Synchronization of optical polarization conversion and scattering in chiral fibers

We demonstrate that polarization transformation and scattering in adiabatically twisted single-mode birefringent optical fibers is synchronized so that light in one evolving elliptically polarized mode is freely transmitted while orthogonally polarized light is scattered out of the fiber. Thus, linearly polarized radiation initially oriented along the fast axis of the untwisted fiber is transformed to circularly polarized light with the same sense of rotation as the twisted fiber and is scattered out of the fiber. When the fiber twist is first accelerated and then decelerated, the fiber becomes a broadband, low-insertion-loss, linear polarizer.     

拉曼效应对低双折射光纤偏振态的影响

在准连续情况下, 通过求解低双折射光纤中含有拉曼效应的右旋与左旋圆偏振光所满足的耦合非线性薛定谔方程,着重研究了低输入功率和高输入功率情形在加入拉曼效应前后, 有效偏振拍长和输入功率的变化关系. 结果表明: 无论入射光的偏振是沿着慢轴或沿着快轴, 拉曼效应均改变了入射光偏振态演变的周期, 同时改变了入射光的传输距离.     

Space-variant polarization manipulation for far-field polarimetry by use of subwavelength dielectric gratings

A method for polarimetric measurement that uses a discrete space-variant subwavelength dielectric grating is presented. One retrieves the polarization state by measuring the far-field intensity of a beam emerging from the grating followed by a polarizer. The analysis for a partially polarized, quasi-monochromatic beam is performed by use of the beam coherence polarization matrix along with an extended van Cittert-Zernike theorem. We experimentally demonstrate polarization measurements of both fully and partially polarized light.     

Passive polarization-controlled all-fiber gyroscope and other interferometric architectures

A novel all-fiber gyroscope architecture is disclosed making use of the author's U.S.-patented Passive Polarization Control (PPC) invention to stabilize the polarization state of the counter-propagating beams in the rotating Sagnac fiber loop. The PPC is simply a piece of variably spun birefringent optical fiber capable of transforming a circularly polarized light into a linearly polarized light that automatically aligns itself along a principal axis of the fiber. The all-fiber gyroscope architecture uses two cascaded directional couplers operating on circular SOP, thus providing an “SOP matching” with the PPC-terminated fiber loop. Re predicted PPC performance has been confirmed experimentally in a laboratory.     

一种基于光纤光栅法布里-珀罗腔的低频振动传感器

提出了一种基于光纤光栅法布里-珀罗(F-P)腔的低频振动传感方案并进行了理论分析和实验研究。采用单频激光器作为光源,光纤光栅F-P腔通过两点涂胶方式粘接在等强度悬臂梁上,待测振动信号通过支架和悬臂梁将振动作用传至光纤光栅F-P腔,引起腔长周期性变化,从而改变光纤光栅F-P腔的反射光谱特性,通过解调输出光信号的振荡频率和峰值,即可实现对振动信号频率和幅值的测量。利用压电陶瓷模拟的低频振动信号进行了实验验证,测量结果与理论分析相吻合。该传感器测量灵敏度高,特别适用于微弱振动信号的测量。     

磁光光纤Bragg光栅中圆偏振光的非线性传输特性

提出了磁光光纤Bragg光栅的理论模型,给出了圆偏振光在磁光光纤光栅中传播的非线性耦合模方程. 研究表明,在磁光光纤Bragg光栅中,光栅引起正反传播方向的导波光发生耦合,法拉第效应引起磁圆双折射效应,而非线性效应则将左旋和右旋圆偏振光耦合在一起,它们的共同作用可使双稳态状态发生反转、非线性光控光开关阈值功率降低. 与传统光纤光栅相比,利用左旋和右旋磁圆偏振光之间的交叉相位调制实现的脉冲整形具有磁光偏置可调特性,为基于磁光光纤光栅的动态灵活全光3R再生器的研制提供了理论基础. 关键词： 磁光光纤Bragg光栅 圆偏振光 脉冲整形     

All-optical dynamic grating generation based on Brillouin scattering in polarization-maintaining fiber

We report a novel kind of all-optical dynamic grating based on Brillouin scattering in a polarization maintaining fiber (PMF). A moving acoustic grating is generated by stimulated Brillouin scattering between writing beams in one polarization and used to reflect an orthogonally polarized reading beam at different wavelengths. The center wavelength of the grating is controllable by detuning the writing beams, and the 3 dB bandwidth of approximately 80 MHz is observed with the tunable reflectance of up to 4% in a 30 m PMF.     

Tunable multi-wavelength fiber laser based on a polarization-maintaining erbium-doped fiber and a polarization controller

A stable and tunable multi-wavelength fiber laser with a polarization-maintaining erbium-doped fiber (PM-EDF) and a polarization controller (PC) is proposed and demonstrated. A homemade PM-EDF incorporated in the ring cavity is used as the gain medium. Simultaneous multi-wavelength oscillation is achieved at room temperature. The theory of the PM-EDF and PC to suppress the wavelength competition is described in detail. The 3 dB bandwidth is less than 0.01 nm. The power fluctuation and wavelength shift are measured to be less than 0.5 dB and 0.05 nm over 32 min. The wavelength tuning between single-, double-, triple-, and four-wavelength is realized.     

Polarization-maintaining fiber loop with double optical length and its application to fiber optic gyroscope

A novel polarization maintaining fiber (PMF) loop is proposed and used for an interferometric fiber optic gyroscope (FOG). By splicing a conventional PMF loop with two pigtailed polarization beam splitters, polarized light can be guided to propagate along the slow and fast axes of the PMF in sequence to double its effective optical length in the loop. In particular, the resultant optical length in the combined loop is partially self-compensated for some external disturbances, such as transverse strain. Primary experiments on the FOG using the proposed loop demonstrate that the average static bias deviation between-40 and +60 °C is less than 0.050 deg./h, and the average bias variation under conventional random vibration test is less than 0.10 deg./h.     

Virtual long-period gratings

A theoretical prediction of a new fiber grating structure is presented. This new device is achieved when a high-birefringence fiber is heavily twisted. It behaves like a long-period grating, but its spectral response can be controlled with the input state of polarization of the light. Since there is no permanent index change, but the index change is instead a product of the polarization evolution along the fiber, this device is called a virtual long-period grating.     

Polarization and Color Separator Using Binary Phase Grating with Subwavelength Period

A data projector using three liquid crystal display panels has a complex optical system. The illuminating optics separate the beam from a light source into three primary colors and separate those into opposite polarizations using multi-layer films and prisms. A reflection grating with the period of subwavelength has high diffraction efficiency for p polarized light and high regularly reflectance for s polarized light. The diffraction angle of a grating largely depends on the wavelength, because a diffractive optical element (DOE) has large chromatic dispersion. The grating with the period of subwavelength can separate the unpolarized light into polarization components effectively using its polarization dependency and can separate white light into color components using its chromatic dispersion simultaneously. The grating makes the optical system simpler and smaller than those with conventional devices. In this paper the efficiency of polarization separation for the grating is calculated by a rigorous analytical method. Next, the condition for color separation is calculated by Snell#x0027;s law, and an optical system using a grating that performs polarization and color separation is proposed. Experimental results of the DOE fabricated are well matched with those of this simulation.     

Simple system for evaluating retardation of liquid crystal cells using grating type liquid crystal polarization splitters

We propose a unique optical system for measuring the retardation of birefringent films using a pair of liquid crystal (LC) gratings; that is, the examined birefringent films are inserted between two LC gratings. Because the LC grating functions as a polarization beam splitter for circularly polarized light, the proposed system is optically equivalent to the measurement system using a pair of two circular polarizers. First, the polarization splitting performance of the LC grating is discussed. It is found that a sufficiently high voltage (such that the retardation is less than a half wavelength) has to be applied for the almost pure circularly polarized diffracted light. Next, the measurement of the retardation of a homogeneous LC cell as an examined birefringent film was demonstrated using the proposed method. The proposed method is revealed to have the same measurement performance as that of the conventional method using a pair of linear polarizers and has an advantage that there is no need for the optic axis of the test birefringent specimen to be set at a specific angle.     

Dynamic strain monitoring by wavelength locking between two fiber Bragg gratings fiber sensing system

We demonstrated a fiber sensing system using the method of wavelength locking of two identical fibers Bragg gratings (FBG) to interrogate the wavelength shift by directly measuring the intensity of the reflection from the sensing Bragg grating. The light source of the fiber sensing system is an EDFA fiber ring laser pumped by a 980 nm laser diode and a narrow bandwidth fiber Bragg grating for the filter of the ring laser resonator. The wavelength shift is converted to the intensity deviation of the reflection from the sensing FBG under strain variation, and is able to achieve real-time sensing of the dynamic strain sensing in civil engineering. The characteristics and key factors to maintain stability of the dynamic strain sensing system are discussed.     

一种基于光纤光栅F-P腔的低频振动传感器

A sensor solution for weak vibration based on Fiber Bragg Grating Fabry-Perot (F-P) cavity is designed and experimentally demonstrated, in which a laser with single-frequency is used as the light source. The F-P cavity is affixed to the cantilever structure of even distribution of strain along the axis and the pair of fiber Bragg gratings as the cavity reflectors is placed freely. The vibration spreading to fiber grating F-P cavity through the cantilever beam vibration, causes changes in cavity length, thus changing the reflective light intensity of fiber grating F-P cavity. Theoretical Analysis indicates that, the amplitudes and frequencies of vibration can be measured by demodulating the peaks and frequencies of the signal. The experimental results of measuring artificial vibration simulated with PZT agree with the theory well. This sensor has high measuring accuracy and can be used for detecting weak vibration.     

Fabrication of helical long-period fiber gratings by use of a CO2 laser

We present a method of helical long-period fiber grating (H-LPFG) fabrication by use of a CO2 laser for use as an optical torque sensor. A conventional optical fiber grating has periodic vertical index changes along its fiber axis, but a H-LPFG has a screw-type index modulation. The helical index modulation is obtained with the asymmetric index change caused by a single-side laser beam exposure. The H-LPFG shows peak shifts with codirectional or contradirectional torsion to the helix. Also, the polarization-dependent loss is measured to be relatively small compared with that of a conventional long-period fiber grating.     

Polarization conversions of diffractive wave plates based on orthogonal circular-polarization holography

A polarization holographic grating, which integrates the functions of a grating and a wave plate and is called a diffractive wave plate, is recorded by two beams(left and right circularly polarized) of a 532 nm laser in an azo polymer with a liquid-crystal structure. The polarization conversion characteristics of the diffractive wave plates are investigated with a detecting light of 650 nm by metering the polarization state of first-order diffracted light.It is confirmed that the diffractive wave plates convert the incident linear polarization into circular polarization for a linearly polarized probe laser and reverse the sense of rotation of the circular polarization when the detecting light is circularly polarized light.     

基于超材料的中波红外宽带偏振转换研究

基于硅纳米块阵列和亚波长金属光栅,硅纳米块长轴与金属光栅夹角为45°,本文设计了一种高效、宽带偏振转换结构.模拟计算表明该结构实现了线偏振光90°旋转,在3.4—4.5μm波段偏振转换率大于60%,在3—5μm光谱范围内的转换对比率大于10~4.由于该结构光学性能优异,制备难度低,可以应用于光传输控制.     

Unidirectional transmission realized by two nonparallel gratings made of isotropic media

We realize a unidirectional transmission by cascading two nonparallel gratings (NPGs) made of isotropic, lossless, and linear media. For a pair of orthogonal linear polarizations, one of the gratings is designed as a polarizer, which is a reflector for one polarization and a transmitter for the other; another grating is designed as a polarization converter, which converts most of one polarized incident wave into another polarized transmitted wave. It is demonstrated by numerical calculation that more than 85% of the incident light energy can be transmitted with less than 1% transmission in the opposite direction for linearly polarized light at normal incidence, and the relative bandwidth of the unidirectional transmission is nearly 9%. The maximum transmission contrast ratio between the two directions is 62 dB. Unlike one-way diffraction grating, the transmitted light of the NPGs is collinear with the incident light, but their polarizations are orthogonal.     

光纤Bragg光栅应变测量中啁啾特性的研究

用光纤Bragg光栅进行应变（静态、动态）测量时，由于光栅轴向各部分受到的应变不同，因而产生布喇格中心波长漂移量发生变化.实际测量中往往忽略此扰动对光纤光栅反射谱中心波长的影响，则必然带来测量误差.采用耦合模理论，分析并研究了Bragg光栅受轴向线性应变、高次应变和非线性周期应变波等情况下的啁啾特性.根据各自啁啾特性的不同，给出了对光纤光栅反射谱中心的影响，以及测量各种应变时的测量条件和范围.     

Linearly polarized fiber laser using a point-by-point Bragg grating in a single-polarization photonic bandgap fiber

We present a narrow-linewidth, linearly polarized neodymium-doped fiber laser that incorporates a point-by-point Bragg grating inscribed into the core of a single-polarization all-solid photonic bandgap fiber. The Bragg grating was written within a single-polarization wavelength band of the fiber; thus, the Bragg reflection was polarized. This all-fiber laser produced 7.2 W, linearly polarized output with 25 pm FWHM and 19.6 dB polarization extinction ratio.