 630-636 (2021) | Journal | PDF
Broadband mid-infrared (IR) supercontinuum laser sources are essential for spectroscopy in the molecular fingerprint region. Here, we report generation of octave-spanning and coherent mid-IR supercontinua in As2S3-silica nanospike hybrid waveguides pumped by a custom-built 2.8 μm femtosecond fiber laser. The waveguides are formed by pressure-assisted melt-filling of molten As2S3 into silica capillaries, allowing the dispersion and nonlinearity to be precisely tailored. Continuous coherent spectra spanning from 1.1 μm to 4.8 μm (30 dB level) are observed when the waveguide is designed so that 2.8 μm lies in the anomalous dispersion regime. Moreover, linearly tapered millimeter-scale As2S3-silica waveguides are fabricated and investigated for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, showing much broader supercontinua than uniform waveguides, with improved spectral coherence. The waveguides are demonstrated to be long-term stable and water-resistant due to the shielding of the As2S3 by the fused silica sheath. They offer an alternative route to generating broadband mid-IR supercontinua, with applications in frequency metrology and molecular spectroscopy, especially in humid and aqueous environments.
Frenet–Serret analysis of helical Bloch modes in N-fold rotationally symmetric rings of coupled spiraling optical waveguides
Yang Chen, Philip St.J. Russell
Journal of the Optical Society of America B-Optical Physics 38 (4) 1173-1183 (2021) | Journal
The behavior of electromagnetic waves in chirally twisted structures is a topic of enduring interest, dating back at least to the 1940s invention of the microwave travelling-wave-tube amplifier and culminating in contemporary studies of chiral metamaterials, metasurfaces, and photonic crystal fibers (PCFs). Optical fibers with chiral microstructures, drawn from a spinning preform, have many useful properties, exhibiting, for example, circular birefringence and circular dichroism. It has recently been shown that chiral fibers with N-fold rotationally symmetric (symmetry group CN) transverse microstructures support families of helical Bloch modes (HBMs), each of which consists of a superposition of azimuthal Bloch harmonics (or optical vortices). An example is a fiber with N coupled cores arranged in a ring around its central axis (N-core single-ring fiber). Although this type of fiber can be readily modeled using scalar coupled-mode theory, a full description of its optical properties requires a vectorial analysis that takes account of the polarization state of the light, which is particularly important in studies of circular and vortical birefringence. In this paper, we develop, using an orthogonal 2D helicoidal coordinate system embedded in a cylindrical surface at constant radius, a rigorous vector coupled-mode description of the fields using local Frenet–Serret frames that rotate and twist with each of the N cores. The analysis places on a firm theoretical footing a previous HBM theory in which a heuristic approach was taken, based on physical intuition of the properties of Bloch waves. After a detailed review of the polarization evolution in a single spiraling core, analysis of the N-core single-ring system is carefully developed step by step. Accuracy limits of the analysis are assessed by comparison with the results of finite element modeling, focusing in particular on the dispersion, polarization states, and transverse field profiles of the HBMs. We believe this study provides clarity into what can sometimes be a rather difficult field and will facilitate further exploration of real-world applications of these fascinating waveguiding systems.
Post-recombination effects in confined gases photoionized at megahertz repetition rates
Johannes Köhler, Felix Köttig, Daniel Schade, Philip Russell, Francesco Tani
Optics Express 29 4842 (2021) | Journal | PDF
Recombination-driven acoustic pulses and heating in a photoionized gas transiently alter its refractive index. Slow thermal dissipation can cause substantial heat accumulation and impair the performance and stability of gas-based laser systems operating at strong-field intensities and megahertz repetition rates. Here we study this effect by probing the pulse-by-pulse buildup of refractive index changes in gases spatially confined inside a capillary. A high-power repetition-rate-tunable femtosecond laser photoionizes the gas at its free-space focus, while a transverse-propagating probe laser interferometrically monitors the resulting time-dependent changes in refractive index. The system allows convenient exploration of the nonlinear regimes used to temporally compress pulses with durations in the ∼30 to ∼300 fs range. We observe thermal gas-density depressions, milliseconds in duration, that saturate to a level that depends on the peak intensity and repetition rate of the pulses, in good agreement with numerical modelling. The dynamics are independently confirmed by measuring the mean speed-of-sound across the capillary core, allowing us to infer that the temperature in the gas can exceed 1000 K. Finally, we explore several strategies for mitigating these effects and improving the stability of gas-based high-power laser systems at high repetition rates.
Optofluidic photonic crystal fiber microreactors for in-situ studies of carbon nanodot-driven photoreduction
Philipp Koehler, Takashi Lawson, Julian Neises, Janina Willkomm, Benjamin C. M. Martindale , Georgina A. M. Hutton, Daniel Antón-García, Ava Lage, Alexander S. Gentleman, et al.
Analytical Chemistry 93 (2) 895-901 (2021) | Journal
Performing quantitative in situ spectroscopic analysis on minuscule sample volumes is a common difficulty in photochemistry. To address this challenge, we use a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (HC-PCF) that guides light at the center of a microscale liquid channel and acts as an optofluidic microreactor with a reaction volume of less than 35 nL. The system was used to demonstrate in situ optical detection of photoreduction processes that are key components of many photocatalytic reaction schemes. The photoreduction of viologens (XV2+) to the radical XV•+ in a homogeneous mixture with carbon nanodot (CND) light absorbers is studied for a range of different carbon dots and viologens. Time-resolved absorption spectra, measured over several UV irradiation cycles, are interpreted with a quantitative kinetic model to determine photoreduction and photobleaching rate constants. The powerful combination of time-resolved, low-volume absorption spectroscopy and kinetic modeling highlights the potential of optofluidic microreactors as a highly sensitive, quantitative, and rapid screening platform for novel photocatalysts and flow chemistry in general.
Cross-phase modulational instability of circularly polarized helical Bloch modes carrying optical vortices in a chiral three-core photonic crystal fiber
Paul Roth, Michael Frosz, Linda Weise, Philip Russell, Gordon Wong
Optics Letters 46 (2) 174-177 (2021) | Journal
We report the first, to the best of our knowledge, observation of cross-phase modulational instability (XPMI) of circularly polarized helical Bloch modes carrying optical vortices in a twisted photonic crystal fiber with a three-fold symmetric core, formed by spinning the fiber preform during the draw. When the fiber is pumped by a superposition of left-circular polarization (LCP) and right-circular polarization (RCP) modes, a pair of orthogonal circularly polarized sidebands of opposite topological charge is generated. When, on the other hand, a pure LCP (or RCP) mode is launched, the XPMI gain is zero, and no sidebands are seen. This observation has not been seen before in any system and is unique to chiral structures with N-fold rotational symmetry. The polarization state and topological charge of the generated sidebands are measured. By decomposing the helical Bloch modes into their azimuthal harmonics, we are able to deduce the selection rules for the appearance of modulational instability sidebands. We showed that the four waves in the nonlinear mixing process must exhibit the same set of azimuthal harmonic orders.
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