Low noise gain-clamped L-band erbium-doped fiber amplifier by utilizing fiber Bragg grating

A novel gain-clamped long wavelength band (L-band) erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) is proposed and experimented by using a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) at the input end of the amplifier. This design provides a good gain clamping and decreases noise effectively. It uses two sections of erbium-doped fiber (EDF) pumped by a 1480-nm laser diode (LD) for higher efficiency and lower noise figure (NF). The gain is clamped at 23 dB with a variation of 0.5 dB from input signal power of -30 to -8 dBm for 1589 nm and NF below 5 dB is obtained. At the longer wavelength in L-band higher gain is also obtained and the gain is clamped at 16 dB for 1614 nm effectively. Because the FBG injects a portion of backward amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) back into the system, the gain enhances 5 dB with inputting small signal.     

Measuring vibration by using fiber Bragg grating and demodulating it by blazed grating

A method of measuring vibration by using fiber Bragg grating (FBG) and demodulating the spectrum by blazed grating is introduced. The sensor system is made of a simple supported beam with a FBG adhered to its upper surface. A blazed grating is used to demodulate the changing spectrum that is got from the sensor system, and a line charge-coupled device (CCD) is used to accept the diffraction spectrum. Through analyzing the number of the CCD's pixels, we can get the amplitude of vibration and the change of the temperature. The experimental results show that the vibration amplitude of the exciter matches the detected signal under the stable frequency. The temperature shift and vibration signal are also successfully separated.     

A self-seeded fiber laser incorporated with a fiber Bragg grating external cavity semiconductor laser

A self-seeded fiber laser incorporated with a fiber Bragg grating external cavity semiconductor laser (FBG-ECL) and a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) were reported in this paper. The MZI provided a Q-switching with response time in the order of micro-seconds. The FBG-ECL provided narrow pulses as seeds to shorten the Q-switched pulses. Experimentally, pulse width of 0.8 μs was measured, which was one fifth of the pulse width without self-seeding.     

Superchirped moiré grating based on an acousto-optic superlattice with a chirped fiber Bragg grating

A superchirped moiré grating has multiple superimposed chirped Bragg gratings. We show that a superchirped moiré grating can be formed in an acousto-optic superlattice with a chirped fiber Bragg grating. There are multiple transmission peaks related to Fabry-Perot resonance in the transmission spectrum. The peak spacing is varied by the acoustic frequency. The proposed devices can be used as tunable multiple-passband transmission filters and switches.     

Mode-locked L-band bismuth–erbium fiber laser using carbon nanotubes

A passively mode-locked, bismuth–erbium-co-doped fiber (Bi-EDF) with a pulse width of 460 fs is proposed and demonstrated. A highly doped, 180-cm Bi-EDF with an erbium concentration of 3,250 ppm/wt and an absorption rate of 133 dB/m at 1,530 nm serves as the gain medium. The cavity is 11.6 m long with an overall group velocity dispersion of +0.063 ps². The output pulses have a repetition rate, average output power, pulse energy and peak power of 11.18 MHz, 5 mW, 448 pJ and 1 kW, respectively. The system has a high beam quality and a narrow pulse width output in the L-band region.     

Stable single frequency Er-doped all-fiber ring laser with fiber Bragg grating Fabry-Perot filter

Using a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) and a Fabry-Perot cavity composed of two fiber Bragg gratings (FBGFP) as its frequency-selective components, a type of single frequency all-fiber ring laser permits oscillation only on one longitudinal mode of the main cavity without modehopping while the cavity length can be up to tens of meters. The salient feature is due to the single narrowband resonance of the FBGFP filter. Such a fiber ring laser is achieved experimentally, and the laser mode is limited inside the single resonance of the FBGFP.     

Analysis of fiber Bragg grating with exponential–linear and parabolic taper profiles for dispersion slope compensation in optical fiber links

In this paper, the effect of various taper profiles on dispersion slope compensation in optical fiber links is studied. Theoretical and numerical investigation of the linear and nonlinear group delays of tapered fiber Bragg grating's (T-FBG) under strain is made. Calculation is performed using Matlab code based on solving the coupled mode equation using transfer matrix method. Our study shows that the linear tapered FBG profile provide the best result than the linear-exponential profile which can compensate up to 500 km. As result, the spectral characteristics of tapered grating allow them to be used efficiently in high bit rates WDM and long-haul optical communication systems for chromatic dispersion of single-mode fiber.     

Simulation analysis of one-stage C+L-band erbium-doped fiber ASE source with double-pass bi-directional pumping configuration

A new technique to generate a C+L-band flat amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) source in one-stage erbium-doped fiber (EDF) using bi-directional pumping configuration is analyzed. The simulation results show that the key point of obtaining flat C+L-band ASE spectrum in one-stage EDF is using a laser diode operated at 980 nm as backward pump source. ASE source with nearly 80-nm bandwidth can be obtained by means of selecting suitable fiber length and properly adjusting the ratio of forward to backward pump power.     

High resolution inclinometer based on vertical pendulum and fiber Bragg grating Fabry–Perot cavity

In this paper, an inclinometer based on a vertical pendulum and a fiber Bragg grating Fabry–Perot cavity(FBG-FP) is proposed. A low-damping rotation structure is used to reduce the mechanical frictions of the pendulum system and induce a wavelength shift of FBG-FPs. We find that the sensitivity can be maximized by optimizing the parameters of the inclinometer. Using a high-resolution demodulation system, a sensitivity of179.9 pm/(°), and a resolution better than 0.0200 can be achieved. Experiments also show that the proposed inclinometer has good linearity and repeatability.     

Influence of intra-cavity loss on transmission characteristics of fiber Bragg grating Fabry–Perot cavity

A theoretical model of the fiber Bragg grating Fabry–Perot(FBG-FP) transmission spectrum considering loss of FBG and intra-cavity fiber is presented. Several types of FBG-FPs are inscribed experimentally, and their spectra are measured.The results confirm that weak intra-cavity loss is enhanced at the resonance transmission peak, that is, loss of transmission peaks is observably larger than other wavelengths. For FBG-FPs with multi resonance peaks, when the resonance peak wavelength is closer to the Bragg wavelength, the more significant loss effect of resonance transmission peak is exhibited.The measured spectra are fitted with the presented theoretical model. The fitted coefficient of determinations are near 1,which proves the validity of the theoretical model. This study can be applied to measure FBG loss more accurately, without a reference light. It can play an important role in FBG and FBG-FP writing process optimization and application parameter optimization.     

Temperature self-compensation fiber-optic pressure sensor based on fiber Bragg grating and Fabry–Perot interference multiplexing

A high performance multiplexed fiber-optic sensor consisted of diaphragm-based extrinsic Fabry–Perot interferometer (DEFPI) and fiber Bragg grating (FBG) is proposed. The novel structure DEFPI fabricated with laser heating fusion technique possesses high sensitivity with 5.35 nm/kPa (36.89 nm/psi) and exhibits ultra-low temperature dependence with 0.015 nm/°C. But the ultra-low temperature dependence still results in small pressure measurement error of the DEFPI (0.0028 kPa/°C). The designed stainless epoxy-free packaging structure guarantees the FBG to be only sensitive to temperature. The temperature information is created to calibrate the DEFPI's pressure measurement error induced by the temperature dependence, realizing effectively temperature self-compensation of the multiplexed sensor. The sensitivity of the FBG is 10.5 pm/°C. In addition, the multiplexed sensor is also very easy to realize the pressure and the temperature high-precise high-sensitive simultaneous measurement at single point in many harsh environmental areas.     

All-fiber intermodal Mach–Zehnder interferometer based on a long-period fiber grating combined with a fiber bitaper

We report a novel all-fiber narrow-bandwidth intermodal Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) based on a long-period fiber grating (LPFG) combined with a fiber bitaper, and the MZI has no special limit for the resonant wavelength of the LPFG. Its responses to temperature and axial strain are studied theoretically and experimentally. Experimental results indicate that the temperature sensitivity is 0.0585 nm/°C within the temperature range from 30 °C to 90 °C and the axial strain sensitivity of 0.00013 nm/με can be neglected. Furthermore, as only the common single-mode fiber (SMF) is required during the fabrication process, the proposed device is cost effective and has good practicability in the optical sensing systems.     

High-power single-longitudinal-mode operation of Tm:YAG laser using Fabry–Perot etalons and volume Bragg grating

A diode-pumped high-power single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) Tm:YAG laser was investigated. To obtain a single-frequency 2 μm laser output, Fabry–Perot (F–P) etalons combined with a volume Bragg grating (VBG) were used as frequency selection devices. The transmission losses of the VBG and etalons were analyzed and the angles of F–P etalons were optimized theoretically. Considering the gains and the insertion losses, the output wavelength of the Tm:YAG laser was estimated to be 2012.47 nm. Using this method, as much as 574 mW SLM laser was obtained experimentally, corresponding to a slope-efficiency of 18.6% and an optical-to-optical efficiency of 8.2%. The output wavelength was measured to be 2012.47 nm, which was in excellent agreement with the theoretical result. The power instability was less than 1% in 30 minutes test, and the degree of the linear polarization was over 20 dB.     

Improving the characteristics of the modulation response for fiber Bragg grating Fabry–Perot lasers by optimizing model parameters

A unified and comprehensive study on the small-signal intensity and frequency modulation characteristics of a fiber Bragg grating Fabry–Perot (FBG–FP) laser are numerically investigated. The effect of injection current, temperature, external optical feedback (OFB), nonlinear gain compression factor, fiber grating (FG) parameters and spontaneous emission factor on modulation response characteristics are presented. The rate equations of the laser model are presented in the form that the effect of temperature (T) and external optical feedback (OFB) are included. The temperature dependence (TD) of laser response is calculated according to the TD of laser cavity parameters instead of directly using the well-known Parkove equation. It is shown that the optimum external fiber length (L_ext) is 3.1 cm and the optimum range of working temperature for FGFP laser is within ±2 °C from the FBG reference temperature (T_o). Also, the antireflection (AR) coating reflectivity and the linewidth enhancement factor have no significant effect on the modulation spectra. It is also show that modulation response is extremely sensitive to the OFB level, high injection current and gain compression factor. The study indicates clearly that good dynamic characteristic can be obtained by system parameters optimization.     

Fast interrogation using sinusoidally current modulated laser diodes for fiber Fabry–Perot interferometric sensor consisting of fiber Bragg gratings

A fast interrogation method using a sinusoidal modulated laser diode for a fiber Fabry–Perot interferometric sensor consisting of Bragg gratings (FBG–FPI) is proposed.. The FBG–FPI has sharp transmittance peaks in the reflection band of the FBGs. Wavelength sweep produced by current modulation of a laser diode can be used to detect the peak position. This enables high-resolution strain or temperature measurement. To precisely control the current, the current modulation is realized using a laser diode controller (LDC) with external modulation function. In the modulation by a sawtooth wave, the possible speed of wavelength sweeping is limited to 100 kHz or less due to the bandwidth limitation of an LDC and thermal effect in a laser diodeUsing a sinusoidal wave as a modulation waveform enables wavelength sweeping at speeds exceeding 100 kHz. The modulation characteristics of the laser wavelength is evaluated experimentally and the operating wavelength is monitored using an asymmetric Mach–Zehnder interferometer. The resolution of 0.2 fm/\(\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}\) and measurement time of 1 \(\upmu\)s were experimentally demonstrated in the present sensor.     

A novel way to write fiber Bragg gratings with controllable wavelength and chirp using a phase mask

A novel method for writing long fiber Bragg grating (FBG) with arbitrary multi-wavelength and chirp at the same place of a fiber by using a phase mask is presented. An experimental equation is derived for Bragg wavelength, and the Bragg wavelength is found to be a function of the distance between the fiber and the phase mask. The chirp of the overlapped FBG is decided by the angle between phase mask and fiber. A multi-wavelength FBG with 4, 8, 16 channels has been written by using a unique phase mask.     

Picosecond all-optical switching using nonlinear Mach–Zehnder with silicon subwavelength grating and photonic wire arms

We investigate the picosecond switching capabilities of a planar waveguide interferometric photonic device when used for all-optical wavelength conversion of one picosecond pulses. Our device comprises a subwavelength grating waveguide arm and a photonic wire waveguide arm in a Mach–Zehnder configuration, fabricated on the silicon-on-insulator material platform. No detrimental effects of pulse broadening for transient pulses were observed.