Fabrication of low OH loss holey fibers with varying air hole sizes and their optical properties

We experimentally investigate a flexible fabrication technique for low OH and transmission losses holey fibers with a Ge-doped core and air holes in a silica cladding region. Versatile holey fibers of different size, pitch, and shape of air holes were achieved by controlling the temperature and heating time of the holey fiber preform. In addition, we suppress the OH loss of less than ∼0.323 dB/km at 1383 nm. After fabricating holey fibers, we measure their optical properties including cut-off wavelength, mode field diameter, splicing loss, dispersion, bending loss, and polarization dependent loss based on the size of air holes. The total transmission loss was measured to be ∼0.226 dB/km at 1550 nm by improving the fabrication process. After fabricating optical patch cord based on holey fibers, we measured the long-term stability of the fabricated holey fiber by using the temperature cycling technique for 24 and obtained low power fluctuation of 0.2 dB. We achieve the high quality holey fiber with a low bending loss of ∼0.04 dB/turn under a bending radius of 2.5 mm at 1550 nm. We also obtain a tunable band rejection filter with a number of bending turns.     

Birefringent photonic crystal fibers with zero polarimetric sensitivity to temperature

We designed, fabricated, and characterized birefringent holey fibers with zero polarimetric sensitivity to temperature. The sensitivity measurements were carried out in a wide spectral range of 0.68–1.55 μm in fibers with different hole and pitch values and with birefringence induced by a pair of large holes adjacent to the core. Our results show that zero sensitivity to temperature can be obtained at certain wavelengths for the bare fibers with properly adjusted geometrical parameters. Moreover, the spectral measurements of the sensitivity to temperature are in good agreement with the modeling results for all the investigated fibers.     

多孔微结构光纤中飞秒激光脉冲超连续谱的产生

报道了利用800nm飞秒激光脉冲在多孔微结构光纤中产生超连续谱展宽的现象，连续谱展宽范围为440—890nm.基于标量波近似理论对微结构光纤包层的有效折射率和基模的有效面积以及光纤的色散特性进行了计算，发现微结构光纤具有特殊的控制色散和波导特性的能力，对超连续谱展宽的机理进行了初步解释.本文的理论分析和实验结果有较好的一致性，认为即使包层由无序填充气线组成的多孔微结构光纤也可以出现超连续谱展宽效应. 关键词： 多孔微结构光纤 超连续谱 有效折射率 色散     

Photonic-crystal fibers with a photonic band gap tunable within the range of 930–1030 nm

The physical principles of photonic-crystal fibers with a photonic band gap tunable in the visible and near-IR spectral ranges are demonstrated. Direct numerical integration of the Maxwell equations with the use of the finite-difference time-domain technique reveals the possibility of creating holey fibers with a photonic-crystal cladding whose photonic band gap lies within the frequency range characteristic of widespread solid-state femtosecond lasers. The fabrication of holey fibers with a pitch of the two-dimensional periodic structure of the cladding less than 500 nm allowed us to experimentally observe a photonic band gap in transmission spectra of holey fibers tunable within the range of 930–1030 nm. This photonic band gap is satisfactorily described within the framework of the proposed numerical approach based on the finite-difference time-domain method.     

Comparative study of large-mode holey and conventional fibers

Little information exists regarding how large-mode holey fibers compare, in practical terms, with their conventional counterparts. We present what is to our knowledge the first experimental study of mode area and bend loss for a range of large-mode holey and conventional fibers. It is demonstrated here that large-mode holey fibers exhibit mode areas and bending losses that are comparable to those of conventional fibers at 1.55mu . However, the novel wavelength dependence of the numerical aperture in a holey fiber offers a significant advantage for broadband and short-wavelength applications in which single-mode operation is required.     

Applicability of classical optical fiber theories to holey fibers

We discuss the applicability of well-established classical optical fiber theories to holey fibers. By appropriately defining the V parameter, we can easily estimate the fundamental properties of holey fibers, such as effective index, group-velocity dispersion, mode field diameter, beam divergence, and splice loss, through simple empirical expressions without the need for heavy numerical computations. We confirm the validity of the V parameter defined here by comparing the calculated results with the earlier experimental and numerical results.     

Holey fibers with random cladding distributions

We provide what is to our knowledge the first direct confirmation that light can be guided in a holey fiber with randomly distributed air holes in the cladding. We also show that many of the features previously attributed to periodic holey fibers, in particular, single-mode guidance at all wavelengths, can also be obtained with random holey fibers. We provide insight into exactly how sensitive a holey fiber's optical properties are to the details of the cladding profile.     

Optimization of core size in erbium doped holey fiber amplifiers

Holey fibers (HFs) can be used as amplifier in optical communication systems. These new fiber structures have flexibility to change the fiber parameters such as refractive index of guided mode, air filling factor (AFF), V number, group velocity dispersion (GVD) and numerical aperture, only by the change of the hole size and air-hole spacing. In this paper we will use improved fully vectorial effective index method (IFEIM) to analyze the erbium doped holey fiber amplifier (EDHFA) with hexagonal unit cell. The range that core size can change in any air-hole spacing will determine and the growth of core size in the amplifier character such as maximum gain and optimum length will study. By determination of single mode region the effect of pump power and dopant concentration growth, on the amplifier parameter will define.     

Opposite-parity orthonormal function expansion for efficient full-vectorial modeling of holey optical fibers

An improved full-vectorial method exploiting the opposite-parity property of eigenmodes based on orthonormal-functions expansion is proposed to solve the wave equation for holey optical fibers. By use of the parity property of eigenmodes in symmetric structures, the number of orthonormal function integrals involved in the calculation is reduced, and the computation efficiency is greatly enhanced. The coupling between the two transverse field components is considered, and both dominant and minor field components can be calculated for the accurate modeling of fiber modes. This method is useful for efficiently modeling holey fibers, especially those with large air holes, in which the coupling effect that is due to refractive-index discontinuities is strong.     

Generation of broadband femtosecond visible pulses in dispersion-micromanaged holey fibers

Submillimeter-scale dispersion micromanagement (DMM) is used to generate coherent and stable femtosecond visible pulses in holey fibers as short as 10 mm. The longitudinal variation of the phase-matching conditions for Cerenkov radiation and four-wave mixing explains the results well. We have converted up to 20% of the total input energy to a low-noise solitary wave with a bandwidth up to 50 nm in the range 385-625 nm by using holey fibers with various DMM designs.     

Graded index profiles and loss-induced single-mode characteristics in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with petal-shape holey structure

The 850-nm oxide-confined vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with petal-shape holey structures are presented.An area-weighted average refractive index model is given to analyse their effective index profiles,and the graded index distribution in the holey region is demonstrated.The index step between the optical aperture and the holey region is obtained which is related merely to the etching depth.Four types of holey vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with different parameters are fabricated as well as the conventional oxide-confined vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser.Compared with the conventional oxide-confined vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser without etched holes,the holey vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser possesses an improved beam quality due to its graded index distribution,but has a lower output power,higher threshold current and lower slope efficiency.With the hole number increased,the holey vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser can realize the single-mode operation throughout the entire current range,and reduces the beam divergence further.The loss mechanism is used to explain the single-mode characteristic,and the reduced beam divergence is attributed to the shallow etching.High coupling efficiency of 86% to a multi-mode fibre is achieved for the single-mode device in the experiment.     

Simultaneous independent measurement of strain and temperature based on long-period fiber gratings inscribed in holey fibers depending on air-hole size

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a simple and flexible scheme for the simultaneous measurement of strain and temperature using long-period fiber gratings (LPFGs) based on versatile holey fibers (HFs) with different air-hole sizes. The strongly resonant LPFGs (as much as approximately 24 dB) can be successfully achieved. The LPFGs inscribed in the HFs have similar temperature sensitivities regardless of air-hole size because of the same material composition. The strain sensitivities of the LPFGs, however, are different, since holey fibers have different cross-sectional areas depending on the air-hole size. The strain sensitivities of the HF-based LPFGs are enhanced by a factor larger than 2 as the air-hole size increases.     

Analysis of optical characteristics of holey photonic crystal devices with the extended coupled-mode formalism

Presented here is a new approach for analysis of the so-called holey photonic crystals—a class of electro-optical components, in which periodicity of air holes in dielectric media is used for confinement of light. This class includes several kinds of microstructured fibers, semiconductor lasers etc. Accurate evaluation of optical characteristics of those devices is usually a complicated problem due to the large dimensions and the fine structure of their refractive index distribution. Furthermore, usually, only numerical solutions for this class of optical components are available. The overwhelming majority of the physical models, suitable for analysis of holey photonic devices, proceed from the “natural” assumption: the devices are considered as arrays of air holes, surrounded by dielectric material. In this work we propose another model. Namely, we treat them as arrays of dielectric spots (waveguides), embedded in the air (cladding material). This model allows utilization of the extended coupled-mode theory (a relatively new approach designed for analysis of infinite arrays of coupled waveguides and previously considered inapplicable to holey optical components) for calculations of the latter. In this sense, we present a new method for analysis of holey photonic crystals. On the one hand, our method allows analytical evaluation of some optical characteristics of holey optical components (such as the number of photonic bands and bandwidth). On the other hand, accurate numerical computation of the photonic band structure of the holey photonic devices, incorporating a large number of holes, can be done with this technique on a timescale of several minutes.     

Propagation characteristics of a segmented cladding fiber

We propose a novel optical fiber design that consists of a uniform core and a segmented cladding formed by alternate regions of high and low refractive indices in the azimuthal direction. The structure is analyzed by use of the radial effective-index method, and the propagation characteristics of the structure are studied. The fiber has a highly dispersive cladding and shows characteristics similar to those of photonic-crystal fibers and holey fibers. The novel fiber offers the possibility of single-mode operation over a wide range of wavelengths with a large core diameter.     

Multiport N x N multimode air-clad holey fiber coupler for high-power combiner and splitter

We report 2 x 2 and 4 x 4 multimode air-clad holey fiber couplers fabricated by a novel fusion and tapering technique. The devices showed excellent port-to-port coupling uniformity over a wide spectral range of 800-1650 nm. The 4 x 4 coupler showed a low insertion loss of 9.9 dB and excess loss of 3.9 dB at 1310 nm. Because of its unique air cladding and the high numerical aperture of the holey fiber structure, the device showed strong potential in high-power applications.     

Furnace chemical vapor deposition bismuth-doped silica-core holey fiber

A bismuth-doped-pure-silica holey fiber is fabricated using a fiber preform made by the furnace chemical vapor deposition method. The spectroscopic properties of the fiber are studied, and laser action at λ=1450 nm with an efficiency of 12% is demonstrated.     

Analysis of erbium doped holey fiber using fundamental space filling mode

Erbium-doped holey fiber with hexagonal lattice was modeled by using effective index method. In order to calculate the equivalent step index of the periodic structure of the cladding holey optical fiber, all-vectorial fundamental space filling mode approach was utilized. By using EH11 mode, we have numerically solved the rate equations of a three-level pumping scheme for a fiber laser. The obtained results have shown a good agreement with the other experimental results, recently. The results have predicted amplifiers with gain efficiencies as high as 10 dB/mW.     

Higher-order core mode resonances in a mechanically induced long-period holey fiber grating

We present the spectral analysis of higher-order core mode resonances in a long period holey fiber grating induced mechanically in an asymmetric holey fiber. Calculations based on a fast-Fourier transform mode solver shows that the mode resonances obtained experimentally correspond to the odd- and even-LP_1,1 core modes. Additionally, we analyze the twist and polarization response of these mode resonances in the long period holey fiber grating. The results obtained in this work are of great importance in the design of new all-fiber optical devices that involve couplings of higher order core modes in asymmetric holey fibers.     

Applications of the finite difference mode solution method to photonic crystal structures

The finite difference waveguide mode solution method, which has been popularly employed in the study of waveguide modes on various optical and dielectric waveguides, is utilized to calculate the modal characteristics of photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) and planar photonic crystal waveguides and the band diagrams of two-dimensional photonic crystals. Vector guided modes on both PCFs based on the total internal reflection guiding mechanism ('holey fibers') and those resulting from photonic band gap effect are accurately computed, with their effective indexes and field distributions compared with other methods. Calculated dispersion of a single-core holey fiber and coupled-power behavior of a two-core holey fiber are found to agree with measured results. For applications to band diagram calculation and planar photonic crystal waveguide analysis, the finite difference scheme is modified simply by imposing suitable periodic boundary condition. Numerical results for air-column crystals and dielectric-rod crystals are both found to agree well with calculations using other methods.     

Generation of multiwatt, broadband continua in holey fibers

We demonstrate that 2-W average-fpower 310-nm-wide continua can be generated in holey fibers by use of a novel 6-W pump source at 770 nm. The pump source is demonstrated by use of the 64% efficient quasi-phase-matched second-harmonic generation of a seeded 10-W erbium fiber amplifier in periodically poled KTP. Nonlinear contributions to generation of high-power continua in holey fibers are identified and analyzed.