Asymmetrical optical fibre coupler for laser side pumping: optimization of its parameters and application in laser

The paper presents an optical fibre coupler with side coupling. The coupler is based on an active double clad fibre and a pumping fibre with an extended core. The optimization of the coupler’s parameters and the initial simulations results are presented. The coupler was used in a ring laser setup and multiwavelength operation with up to 25 wavelengths was achieved.     

Ultra-wide bandwidth wavelength selective couplers based on the all solid multi-core Ge-doped fibre

A novel wavelength selective coupler based on the all solid nine-core Ge-doped fibre has been proposed. The wavelength selective coupler is based on the phenomenon of a multi-core coupling. All the cores are made of Ge-doped silica and the index of central core is larger than the outer core. At the fixed fibre length, the different wavelength can be selected. The performances of coupling and propagation characteristics have been numerically investigated by using a full beam propagation method (BPM). Simulation results show that the all solid nine-core Ge-doped fibre can achieve simultaneous shorter coupler length and wideband filtering characteristics. The 0.763 mm and 0.745 mm wavelength selective coupler are proposed to achieve different wavelength division and the bandwidth is up to the 400 nm, and 300 nm, respectively.     

On the radiation mode effects in integrated optical directional couplers

In this work we study the effect of radiation modes generated at the input of a directional coupler on its performance. We focus on the splitting ratio and the coupling length of the coupler. The Beam Propagation Method (BPM) is used for numerical simulation. Numerical results are compared to analytical expectations of the coupled mode theory (CMT). We show that, when the coupler is excited by a single mode fibre, ideal 3 dB couplers could be obtained by a simple adjustment of the exciting fibre. On the other hand, when the coupler has input and output bend structures, its coupling length as well as its splitting ratio are affected by the geometry of this bend.     

Four-wavelength DBR laser array with waveguide couplers fabricated using selective MOVPE growth

We have developed an integrated multiwavelength laser with waveguide couplers using a novel selective metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy (MOVPE) technique. The lasing wavelength was controlled by modulating the effective refractive index of distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) waveguides. Array lasing wavelengths were distributed from 1548.0 to 1553.5 nm with an average spacing of 1.8 nm. The propagation loss of the waveguide coupler was about 16 dB for inner ports and 20 dB for outer ports with a 6 dB splitting loss. Four-wavelength laser outputs were coupled into a single-mode fibre.     

The prism-taper coupler for the excitation of single modes in optical transmission fibres

A coupler is described which allows the excitation of pure single guided fibre modes with a single mode laser. The coupler uses a prism and precision taper fibre end to access any of the fibre modes. The conditions for obtaining excitation of single modes are discussed and the technique for producing the tapers is described. In the first tests, an excitation efficiency of approximately ?16 dB has been obtained.     

Single-mode fused coupler for undersea optical transmission systems

A single mode 3 dB fused coupler, to be used as a redundant laser combiner in the submerged repeater of an undersea optical fibre transmission system, is described. The fabrication and package design of the component for this high reliability application is discussed, and the results of a wide range of environmental tests are given.     

Determination of engineering strain distribution in a rotor blade with fibre Bragg grating array and a rotary optic coupler

Structural damage occurs in materials subjected to repeated or fluctuating stresses that must be minimized by design to increase fatigue life, and strains distributed in a blade need to be experimentally determined for evaluating stress levels. In order to measure local strains in a rotating blade, efficient signal transmission between a sensor installed on a blade and a stationary interrogator is significantly important. In this paper a strain-independent fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensor and a rotary optic coupler were used as means of compensating light intensity loss change arising from blade rotation. Working principles of a FBG sensor and a rotary optic coupler were detailed, and procedures for measuring local strains were also described. Eventually, strain distributions were obtained in terms of mean strain and strain amplitude. Measured strains were then directly compared with analytical ones. Experimental procedures and results offer an improved insight into a strain measurement technique for a rotating mechanical system.     

A high performance backscattering set-up using multimode light channels

The utilization of multimode ion-exchanged waveguides to form an optical directional coupler for multimode fibre backscattering measurements is discussed. The optical properties of the integrated branching element are described in detail. A very high directivity of 70 dB was obtained with this new device. The dynamic range in the backscattering measurement was 23 dB fibre one-way loss.     

Polarisation characteristics of a 12 fibre coupler under femtosecond pulsed and continuous wave illumination

We report on the experimental investigation carried out in the polarisation characteristics of femtosecond pulsed and continuous wave beams propagating through a 1×2 fibre coupler. It is demonstrated that the polarisation states of pulsed and continuous wave illumination over the broad wavelength range can be preserved in a conventional fused fibre coupler. Furthermore, the fibre coupler acts as a low-pass spectral filter in the visible wavelength range with a splitting ratio between 99.6/0.4 and 99.7/0.3. The result is of importance for fibre-optic second harmonic generation microscopy which requires the polarisation preservation to extract molecular organization of a sample.     

Tunable asymmetric fibre ring resonator

A fibre ring resonator with coupling via an asymmetric twin-core single-mode coupler with variable mismatch is analysed. It is found that by varying the mismatch in the coupler the resonance conditions of the ring are also changed. Suitable choices of device parameters allow the resonance to be tuned over a range of wavelenths by altering the coupler mismatch.     

Nonlinear eigenmodes of a three-core fibre coupler

For a nonlinear three-core fibre coupler an important subclass of solutions has been investigated analytically. These are the stationary solutions or nonlinear eigenmodes. Their stability is checked using an exact method as well as the linear perturbation method, and numerical tests.     

A Novel Design of Grating Couplers for Efficient Broadband Coupling between Silicon-on-Insulator Nanophotonic Waveguides and Fibres

A novel design of out-of-plane grating couplers is proposed for coupling between silicon-on-insulator nanophotonic waveguides and single-mode fibres. The coupler with the first-order diffraction coupling to the optical fibre is actually a second-order reflected grating with two times of period of the first-order grating. To enhance outcoupled power, a back hole is designed to form in the silicon substrate and a kind of metals is placed on the top acting as a reflection layer. The coupler is optimized using coupled-mode-based simulations, showing that the coupling efficiency to and from tapered optical fibre can be as high as 85% with 1dB bandwidth about 23 nm.     

Polar Interface Optical Phonon Modes and Fr(o*)hlich Electron-Phonon Interaction Hamiltonians in an Arbitrary Layer-Number Quantum Well System

By using determinant method as in our recent work, the IO phonon modes, the orthogonal relation forpolarization vector, electron-IO phonon Frohlich interaction Hamiltonian, the dispersion relation, and the electron-phonon coupling function in an arbitrary layer-number quantum well system have been derived and investigated withinthe framework of dielectric continuum approximation. Numerical calculation on seven-layer Alx Ga1-x As/GaAs systemshave been performed. Via the numerical results in this work and previous works, the general characters of the IO phononmodes in an n-layer coupling quantum well system were concluded and summarized. This work can be regarded as ageneralization of previous works on IO phonon modes in some fixed layer-number quantum well systems, and it providesa uniform method to investigate the effects of IO phonons on the multi-layer coupling quantum well systems.     

Optical fiber coupler array for multi-point sound field measurements

A pressure-sensitive device using an optical fiber coupler is proposed, and is integrated into an array system to measure sound field distributions. The optical coupling between two optical fibers is modulated by the applied sound field with the use of a membrane mechanically connected to the coupler. In the array system, a large number of the optical coupler sensors are connected two-dimensionally, and sound pressure at each sensor can be read out by switching the input light sources in turn. A prototype of the basic array system based on this principle was made, and its performance was demonstrated. The signal discrimination between each element was confirmed in a 2x2 array; then, using a four-element linear array, we demonstrated the steering of beam based on the phased array method.     

A performance study of a nonlinear all Fibre Michelson interferometer,add-drop multiplexer,based in Fibre Bragg grating mirrors

In this paper we report a numerical investigation of an all-fibre narrowband transmission filter in the arrangement of two identical photo-imprinted Bragg gratings symmetrically located in each arm of a Michelson Interferometer, simulating, thus, an add-drop filter. The transmission characteristics and in addition the crosstalk level and extinction ratio, were studied. The coupled mode theory and the fourth-order Runge-Kutta method were applied, respectively, to solve the coupled differential equations. This is the first study, as far as we now, of the performance of this device considering the nonlinearity of the fibre coupler and linearity of the fibre Bragg gratings. The device is presenting a highly nonlinear behavior dependence in dephasing and pump power.     

A 1 × 7 fibre coupler with Kerr nonlinearity

We study for the first time the evolution of the guided field in a 1×7 fibre coupler with a third-order nonlinearity. An analytical solution of the nonlinear coupled-mode equations is presented in terms of the Weierstrass function. In particular, we found that contrary to the equal power distribution in the linear limit, a cross-state appeared if the coupler was initially excited in the central core and a certain input power was chosen. Finally, we analyse the far-field pattern of the coupler output.     

Optical Coherence Tomography Implemented by Photonic Crystal Fiber

We report a photonic crystal fiber (PCF)-based optical coherence tomography (OCT) system, in which conventional single-mode fiber for the transmission line and the fiber coupler for the beam splitter/combiner are replaced with PCF and PCF coupler. The PCF coupler fabricated using the fused biconical tapered (FBT) method showed a nearly flat coupling ratio over a broad spectral bandwidth of 400 nm, which provided an axial resolution of 3-μm for OCT imaging. With a white-light source, the 8-μm thick air gap between two stacked cover glasses was measured, and with a conventional superluminecent diode (SLD) source, the in vitro images of rat eye and Misgurnus mizolepis skin were successfully obtained. The PCF and PCF coupler might enable a white-light as the source for the cost effective and high-resolution OCT system.     

A Fiber Optic Wavelength Modulation Sensor Based on Tantalum Pentoxide Coatings for Absolute Temperature Measurements

A fiber optic low-coherence sensor based on the spectral shift of tantalum pentoxide thin films for absolute temperature sensing up to 650°C is described. A tantalum pentoxide single layer was deposited directly onto the cleaved end-face of a single mode optical fibre and was illuminated with an super luminescence diode (SLD) source through a directional coupler. Interference fringes of the film on reflection were obtained within the optical bandwidth of the SLD using an optical spectrum analyser. The spectral shift versus temperature rise showed no turning points and the output was unambiguous, linear, monotonic and gave about 0.016 nm wavelength shift in the spectrum per°C. A semi-empirical calibration procedure based on the refractive index (n) and thickness (l) of the tantalum pentoxide film for absolute thermometric measurements is described.     

Fibre-optic double-pass confocal microscopy

This paper reports on the construction and characterisation of a novel double-pass confocal scanning microscope that uses a four-port fibre coupler. The new imaging system is self-aligned, compact, vibration-free, and purely coherent. Compared with fibre-optic transmission- and reflection-mode confocal systems, the fibre-optic double-pass confocal imaging system exhibits higher resolution.