TY - JOUR A1 - Kiethe, Jan A1 - Heuer, Axel A1 - Jechow, Andreas T1 - Second-order coherence properties of amplified spontaneous emission from a high-power tapered superluminescent diode JF - Laser physics letters N2 - We study the degree of second-order coherence of the emission of a high-power multi-quantum well superluminescent diode with a lateral tapered amplifier section with and without optical feedback. When operated in an external cavity, the degree of second-order coherence changed from the almost thermal case of g((2))(0)approximate to 1.9 towards the mostly coherent case of g((2)) (0) approximate to 1.2 when the injection current at the tapered section was increased. We found good agreement with semi-classical laser theory near and below threshold while above laser threshold a slightly higher g((2))(0) was observed. As a free running device, the superluminescent diode yielded more than 400 mW of optical output power with good spatial beam quality of M-slow(2) < 1.6. In this case, the degree of second-order coherence dropped only slightly from 1.9 at low powers to 1.6 at the maximum output power. To our knowledge, this is the first investigation of a high-power tapered superluminescent diode concerning the degree of second-order coherence. Such a device might be useful for real-world applications probing the second order coherence function, such as ghost imaging. KW - photon statistics KW - incoherent light KW - superluminescent diodes Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1612-202X/aa772c SN - 1612-2011 SN - 1612-202X VL - 14 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kurzke, Henning A1 - Kiethe, Jan A1 - Heuer, Axel A1 - Jechow, Andreas T1 - Frequency doubling of incoherent light from a superluminescent diode in a periodically poled lithium niobate waveguide crystal JF - Laser physics letters N2 - The amplified spontaneous emission from a superluminescent diode was frequency doubled in a periodically poled lithium niobate waveguide crystal. The temporally incoherent radiation of such a superluminescent diode is characterized by a relatively broad spectral bandwidth and thermal-like photon statistics, as the measured degree of second order coherence, g((2))(0)= 1.9 +/- 0.1, indicates. Despite the non-optimized scenario in the spectral domain, we achieve six orders of magnitude higher conversion efficiency than previously reported with truly incoherent light. This is possible by using single spatial mode radiation and quasi phase matched material with a waveguide architecture. This work is a principle step towards efficient frequency conversion of temporally incoherent radiation in one spatial mode to access wavelengths where no radiation from superluminescent diodes is available, especially with tailored quasi phase matched crystals. The frequency doubled light might find application in imaging, metrology and quantum optics experiments. KW - nonlinear frequency conversion KW - periodically poled material KW - waveguides KW - incoherent radiation Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1612-202X/aa6889 SN - 1612-2011 SN - 1612-202X VL - 14 PB - IOP Publ. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mayer, Dennis A1 - Matthaei, Christian T. A1 - Heuer, Axel A1 - Gühr, Markus T1 - Kagome-fiber prism compressor combination for Yb BT - KGW laser pulse compression to sub-40fs JF - Journal of optics N2 - Spectral broadening in hollow-core fibers is an important tool for pulse compression of low-peak power laser pulses, especially for Yb-based lasers. Here, we present a pulse compression scheme to reduce the pulse duration of a commercial Yb:KGW laser operating at 100 kHz repetition rate and 40 mu J pulse energy from 390 to 38 fs. The spectral broadening is accomplished using a krypton-filled Kagome-type fiber. We report broadened spectra for variable Kr-pressures and input powers. At optimal settings of 8 bar Kr-pressure and 3.3 W input power, the bandwidth of the pulse at the -10 dB level increased from 9.5 to 85 nm corresponding to a Fourier limit of 26 fs. A simple SF10 prism compressor is used to reduce the accumulated chirp and shortens the fiber output from about 500 to 38 fs. In addition to the spectral broadening, a pressure dependent change of the polarization is observed. KW - pulse compression KW - ultrafast optics KW - photonic crystal fibers Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/2040-8986/aafdf6 SN - 2040-8978 SN - 2040-8986 VL - 21 IS - 2 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Menzel, Ralf A1 - Heuer, Axel A1 - Milonni, Peter W. T1 - Entanglement, Complementarity, and Vacuum Fields in Spontaneous Parametric Down-Conversion JF - Atoms N2 - Using two crystals for spontaneous parametric down-conversion in a parallel setup, we observe two-photon interference with high visibility. The high visibility is consistent with complementarity and the absence of which-path information. The observations are explained as the effects of entanglement or equivalently in terms of interfering probability amplitudes and also by the calculation of a second-order field correlation function in the Heisenberg picture. The latter approach brings out explicitly the role of the vacuum fields in the down-conversion at the crystals and in the photon coincidence counting. For comparison, we show that the Hong-Ou-Mandel dip can be explained by the same approach in which the role of the vacuum signal and idler fields, as opposed to entanglement involving vacuum states, is emphasized. We discuss the fundamental limitations of a theory in which these vacuum fields are treated as classical, stochastic fields. KW - complementarity KW - vacuum fields KW - entanglement KW - Hong-Ou-Mandel effect KW - spontaneous parametric down-conversion Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/atoms7010027 SN - 2218-2004 VL - 7 IS - 1 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Menzel, Ralf A1 - Marx, Robert A1 - Puhlmann, Dirk A1 - Heuer, Axel A1 - Schleich, Wolfgang T1 - The photon BT - the role of its mode function in analyzing complementarity JF - Journal of the Optical Society of America : B, Optical physics N2 - We investigate the role of the spatial mode function in a single-photon experiment designed to demonstrate the principle of complementarity. Our approach employs entangled photons created by spontaneous parametric downconversion from a pump mode in a TEM01 mode together with a double slit. Measuring the interference of the signal photons behind the double slit in coincidence with the entangled idler photons at different positions, we select signal photons of different mode functions. When the signal photons belong to the TEM01-like double-hump mode, we obtain almost perfect visibility of the interference fringes, and no "which slit" information is available in the idler photon detected before the slits. This result is remarkable because the entangled signal and idler photon pairs are created each time in only one of the two intensity humps. However, when we break the symmetry between the two maxima of the signal photon mode structure, the paths through the slits for these additional photons become distinguishable and the visibility vanishes. It is the mode function of the photons selected by the detection system that decides if interference or "which slit" information is accessible in the experiment. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1364/JOSAB.36.001668 SN - 0740-3224 SN - 1520-8540 VL - 36 IS - 6 SP - 1668 EP - 1675 PB - Optical Society of America CY - Washington ER - 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 - Heuer, Axel T1 - Phase measurement and far-field reconstruction on externally coupled laser diode arrays JF - Optics express N2 - Passive coherent combination of several discrete low power laser diodes is a promising way to overcome the issue of degrading beam quality when scaling single emitters to > 10W output power. Such systems would be an efficient alternative to current high power sources, yet they suffer from fatal coherence loss when operated well above threshold. We present a new way to obtain detailed coherence information for laser diode arrays using a spatial light modulator to help identify the underlying decoherence processes. Reconstruction tests of the emitted far-field distribution are conducted to evaluate the performance of our setup. Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.25.014317 SN - 1094-4087 VL - 25 IS - 13 SP - 14317 EP - 14322 PB - Optical Society of America CY - Washington, DC ER -