The difficulty of fusion splicing hollow-core photonic bandgap fiber (PBGF) to conventional step index single mode fiber (SMF) has severely limited the implementation of PBGFs. To make PBGFs more functional we have developed a method for splicing a hollow-core PBGF to a SMF using a commercial arc splicer. A repeatable, robust, low-loss splice between the PBGF and SMF is demonstrated. By filling one end of the PBGF spliced to SMF with acetylene gas and performing saturation spectroscopy, we determine that this splice is useful for a PBGF cell.

Polarization-resolved electroluminescence studies of III-nitride blue and ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) were performed. The LEDs were fabricated on nitride materials grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition on sapphire substrates (0001). Transverse electric (TE) polarization dominates in the InGaN∕GaN quantum-well (QW) blue LEDs (λ′=458nm), whereas transverse magnetic (TM) polarization is dominant in the AlInGaN QW UV LEDs (λ=333nm). For the case of edge emission in blue LEDs, a ratio (r=I⊥∕I‖) of about 1.8:1 was observed between the EL intensities with polarization E⊥c (TE mode) and E‖c (TM mode), which corresponds to a degree of polarization ∼0.29. The UV LEDs exhibit a ratio r of about 1:2.3, corresponding to a degree of polarization ∼0.4. This is due to the fact that the degree of polarization of the bandedge emission of the AlxInyGa1−x−yN active layer changes with Al concentration. The low emission efficiency of nitride UV LEDs is partly related to this polarization property. Possible consequences and ways to enhance UV emitter performances related to this unique polarization property are discussed.

Saturated absorption spectroscopy is performed on the acetylene nu(1) + nu(3) band near 1532 nm inside photonic bandgap fibers of small (approximately 10 microm) and large (approximately 20 microm) core diameters. The observed linewidths are narrower in the 20 microm fiber and vary from 20 to 40 MHz depending on pressure and power. Variations in the background light transmission, attributed by others to surface modes, are significantly reduced in the 20 microm fiber. The optimum signal for use as a frequency reference in a 0.8 m long, 20 microm diameter fiber is found to occur at about 0.5 torr for 30 mW of pump power. The saturation power is found by modeling the propagation and attenuation of light inside the fiber.

Saturated absorption spectroscopy reveals the narrowest features so far in molecular gas-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fiber. The 48-68 mum core diameter of the kagome-structured fiber used here allows for 8 MHz full-width half-maximum sub-Doppler features, and its wavelength-insensitive transmission is suitable for high-accuracy frequency measurements. A fiber laser is locked to the (12)C2H2 nu(1); + nu(3) P(13) transition inside kagome fiber, and compared with frequency combs based on both a carbon nanotube fiber laser and a Cr:forsterite laser, each of which are referenced to a GPS-disciplined Rb oscillator. The absolute frequency of the measured line center agrees with those measured in power build-up cavities to within 9.3 kHz (1 sigma error), and the fractional frequency instability is less than 1.2 x 10(-11) at 1 s averaging time.

We demonstrate a comb-calibrated frequency-modulated continuous-wave laser detection and ranging (FMCW ladar) system for absolute distance measurements. The FMCW ladar uses a compact external cavity laser that is swept quasi-sinusoidally over 1 THz at a 1 kHz rate. The system simultaneously records the heterodyne FMCW ladar signal and the instantaneous laser frequency at sweep rates up to 3400 THz/s, as measured against a free-running frequency comb (femtosecond fiber laser). Demodulation of the ladar signal against the instantaneous laser frequency yields the range to the target with 1 ms update rates, bandwidth-limited 130 μm resolution and a ~100 nm accuracy that is directly linked to the counted repetition rate of the comb. The precision is<100 nm at the 1 ms update rate and reaches ~6 nm for a 100 ms average.