Novel Optical Delay Line for Optical Coherence Tomography System

A novel all-fiber optical delay line for an advanced optical coherence tomography (OCT) system is proposed. Using the distributed reflectance characteristic of a chirped fiber Bragg grating (CFBG), the optical delay can be obtained without leaving the fiber that forms the system. The proposed delay line consists of a pair of identical CFBGs. The gratings are cascaded in reverse order to cancel the inherent wavelength dependency of CFBGs. Tunable optical delay is obtained by applying small strain on one of the CFBGs through an attached piezo actuator. The small displacement induced by the piezo actuator is amplified by a factor of up to 100 due to the distributed reflectance characteristic of the CFBGs. This principle and characteristics of the proposed optical delay line are analyzed in detail.     

Cross-phase modulation in long-haul systems with chirped fiber Bragg gratings-based dispersion compensators

The cross-phase modulation (XPM) effect in fiber links with dispersion compensated by chirped fiber Bragg gratings (CFBGs) is analyzed here for the first time. A continuous-wave (CW) signal, referred to as a probe, is used to investigate the impact of XPM on communication systems. The result shows that the XPM in systems using CFBGs as dispersion compensators is greatly suppressed, compared with that of systems using dispersion compensated fiber (DCF). The difference of the dispersion management between the system using DCF and that using CFBGs is demonstrated, too.     

Tunable All-Optical Microwave Filters Based on Fiber Loop and Chirped Fiber Bragg Gratings

All-optical microwave filters are important parts of fiber-optic microwave/millimeter wave processing systems. In this paper, two novel passive tunable all-optical microwave filters based on fiber loop and chirped fiber Bragg gratings (CFBGs) are demonstrated, where the frequency response of the both filters can be continuously tuned by adjusting the wavelength of the input light. The required free spectral range (FSR) of the filters can be obtained by carefully controlling the length of fiber loop and the positions of the CFBGs in the fiber loop. Experimental results prove the feasibility of the proposed filtering structures.     

Phase ripple correction: theory and application

Spectral phase ripple associated with novel dispersive devices can distort broadband optical signals. We present a digital postprocessing algorithm to correct for this distortion by exploiting the static deterministic nature of the ripple. This algorithm is demonstrated with empirical data for several systems employing chirped fiber Bragg gratings (CFBGs). We employ this technique in a photonic time-stretch system incorporating CFBGs, improving the signal fidelity by 9 dB. Simulations and experiments show that this algorithm, which can be reduced to a simple interpolation and matrix multiplication, also mitigates additive noise. We see that the act of distortion correction yields signal fidelity superior to that of an ideal dispersive element.     

Optimisation of superimposed chirped fibre Bragg gratings for the generation of ultra-high speed optical pulse bursts

Compact superstructure fibre Bragg gratings for the generation of ultra-high speed optical pulse bursts are reported. The gratings are equivalent in response to multi-pass superimposed chirped fibre Bragg gratings (SI-CFBGs), but an arbitrary sequence of consecutive gratings can be replicated in a single fabrication step using a simple trigonometric amplitude-phase function. SI-CFBGs are fabricated in photosensitive optical fibre and the time-resolved reflection of a 10 GHz picosecond pulse train is measured via frequency-resolved optical gating and optical sub-harmonic sampling detection techniques. The experimental results are compared to the theoretically simulated grating response and good agreement is found.     

Fast and accurate group delay ripple measurement technique for ultralong chirped fiber Bragg gratings

A simple and very precise group delay ripple (GDR) measurement technique for linearly chirped fiber Bragg gratings (CFBGs) is proposed. It is based on real-time optical Fourier transformation of an ultrashort pulse directly induced by the CFBG dispersion. We have experimentally demonstrated highly accurate characterization of the GDR profile of a commercial 10-m-long CFBG with a dispersion of +2000 ps/nm, having achieved a remarkably small standard deviation in our measurements of about 4 ps over a bandwidth of 28 nm. The proposed method has the unique potential to provide real-time GDR monitoring (in the MHz range) by use of commercially available high-speed sampling electronics.     

Study of the behaviour of the fibre Bragg grating fabricated with cladding mode suppression fibre

One effective method for suppression of coupling from guided optical modes into cladding modes in an optical fibre Bragg grating is to use cladding mode suppression fibre. In this specially engineered fibre, the grating is written into the core and the inner cladding, both of which are photosensitive. A theory is presented in this paper to analyse the spectral characteristics of this kind of gratings. A fibre Bragg grating was experimentally fabricated with this kind of photosensitive fibre (PS-RMS-50 from StockerYale). It is shown both theoretically and experimentally that such gratings exhibit strong suppression of the coupling between core mode and cladding mode. The experimental result is in good agreement with the theoretical analysis.     

Analysis method for apodised grating structures

A modified method of lines (MoL) technique is presented for calculating the reflection characteristies of apodised fibre gratings. To demonstrate the technique, reflection spectra of fibre gratings with triangular and diamond apodisation profiles were calculated showing significant side-lobe suppression. MoL can accurately calculate not only average power but also field and phase distribution across reflected waves. It is shown that the phase of the reflected light is maximally affected at the edge of the grating stopband.     

用相位掩模法制作光纤光栅的技术

准分子激光照射相位掩模后,在近场形成周期的条纹分布,利用近场光强对光敏光纤进行曝光,可以在纤芯中写人光栅。对光纤光栅折射率分布进行合理假设,运用耦合模理论计算了光纤光栅的反射率,对其反射率与相关参数的关系进行了讨论,并且分析了用相位掩模技术制造光纤光栅的影响因素,得出要获得窄带宽高反射率光栅需有适当的折射率调制和大的光纤光栅长度的结论。另外还导出了掩模板后表面的近场光强分布和光纤光栅的周期公式。     

Use of fibre gratings for bit skew compensation in all optical bit parallel WDM systems

We demonstrate transmission of two wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) bit parallel channels over 100 km of standard single mode fibre link using direct-modulated laser diodes at 10 Gbit/s channel. Step-chirped fibre gratings are used to simultaneously compensate to bit skew and dispersion. Bit skew of approximately 2.5 ns due to the fibre dispersion is completely compensated. Our work show shows that the step-chirped fibre grating technique can eliminate the bit skew for bit parallel WDM systems operating at Gbit rate over hundreds of kilometres of fibre link.     

Analysis method for apodised grating structures

A modified method of lines (MoL) technique is presented for calculating the reflection characteristics of apodised fibre gratings. To demonstrate the technique, reflection spectra of fibre gratings with triangular and diamond apodisation profiles were calculated showing significant side-lobe suppression. MoL can accurately calculate not only average power but also field and phase distribution across reflected waves. It is shown that the phase of the reflected light is maximally affected at the edge of the grating stop-band.     

Fabrication of high quality chirped fiber Bragg grating by establishing strain gradient

To fabricate chirped fiber Bragg grating (CFBG) with high reflectivity and accurately controlled chirp profile with low cost, we develop the CFBG fabrication technique based on strain gradient: fabricating CFBG using fabricated fiber Bragg grating (FBG) by establishing strain gradient along the length of grating. We theoretically analyze the form of such CFBGs, and study the characteristics of gratings using piecewise-uniform approach. It is shown that increasing UV-induced index change or the length of the grating or both are the efficient ways to obtain high quality CFBG with high reflectivity and good reflection spectrum. The dispersion of this grating is decided by and varies inversely with the slope of the strain gradient along the length of the grating, not decided by UV-induced index change or by the length of grating. One can control the dispersion and the chirp profile by adjusting the slope of the strain gradient. Based on the theoretical analysis, we have fabricated CFBG whose reflectivity is maintained at 100% in a large range of strain gradients.     

Continuously wavelength-spacing-tunable and idler-output multiwavelength fiber optical parametric oscillator

We demonstrate a continuously wavelength-spacing-tunable and high-power multiwavelength fiber optical parametric oscillator based on the multiwavelength idler-output technique. The laser cavity for multiwavelength idler outputs is constructed by a pumped highly-nonlinear dispersion-shifted fiber as parametric gain medium, two highly-reflective chirped fiber Bragg gratings (CFBGs) and a superimposed CFBG as comb-like filter. At a pump power of 1.1 W, the idler output of 10 wavelengths around 1.56 μm is achieved with a wavelength spacing of 0.39 nm. The wavelength spacing can be continuously tuned from 0.39 to 1.0 nm by utilizing a cantilever beam-based chirp tuning method to change the FSR of the superimposed CFBG. Our experimental results show that the designed multiwavelength idler-output scheme can significantly increase the multiwavelength output power with a total output power of 98 mW and each idler-channel power of 16.3 mW.     

Temperature or strain induced adjustable-chirp characteristics of uniform fibre grating with tapered metal coating

Temperature and strain characteristics of uniform fibre grating with tapered metal coatings have been analysed theoretically, by which adjustable chirp characteristics of such gratings are shown. Electroplating is adopted to fabricate such gratings, and the tapered metal coating is obtained by gradually drawing the fibre grating out of the solution during the process of electroplating. The gradually changing cross-sectional area of the metal coating is calculated by a newly suggested numerical method. By combining the theoretical and numerical simulation analyses, the gratings' characteristics are given at various temperatures and strains. The results obtained using such a method are also testified by experiments.     

Development of tilted fibre Bragg gratings using highly coherent 255 nm radiation

This paper reports the study on development of tilted fibre Bragg gratings using highly coherent 255 nm radiation, obtained from the second harmonic generation (SHG) of copper vapour laser (CVL). The transmission and reflection spectra of the tilted fibre Bragg gratings (TFBG) were studied for the tilt angles of 0° (normal FBG), 1°, 3° and 4° between the fibre axis and the interference fringe plane. It was observed that as the angle of fibre axis and phase mask increased, the main Bragg peak shifted towards the higher wavelength and transmission dip decreased. The transmission dip of the cladding mode first increased and then decreased after reaching a maximum with the increase in the tilt angle.     

Fabrication of Long-Period Fibre Gratings Using 800 nm Femtosecond Laser Pulses

Long-period fibre gratings inside standard single-mode optical communication fibres are successfully fabricated with infrared femtosecond laser pulses. The refractive index perturbations are well confined within the fibre core by choosing the proper laser focusing parameters and translation speed of the fibre during the direct laser writing process. With the self-focusing effect considered and at a constant average irradiation dose of 1.62 × 10^3 J/（cm^2μm）, the threshold intensity for fabricating long-period gratings with infrared femtosecond laser pulses is determined to be 5.13 × 10^13 W/cm2.     

Fibre gratings and devices for sensors and lasers

Although mainstream grating writing, more often than not using single photon excitation of germanosilicate based defects with CW 244 nm light, remains the key technology for complex devices it is now being complemented by a whole host of processes which can enhance and tailor the properties of both conventional and not‐so‐conventional fibre Bragg gratings. Further, processes for writing of gratings in non‐germanosilicate fibres have also continued to develop and include multi‐photon excitation directly into the band edge of the glass. It is now possible to custom tailor a gratings property based on the application and the nature of production as well as custom tailor the grating writing process to suit the type of fibre and application. Examples and suggestions where these can benefit sensors and lasers are outlined.     

Polarization noise in single mode fibres and its reduction by depolarizers

Fluctuations of the state of polarization in single mode fibres due to environmental conditions such as vibrations cause intensity noise if elements with polarization-dependent loss are inserted into the fibre system. Diffraction gratings, which are key elements for wavelength division multiplex-single mode fibre systems, exhibit a strong polarization dependence of loss. The polarization noise, originating from the combination of single mode fibres and diffraction gratings, is investigated experimentally. A drastic deterioration of the signal/noise ratio is observed, which is even more severe than modal noise with multimode fibres. Depolarizing devices, which reduce this kind of noise sufficiently, are presented and examined.     

Temperature-Insensitive Fibre-Optic Acceleration Sensor Based on Intensity-Referenced Fibre Bragg Gratings

A temperature-insensitive acceleration sensor using two fibre Bragg gratings （FBGs）, based on reflection spectrum intensity modulation and optical power detection, is proposed and demonstrated. A cantilever beam is used to generate acceleration-induced axial strain along two sensing gratings, which are glued on the two opposite surfaces of the beam. Because the two gratings operate within the linear spectral range of a light source, formed by a thermally-tunable extrinsic Fabry-Perot optical filter, the intensity difference of the two reflections from the gratings is proportional to the acceleration applied. This eliminates the need for sophisticated wavelength interrogation of the gratings, and it also endows the sensor with immunity to temperature variation. Compared with a commercial micromachined accelerometer, the sensor is proven to be capable of accurately detecting acceleration.