高性能Ag/AgI红外空芯光纤的研究

采用液相化学镀膜法研制了内面镀有银膜和碘化银膜(Ag/AgI)的高性能空芯红外光纤.分析了绿色导航光和红外激光同时低损耗传输的光纤结构参量.长度1 m、内直径0.7 mm的Ag/AgI空芯光纤不仅在红外有低损耗传输特性,而且首次在波长530 nm处获得了7 dB/m的低传输损耗特性.满足可见光作为导航光的同轴传输要求.通过分析和改进实验工艺参量,有效降低Ag和AgI薄膜的表面粗糙度.给出了高性能Ag/AgI空芯光纤的介质镀膜的具体工艺参量.     

Multiwavelength laser light transmission of hollow optical fiber from the visible to the mid-infrared

We report on low-loss multiwavelength laser delivery of hollow optical fiber in a wide wavelength region, from the visible to the infrared. Improved methods of liquid-phase coating were used to fabricate the hollow fiber with inner films of a silver and a cyclic olefin polymer (COP) layer. The surface roughness of the silver layer was reduced dramatically by pretreatment on the inner glass surface with an SnCl2 solution. The COP layer roughness was also decreased by using an ambient atmosphere of tetrahydrofuran (THF) solvent during the COP layer formation. Owing to the smooth surfaces, hollow fiber with optimum COP film thickness for CO2 laser light simultaneously yields low losses for a Er:YAG laser and a red pilot beam. The power durability of CO2 and Er:YAG lasers, as well as the loss properties for the pilot beam, is demonstrated.     

内窥镜的红外激光传输用柔性空芯光纤的研制

通过理论计算确立了多功能介质-金属结构空芯光纤的结构参量,优化了液相镀膜法的有关条件,明确了具体制作参量。制作了以聚碳酸酯毛细管为基管的,高柔韧性的,可同时低损耗传输红外目标波长激光和可见导航光红外的空芯光纤。对光纤传输性能进行了测试。在2.94μm波长的Er∶YAG和0.63μm波长的红色半导体激光器的直线损耗分别为0.4 dB/m和3 dB/m。组装在医疗内窥镜中的柔性空芯光纤,在先端以0.9 cm半径135°角弯曲时,对Er∶YAG激光仍有近70%的传输效率;绿色导航光在内窥镜中的的损耗值为11 dB,绿色指示点在内窥镜的视窗中清晰可见。结果表明此种光纤在内窥镜的激光传输方面有重要的应用价值。     

一种高品质中空金属光波导

讨论了高品质中空金属光波导的工作原理及其制作工艺，制备了以金和银作为波导材料的中空波导管，并对空芯以及充入不同透明液体的液芯波导的透光特性进行了测试，结果表明：与中空介质波导相比，中空金属波导具有光传输损耗低，透过率对波导弯曲与失调不甚敏感等优点；而液芯金属波导的透光效率与透明材料的折射系数无关。文中描述了在特定波段内“中空光纤”的原理，并报道了Ｈｅ－Ｎｅ和ＣＯ２激光在中空金壁波导传输的实验结果。     

Investigation of the thickness of Ag, AgI films in the capillary for hollow waveguides

A metallic (Ag)–dielectric (AgI) hollow glass waveguide is a promising and flexible fiber for the delivery of high-power CO₂ laser radiation. The thickness of metallic (Ag) films and dielectric (AgI) films is a critical factor which greatly influences the attenuation of the waveguides. In this paper, metallic (Ag)–dielectric (AgI) films were successfully prepared in the capillary whose inner diameter is 0.53 mm, and firstly investigated with theoretical analysis and measured by means of AES and SEM. There is good agreement between theoretical thickness and experimental results, which confirms the validity of the theoretical analysis, which makes the estimate of the thickness of both the metallic and dielectric films possible with high accuracy prior to the preparation of hollow glass waveguides. The attenuation spectra of Ag/AgI hollow waveguides shows the loss increases with the thickness of Ag, AgI films and indicates that the Ag/AgI hollow waveguide is suitable for the transmission of IR radiation.     

Improved coating method for uniform polymer layer in infrared hollow fiber

An improved coating method was proposed in order to form a uniform polymer layer in the fabrication of cyclic olefin polymer-coated silver (COP/Ag) hollow fiber. A COP solution was flowed in a closed loop, in which the silver-coated tube was used as a part of the loop. Owing to the constant flowing speed of the COP solution and the airtight flowing environment, a COP layer was uniformly formed. The hollow fibers attain high performance and deliver multi-wavelength laser light from the infrared to the visible simultaneously. The method was successfully applied to the fabrication of practical hollow fibers with 2 m length for the near and mid-infrared lasers.     

Low loss smart hollow waveguides with new polymer coating material

A new kind of cyclic olefin polymer COP-E48R has been selected as the dielectric material for a silver hollow glass tube. Owing to its lower extinction coefficient at the wavelength of 10.6 μm, transmission losses for the CO₂ laser light has been reduced significantly in the COP-E48R-coated silver (COP-E48R/Ag) hollow glass waveguide. By properly selecting the film thickness of COP, Er:YAG and CO₂ laser light are shown to be transmitted with low loss simultaneously or independently. Delivery properties of red and green pilot beams were also evaluated.     

Mid-infrared fiber-coupled QCL-QEPAS sensor

An innovative spectroscopic system based on an external cavity quantum cascade laser (EC-QCL) coupled with a mid-infrared (mid-IR) fiber and quartz enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) is described. SF₆ has been selected as a target gas in demonstration of the system for trace gas sensing. Single mode laser delivery through the prongs of the quartz tuning fork has been obtained employing a hollow waveguide fiber with inner silver–silver iodine (Ag–AgI) coatings and internal core diameter of 300 μm. A detailed design and realization of the QCL fiber coupling and output collimator system allowed almost practically all (99.4 %) of the laser beam to be transmitted through the spectrophone module. The achieved sensitivity of the system is 50 parts per trillion in 1 s, corresponding to a record for QEPAS normalized noise-equivalent absorption of 2.7 × 10^?10 W cm^?1 Hz^?1/2.     

Use of hollow-core fibers to deliver nanosecond Nd:YAG laser pulses to form sparks in gases

We report what is to our knowledge the first delivery of nanosecond laser pulses through flexible fibers to produce optical sparks in atmospheric-pressure gases. Our work employs a Nd:YAG laser beam (1.064 microm) delivered through a cyclic olefin polymer-coated silver hollow fiber. We studied the beam properties at the fiber exit as a function of the fiber launch geometry. We found that for a low-angle launch (approximately 0.01 rad half-angle), the exit beam has relatively high optical intensity (approximately 2 GW/cm2) and low light divergence (approximately 0.01 rad half-angle) and allows downstream spark formation. The effect of fiber bending on the exit beam and on the ability to make sparks is also investigated.     

Hollow-fiber delivery of high-power pulsed Nd:YAG laser light

We propose hollow fibers for delivery of high-peak-power pulsed Nd:YAG laser light. Hollow fibers with an internal polymer layer were fabricated by a liquid-phase coating technique. We reduced the losses of the fibers in the near-infrared region by producing a silver film that was very smooth owing to use of an ultrasonic wave for mixing of the silver and the reducer solutions in the silver-plating process. The straight losses of the 1-m-long polymer-coated fibers were 0.3 dB for the 700-mum bore size and 0.1 dB for the 1000-mum bore fiber.     

产生纳米级暗中空光束的方法研究

用时域有限差分法，给出光纤头近场区电场强度模的空间分布.讨论了当光纤纤芯分别取不同尺寸时，对此空间光场强度的影响.要想得到较大范围的暗中空光束，必须增加光纤纤芯尺寸.并且，对光纤纤芯尺寸取一较大值和光纤中空区域尺寸取一较小值时的情况进行讨论，可得在光纤头附近可以出现与光纤中空区域尺寸大小相当的暗斑(10¹ nm量级).但是，暗中空光束中背景光较强.为此，将光纤的空心设计为金属. 发现此时中心暗斑的背景光明显减弱，在近场区域可获得较为理想的暗中空光束.如进一步缩小光纤中空区域尺寸，可以在光纤头附近获得暗斑更小甚至纳米量级的暗中空光束.为获得一种纳米量级的暗中空光束提供一种方法.     

Hollow polycarbonate fiber for Er:YAG laser light delivery

We developed hollow fibers with polycarbonate (PC) capillaries for use as a supporting tube. The PC capillaries were prepared by using a glass-drawing technique. Hollow PC fibers are safer and more flexible than hollow glass fibers because no fragments are released when the fibers are broken in various applications. Inner coating layers of silver and cyclic olefin polymer (COP) enhanced the reflection rate at the Er:YAG laser light wavelength. Using these fibers, we attained low loss for Er:YAG laser light transmission. By adjusting the drawing temperature in the fabrication of the PC capillaries, we created a smooth inner surface and uniform PC capillaries. We also demonstrated low-loss properties for visible pilot beams.     

PSDF of log-amplitude scintillation for 7 μm band laser beam with absorption by water vapour

The power spectral density function (PSDF) of the log-amplitude scintillation for an infrared laser beam was measured experimentally. To investigate the contribution of the absorption and the dispersion that cause the scintillation, we chose 16 wavelengths of infrared light and one wavelength of visible light. It is found that the spectral density of scintillation for the infrared beam does not agree with that for the visible beam, as predicted by Tatarskii's theory in the low-frequency region below 1 Hz. This disagreement between the experiment and the theory in the low-frequency region should be attributed to water vapour absorption.     

亚微米局域空心光束的产生及其在单原子囚禁与冷却中的应用理论研究

提出了一种采用单模光纤、环形二元相位板和微透镜组成的光束整形系统产生亚微米局域空心光束的方案. 根据瑞利-索莫菲衍射积分公式, 数值计算了微透镜焦平面附近的场分布, 详细研究了空心光束的暗斑尺寸与单模光纤模场半径和微透镜焦距的关系. 数值计算结果表明: 在微透镜焦平面附近光场分布近似对称, 在焦点处场强近似为零, 周围场强逐渐增大, 形成半径约为0.4 μm的三维封闭的球形空心光场区域, 即亚微米局域空心光束. 当局域空心光束为蓝失谐时, 光场中的原子将被囚禁在光场最弱处. 若加上抽运光, 原子将受到蓝失谐局域空心光束与抽运光共同激发的强度梯度Sisyphus冷却. 本文利用该方案产生的亚微米局域空心光束构建单原子的囚禁与冷却器件, 并以单个⁸⁷Rb原子为例, 利用Mont-Carlo方法研究亚微米局域空心光束中单原子囚禁与强度梯度冷却的动力学过程, 结果表明利用该器件可以获得温度在5.8 μK量级的超冷单原子.     

Properties of hollow bent output tips in CO2 laser light delivery system

In order to change the output direction of laser light in a small operation space, two types of hollow bent output tips are proposed for medical laser light delivery system. One is the hollow fiber insert-type, which is of the minimum bending radius of 3 cm. The other type, based on a fixed-bent pyrex glass tube, is of the minimum bending radius of 2 mm. Both types of tips are inner-coated with a silver layer and a cyclic olefin polymer (COP) layer. Loss properties for CO₂ laser light are clarified for the insert-type tips with various bending angles and radii. For the fixed-bent tips, the losses are around 0.7 dB, which are almost not dependent on the bending angles and radii. Transmissions of the tips remain undamaged after 1-h-delivery of 5 W output CO₂ laser light. A nickel layer is coated on the outside wall of fixed-bent tips so as to increase the mechanical strength and lower the surface temperature. Characteristics of surface temperature distribution and time response were experimentally discussed. Transmission properties of pilot beams are also evaluated.     

Stimulated four-photon mixing and efficient polychromatic visible light generation in SiO2-based single-mode optical fibers pumped at 1.319 μm

The generation of near-infrared and intense visible light through stimulated multi-wave mixing processes in single-mode silica-based optical fibers pumped by a Q-switched and mode-locked Nd:YAG laser operated at 1.319 μm is described. The experimental results show that intense infrared light around 1.2 μm is produced via selp-hase-matched four-photon mixing at the minimum group velocity dispersion region of pure SiO₂-core and P₂O₅-doped silica fibers. In the visible spectral region, from 580 nm to 600 nm, 20 W peak power 100-ps pulses were generated by pumping single spans of single-mode P₂O₅-doped and undoped SiO₂-core fibers with 1.319-μm laser pulses. The signal light generated in such fibers propagated in the LP₀₂ fiber mode and exhibited a threshold power that depended upon the fiber length and a critical length that was power dependent. Also, it exhibited an asymmetrical spectrum of a few nanometers bandwidth, with a long tail toward high frequencies. For GeO₂-doped silica-based fibers, a multiple-wavelength visible signal propagating in several high-order fiber modes was generated.     

Donuts make diffractionless electromagnetic waves

This work finds that a diffractionless beam can be obtained using periodically arranged donut (torus) waveguides. The Bessel-like field distribution is observed at the output of the waveguide. The structure may be built for electromagnetic waves of any wavelength, including radiowaves, microwaves, infrared light, visible light and UV light. The diameter of the diffractionless beam is of the order of magnitude of the wavelength. For UV light, the structure can be used in near-field high density storage or photolithography. For high-power visible or infrared laser such as a CO₂ laser or tera-Watt lasers, the structure can replace collimation lenses to reduce absorption and Fresnel loss. For radiowaves and microwaves, the structure can help directional antenna increase the antenna gain for radar scanning, or highly secure and low-loss communications. The gain media confined in the structure can be adopted to enhance the Purcell effect and thus producing a low-loss and zero-threshold laser.     

Infrared-laser delivery system based on polymer-coated hollow fibers

Infrared Er : YAG laser delivery systems based on hollow fibers with an internal polymer layer has been developed. The system consists of a hollow fiber as the delivery medium, a launching coupler for effective coupling between the laser beam and the fiber, and a sealed hollow-fiber tip attached at the output end of the fiber. Fabrication process of the fiber and attachment of the delivery system is reported.     

锥形空心银波导的聚焦特性

利用时域有限差分(FDTD)方法数值演示了一种能光学引导和聚焦激光的锥形空心银波导,数值模拟结果表明这种锥形空心银波导能把激光聚焦成一个极小的、直径只有1 μm、强度高度局域性的光斑.对锥形波导能光学引导和聚焦激光的物理机理作了分析和探索,并进一步探讨了激光倾斜入射、波导几何结构对锥形波导聚焦特性造成的影响,这些研究结果对于锥形光学的应用、快点火或产生高能带电粒子中锥靶结构的最佳设计具有重要的参考价值. 关键词： 锥形波导 聚焦特性 时域有限差分     

铋化物发光玻璃中银表面等离激元对铒离子的发光增强作用

局域表面等离激元可以由自由空间的光直接激发,这也是局域表面等离激元的优点所在。研究铋化物发光玻璃中纳米银颗粒的表面等离激元对铒离子发光的增强效应、进一步的提高铋化物发光玻璃中铒离子的发光性能很有意义。首先,测量了(A)Er 3+(0.5%)Ag(0.5%):铋化物发光玻璃与(B)Er 3+(0.5%):铋化物发光玻璃样品的吸收谱,发现(A)Er 3+(0.5%)Ag(0.5%):铋化物发光玻璃在约600.0 nm处有一个较弱的宽的银表面等离激元共振吸收峰。同时发现两者都有典型的铒离子的吸收峰,它们的吸收几乎完全一样:在波峰形状、峰值强度和峰值波长等方面都很相近。测量了(A)Er 3+(0.5%)Ag(0.5%):铋化物发光玻璃和(B)Er 3+(0.5%):铋化物发光玻璃样品的激发谱,发现有位于379.0,406.0,451.0,488.0和520.5 nm的5个550.0 nm可见光的可见激发谱峰,和位于379.0,406.5,451.0,488.5,520.5,544.0,651.5和798.0 nm的8个1531.0 nm红外光的红外激发谱峰,容易指认出依次为Er 3+的4I 15/2→4G 11/2,4I 15/2→2H 9/2,4I 15/2→(4F 3/2,4F 5/2),4I 15/2→4F 7/2,4I 15/2→2H 11/2,4I 15/2→4S 3/2,4I 15/2→4F 9/2和4I 15/2→4I 9/2跃迁的吸收峰,通过测量发现(A)Er 3+(0.5%)Ag(0.5%):铋化物发光玻璃相对于(B)Er 3+(0.5%):铋化物发光玻璃样品的可见和红外激发谱的最大增强依次分别是238%和133%。最后,测量了它们的发光谱,发现有位于534.0,547.5和658.5 nm的三组可见发光峰,容易指认出依次为Er 3+的2H 11/2→4I 15/2,4S 3/2→4I 15/2,4F 9/2→4I 15/2荧光跃迁。还发现红外发光峰位于978.0和1531.0 nm,依次为Er 3+的4I 11/2→4I 15/2和4I 13/2→4I 15/2的荧光跃迁。通过测量发现(A)Er 3+(0.5%)Ag(0.5%):铋化物发光玻璃相对于(B)Er 3+(0.5%):铋化物发光玻璃样品的可见和红外发光谱的最大增强依次分别是215%和138%。对于银表面等离激元增强铒离子发光的机理,认为主要为纳米银颗粒的局域表面等离激元共振,造成金属纳米结构附近产生的局域电场的强度要远大于入射光的电场强度,从而导致了金属纳米结构对入射光产生强烈的吸收和散射,进而导致了荧光的增强;即局域表面等离子体共振局域场的场增强效应。