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.     

A broadband ultra flattened chromatic dispersion microstructured fiber for optical communications

A double-cladding microstructured fiber (MF) is proposed in this paper. The inner cladding of this optical fiber is composed of elliptical air holes and silica. The dependence of dispersion on the diameter of the air holes, the pitch, and the axes of the elliptical holes is investigated numerically. The proposed fiber possesses an ultra flattened dispersion curve over a wide wavelength range, and its dispersion value is small. The effective mode area is approaching to 60 μm², and the confinement loss is as low as <0.025 dB/km at 1550 nm. While choosing suitable structure parameters, an ultra dispersion-flattened MF within a broadband from1000 nm to 1900 nm can be achieved. The dispersion fluctuation is 0.6-1.0 ps/(nm·km) in all S, C and L band.     

Long-period fiber-gratings produced by exposure with a low-pressure mercury lamp and their sensing characteristics

A new production method of long-period fiber-gratings using neither a laser nor a fine-positioning system was proposed. A low-pressure mercury lamp emitting 254 nm ultraviolet light was used as a light source. Hydrogen-loaded Ge-B co-doped fiber was exposed to the emission of the lamp through an amplitude mask. A coupling loss up to 23 dB was obtained for a grating period of 212 μm. The maximum coupling loss for a grating period of 460 μm was 18 dB. The growth rate of the refractive index change by mercury-lamp exposure was 1.3 × 10⁻⁴/h. The temperature and strain characteristics were measured and compared with those fabricated by excimer-laser exposure. The temperature and strain sensitivities of long-period gratings with a period of 212 μm were higher than those of 460 μm. The temperature and strain sensitivities of those by mercury-lamp exposure were almost equal to those by excimer-laser exposure of the same fiber. The sensitivities of those by excimer-laser exposure of non-loaded fiber were higher than those of hydrogen-loaded fiber by mercury-lamp or excimer-laser exposures except for the temperature sensitivity of a grating period of 460 μm.     

A fiber-optic voltage sensor based on macrobending structure

We propose and demonstrate an optical voltage sensing scheme based on a macrobending optical fiber in a ratiometric power measurement system. This novel approach to sensing has not been utilized before and has the advantage that the sensor involves simple fabrication compared to existing fiber-optic voltage sensors. To prove the feasibility of such a fiber-optic sensor, a sensor for a voltage range from 0∼100 V is demonstrated, with a resolution of 0.5 V. The sensor is robust, linear, and shows a competitive measurement resolution. The sensor can be easily scaled to suit other voltage levels and be effectively combined with optical current sensors.     

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.     

Hybrid configuration of Sagnac and modal interferometer with high extinction ratio

A hybrid configuration of Sagnac and modal interferometer is proposed to obtain high extinction ratio (ER). Firstly, a modal interferometer based on core-offset splicing of three sections of single mode fiber is obtained through manually controlling the fusion parameters. Then the modal interferometer is inscribed into a Sagnac loop, which can obtain a higher ER by carefully adjusting the polarization controller (PC). There is about 10 dB extinction ratio higher than the modal interferometer. The higher the extinction ratio is, the sharper the bottom of waveform will be, so the wavelength shifts can be measured more accurately when sensing temperature, pressure or other parameters. The measured sensitivity of temperature is 48.67 pm/°C in the band of 1550 nm. It also can be applied in strain measurement, vibration measurement and so on.     

The spectral sensitivity of long period gratings fabricated in elliptical core D-shaped optical fibre

Long period gratings (LPGs) were written into a D-shaped optical fibre that has an elliptical core with a W-shaped refractive index profile and the first detailed investigation of such LPGs is presented. The LPGs’ attenuation bands were found to be sensitive to the polarisation of the interrogating light with a spectral separation of about 15 nm between the two orthogonal polarisation states. A finite element method was successfully used to model many of the behavioural features of the LPGs. In addition, two spectrally overlapping attenuation bands corresponding to orthogonal polarisation states were observed; modelling successfully reproduced this spectral feature. The spectral sensitivity of both orthogonal states was experimentally measured with respect to temperature and bending. These LPG devices produced blue and red wavelength shifts depending upon the orientation of the bend with measured maximum sensitivities of −3.56 and +6.51 nm m, suggesting that this type of fibre LPG may be useful as a shape/bend orientation sensor with reduced errors associated with polarisation dependence. The use of neighbouring bands to discriminate between temperature and bending was also demonstrated, leading to an overall curvature error of ±0.14 m⁻¹ and an overall temperature error of ±0.3 °C with a maximum polarisation dependence error of ±8 × 10⁻² m⁻¹ for curvature and ±5 × 10⁻² °C for temperature.     

Multimode interference wavelength multi/demultiplexer for 1310 and 1550 nm operation based on BCB 4024-40 photodefinable polymer

A 1310 and 1550 nm coarse wavelength multi/demultiplexer based on benzocyclobutene (BCB 4024-40) polymer is demonstrated for the first time. The device is designed based on a combination of general interference and paired interference mechanisms of multimode interference (MMI). It is fabricated on BK7 glass substrate with a thin layer of SiO₂ as cover. A cost effective chemical etching technique is used in the fabrication process to take advantage of the photosensitive nature of the polymer. The device length was significantly reduced by adopting the restricted multimode interference scheme, lower beat length ratio and cascaded MMI couplers. The measured crosstalk at 1310 nm was 14.4 dB and at 1550 nm was 20.6 dB. The measured insertion loss is around 3.2-3.5 dB for both ports.     

32-channel arrayed waveguide grating multiplexer using low loss fluorinated polymer operating around 1550 nm

A 32 × 32 arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) multiplexer operating around the 1550 nm wavelength has been designed and fabricated using highly fluorinated polyethers. The propagation loss of the slab waveguide is about 0.3 dB/cm at 1550 nm wavelength. The channel spacing of the AWG multiplexer is 0.8 nm (100 GHz). The insertion loss of the multiplexer is 10.3-15.3 dB and the crosstalk is less than −20 dB.     

Design and fabrication of an intrinsically gain flattened Erbium doped fiber amplifier

We report design and subsequent fabrication of an intrinsically gain flattened Erbium doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) based on a highly asymmetrical and concentric dual-core fiber, inner core of which was only partially doped. Phase-resonant optical coupling between the two cores was so tailored through optimization of its refractive index profile parameters that the longer wavelengths within the C-band experience relatively higher amplification compared to the shorter wavelengths thereby reducing the difference in the well-known tilt in the gains between the shorter and longer wavelength regions. The fabricated EDFA exhibited a median gain ?28 dB (gain excursion below ±2.2 dB within the C-band) when 16 simultaneous standard signal channels were launched by keeping the I/P level for each at −20 dBm/channel. Such EDFAs should be attractive for deployment in metro networks, where economics is a premium, because it would cut down the cost on gain flattening filter head.     

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.     

Integrated waveguide splitter fabricated by Cs-Na ion-exchange

This paper reports a optical power splitter fabricated by Cs⁺-Na⁺ ion-exchange in KF3 glass. The propagation loss of the waveguide is about 0.25 dB/cm derived from measured contrast ratio and 3 dB bandwidth.     

Simultaneous measurement of refractive index and temperature using dual-period grapefruit microstructured fiber grating

By cascading the long period fiber grating (LPFG) and fiber Bragg grating (FBG) in grapefruit microstructured fiber, a novel dual-period fiber grating sensor is proposed. The refractive index and temperature are measured simultaneously by using the different sensitivity of FBG and LPFG. The relationship between dual-period fiber grating transmission spectrum and refractive index, resonant wavelengths and temperature are analyzed theoretically, respectively. The simulation results show that the accuracy of the sensor in measuring refractive index and temperature is estimated to be 2319.6 nm/RIU in a range from 1.33 to 1.36 and 0.017 nm/°C from 0 °C to 100 °C, respectively. Thus, the sensor has high refractive index sensitivity, and can provide the theoretical foundation for the optical fiber biosensor.     

Design and Fabrication of an Er-Doped Silica Optical Fiber with Six Photosensitive Subcores

A type of multi-core Er-doped photosensitive silica optical fiber （MC-EDPF） is proposed and fabricated, in which a high consistency Er-doped core is surrounded by six high consistency Ge-doped cores. The multi-core design can overcome the difficulties encountered in the design and fabrication of single-core EDPFs through a modified chemical vapor deposition method combined with solution doping technology, and there is a conflict between high consistency Er doping and high consistency Ce doping. The absorption of MC-EDPFs achieved 15.876dB/m at 1550mm and lOdB/m at 98Ohm. The refleetivity of the fiber Bragg gratings （FBCs） written directly on the MC-EDPFs is as much as 96.84%.     

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.     

Radiation response behaviour of Al codoped germano-silicate SM fiber at high radiation dose

Radiation response behaviour of Ge + Al doped SM fiber fabricated by the solution doping process has been studied at room temperature with respect to 1310 nm transmission wavelength under three different dose rates of 200, 400 and 600 Rad/min to compare with that of standard Er doped as well as Ge doped SM fibers. Their radiation sensitivity has been observed with variation of dose rates, transmission wavelength along with their recovery nature. Radiation response behaviour of Al doped SM fiber is found to be slightly non-linear in nature with very low dose rate dependency. No saturation level was found upto 13 Krad cumulative dose. Thermobleaching as well as photobleaching phenomena have also been studied. Gamma irradiated Al doped preform shows an absorption peak at around 300 nm due to generation of Al (E′) defect center and gets annihilated after thermobleaching process. Gamma irradiated Al doped SM fiber shows prominent photobleaching effect on their optical attenuation with respect to the 850 nm transmission wavelength. From ESR study resonance signals for Al³⁺ related radiation-induced defect centers are not clearly observed in this study. A very weak hyperfine pattern has been observed for gamma irradiated Al doped preform sample. The high radiation sensitivity along with linear response behaviour, low recovery and almost dose rate independence behaviour of the material system of Ge + Al codoped SM core optical fiber under gamma radiation shows their potential for application as fiber optic radiation sensor in comparison to the universal standard erbium doped SM fiber.     

Multi-Edge-Written Long-Period Fibre Gratings with Low PDL by Using High-Frequency CO2 Laser Pulses

A novel long-period fibre grating （LPFG） with low polarization-dependent loss （PDL） is fabricated by using a multi-edge exposure method with high frequency CO2 laser pulses. The experimental results show that the PDL of a triple-edge-written LPFG with a peak amplitude of-16.5 dB can be as low as 0.22 dB. These hovel LPFGs can find important applications in optical communication and sensing.     

Extrinsic surface scattering and intrinsic absorption loss of vinyl based hybrid organic–inorganic materials for optical waveguides applications

Hybrid photosensitive materials were prepared by using vinyltriethoxysilane (VTES), tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and tetrabutoxytitanate (TTBu) precursors through sol–gel technique. The materials are intended for optical telecommunication applications. Thus, high optical transmissions at the second and third optical telecommunication windows are essential. Extrinsic surface scattering due to surface roughness and intrinsic absorption due to aliphatic CH and OH groups are always ascribable to the optical power attenuations at aforementioned optical telecommunication windows. Optical waveguide based on hybrid sol–gel materials were fabricated, characterized and analyzed in order to investigate the extrinsic and intrinsic sources of attenuation and their contributions. The fabricated samples were characterized for propagation loss, surface condition, and Fourier transform IR (FTIR) absorption spectra. Propagation loss were measured by means of cut-back method as 1.6 and 6.9 dB/cm at 1310 and 1550 nm wavelengths, respectively. Surface scattering loss was modeled based on measured rms roughness of 0.724 nm and turned out to contribute less than 0.01% of the total propagation loss. FTIR absorption spectra show the persistent existence of aliphatic CH and OH groups within the final hybrid sol–gel materials.     

Bend-optimized optical fiber with S+C+L bands for FTTH applications

A multi-clad waveguide, which provide more bandwidth for WDM with S+C+L bands, is illustrated in this study. The bending loss is optimized for the FTTH applications. The fiber is manufactured by PCVD process; the test results are identical with the theoretic calculation. This fiber has nearly flat dispersion from 1460 nm to 1625 nm. The MFD at 1310 nm and 1550 nm are 8.2 and 9.4 μm, respectively. Bending loss is less than 0.1 dB/Turn at a bending radius of 7.5 mm. With low-water-peak manufacture technologies, the fiber is suitable for FTTH applications.     

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.