TY - JOUR A1 - Menzel, Ralf A1 - Puhlmann, Dirk A1 - Heuer, Axel T1 - Complementarity in single photon interference – the role of the mode function and vacuum fields JF - Journal of the European Optical Society-Rapid N2 - Background In earlier experiments the role of the vacuum fields could be demonstrated as the source of complementarity with respect to the temporal properties (Heuer et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 114:053601, 2015). Methods Single photon first order interferences of spatially separated regions from the cone structure of spontaneous parametric down conversion allow for analyzing the role of the mode function in quantum optics regarding the complementarity principle. Results Here the spatial coherence properties of these vacuum fields are demonstrated as the physical reason for complementarity in these single photon quantum optical experiments. These results are directly connected to the mode picture in classical optics. Conclusion The properties of the involved vacuum fields selected via the measurement process are the physical background of the complementarity principle in quantum optics. KW - Quantum optics KW - Complementarity KW - Mode function KW - Vacuum fields Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/s41476-017-0036-x SN - 1990-2573 VL - 13 PB - Springer ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Niebuhr, Mario A1 - Zink, Christof A1 - Jechow, Andreas A1 - Heuer, Axel A1 - Glebov, Leonid B. A1 - Menzel, Ralf T1 - Mode stabilization of a laterally structured broad area diode laser using an external volume Bragg grating JF - Optics express : the international electronic journal of optics N2 - An external volume Bragg grating (VBG) is used for transverse and longitudinal mode stabilization of a broad area diode laser (BAL) with an on-chip transverse Bragg resonance (TBR) grating. The internal TBR grating defines a transverse low-loss mode at a specific propagation angle inside the BAL. Selection of the TBR mode was realized via the angular geometry of an external resonator assembly consisting of the TBR BAL and a feedback element. A feedback mirror provides near diffraction limited and spectral narrow output in the TBR mode albeit requiring an intricate alignment procedure. If feedback is provided via a VBG, adjustment proves to be far less critical and higher output powers were achieved. Moreover, additional modulation in the far field distribution became discernible allowing for a better study of the TBR concept. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.23.012394 SN - 1094-4087 VL - 23 IS - 9 SP - 12394 EP - 12400 PB - Optical Society of America CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Elsner, Robert A1 - Puhlmann, Dirk A1 - Pieplow, Gregor A1 - Heuer, Axel A1 - Menzel, Ralf T1 - Transverse distinguishability of entangled photons with arbitrarily shaped spatial near- and far-field distributions JF - Journal of the Optical Society of America : B, Optical physics N2 - Entangled photons generated by spontaneous parametric downconversion are ubiquitous in quantum optics. In general, they exhibit a complex spatial photon count distribution. This spatial structure is responsible for seemingly surprising results concerning, e.g., complementarity such as the apparent simultaneous observation of interference fringes V and which-way information D at a double slit, as recently reported by Menzel et al. [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 109, 9314 (2012)]. We implement a complete quantitative model of the SPDC interaction that fully incorporates the effects of crystal anisotropies, phase matching, and the pump beam structure and allows for arbitrary manipulations of the SPDC light in the near and far fields. This enables us to establish an upper bound D-2 + V-2 <= 1.47 for the experimental parameters reported by Menzel et al. We report new experimental results that agree excellently with these theoretical predictions. The new model enables a detailed quantitative analysis of this surprising result and the fair sampling interpretation of biphotons passing a double slit. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1364/JOSAB.32.001910 SN - 0740-3224 SN - 1520-8540 VL - 32 IS - 9 SP - 1910 EP - 1919 PB - Optical Society of America CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Heuer, Axel A1 - Menzel, Ralf A1 - Milonni, P. W. T1 - Complementarity in biphoton generation with stimulated or induced coherence JF - Physical review : A, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics N2 - Coherence can be induced or stimulated in parametric down-conversion using two or three crystals when, for example, the idler modes of the crystals are aligned. Previous experiments with induced coherence [Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 053601 (2015)] focused on which-path information and the role of vacuum fields in realizing complementarity via reduced visibility in single-photon interference. Here we describe experiments comparing induced and stimulated coherence. Different single-photon interference experiments were performed by blocking one of the pump beams in a three-crystal setup. Each counted photon is emitted from one of two crystals and which-way information may or not be available, depending on the setup. Distinctly different results are obtained in the induced and stimulated cases, especially when a variable transmission filter is inserted between the crystals. A simplified theoretical model accounts for all the experimental results and is also used to address the question of whether the phases of the signal and idler fields in parametric down-conversion are correlated. Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.92.033834 SN - 1050-2947 SN - 1094-1622 VL - 92 IS - 3 PB - American Physical Society CY - College Park ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zink, Christof A1 - Werner, Nils A1 - Jechow, Andreas A1 - Heuer, Axel A1 - Menzel, Ralf T1 - Multi-wavelength operation of a single broad area diode laser by spectral beam combining JF - IEEE photonics technology letters N2 - Stabilized multi-wavelength emission from a single emitter broad area diode laser (BAL) is realized by utilizing an external cavity with a spectral beam combining architecture. Self-organized emitters that are equidistantly spaced across the slow axis are enforced by the spatially distributed wavelength selectivity of the external cavity. This resulted in an array like near-field emission although the BAL is physically a single emitter without any epitaxial sub-structuring and only one electrical contact. Each of the self-organized emitters is operated at a different wavelength and the emission is multiplexed into one spatial mode with near-diffraction limited beam quality. With this setup, multi-line emission of 31 individual spectral lines centered around and a total spectral width of 3.6 nm is realized with a 1000 mu m wide BAL just above threshold. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of such a self-organization of emitters by optical feedback utilizing a spectral beam combining architecture. KW - Laser resonators KW - semiconductor lasers KW - optical feedback Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/LPT.2013.2291963 SN - 1041-1135 SN - 1941-0174 VL - 26 IS - 3 SP - 253 EP - 256 PB - Inst. of Electr. and Electronics Engineers CY - Piscataway ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zink, Christof A1 - Niebuhr, Mario A1 - Jechow, Andreas A1 - Heuer, Axel A1 - Menzel, Ralf T1 - Broad area diode laser with on-chip transverse Bragg grating stabilized in an off-axis external cavity JF - Optics express : the international electronic journal of optics N2 - The emission characteristics of a novel, specially designed broad area diode laser (BAL) with on-chip transversal Bragg resonance (TBR) grating in lateral direction were investigated in an off-axis external cavity setup. The internal TBR grating defines a low loss transversal mode at a specific angle of incidence and a certain wavelength. By providing feedback at this specific angle with an external mirror, it is possible to select this low loss transverse mode and stabilize the BAL. Near diffraction limited emission with an almost single lobed far field pattern could be realized, in contrast to the double lobed far field pattern of similar setups using standard BALs or phase-locked diode laser arrays. Furthermore, we could achieve a narrow bandwidth emission with a simplified setup without external frequency selective elements. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.22.014108 SN - 1094-4087 VL - 22 IS - 12 SP - 14108 EP - 14113 PB - Optical Society of America CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schwarze, Thomas A1 - Garz, Andreas A1 - Teuchner, Klaus A1 - Menzel, Ralf A1 - Holdt, Hans-Jürgen T1 - Two-photon probes for metal ions based on phenylaza[18]crown-6 ethers and 1,2,3-triazoles as pi-linkers JF - ChemPhysChem : a European journal of chemical physics and physical chemistry KW - absorption KW - cations KW - click chemistry KW - dyes/pigments KW - fluorescence Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/cphc.201402232 SN - 1439-4235 SN - 1439-7641 VL - 15 IS - 12 SP - 2436 EP - 2439 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Heuer, Axel A1 - Raabe, S. A1 - Menzel, Ralf T1 - Phase memory across two single-photon interferometers including wavelength conversion JF - Physical review : A, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics N2 - Spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) in a nonlinear crystal generates two single photons (signal and idler) with random phases. Thus, no first-order interference between them occurs. However, coherence can be induced in a cascaded setup of two crystals if, e.g., the idler modes of both crystals are aligned to be indistinguishable. Due to the effect of phase memory it is found that the first-order interference of the signal beams can be controlled by the phase delay between the pump beams. Even for pump photon delays much larger than the coherence length of the SPDC photons, the visibility is above 90%. The high visibilities reported here prove an almost perfect phase memory effect across the two interferometers for the pump and the signal photon modes. Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.90.045803 SN - 1050-2947 SN - 1094-1622 VL - 90 IS - 4 PB - American Physical Society CY - College Park ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Heuer, Axel A1 - Sagahti, A. A1 - Jechow, Andreas A1 - Skoczowsky, D. A1 - Menzel, Ralf T1 - Multi-wavelength, high spatial brightness operation of a phase-locked stripe-array diode laser JF - Laser physics N2 - Stable continuous wave multi-wavelength operation of a stripe-array diode laser with an externalcavity spectral beam combining geometry is presented. In this setup each emitter of the stripe-array is forced to operate at a different wavelength, which leads to a decoupling between the usually phase-locked emitters. With a reflective diffraction grating with a period of 300 lines per mm, 33 equidistant laser lines around a center wavelength of 978 nm were realized, spanning a spectral range of 26 nm. With this novel approach near-diffraction limited emission with a beam quality of M (2) < 1.2 and an output power of 450 mW was achieved. This laser light source can be used for applications requiring low temporal but high spatial coherence. Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1134/S1054660X12010057 SN - 1054-660X VL - 22 IS - 1 SP - 160 EP - 164 PB - Pleiades Publ. CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Elsner, Robert A1 - Ullmann, Roland A1 - Heuer, Axel A1 - Menzel, Ralf A1 - Ostermeyer, Martin T1 - Two-dimensional modeling of transient gain gratings in saturable gain media JF - OPTICS EXPRESS N2 - A transient two-dimensional model describing degenerate four-wave mixing inside saturable gain media is presented. The new model is compared to existing one-dimensional models with their qualitative results confirmed. Large quantitative differences with respect to peak reflectivity and optimum pump fluence are observed. Furthermore, the influence of the beam focus size, the transverse position and the crossing angle on the reflectivity of the grating is investigated using the improved model. It is demonstrated that the phase conjugate reflectivity depends sensitively on the transverse features of the interacting beams with a transverse shift in the position of the pump beams yielding a threefold improvement in reflectivity. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.20.006887 SN - 1094-4087 VL - 20 IS - 7 SP - 6887 EP - 6896 PB - OPTICAL SOC AMER CY - WASHINGTON ER -