An ultrasensitive metamaterial sensor based on double-slot vertical split ring resonators (DVSRRs) is designed and numerically calculated in the terahertz frequency. This DVSRR design produces a fundament LC resonance with a quality factor of about 20 when the incidence magnetic field component normal to the DVSRR array. The resonant characteristics and sensing performance of the DVSRR array design are systematically analyzed employing a contrast method among three similar vertical split ring resonator (SRRs) structures. The research results show that the elimination of bianisotropy, induced by the structural symmetry of the DVSRR design, helps to achieve LC resonance of a high quality factor. Lifting the SRRs up from the substrate sharply reduces the dielectric loss introduced by the substrate. All these factors jointly result in superior sensitivity of the DVSRR to the attributes of analytes. The maximum refractive index sensitivity is 788 GHz/RIU or $1.04\times {10}^5\mathrm{nm}/\mathrm{RIU}$. Also, the DVSRR sensor maintains its superior sensing performance for fabrication tolerance ranging from $-4\%$ to 4% and wide range incidence angles up to 50° under both TE and TM illuminations.

A mode-locked thulium-doped fiber laser (TDFL) based on nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) with different net anomalous dispersion is demonstrated. When the cavity dispersion is $-1.425{\mathrm{ps}}^2$, the noise-like (NL) pulse with coherence spike width of 406 fs and pulse energy of 12.342 nJ is generated at a center wavelength of 2003.2 nm with 3 dB spectral bandwidth of 23.20 nm. In the experimental period of 400 min, the 3 dB spectral bandwidth variation, the output power fluctuation, and the central wavelength shift are less than 0.06 nm, 0.04 dB, and 0.4 nm, respectively, indicating that the NPR-based TDFL operating in the NL regime holds good long-term stability.

The special electromagnetic properties of metamaterials have contributed to the development of terahertz technology, and terahertz broadband absorbers for various applications have been investigated. The design of metamaterial absorbers with tunability is in a particularly attractive position. In this work, a tunable broadband terahertz metamaterial absorber is proposed based on the phase transition material vanadium dioxide (VO₂). The simulation results show that an excellent absorption bandwidth reaches 3.78 THz with the absorptivity over 90% under normal incidence. The absorptivity of the proposed structure can be dynamically tuned from 2.7% to 98.9% by changing the conductivity of VO₂, which changes the structure from a perfect reflector to an absorber. An excellent amplitude modulation with the absorptivity is realized. The mechanism of broadband absorption is explored by analyzing the electric field distribution of the absorber based on impedance matching theory. In addition, it also has the advantage of polarization and incident angle insensitivity. The proposed absorber may have a wide range of promising applications in areas such as terahertz imaging, sensing, and detection.

In the present paper, we demonstrate the first outdoor free-space optical communication (FSOC) system with real-time video transmission in a 2-μm-band with a state-of-the-art data rate performance of 10 Gbit/s and a communication distance of ∼177 m. The measured wide-open eye diagram and zero bit-error-rate also validated the high communication quality. The FSOC system is constructed with all homemade components, including a single-frequency (SF) thulium-holmium co-doped fiber laser (THDFL), a modulation module, a demodulation module, three thulium-doped fiber amplifiers, an optical bandpass filter, two optical-antennas, and a display system. As the most important component, the SF THDFL, enabled by a uniform fiber Bragg grating and a passive fiber ring-compound cavity, is self-designed and fabricated by our group, presenting high lasing stability centered at 2048.98 nm, an optical signal-to-noise ratio of >81 dB, a relative intensity noise of <−128.18 dB/Hz at >0.5 MHz and a linewidth of 5.290 kHz under a measurement integration time of 0.001 s. Our work is an important step forward for practical outdoor FSOC in a 2-μm-band, proving useful for engineers and scientists when our SF THDFL is implemented as a low-cost, high-performance laser source for the FSOC system.

A 1.97 μm multiwavelength Tm-doped fiber laser based on a nonlinear amplifier loop mirror (NALM) has been experimentally demonstrated. The NALM with 500 m standard single mode fiber introduces intensity-dependent gain to alleviate mode competition caused by homogeneous gain broadening in Tm-doped fibers. At room temperature, up to 42 wavelengths with a wavelength spacing of 0.33 nm oscillate within a 10-dB bandwidth simultaneously. Repeat measurement of the laser spectrum shows the wavelength drift of a multiwavelength Tm-doped fiber laser is less than 0.05 nm in 40 min.

A high-performance switchable 0.612 nm-spaced dual-wavelength erbium-doped fiber (EDF) laser is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. For the first time, we combine a compound-cavity structure (CCS) and an enhanced polarization hole burning (PHB) effect in laser cavity to obtain stable dual-wavelength lasing (λ1 and λ2) and single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) operation at each wavelength without mode-hopping. In the CCS, a high-quality triple-ring passive-resonator is employed to achieve SLM lasing and a high-birefringence fiber Bragg grating combined with a three-loop polarization controller made with a length of EDF is used to establish strong PHB effect. Easy switch between dual- and single-wavelength lasing modes is achieved. At a pump power of 150 mW, we obtain dual-wavelength lasing with optical signal to noise ratios (OSNRs) of >84 dB for both wavelengths and linewidths of 663 Hz for λ1 and 768 Hz for λ2 respectively; we also obtain single-wavelength lasing at λ1 with an OSNR of >86 dB and a linewidth of 687 Hz or at λ2 with an OSNR of >88 dB and a linewidth of 678 Hz. For both dual- and single-wavelength operations, the two lasing wavelengths are orthogonally polarized, with a degree of polarization of ∼100%, and their relative intensity noise are <-155 dB/Hz at frequencies over 3 MHz. In addition, the dependences of wavelength, OSNR and linewidth on pump power and wavelength-tunability on temperature for the proposed fiber laser are also investigated in detail.