A theoretical investigation of soliton induced supercontinuum generation in liquid core photonic crystal fiber and dual core optical fiber

The supercontinuum generation (SCG) in liquid core photonic crystal fiber (LCPCF) with versatile nonlinear response and the spectral broadening in dual core optical fiber is presented. The analysis is presented in two phase, phase I deals with the SCG in LCPCF with the effect of saturable nonlinearity and re-orientational nonlinearity. We identify and discuss the generic nature of the saturable nonlinearity and reorientational nonlinearity in the SCG, using suitable model. For the physical explanation, modulational instability and soliton fission techniques is implemented to investigate the impact of saturable nonlinear response and slow nonlinear response, respectively. It is observed that the saturable nonlinearity inevitably suppresses the MI and the subsequent SCG. On the other hand, the re-orientational nonlinearity contributes to the slow nonlinear response in addition to the conventional fast response due to the electronic contribution. The phase II features the exclusive investigation of the spectral broadening in the dual core optical fiber.     

Modeling photonic crystal fiber for efficient soliton pulse propagation at 850 nm

We numerically investigate the dynamics of soliton propagation at 850 nm in chloroform filled liquid core photonic crystal fiber (LCPCF) by using both finite element method (FEM) and split step Fourier method (SSFM). We propose a novel chloroform filled PCF structure that operates as a single mode at 850 nm featuring an enhanced dispersion and nonlinearity for efficient soliton propagation with low input pulse energy and low loss over small distances. We adopt the projection operator method (POM) to derive the pulse parameter equations which clearly describes the impact of fourth order dispersion on the pulse propagation in the proposed PCF. To analyse the quality of the pulse, we perform the stability analysis of pulse propagation numerically and compare our results of the newly designed chloroform filled PCF with that of standard silica PCF. From the stability analysis, we infer that the soliton pulse propagation in modified chloroform filled PCF is highly stable against the perturbation.     

Slow light and saturable absorption

Quantitative analysis of slow light experiments utilising coherent population oscillation (CPO) in a range of saturably absorbing media, including ruby and alexandrite, Er³⁺:Y₂SiO₅, bacteriorhodopsin, semiconductor quantum devices and erbium-doped optical fibres, shows that the observations may be more simply interpreted as saturable absorption phenomena. A basic two-level model of a saturable absorber displays all the effects normally associated with slow light, namely phase shift and modulation gain of the transmitted signal, hole burning in the modulation frequency spectrum and power broadening of the spectral hole, each arising from the finite response time of the non-linear absorption. Only where hole-burning in the optical spectrum is observed (using independent pump and probe beams), or pulse delays exceeding the limits set by saturable absorption are obtained, can reasonable confidence be placed in the observation of slow light in such experiments. Superluminal (“fast light”) phenomena in media with reverse saturable absorption (RSA) may be similarly explained. The article is published in the original.     

Characterization of stimulated Brillouin scattering in small core microstructured chalcogenide fiber

We report a full modal characterization of the stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) properties in small core As₂Se₃-based chalcogenide photonic crystal fibers (PCFs). Our results include the calculation of Brillouin gain spectrum (BGS), Brillouin gain coefficient (g_B), Brillouin frequency shift (BFS) by taking into account the contribution of the higher-order acoustic modes. We show that for a highly nonlinear PCF having a 2-μm hole-to-hole pitch and a 0.5-μm hole diameter, a Brillouin gain coefficient g_B = 5.91 10^? 9 m.W^? 1 is obtained around the acoustic frequency of 8.19 GHz, which is more than 340 times larger than that of the same PCF made with silica glass. We demonstrate that the BGS of small core PCF structures show strong SBS and multipeaked behavior, with a presence of a second peak, when decreasing the core diameter which is to be attributed to the higher-order acoustic modes. We designed small core PCFs with tailored Brillouin response for a wide range of applications.     

Adaptive split-step Fourier method for simulating ultrashort laser pulse propagation in photonic crystal fibres

In this paper, the generalized nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger equation (GNLSE) is solved by an adaptive split-step Fourier method (ASSFM). It is found that ASSFM must be used to solve GNLSE to ensure precision when the soliton self-frequency shift is remarkable and the photonic crystal fibre (PCF) parameters vary with the frequency considerably. The precision of numerical simulation by using ASSFM is higher than that by using split-step Fourier method in the process of laser pulse propagation in PCFs due to the fact that the variation of fibre parameters with the peak frequency in the pulse spectrum can be taken into account fully.     

Octave-spanning supercontinuum generation of vortices in an As2S3 ring photonic crystal fiber

We propose As(2)S(3) ring photonic crystal fiber (PCF) for supercontinuum generation of optical vortex modes. Due to the large material index contrast between As(2)S(3) and air holes in the designed ring PCF, there is a two-orders-of-magnitude improvement of the difference between the effective refractive indices of different vortex modes compared with regular ring fiber. The design freedom of PCFs enables a low dispersion (<60 ps/nm/km variation in total) over a 522 nm optical bandwidth. Moreover, the vortex mode has a large nonlinear coefficient of 11.7/W/m at 1550 nm with a small confinement loss of <0.03 dB/m up to 2000 nm. An octave-spanning supercontinuum spectrum of the vortex mode is generated from 1196 to 2418 nm at -20 dB by launching a 120 fs pulse with a 60 W peak power at 1710 nm into a 1 cm long As(2)S(3) ring PCF.     

双零色散光子晶体光纤中超连续谱的产生及控制

 通过数值模拟飞秒脉冲在具有双零色散波长的光子晶体光纤中的传输过程,详细分析了超连续谱的产生和控制机制.结果表明：中心波长处于反常色散区的泵浦脉冲在高阶非线性和高阶色散等作用的调制下,将演化为基孤子和正常色散区的两个色散波|该色散波进而经与之相位匹配的基孤子相干加强而使频谱展宽形成超连续谱,同时两个色散波上出现了干涉引起的振荡现象.进一步对比三种结构的光子晶体光纤中超连续谱的特点,定量分析了两色散波对超连续谱的限制作用,阐述了结构参量对超连续谱的影响.基于上述结论,结合对色散波的中心波长与光子晶体光纤的色散曲线、结构参量之间关系的分析,提出了设计光子晶体光纤的结构来控制超连续谱的方法.作为例证,通过优化光子晶体光纤结构理论上实现了频谱分量覆盖可见光区的平坦超连续谱.     

Applications of Nonlinear Effects in Highly Nonlinear Photonic Crystal Fiber to Optical Communications

Unique dispersion characteristics and enhanced nonlinearity make the small-core photonic crystal fiber (PCF) an ideal candidate for nonlinear optical devices to telecommunication applications. Some technical reasons behind great research interest of highly nonlinear PCFs in optical communication components are reviewed. Nonlinear effects in highly nonlinear PCFs and their research progress are presented. Several typical applications including WDM sources, optical amplification, optical switching, wavelength conversion, optical regeneration and all-optical demultiplexing etc are introduced, together with state-of-the art performances. Some new possible applications and future prospects are discussed.     

Photopolymer microtips for efficient light coupling between single-mode fibers and photonic crystal fibers

A novel method for light coupling between single-mode fibers (SMFs) and small-core photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) is demonstrated. The method is based on growing photopolymer microtips directly on the end faces of SMFs. The shape and size of the tips can be controlled by adjusting the laser power and the exposure time for polymerization to match the mode field to the small-core PCFs. A 5 dB improvement in coupling efficiency between a SMF and a commercial small-core, highly nonlinear PCF is experimentally demonstrated. This compact and efficient butt-coupling method is particularly suitable for PCF gas sensor applications.     

Generation of a mid-infrared broadband polarized supercontinuum in As2Se3 photonic crystal fibers

A simplified structure of birefringent chalcogenide As 2 Se 3 photonic crystal fiber（PCF） is designed.Properties of birefringence,polarization extinction ratio,chromatic dispersion,nonlinear coefficient,and transmission are studied by using the multipole method,the finite-difference beam propagation method,and the adaptive split-step Fourier method.Considering that the zero dispersion wavelength of our proposed fiber is about 4 μm,we have analysed the mechanism of spectral broadening in PCFs with different pitches in detail,with femtosecond pulses at a wavelength of 4 μm as the pump pulses.Especially,mid-infrared broadband polarized supercontinuums are obtained in a 3-cm PCF with an optimal pitch of 2 μm.Their spectral width at 20 dB reaches up to 12 μm.In the birefringent PCF,we find that the supercontinuum generation changes with the pump alignment angle.Research results show that no coupling between eigenpolarization modes are observed at the maximum average power（i.e.,37 mW）,which indicates that the polarization state is well maintained.     

Experimental Study of a Pulsed Ytterbium-Doped Fibre Laser with Fast and Slow Saturable Absorbers in a Linear Cavity

We present a linear-cavity stretched-pulse fibre laser and by semiconductor saturable-absorber mirrors. A with mode locking by a nonlinear polarization rotation Q-switched mode-locking cw train and a mode-locking pulse train are obtained in the experiment. We investigate the effects of the equivalent fast saturable absorber and the slow saturable absorbers in experiment. It is found that neither the nonlinear polarization evolution effect nor a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror is enough to produce the stable cw mode-locking pulses in this experiment. A nonlinear polarization evolution effect controls the cavity loss to literally carve the pulses; semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors provide the self-restarting and maintain the stability of the modelocking operation.     

All-photonic-crystal-fiber coherent black-light source

Photonic-crystal fibers (PCFs) are widely recognized as efficient sources of white-light supercontinuum. Here, we show that a combination of an ultrashort-pulse ytterbium PCF laser with a highly nonlinear PCF enables all-fiber generation of ultrashort pulses of coherent UV radiation in the black-light spectral region with all the key processes, such as lasing, amplification, and conversion of the amplified PCF-laser output to the UV range, taking place in specifically designed fiber components.     

Dynamic control of mode field diameter and effective area by germanium doping of hexagonal photonic crystal fibers

We demonstrate dynamic control of the effective area (A _eff) of photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) in the range of 18.1–8.22 μm² and the mode field diameter in the range of 4.78–3.42 μm. This control was realized by altering their structural properties and varying the germanium (Ge) doping rate, which changed the refractive index difference (Δn _Ge) between 1.0 and 3.0% relative to the refractive index of the silica cladding. This was achieved by adjusting the Ge doping rate in the core and changing the radius (d _core) of the doped region, i.e., by changing the equivalent refractive index, using numerical calculations. Numerical results were verified by comparison with experimental results for a fabricated Gedoped PCF obtained by far-field scanning based on the ITU-T Petermann II definition. The proposed approach will simultaneously decrease A_eff and achieves high light confinement and high nonlinearity in PCFs. It enables architectonics/controllability of highly nonlinear PCFs with passive optical devices in photonic networks and life science applications.     

Supercontinuum generation in seven-core photonic crystal fiber pumped by a broadband picosecond pulsed fiber amplifier

We report a supercontinuum source generated in seven-core photonic crystal fibers(PCFs) pumped by a self-made all-fiber picosecond pulsed broadband fiber amplifier. The amplifier's output average power is 60 W at 1150 nm with spectral width of 260 nm, and its repetition rate is 8.47 MHz with pulse width of 221 ps. With two different lengths of seven-core PCF, different output powers and spectra are obtained. When a 10 m long seven-core PCF is chosen, the output supercontinuum covers the wavelength range from 620 nm to 1700 nm, with the output power of 11.7 W. With only 2 m long seven-core PCF used in the same experiment, the wavelength of the supercontinuum spans from 680 nm to 1700 nm,with the output power of 20.4 W. The results show that the pulse width is 385 ps in the 10 m long seven-core PCF and 255 ps in the 2 m long one, respectively, due to the normal dispersion of the PCF.     

Tunable photonic crystal fiber coupler based on a side-polishing technique

A tunable photonic crystal fiber (PCF) coupler, which couples part of the optical power in one PCF with that in another PCF, has been made by side polishing. We fabricated the PCF coupler by mating two side-polished PCFs. We achieved evanescent field coupling between the core modes of the two PCFs by using side polishing to bring the cores close to each other. By adjusting the mating angle between the two side-polished PCFs we obtained as much as 90% tunability in the coupling ratio. The spectrum of the coupling ratio was almost flat, with small ripples, over a 400-nm wavelength range.     

Generation of an ultrabroadband supercontinuum in the mid-infrared region using dispersion-engineered GeAsSe photonic crystal fiber

An ultrabroadband mid-infrared (MIR) region supercontinuum (SC) is demonstrated numerically through dispersion-engineered traditional chalcogenide (ChG) photonic crystal fiber (PCF). By varying structural parameters pitch (hole to hole spacing) and air-hole diameter to pitch ratio, a number of 10-mm-long hexagonal PCFs made employing GeAsSe ChG glass as a core and air-holes of hexagonal lattice running through their lengths as a cladding are optimized to predict an efficient mid-infrared region SC spectral emission by pumping them using a tunable pump source between 2.9 and 3.3 µm. Simulations are carried out using an ultrashort pump pulse of 100-fs duration with a low pulse peak powers of between 3 and 4 kW into the optimized designs. It is found through numerical analysis that efficient SC spectral broadening with flattened output can be obtained by increasing the PCF pitch rather than increasing the PCF cladding containing air-hole diameter although a larger nonlinear coefficient could be obtained through increasing air-hole diameter of an optimized design. Simulation results show that the SC spectra can be broadened up to 12.2 µm for a certain design with a peak power of 3 kW. Using a peak power of 4 kW, it is possible to obtain SC spectral broadening beyond 14 µm with an optimized design spanning the wavelength range from 1.8 to 14 µm which covers the electromagnetic spectrum required for MIR molecular fingerprint region applications such as sensing and biological imaging.     

高相干度超连续谱产生的理论研究

超连续谱的相干性直接影响到很多光学测量器件的分辨率及准确性, 如何获得高相干度的超连续谱是当前非线性光学领域的研究热点之一. 本文首先分析超连续谱产生的机理, 认为调制不稳现象是降低超连续谱相干性的重要因素. 因此抑制调制不稳定性, 利用其他非线性效应(如自相位调制)是得到高相干性超连续谱的有效方法. 最后设计了一种全波段正常色散光子晶体光纤,仿真结果表明, 在脉宽400 fs无啁啾高斯脉冲抽运, 50 cm长该光子晶体光纤的条件下, 产生的超连续谱具有在相对功率大于-80 dB的全波段高度相干的特性.     

Multiwatt octave-spanning supercontinuum generation in multicore photonic-crystal fiber

High-power supercontinuum spanning over more than an octave was generated using a high power femtosecond fiber laser amplifier and a multicore nonlinear photonic crystal fiber (PCF). Long multicore PCFs (as long as 20 m in our experiments) are shown to enable supercontinuum generation in an isolated fundamental supermode, with the manifold of other PCF modes suppressed due to the strong evanescent fields coupling between the cores, providing a robust 5.4 W coherent supercontinuum output with a high spatial and spectral quality within the range of wavelengths from 500 to 1700 nm.     

Study of femtosecond soliton dynamics in photonic crystal fiber using the moment method

We investigate the dynamics of femtosecond solitons in photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) by including high-order dispersion terms until to sixth-order in the generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equation, in addition to the nonlinear effects of the self phase modulation, self steepening and Raman scattering. We calculate theoretically the pulse parameters using the moment method. In the case of the fundamental soliton, our computed equations are coupled and difficult to solve analytically. However, we use the finite difference method to calculate numerically pulse parameters using an initially hyperbolic secant pulse at 1550-nm with different peak powers along 10m-PCF. Our numerical results show that the nonlinear regimes allow obtaining pulse compressions and initial pulse amplitudes. Furthermore, we remark a pulse broadening, and weak shifts of the peak power positions and frequencies in the critical and dispersive regimes. The use of an initial chirp provides a better pulse compressions and especially for low input powers. Also, the initial positive chirp reduces the optimal compression position lengths, while the negative one increases them. Therefore, we conclude that our theoretical calculations and numerical simulation results show that the moment method associated with the finite differences method is effective for the study of femtosecond pulse dynamics in PCFs.     

Synthesis of dispersion-compensating triangular lattice index-guiding photonic crystal fibres using the directed tabu search method

In this paper, triangular lattice index-guiding photonic crystal fibres (PCFs) are synthesized to compensate the chromatic dispersion of a single mode fibre (SMF-28) for an 80 km optical link operating at 1.55 μm, by using a directed tabu search algorithm. Hole-to-hole distance, circular air-hole diameter, solid-core diameter, ring number and PCF length parameters are optimized for this purpose. Three synthesized PCFs with different physical parameters are compared in terms of their objective functions values, residual dispersions, compensation ratios and confinement losses.