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Antimonene, a new member of monoelemental two‐dimensional crystals composed of antimony atoms, was predicted to possess high stability, as well as outstanding electrical and optical properties. Here, we report on the experimental results of productive, high‐quality synthesis of antimonene quantum dots (AQDs) via liquid‐phase exfoliation. The obtained AQDs exhibited excellent nonlinear saturable absorption. The modulation depth and the saturable intensity were found to be around 3.9% and 10.02 GW/cm2, respectively. By using the AQDs saturable absorber in the 639 nm Pr:YLF laser, stable Q‐switching pulsed laser was realized. The maximum output power was 83 mW and the corresponding pulse width was 255 ns with a pulse repetition rate of 227 kHz. These results suggest that AQDs are a promising candidate for nonlinear optical applications.

Formation of the Kerr soliton combs is a widely recognized important but complex issue, which relates to cross-influences among intra-cavity nonlinearities, chromatic dispersions, mode interactions, and pumping effects. Here, we propose and demonstrate a deep neural network model to predict Kerr comb spectra in silica microspheres statistically, via training their transmission spectra. Such a scheme enables soliton comb identification under a particular pump scanning, with error

Satellites have shown free-space quantum-communication ability; however, they are orbit-limited from full-time all-location coverage. Meanwhile, practical quantum networks require satellite constellations, which are complicated and expensive, whereas the airborne mobile quantum communication may be a practical alternative to offering full-time all-location multi-weather coverage in a cost-effective way. Here, we demonstrate the first mobile entanglement distribution based on drones, realizing multi-weather operation including daytime and rainy nights, with a Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt S-parameter measured to be 2.41 ± 0.14 and 2.49 ± 0.06, respectively. Such a system shows unparalleled mobility, flexibility and reconfigurability compared to the existing satellite and fiber-based quantum communication, and reveals its potential to establish a multinode quantum network, with a scalable design using symmetrical lens diameter and single-mode-fiber coupling. All key technologies have been developed to pack quantum nodes into lightweight mobile platforms for local-area coverage, and arouse further technical improvements to establish wide-area quantum networks with high-altitude mobile communication., We demonstrate the first drone-based entanglement distribution under multi-weather conditions, which exhibits the third possible experimental strategy for quantum communication, in addition to fiber and satellite.

Optical quantum network plays an important role in large scale quantum communication. However, different components for photon generation, transmission, storage and manipulation in network usually cannot interact directly due to the wavelength and bandwidth differences, and thus interfaces are needed to overcome such problems. We propose an optical interface for frequency down-conversion and bandwidth compression based on the counter-propagating quasi-phase-matching difference frequency generation process in the periodically-poled lithium niobate on insulator waveguide. We prove that a separable spectral transfer function can be obtained only by choosing proper pump bandwidth, thus relaxing the limitation of material, dispersion, and working wavelength as a result of the counter-propagation phase-matching configuration. With numerical simulations, we show that our design results in a nearly separable transfer function with the Schmidt number very close to 1. With proper pump bandwidth, an photon at central wavelength of 550 nm with a bandwidth ranging from 50 GHz to 5 THz can be converted to a photon at central wavelength of 1,545 nm with a much narrower bandwidth of 33 GHz.

Single longitudinal mode and single polarization are basic requirements of high performance fiber lasers, while their realizations are nontrivial, owing to the long laser cavity and lack of polarization selection of ordinary optical fibers. Here, we demonstrate an all-fiber narrow-linewidth laser realized on an external high-Q fiber ring, with combined functions of single-longitude-mode selection and linewidth reduction. A single-longitude-mode laser with a high polarization extinction ratio of ∼ 40 d B and low white frequency noise at 0.3 H z 2 / H z is achieved, corresponding to a fundamental linewidth of ∼ 0.92 H z . Using all non-polarization fiber components and ordinary gain fiber, our scheme shows the realization of narrow-linewidth single-polarization fiber lasers in a simple and cost-effective way, promising for broadband applications.

We report the generation of frequency-uncorrelated photon pairs from counter-propagating spontaneous parametric down-conversion in a periodically-poled KTP waveguide. The joint spectral intensity of photon pairs is characterized by measuring the corresponding stimulated process, namely, the difference frequency generation process. The experimental result shows a clear uncorrelated joint spectrum, where the backward-propagating photon has a narrow bandwidth of 7.46 GHz and the forward-propagating one has a bandwidth of 0.23 THz like the pump light. The heralded single-photon purity estimated through Schmidt decomposition is as high as 0.996, showing a perspective for ultra-purity and narrow-band single-photon generation. Such unique feature results from the backward-wave quasi-phase-matching condition and does not has a strict limitation on the material and working wavelength, thus fascinating its application in photonic quantum technologies.

We demonstrate a compact, high efficiency and widely tunable intracavity singly resonant optical parametric oscillator (IC-OPO) based on multichannel periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN). The IC-OPO is composed of 808 nm pump laser diode (LD), Nd:YVO4 laser and linear OPO. The continuous-wave (CW) mid-infrared (MIR) output laser is tunable from 2.25 to 4.79 μm. The maximum output power exceeds 1.08 W at 3.189 μm at 9.1 W LD pump power and the conversion efficiency is 11.88%. We also build up a prototype with volume of 145 × 85 × 42.5 mm3 and its total weight is less than 2 kg. The measured power stability is 1.3% Root Meat Square (RMS) for a 3 h duration under simulated high temperature conditions of 40 °C. RMS is 2.6% for a 4 h duration when simulated temperature is − 40 °C.

Entanglement distribution has been accomplished using a flying drone, and this mobile platform can be generalized for multiple mobile nodes with optical relay among them. Here we develop the first optical relay to reshape the wave front of photons for their low diffraction loss in free-space transmission. Using two drones, where one distributes the entangled photons and the other serves as relay node, we achieve entanglement distribution with Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt S parameter of 2.59±0.11 at 1 km distance. Key components for entangled source, tracking, and relay are developed with high performance and are lightweight, constructing a scalable airborne system for multinode connectio and toward mobile quantum networks.

Electrically controllable laser frequency combs are achieved in a 10 GHz graphene heterogeneous fiber microcavity. It demonstrates tunable mode-locking states with half-an-octave span and phase noise down to -120 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz.

We experimentally demonstrate a chip-scale polarization to spatial-momentum qubit SWAP gate. High fidelity of the SWAP gate operation is confirmed by quantum state tomography, with average gate fidelity up to 97.30%.

Soliton Kerr combs show wide potential for optical sensing such as spectroscopy. Here we demonstrate deep neural networks for predicting the microcomb formation. The error of this method could be < 4%.

High-flux entangled photon source is the key resource for quantum optical study and application. Here it is realized in a lithium niobate on isolator (LNOI) chip, with 2.79*10^11 Hz/mW photon pair rate and 1.53*10^9 Hz/nm/mW spectral brightness. These data are boosted by over two orders of magnitude compared to existing technologies. A 130-nm broad bandwidth is engineered for 8-channel multiplexed energy-time entanglement. Harnessed by high-extinction frequency correlation and Franson interferences up to 99.17% visibility, such energy-time entanglement multiplexing further enhances high-flux data rate, and warrants broad applications in quantum information processing on a chip., Submitted

Hyperparametric oscillation is essential for coherent optical signal generation in a broad wavelength range. Integration in a compact system, such a broadband light source, is of special interest for practical applications requiring field-deployable spectroscopy devices. Here we demonstrate an all-fiber hyperparametric oscillation source based on four-wave mixing in a high-Q fiber Fabry&ndash, P&eacute, rot (FFP) microresonator. Assisted by the Raman effect, the generated optical signal spans over 400 nm with fine line-to-line spacing of 667 MHz. The compatibility of this FFP microresonator enables a robust and reliable all-fiber system through a splicing technique and fiber connectors. Such a plug-and-play platform is convenient and efficient for broad applications in optical communications and spectroscopy.

We demonstrate the first compact photonic flywheel with sub-fs time jitter (averaging times up to 10 {\mu}s) at the quantum-noise limit of a monolithic fiber resonator. Such quantum-limited performance is accessed through novel two-step pumping scheme for dissipative Kerr soliton (DKS) generation. Controllable interaction between stimulated Brillouin lasing and Kerr nonlinearity enhances the DKS coherence and mitigate the thermal instability challenge, achieving a remarkable 22-Hz intrinsic comb linewidth and an unprecedented phase noise of -180 dBc/Hz at 945 MHz carrier at free running. The scheme can be generalized to various device platforms for field-deployable precision metrology.

Optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) can downconvert the pump laser to longer wavelengths with octave separation via χ ( 2 ) , which is widely used for laser wavelength extension including mid-infrared (MIR) generation. Such a process can be integrated in monolithic resonators, being compact and low in threshold. In this work, we show that the monolithic χ ( 2 ) mini-OPO can also be used for optical frequency comb generation around 2096 nm and enters the boundary of MIR range. A new geometry called an optical superlattice box resonator is developed for this realization with near-material-limited quality factor of 4.0 × 10 7 . Only a continuous-wave near-infrared pump laser is required, with OPO threshold of 80 mW and output power up to 340 mW. Revival temporal profiles are measured at a detectable repetition frequency of 1.426 GHz, and narrow beat note linewidth of less than 10 Hz shows high comb coherence. These results are in good agreement with our simulation for a stable comb generation. Such an OPO-based comb source is useful for carbon dioxide sensing or the mine prospect applications and can be generalized to longer MIR wavelengths for general gas spectroscopy.

Multispectral frequency combs provide new architectures for laser spectroscopy, clockwork, and high-capacity communications. Frequency microcombs have demonstrated remarkable impact in frequency metrology and synthesis, albeit with spectral bandwidth bounded by intrinsic second-order dispersion and consequently low-intensities at the spectral edges. Here we report coherent satellite clusters in multispectral regenerative frequency microcombs with enhanced intensities at the octave points and engineered frequency span. Beyond the conventional bandwidth of parametric oscillation, the regenerative satellites are facilitated by higher-order dispersion control, allowing for multiphase-matched parametric processes. The satellite span is deterministically controlled from 34 to 72 THz by pumped at C/L-bands, with coherence preserved with the central comb through the nonlinear parametric process. We further show the mirrored appearance of the satellite transition dynamics simultaneously with the central comb at each comb state. These multispectral satellites extend the scope of parametric-based frequency combs and provide a unique platform for clockwork, spectroscopy and communications. Microresonator Kerr frequency combs are promising systems for high-capacity optical communication schemes, but their bandwidth is limited by intrinsic chromatic dispersion. Here, coherent satellite clusters are observed beyond the conventional bandwidth of parametric oscillation, whose frequency can be tuned deterministically.

We demonstrate an on-chip single photon SWAP gate between polarization and spatial-momentum qubit. Our SWAP gate shows gate fidelity of 97.44%, and polarization entanglement preservation of SWAP operation is confirmed with average visibility over 98%.

We experimentally demonstrate a Kerr frequency comb from a fiber Fabry-Pérot(FP) microresonator that is pump by a self-injection locked distributed feedback diode laser. The comb span exceeds 80 nm around 1550 nm, with beatnote linewidth of 370Hz.

Contrastive learning methods for unsupervised visual representation learning have reached remarkable levels of transfer performance. We argue that the power of contrastive learning has yet to be fully unleashed, as current methods are trained only on instance-level pretext tasks, leading to representations that may be sub-optimal for downstream tasks requiring dense pixel predictions. In this paper, we introduce pixel-level pretext tasks for learning dense feature representations. The first task directly applies contrastive learning at the pixel level. We additionally propose a pixel-to-propagation consistency task that produces better results, even surpassing the state-of-the-art approaches by a large margin. Specifically, it achieves 60.2 AP, 41.4 / 40.5 mAP and 77.2 mIoU when transferred to Pascal VOC object detection (C4), COCO object detection (FPN / C4) and Cityscapes semantic segmentation using a ResNet-50 backbone network, which are 2.6 AP, 0.8 / 1.0 mAP and 1.0 mIoU better than the previous best methods built on instance-level contrastive learning. Moreover, the pixel-level pretext tasks are found to be effective for pre-training not only regular backbone networks but also head networks used for dense downstream tasks, and are complementary to instance-level contrastive methods. These results demonstrate the strong potential of defining pretext tasks at the pixel level, and suggest a new path forward in unsupervised visual representation learning. Code is available at \url{https://github.com/zdaxie/PixPro}., Comment: Accepted in CVPR2021

We demonstrate a Kerr soliton comb generation from a high-quality-factor fiber Fabry- Perotmicroresonator. Single soliton can be achieved, with narrow beatnote linewidth and nearquantum-noise-limited low phase noise.

We demonstrate 2 pm frequency comb generation via optical parametric down conversion from a high-quality-factor x(2) optical superlattice box resonator. Low noise comb is achieved with high output power.

Layered transitional metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are drawing significant attentions for the applications of optics and optoelectronics. To achieve optimal performances of functional devices, precisely controlled doping engineering of 2D TMDs alloys has provided a reasonable approach to tailor their physical and chemical properties. By the chemical vapor transport (CVT) method and liquid phase exfoliation technique, in this work, we synthesized WS1.76Te0.24 saturable absorber (SA) which exhibited high-performance of nonlinear optics. The nonlinear saturable absorption of the WS1.76Te0.24 SA was also measured by the open aperture Z-scan technique. Compared to that of the binary component WS2 and WTe2, WS1.76Te0.24 SA has shown 4 times deeper modulation depth, 28% lower saturable intensity and a much faster recovery time of 3.8 ps. The passively Q-switched laser based on WS1.76Te0.24 was more efficient, with pulse duration narrowed to 18%, threshold decreased to 28% and output power enlarged by 200%. The promising findings can provide a method to optimize performances of functional devices by doping engineering.

Photonic sensors that are able to detect and track biochemical molecules offer powerful tools for information acquisition in applications ranging from environmental analysis to medical diagnosis. The ultimate aim of biochemical sensing is to achieve both quantitative sensitivity and selectivity. As atomically thick films with remarkable optoelectronic tunability, graphene and its derived materials have shown unique potential as a chemically tunable platform for sensing, thus enabling significant performance enhancement, versatile functionalization and flexible device integration. Here, we demonstrate a partially reduced graphene oxide (prGO) inner-coated and fiber-calibrated Fabry-Perot dye resonator for biochemical detection. Versatile functionalization in the prGO film enables the intracavity fluorescent resonance energy transfer (FRET) to be chemically selective in the visible band. Moreover, by measuring the intermode interference via noise canceled beat notes and locked-in heterodyne detection with Hz-level precision, we achieved individual molecule sensitivity for dopamine, nicotine and single-strand DNA detection. This work combines atomic-layer nanoscience and high-resolution optoelectronics, providing a way toward high-performance biochemical sensors and systems.

Optical microcavities have been widely used in nonlinear optics, quantum optics, and laser technologies. Here we demonstrate the self-injection locking of a distributed feedback diode laser using home-made high-finesse Fabry-Perot microcavity. The Fabry-Perot microcavity is fabricated from an x-cut lithium niobate crystal with highly reflective coatings. Frequency pulling effect can be observed for a successful locking, and results in a single-longitudinal mode lasing with narrow linewidth. The lasing wavelength and output power are found robust to the laser-diode current and temperature variations, in comparison to the free-running case. We further characterize the laser linewidth with beat note measurement with a high-performance external cavity diode laser, with beat-note linewidth of 601.85 kHz. This results shows a new method for laser frequency stabilization in a simple setup, and may find applications in telecommunication and spectroscopy.

We study the effect of waveguide thickness variations on the frequency spectrum of spontaneous parametric down-conversion in the periodically-poled lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI) waveguide. We analyze several variation models and our simulation results show that thickness variations in several nanometers can induce distinct effects on the central peak of the spectrum, such as narrowing, broadening, and splitting. We also prove that the effects of positive and negative variations can be canceled and thus lead to a variation-robust feature and an ultra-broad bandwidth. Our study may promote the development of on-chip photon sources in the LNOI platform, as well as opensup a way to engineer photon frequency state.

Metal–semiconductor junctions are at the heart of modern electronics. Various two-dimensional materials (2D) based electronic devices have been reported. However, Ohmic contacts between evaporated metal contacts and semiconducting 2D materials are still hard to achieve. Thus, design and fabrication of Schottky diodes based on layered WSe2 remain challenging. Here, we report a doping-free strategy to achieve Ohmic contacts in WSe2 diodes via van der Waals (vdW) contacts. We designed and fabricated vertical WSe2/Pd Schottky diodes, in which Ohmic and Schottky junctions can be realized simultaneously via vdW contacts and evaporated contacts, respectively. The specific contact resistance of the vdW contact is about 74.5 kΩ·μm2. The Schottky diodes exhibit strong rectification behavior with rectification ratio up to 105.

Narrowband photonic entanglement is a crucial resource for long-distance quantum communication and quantum information processing, including quantum memories. We demonstrate the first polarization entanglement with 7.1 GHz inherent bandwidth by counterpropagating domain engineering, which is also confirmed by Hong–Ou–Mandel interference with 155-ps base-to-base dip width and ( 97.1 ± 0.59 ) % high visibility. The entanglement is harnessed with 18.5-standard-deviations Bell inequality violation, and further characterized with state tomography of ( 95.71 ± 0.61 ) % fidelity. Such narrowband entanglement sets a cornerstone for practical quantum information applications.

We demonstrate a broadband optical parametric oscillation, using a sheet cavity, via cavity phase-matching. A 21.2 THz broad comb-like spectrum is achieved, with a uniform line spacing of 133.0 GHz, despite a relatively large dispersion of 275.4 fs2/mm around 1064 nm. With 22.6% high slope efficiency, and 14.9 kW peak power handling, this sheet optical parametric oscillator can be further developed for χ (2) comb.

Mid-infrared (MIR) radiation is essential for remote gas sensing, ranging, and lidar applications, where high pulse energy and narrow linewidth are the keys to the high sensitivity over long distance. However, complex optical and electronic locking schemes are normally required to achieve both features at the same time. Here, we demonstrate pulse-pumped single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) MIR generation using a microresonator seed in the form of a sheet optical parametric oscillator (SOPO). The SOPO features a sub-coherence-length thickness of 400 µm, which enables SLM and high-energy oscillation using cavity phase matching. Its output around 1.55 µm is seeded into an optical parametric amplifier and locks the MIR output in SLM at 3.38 µm. In a simple and compact setup, up to 21% conversion efficiency and 22% slope efficiency are measured with a MIR output energy of 54 µJ. This SLM MIR source with the SOPO seed greatly reduces the system size and is compatible for further integration for field-deployable devices and thus has broad applications in the field of remote gas sensing.

Partially-reduced graphene oxide (prGO) inner-coated and fiber-calibrated Fabry-Perot dye resonator for biochemical detection enables the functionalized FRET-gain-assistance and intermode heterodyne interference, we achieve individual molecule sensitivity for dopamine, nicotine and ssDNA.

Photonic entanglement is central resource to quantum information sciences, such as quantum communication and quantum computation. The entangled photons generated in conventional spontaneous parametric down-conversion usually yield THz bandwidth which becomes very dim in many applications call for narrow-band entanglement sources. Here we demonstrate the polarization-entanglement photon source with counterpropagating phase matching, which results in an inherent bandwidth of 7.1 GHz at telecom wavelength. The entanglement is measured to violate the Bell inequality by up to 18.5 standard deviations, with Clauser–Horne–Shimony–Holt S-parameter of 2.720±0.039. The quantum state tomography further characterizes the entanglement, with fidelity F=(95.71±0.61)%.

The convolution layer has been the dominant feature extractor in computer vision for years. However, the spatial aggregation in convolution is basically a pattern matching process that applies fixed filters which are inefficient at modeling visual elements with varying spatial distributions. This paper presents a new image feature extractor, called the local relation layer, that adaptively determines aggregation weights based on the compositional relationship of local pixel pairs. With this relational approach, it can composite visual elements into higher-level entities in a more efficient manner that benefits semantic inference. A network built with local relation layers, called the Local Relation Network (LR-Net), is found to provide greater modeling capacity than its counterpart built with regular convolution on large-scale recognition tasks such as ImageNet classification.

We report χ(2) and χ(3) frequency up-conversion in silicon nitride microcavities. Pumped by C-/L- band, a broadband frequency conversion from 437 nm to 816 nm is obtained based on regenerative satellite comb structures, with χ(2) process supported by nitride-oxide surface symmetry breaking.

We demonstrate the first mid-infrared frequency comb generation via optical parametric down conversion from a high-Q χ(2) optical superlattice box resonator. Low noise comb is achieved with high output power.

Narrow-linewidth lasers are essential for various applications, but are limited by their size, weight, power, and cost requirements. Here we demonstrate a self-injection locked diode laser fabricated with a high quality factor fiber Fabry–Perot resonator, with a 145 Hz free-running linewidth. The locking scheme is all-fiber for plug-and-play operation. White frequency noise of 50 H z 2 / H z is measured with over 42 dB reduction from the low-cost TO-can distributed feedback laser diode, and shows its wide applications in a compact and cost-effective way.

We study the effect of dimension variation for second-harmonic generation (SHG) in lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI) waveguides. Non-trivial SHG profiles in both type-0 and type-I quasi-phase matching are observed during the wavelength tuning of the fundamental light. Theoretical modeling shows that the SHG profile and efficiency can be greatly affected by the waveguide cross-section dimension variations, especially the thickness variations. In particular, our analysis shows that a thickness variation of tens of nanometers is in good agreement with the experimental results. Such investigations could be used to evaluate fabrication performance of LNOI-based nonlinear optical devices.

We demonstrate a tunable optical parametric oscillator in a periodically poled congruently grown lithium tantalite whispering gallery mode resonator. The resonator is mechanically polished to millimeter size, and the quality factor is approximately 107 at 1064 nm. Our experiments show that this kind of resonator is capable of reaching a very low threshold and having a wide tuning range. Combined with its narrow resonant linewidth, it is potentially used as a compact, widely tunable, and narrow-linewidth infrared to mid-infrared laser source.

Multiphoton absorption (MPA) has been utilized for important technological applications. High-order multiphoton harvesting (e.g., five-photon absorption, 5PA) exhibits unique properties that could benefit biophotonics. Within this field, perovskite oxide ferroelectrics (e.g., BaTiO3 ) enable low-order optical nonlinearities of 2PA/3PA processes. However, it is challenging to obtain efficient, high-order 5PA effects. Herein, for the first time, giant and broadband MPA properties are presented in the 2D hybrid perovskite ferroelectric (IA)2 (MA)2 Pb3 Br10 (1; IA = isoamylammonium and MA = methylammonium), where multiphoton-excited optical nonlinearities related to different MPA mechanisms over a broadband range of 550-2400 nm are observed. Strikingly, its 5PA absorption cross-section (σ5 ) reaches up to 1.2 × 10-132 cm10 s4 photon-4 (at 2400 nm), almost 10 orders larger than some state-of-the-art organic molecules and a record-high value among all known ferroelectrics. This unprecedented 5PA effect results from the quantum-confined motif of inorganic trilayer sheets (wells) and organic cations (barriers) in 1. Moreover, its large ferroelectric polarization of 5 µC cm-2 could promote modulation of MPA effects under external electric fields. As far as it is known, this is the first report on giant, broadband high-order MPA properties in ferroelectrics, which provides potential, novel electric-ordered materials for next-generation biophotonic applications.

We propose a scheme for the generation of counterpropagating polarization-entangled photon pairs from a periodically poled lithium niobate on insulator waveguide. The waveguide is designed to enable a special dispersion relationship between the T M 00 and T E 00 modes that allows two concurrent counterpropagating quasi-phase-matching type-II spontaneous parametric downconversion processes with a single reciprocal wave vector. Due to the counterpropagating phase-matching geometry, the source has a narrow bandwidth in the order of several gigahertz. The compact source opens up a new method for integrated photonic technologies.

Lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI) is a unique platform for integrated photonic applications and especially for high-efficiency nonlinear frequency converters because of the strong optical field confinement. In this work, we fabricated a 6-mm-long periodically poled LNOI ridge waveguide with an optimized duty cycle (50:50) using an active domain structure monitoring method. The performance of the single-pass second-harmonic generation and difference-frequency generation in the nanophotonic waveguide was characterized, and the normalized conversion efficiencies were ∼80% of the theoretical values. These high-quality frequency conversion devices can pave the way for the application of LNOI in nonlinear integrated photonics.

Alloying in two-dimension has been a hot spot in the development of new, versatile systems of optics and electronics. Alloys have been demonstrated to be a fascinating strategy to modulate the chemical and electronic properties of two-dimensional nanosheets. We firstly reported ultra-broadband enhanced nonlinear saturable absorption of Mo0.53W0.47Te2 alloy at 0.6, 1.0, and 2.0 μm. The nonlinear saturable absorption of Mo0.53W0.47Te2 saturable absorber (SA) was measured by the open aperture Z-scan technique. Compared to MoTe2 and WTe2 SAs, the Mo0.53W0.47Te2 SA showed five times deeper modulation depth, 8.6% lower saturable intensity, and one order larger figure of merit. Thus, our research provides a method of alloys to find novel materials with more outstanding properties for optics and optoelectronic applications.

We report an observation of the second-order correlation between twin beams generated by amplified spontaneous parametric down-conversion operating above threshold with kilowatt-level peak power, from a periodically poled LiTaO3 crystal via a single-pass scheme. Photocurrent correlation was measured because of the bright photon streams, with raw visibility of 37.9% or 97.3% after electronic filtering. As expected in our theory, this correlation is robust and insensitive to parametric gain and detection loss, enabling important applications in optical communications, precision measurement, and nonlocal imaging.

We demonstrated the efficient plasmon-induced nonlinear absorption of liquid metal GaInSn nanospheres prepared by a facile liquid-phase method. With GaInSn as saturable absorbers, a passively Q-switching operation was obtained at both 1.3 and 2 μm. The pulse width of 32 ns was achieved at 1.3 μm with repetition rate of 44 kHz, single pulse energy of 51.9 μJ, and output power of 425 mW. Meanwhile, 510 ns and 92 kHz pulses with energy of 36.1 μJ and output power of 2.48 W were obtained at 2 μm. This work provides the potential of liquid metal for improving metal functions and flexible optical devices.

We present an experimental realization of a compact and reliable way to build a nondegenerate polarization-entangled photon-pair source based on a dual-periodically-poled $ {\rm Ti}:{{\rm LiNbO}_3} $Ti:LiNbO3 waveguide, which is in the telecommunication window and compatible with the fiber quantum networks. The dual-periodic structure allows two inherently concurrent quasiphase-matching spontaneous parametric down-conversion processes pumped by a single laser beam, hence enabling our source to be compact and stable. We show that our source has a high brightness of $ B = 1.22{\rm } \times {\rm }{10^7}\;{\rm pairs}/(\rm s \times mW \times nm) $B=1.22×107pairs/(s×mW×nm). With quantum state tomography, we estimate an entanglement fidelity of $ 0.945 \pm 0.003 $0.945±0.003. A violation of Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality with $ S = 2.75 \pm 0.03 $S=2.75±0.03 is also demonstrated.

We report Kerr frequency combs with two types of satellites, enabled by multiple phase matching in microcavities. Satellite comb clusters at ≈ 1.3 μm and 2.0 μm regimes are simultaneously generated with the central comb, with a demonstrated high external conversion efficiency reaching up to -30dB.

We demonstrate here a compact optical parametric oscillator module for mid-infrared generation via nonlinear frequency conversion. This module weighs only 2.5 kg and fits within a small volume of 220 × 60 × 55 mm3. The module can be easily aligned to various pump laser sources, and here we use a 50 W ytterbium (Yb)-doped fiber laser as an example. With a two-channel MgO-doped periodically poled lithium niobate crystal (MgO:PPLN), our module covers a tuning range of 2416.17–2932.25 nm and 3142.18–3452.15 nm. The highest output power exceeds 10.4 W at 2.7 μm, corresponding to a conversion efficiency of 24%. The measured power stability is 2.13% Root Meat Square (RMS) for a 10 h duration under outdoor conditions.

Graphene, a unique two-dimensional material comprising carbon in a honeycomb lattice 1 , has brought breakthroughs across electronics, mechanics and thermal transport, driven by the quasiparticle Dirac fermions obeying a linear dispersion 2,3 . Here, we demonstrate a counter-pumped all-optical difference frequency process to coherently generate and control terahertz plasmons in atomic-layer graphene with octave-level tunability and high efficiency. We leverage the inherent surface asymmetry of graphene for strong second-order nonlinear polarizability 4,5 , which, together with tight plasmon field confinement, enables a robust difference frequency signal at terahertz frequencies. The counter-pumped resonant process on graphene uniquely achieves both energy and momentum conservation. Consequently, we demonstrate a dual-layer graphene heterostructure with terahertz charge- and gate-tunability over an octave, from 4.7 THz to 9.4 THz, bounded only by the pump amplifier optical bandwidth. Theoretical modelling supports our single-volt-level gate tuning and optical-bandwidth-bounded 4.7 THz phase-matching measurements through the random phase approximation, with phonon coupling, saturable absorption and below the Landau damping, to predict and understand graphene plasmon physics. An all-optical difference frequency process is exploited to generate terahertz graphene plasmons that are tunable over an octave.