Analysis of propagation characteristics for an octagonal photonic crystal fiber (O-PCF)

An octagonal photonic crystal fiber (O-PCF) structure with eight air-holes on the first ring is proposed based on a unit isosceles triangle. The propagation characteristics and cut-off behaviors of the O-PCF and the standard hexagonal PCF (H-PCF) are numerically investigated by combining the vector boundary method and the effective area method. The phase boundaries for cut-off, single-mode, and multi-mode operations between the O-PCF and H-PCF are calculated and compared. It is found that under the same pitch Λ and air filling fraction (AFF) of the air-holes the O-PCF has significantly wider wavelength range operating in single-mode region, more circular-like field distribution, and less confinement loss than the H-PCF.     

New nonlinear and dispersion flattened photonic crystal fiber with low confinement loss

A new nonlinear dispersion flattened photonic crystal fiber with low confinement loss is proposed. This fiber has threefold symmetry core. The doped region in the core and the big air-holes in the 1st ring can make high nonlinearity in the PCF. And the small air-holes in the 1st ring and the radial increasing diameters air-holes rings in cladding can be used to achieve the dispersion properties of the PCF. We can achieve the optimized optical properties by carefully selecting the PCFs structure parameters. A PCF with flattened dispersion is obtained. The dispersion is less than 0.8 ps/(nm km) and is larger than −0.7 ps/(nm km) from 1.515 μm to 1.622 μm. The nonlinear coefficient is about 12.6456 W⁻¹ km⁻¹, the fundamental mode area is about 10.2579 μm². The confinement loss is 0.30641 dB/km. This work may be useful for effective design and fabrication of dispersion flattened photonic crystal fibers with high nonlinearities.     

Transmission of return-to-zero pulses in an optical split-step system based on reflecting fiber gratings

A new variety of the “soliton management” in heterogeneous optical media is proposed. The system is composed as a periodic chain of nonlinear fibers with negligible intrinsic group-velocity dispersion (GVD), alternating with sections of unchirped fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) operating in the reflection regime. Losses due to incomplete reflection are compensated by linear amplifiers. The model may apply to fiber-optic telecommunication links with periodically installed FBG modules, and it may be used for the design of laser setups. By means of extended simulations, we identify small regions in the underlying parameter space where this model, featuring the periodic separation of the Kerr nonlinearity and FBG-induced GVD (hence the name of the “split-step” system), supports stable transmission of RZ (return-to-zero) pulses, i.e., quasi-solitons. The effect of nonzero fiber’s GVD on the stable transmission regime is considered too. Moderately unstable (partly usable) transmission regimes are found in larger regions of the parameter space; they may be of two different types, with the average nonlinearity either undercompensating or overcompensating the GVD. Interactions between the stable RZ pulses are also studied, leading to the identification of a minimum separation between them necessary for the suppression of interaction effects.     

A novel scheme for optical pulse multiplication using fiber coupler loop-connecting configuration

Connecting an input port and an output port of a single-mode fiber coupler to form a fiber-loop, and making the time delay of the fiber-loop odd multiple of the half-period of the input optical pulse stream, we can obtain a pulse stream with multiplying repetition rate at the other output port of the coupler. Utilizing three loop-connecting fiber couplers cascaded, a pulse stream with eight times the repetition rate is achieved. Supported by the 863 High Technology Program of China (No. 863-317-9602-03-2) and by the Thesis Foundation of Northern Jiaotong University.     

Antiresonant guiding microstructured optical fibers for sensing applications

A novel refractometric sensor utilizing unique spectral properties of antiresonant-guiding microstructured optical fibers is proposed. The sensor operation is based on the wavelength shift of the transmission spectrum in response to the refractive index change of a sample loaded in the air-holes of the microstructured optical fiber. Refractive index changes on the order of 0.1% can be detected using less than a nanoliter of a sample.     

Photonic crystal fiber with a flattened fundamental mode for the fiber lasers

The 1-hole-missing and 7-hole-missing photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) with flattened fundamental modes (FMs) are proposed by introducing a layer of up-doped silica into the core of the PCFs. The transverse mode competitions are compared between the 7-hole-missing PCF lasers with and without flattened-FMs. The numerical results show that the flattened-FM PCF lasers can support the single transverse mode operation, even for a large value of the ratio of air hole diameter to the spacing between holes (up to 0.53).     

Transverse Multimode Evolution in Non-Adiabatic Optical Micro/Nanofiber Tapers

The multimode evolution, optical losses and wavelength response of non-adiabatic micro/nano-fiber （MNF） tapers are numerically simulated using a three-dimensional finite-difference beam propagation method. For a non-adiabatic MNF taper, it is illustrated that optical losses vary with the transition region length and the optical wavelength. We explain how the complicated multimode evolutions result in the complicated optical loss and wavelength response properties, especially when the waist diameters are large enough to allow much higher-order modes. These results may offer valuable references for trapping and guiding cold atoms in atom optics and practical application of micro/nano-devices.     

A new solution of reducing polymer optical fiber losses

Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) is one of the most commonly used optical materials. However, the application of it in the area of optical communication is strongly limited by the intrinsic absorption loss of carbon-hydrogen stretching vibration. In this paper, we present a method to solve the problem by adopting the hollow-core fibers with cobweb cladding structure. The fibers use a single dielectric material and may solve the problem of structural support. Thus the feasibility of the “OmniGuide” fibers is improved, while a series of advantages of the “OmniGuide” hollow-core fiber are retained. It is promising that a fiber with low transmission loss, high bandwidth, large-core, and low costs can be designed and fabricated using PMMA. At the same time, a very broad range of the wavelengths (from visible to near infrared region, for instance, wavelengths at 0.65-1.12 μm, and even 1.30 μm, 1.54 μm and their neighbors) may be adopted for signal wavelength.     

Differential mode delay (DMD) in graded-index multimode fiber: effect of DMD on bandwidth tuned by restricted launch conditions

The bandwidth behavior of graded-index multimode fibers (GI-MMFs) for different launching conditions is investigated to understand and characterize the effect of differential mode delay. In order to reduce the launch-power distribution the near field of a single-mode fiber is used to produce a controlled restricted launch. The baseband response is measured by observing the broadening of a narrow input pulse (time-domain measurement). The paper verifies the degradation in bandwidth due to profile distortion by scanning the spot of the single-mode fiber with a transversal offset from the center of the test sample. In addition, the impact of the launch-power distribution tuned by different spot-size diameters is demonstrated. Measurements were taken on ‘older’ 50-μm and 62.5-μm GI-MMFs as well as on laser-performance-optimized fibers more recently developed. Received: 12 November 2001 / Final version: 26 June 2002 / Published online: 25 September 2002 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +49-781/205-242, E-mail: opto@fh-offenburg.de     

Measuring chromatic dispersion of optical fiber using time-of-flight and a tunable multi-wavelength semiconductor fiber laser

We have developed a tunable multi-wavelength semiconductor fiber laser (SFL) for chromatic dispersion measurements of optical fiber based on the time-of flight (TOF) or pulse-delay technique. The SFL incorporates a programmable high-birefringence fiber Sagnac loop to select the separation of the lasing wavelengths between 3.2 and 1.6 nm. The SFL emits 5 and 11 wavelengths for separations of 3.2 and 1.6 nm, respectively, all within the C-band and with an output power uniformity within 3.2 dB. Results from TOF measurements are compared with standard phase-shift techniques; the percent differences between the two methods are within ±1.34% for measurements on various lengths of standard single mode fiber.     

All-solid silica-based photonic crystal fibers

An index-guiding all-solid photonic crystal fiber (PCF) composed entirely of silica material is proposed in this paper. The core of this optical fiber is composed of pure silica, and the cladding consists of doped silica rod in the background of pure silica. The dependence of confinement loss on the diameter of the doped rods, the number of doped-rod rings, and the doping level is investigated numerically. In addition, the proposed fiber possesses a shorter cutoff wavelength as compared with the air/silica PCF, which is directly confirmed by the V parameter, and explained based on a scalar approximation method. Furthermore, the bending loss for the fiber is predicted. A low-loss single-mode all-solid silica-based PCF with a large-mode-area is possible by the appropriate selection of configuration parameters.     

Tapered microstructured fibers for efficient coupling to optical waveguides: a numerical study

We report the possibility of using tapered microstructured fibers to improve the coupling efficiency from a standard single-mode fiber to a photonic crystal waveguide. The tapered microstructured fiber allows for the reduction of the mode mismatch between the output of the standard fiber and the input of the waveguide while maintaining single-mode guidance, which results in an enhanced coupling efficiency. Numerical simulations are conducted in order to optimize the cross section of the microstructured fiber as well as the taper profile. An improvement of more than 4 dB is obtained compared to non-tapered fibers. For further improvement, an elliptical-core tapered microstructured fiber is analyzed. The effect of misalignment between the tapered microstructured fiber and the waveguide is also studied.     

Flat Supercontinuum Generation at 1550 nm in a Dispersion-Flattened Microstructure Fibre Using Picosecond Pulse

The generation of a flat supercontinuum of over 80nm in the 1550nm region by injecting 1.6ps 10 GHz repetition rate optical pulses into an 80-m-long dispersion-flattened microstructure fibre is demonstrated. The fibre has small normal dispersion with a variation smaller than 1.5 （ps·nm^-1·km^-1） between 1500 and 1650nm. The generated supercontinuum ranging from 1513 to 1591 nm has the flatness of ±1.5 dB and it is not so flat in the range of several nanometres around the pump wavelength 1552nm. Numerical simulation is also used to study the effect of optical loss, fibre parameters and pumping conditions on supercontinuum generation in the dispersion-flattened microstructure fibre, and can be used for further optimization to generate flat broad spectra.     

Side-pumped fiber laser

A neodymium-doped side-pumped double-clad fiber laser operating at 1.06 µm is described. We report here, what is, to our knowledge, the first exclusively repetitive side-pumping scheme with two monomode laser diodes. Side-pumping has been realized by prism-fiber couplers. A pump-light-loss analysis at the pump positions has been performed. An output power of 13.5 mW is obtained with both diode lasers. The highest slope efficiency of 66% with respect to absorbed pump power at 809 nm is achieved when pumping with only one diode.     

Single-design-parameter microstructured optical fiber for chromatic dispersion tailoring and evanescent field enhancement

A microstructured optical fiber with a single design parameter is proposed and demonstrated. In such a structure three thin, long glass webs join in the fiber center, forming its core. By changing the web thickness it is possible to tune the zero-dispersion wavelength from approximately 0.7 to >2.0 microm while keeping a tiny core area and single-mode guidance. Supercontinuum generation is shown in a silica fiber with a web thickness of 850 nm. The small core area and the massive hole area also make the structure very attractive for the sensing and study of fluids.     

Suppressing chromatic dispersion fluctuation for broadband optical parametric gain in highly nonlinear tellurite microstructured optical fibers

Optical Review - We investigate the effect of chromatic dispersion fluctuation on the performance of fiber optical parametric amplification (FOPA) using tellurite hybrid microstructured optical...     

Period-doubling of dispersion-managed solitons in an Erbium-doped fiber laser at around zero dispersion

Period-doubling of dispersion-managed solitons in an Erbium-doped fiber ring laser operating at the near zero net cavity group velocity dispersion region was experimentally observed. The generated dispersion-managed solitons of the laser are characterized by their near Gaussian spectral profiles and no sidebands. Numerical simulations verified our experimental observations and showed that the period-doubling could occur both in the positive and negative near zero net cavity group velocity dispersion regions, which suggests that the occurrence of the period-doubling is an intrinsic feature of the mode-locking fiber lasers and independent of the concrete mode-locked pulse profile.     

Tunable erbium doped fiber ring laser using fiber Bragg grating-assisted add-drop filter

A stable and low costless tunable erbium doped fiber ring laser using fiber Bragg grating-assisted add-drop filter is proposed and demonstrated. A stable laser output is obtained with a 4 nm tuning range. The power fluctuation, full-width at half maximum and SMSR are measured to be less than 0.50 dB, smaller than 0.015 nm and better than 55 dB in this tuning range.     

Coherent, polarization and temporal properties of self-frequency shifted solitons generated in polarization-maintaining microstructured fibre

Coherence of both self-frequency shifted solitons and short-wavelength non-soliton radiation generated in a micro-structure fibre was investigated experimentally for the first time. Their spectral, temporal and polarization characteristics were studied as well. We found the solitons generated in 30-cm-long fibre pumped with 50-fs pulses at 795 nm and 835 nm from Ti:Sapphire oscillator to be coherent, whereas degree of coherence of blue-shifted radiation was amounted to 0.25–0.57 depending on wavelength.     

Improved chromatic dispersion monitoring technique

We consider and investigate an improved chromatic dispersion monitoring method using two RF tones with an inserted dispersion offset. This improved technique can be used to monitor both the positive and negative accumulated dispersion caused by optical fibers as well as other optical components in optical networks. We experimentally demonstrate that the monitoring range of the improved technique can be greater than 1150 ps/nm and the monitoring sensitivity better than 0.064 dB/ps/nm by selecting appropriate RF frequencies and dispersion offsets. Our investigations reveal that the RF modulation index should be greater than 10% but less than 20% so as to acquire a large monitoring range with a small power penalty. We also examine the CD monitoring errors caused by polarization mode dispersion (PMD) and self-phase modulation, and show that the use of a dispersion offset can effectively reduce the PMD-induced monitoring errors.