Polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fibre

Photonic crystal fibres (PCFs) offer new possibilities of realizing highly birefringent fibres due to a higher intrinsic index contrast compared to conventional fibres. In this paper, we analyse theoretically the modal properties of a kind of polarization-maintaining PCF, namely the elliptical hole photonic crystal fibre (EHPCF) with a central small elliptical hole introduced in the core region. We demonstrate the possibility of achieving large birefringence with zero walk-off in the single-mode regime. This PCF also exhibits unusual dispersion properties. Several hundred nanometres of ultra broadband flattened dispersion near the wavelength 1.55μm is achieved in this EHPCF with a central small hole of d_c=0.4Λ.     

Design and analysis of a novel single-mode single-polarization photonic crystal fibre based on polarization-dependent coupling and absorption effect

A novel single-mode single-polarization (SMSP) photonic crystal fibre has been proposed and analysed based on the polarization-dependent coupling and absorption effect via a full-vector finite element method with perfectly matched layers. The numerical results predict that very efficient SMSP operation can be achieved with both high bandwidth and high extinction ratio at low loss penalty. Effects of the fibre structural parameters on the SMSP bandwidth and extinction ratio have been explored, which will provide useful guide for the design and fabrication of the fibre. The results obtained will be instructive for the realization of new SMSP fibres with high performance.     

光子晶体光纤超连续谱产生的实验研究

报道了利用掺钛蓝宝石飞秒激光器产生重复频率为80MHz,脉宽为10fs的超短激光脉冲在10cm长光子晶体光纤产生超连续谱的实验,获得展宽范围为450nm到1100nm的连续谱。实验中观察到孤子自频移和高阶孤子分裂现象,非孤子辐射与随后光谱向短波方向的拓展有密切关系。     

High energy and long pulse generation with high-birefringence photonic crystal fibre and laser-diode pumped regenerative amplifier

We report on the generation of a high energy and long pulse for pumping optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) by a high-birefringence photonic crystal fibre (HB-PCF) and a laser-diode-pumped regenerative chirped pulse amplifier. Using the femtosecond pump pulse centred at 815~nm, a 1064~nm soliton pulse is produced in the HB-PCF. After injecting it into an Nd:YAG regenerative amplifier with the glass etalons, a narrow-band amplified pulse with an energy of $\sim $4~mJ and a duration of 235 ps is achieved at a repetition rate of 10~Hz, which is suitable for being used as a pump source in the 800~nm OPCPA system.     

High energy femtosecond supercontinuum light generation in large mode area photonic crystal fiber

A large mode area photonic crystal fiber (LMA PCF) with an effective area of 180 μm² is used to generate a high energy, micro-joule range, flat, octave spanning supercontinuum (SC) extending from ~ 600 nm to ~ 1720 nm. A train of femtosecond pulses from a widely-tunable parametric amplifier pumped by a Ti:Sapphire regenerative amplifier system are coupled into a 20 cm length of LMA PCF generating a SC of 1.4 μJ energy. We present an experimental study of the high energy SC as a function of the input power and the pumping wavelength. The spectrum obtained at a pump wavelength of 1260 nm presents spectral flatness variation less than 12 dB over more than 1.1 octave bandwidth. The physical processes behind the SC formation are described in the normal and the anomalous dispersion regions. Our experimental results are successfully compared with the numerical solution of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation.     

Different supercontinuum generation processes in photonic crystal fibers pumped with a 1064-nm picosecond pulse

Picosecond pulse pumped supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fiber is investigated by performing a series of comparative experiments. The main purpose is to investigate the supercontinuum generation processes excited by a given pump source through the experimental study of some specific fibers. A 20-W all-fiber picosecond master oscillator-power amplifier （MOPA） laser is used to pump three different kinds of photonic crystal fibers for supercontinuum generation. Three diverse supercontinuum formation processes are observed to correspond to photonie crystal fibers with distinct dis- persion properties. The experimental results are consistent with the relevant theoretical results. Based on the above analyses, a watt-level broadband white light supercontinuum source spanning from 500 nm to beyond 1700 nm is demonstrated by using a picosecond fiber laser in combination with the matched photonic crystal fiber. The limitation of the group velocity matching curve of the photonic crystal fiber is also discussed in the paper.     

Complete leaky mode coupling in dual-core photonic crystal fibre based on the coupled-mode theory

This paper theoretically investigates the dependence of leaky mode coupling between inner core fundamental mode and outer core defect mode on phase and loss matching in pure silica dual-core photonic crystal fibres with the multi-pole method. The complete mode coupling can take place when both the phase and loss matching conditions are satisfied at the avoided anti-crossing wavelength. It shows the influences of cladding structure parameters including the diameters of cladding air holes d₁, diameters of outer core holes d₂ and hole to hole pitch Λ on the characteristics of leaky modes coupling. The coupled-mode theory is used to analyse the mode transition characteristics and the complete coupling can be clearly indicated by comparing the real and imaginary parts of propagation constant of the leaky modes.     

基于空气环结构的大带隙二维光子晶体的设计

用平面波展开法研究了内介质柱截面为长方形的三角晶格空气环型光子晶体的完全带隙特性。通过调节内介质柱的大小、介电常数、旋转角度以及空气环外半径对完全带隙的影响,找到了一组可以获得大带隙二维光子晶体结构的最佳参数。经优化后得到禁带宽度Δω=0.082(2πca-1)(其中a为晶格常数,c为光速),中心频率ω0=0.401(2πca-1),完全带隙宽度与中心频率的比值达到了20.4%,该结果比圆形内介质柱截面空气环结构的完全带隙大,比普通的空气孔结构的完全带隙增大了37%。     

Large negative dispersion in dual-concentric-core photonic crystal fiber with hybrid cladding structure based on complete leaky mode coupling

Considering the optical stability of solution, the sugar-solution is infused into the outer core ring of dual-concentric-core photonic crystal fiber (DCCPCF). The influences of structure parameters and solution concentration on the phase and loss matching are comprehensively analyzed. By choosing the appropriate outer core mode to completely couple with the inner core fundamental mode, the large negative dispersion PCF around 1.55 μm is designed, which has the dispersion value of − 39,500 ps/km/nm as well as bandwidth of 7.4 nm and effective mode area of 28.3 μm². The designed PCF with hybrid cladding structure can effectively compensate the positive dispersion of conventional single mode fiber, and suppress the system perturbation caused by a series of nonlinear effects. Considering the mode field mismatching between the DCCPCF and the tapered fiber, the calculated connection loss around 1.55 μm is below 3 dB. In addition, the equivalent propagation constants of two leaky modes are deduced from the coupled-mode theory, and the complete mode coupling case can be well predicted by comparing the real and imaginary parts of propagation constants.     

Supercontinuum generation in the irregular point of hollow-core photonic crystal fiber

Broadband supercontinuums (SC) are generated by soliton self-frequency shift (SSFS) of hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (HC-PCF) in our laboratory. With the pump works at 810 nm when the pump power increase from 400 to 600 mW, the Raman Soliton shifts from 2089 to 2215 nm, the bandwidth of SC increases from 2213 to 2320 nm. The ultra-violet part of SC is below 180 nm, and the mid-infrared part of SC exceeds 2500 nm. Moreover, the influence of pump power on SC is also analyzed.     

Phase and group modal birefringence of an index-guiding photonic crystal fibre with helical air holes

In this paper, we propose a novel photonic crystal fibre (PCF) with high phase birefringence and very low group birefringence. It is composed of a solid silica core and a cladding with helix-pattern air holes. Using a full-vector finite-element method, we study the phase and group modal birefringence of such PCF at various air-hole sizes, pitches and wavelengths. Owing to this innovative structure of air holes, a high phase to group modal birefringence rate is obtained. Its phase modal birefringence is as large as 10⁻⁴ magnitude; however, the group modal birefringence of this PCF is at 10⁻⁷-10⁻⁶. The phase birefringence is 2 orders of magnitude larger than group birefringence over a broad wavelength span, which means that the light with different polarization and effective index has almost a same group velocity. As a result, the group modal birefringence that closely relates to the polarization modal dispersion is negligible.     

Design and analysis of thermally tunable liquid crystal filled hybrid photonic crystal fiber coupler

We propose a novel tunable photonic crystal fiber (PCF) coupler scheme, that the light is coupled between a total internal reflection (TIR) guiding core and a photonic bandgap (PBG) guiding core. By introducing the thermo-optic responsive nematic liquid crystals (NLC) into the air holes around the PBG core, the hybrid PCF based coupler exhibits enhanced thermal tunability. The thermo-optical characteristics of the proposed coupler are numerically studied using finite element method (FEM) and beam propagation method (BPM). The proposed design can find promising applications in filtering and sensing devices.     

The influence of a weak signal seed-wave on picosecond supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fiber

We present a numerical study of the properties of picosecond supercontinuum (SC) generation when pumping in the normal dispersion region of photonic crystal fibers. Simulation results demonstrate that rogue wave generation can be reduced by adding a weak signal continuous-wave (CW) seed on the main pump pulse. Besides, the red-shifted part of SC exhibits higher degree of coherence and pulse-to-pulse intensity stability.     

Supercontinuum generation in square photonic crystal fiber with nearly zero ultra-flattened chromatic dispersion and fabrication tolerance analysis

This paper presents a simple index-guiding square photonic crystal fiber (SPCF) where the core is surrounded by air holes with two different diameters. The proposed design is simulated through an efficient full-vector modal solver based on the finite difference method with anisotropic perfectly matched layers absorbing boundary condition. The nearly zero ultra-flattened dispersion SPCF with low confinement loss, small effective area as well as broadband supercontinuum (SC) spectra is targeted. Numerical results show that the designed SPCF has been achieved at a nearly zero ultra-flattened dispersion of 0 ± 0.25 ps/(nm·km) in a wavelength range of 1.38 μm to 1.89 μm (510 nm band) which covers E, S, C, L and U communication bands, a low confinement loss of less than 10⁻⁷ dB/m in a wavelength range of 1.3 μm to 2.0 μm and a wide SC spectrum (FWHM = 450 nm) by using picosecond pulses at a center wavelength of 1.55 μm. We then analyze the sensitivity of chromatic dispersion to small variations from the optimum value of specific structural parameters. The proposed index-guiding SPCF can be applicable in supercontinuum generation (SCG) covering such diverse fields as spectroscopy applications and telecommunication dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) sources.     

Polarisation-sensitive four-wave mixing and soliton self-frequency shift effect in the highly birefringent photonic crystal fibre

By adjusting the polarisation state of the pump at 805 nm parallel to slow (x) and fast (y) axes of the highly birefringent photonic crystal fibre with zero dispersion wavelengths 790 nm and 750 nm, this paper demonstrates the efficient polarisation-sensitive four wave mixing involved in pump, anti-Stokes and Stokes signals and soliton self-frequency shift effects induced by the phase-matching between red-shifted solitons and blue-shifted dispersive waves. If the reduction of coupling efficiency to the circular pump laser mode or other circular fibres due to asymmetry of the core is neglected, more than 98% of the total input power is kept in a single linear polarisation. Controlled dispersion characteristic of the doublet of fundamental guided-modes results in achieving light field strongly confined in principal axes of photonic crystal fibre, and enhancing the corresponding nonlinear-optical process through the remarkable nonlinear birefringence.     

Analysis of gas flow dynamics in hollow core photonic crystal fibre based gas cell

Gas flow dynamics in hollow core photonic crystal fibre (HC-PCF) is a trivial problem to study the gas filling time in HC-PCF gas sensor and other gas filled HC-PCF devices. This article analyzes the pressure dependence of gas diffusion coefficient in core and cladding holes of HC-PCF under the same condition of temperature and pressure during filling of methane and acetylene gas. An analytical model has been proposed to study the gas flow dynamics in core and cladding of HC-PCF. Due to gas filling, as the pressure varies inside the HC-PCF, at each increment of time, this model computes the change in pressure and respective gas diffusion coefficient. Using incremental gas diffusion coefficient, this model computes the gas filling time in a process similar to practical scenario. The gas filling time inside the core and cladding holes of HC-PCF for both methane and acetylene gas has been analyzed in this article. The results obtained can be utilized for HC-PCF based gas cell design.     

圆柱形光子晶体中电磁波的模式和带隙

利用电磁波在一维圆柱光子晶体中径向受限的条件,推导出电磁波在一维圆柱光子晶体中各个模式满足的关系式。研究了各个模式的特征。计算出TE波和TM波各模式的禁带随模式量子数、圆柱半径以及入射角的变化规律。得出了一些不同于一维非受限光子晶体带隙的新结构。     

Single mode lasers based on monolithic integration of ridge waveguides with 2D photonic crystal waveguides

The monolithic combination of active light sources with photonic crystal (PC) waveguide components is a key building block for future highly integrated photonic circuits. We demonstrate the coupling of light from an InGaAs/AlGaAs ridge waveguide laser to a monolithically integrated 2D PC waveguide. The PC guide is formed by removing three or five rows in a triangular lattice of air rods etched into the semiconductor. A tapered ridge waveguide geometry is demonstrated to improve coupling efficiency, so that maximum output powers of up to 10 mW from the PC waveguide are achieved. The resulting coupled cavity laser shows single mode emission with side mode suppression ratios > 35 dB over a broad range of injection currents.     

光子晶体光纤中多泵浦四波混频光谱增益特性研究

研究了信号与泵浦光同向传输,在色散平坦高非线性光子晶体光纤中的多泵浦四波混频光谱增益特性,从光谱学的角度分析了泵浦光波长漂移,泵浦光偏振方向平行与正交,信号光相对于泵浦光偏振态失配,二者总功率对多泵浦四波混频光谱增益特性的影响,探讨了泵浦光数目对多泵浦四波混频光谱增益特性的冲击。研究发现在36.4 nm波长范围,二者偏振态匹配时多泵浦四波混频效果最好,同时,多泵浦四波混频效应对偏振极为敏感,若两束泵浦光偏振态垂直,则它们分别与信号光发生四波混频,反之,则两束泵浦光之间亦会发生四波混频作用,且在正交泵浦的前提下,信号光偏振方向变化会直接导致各闲频光增益大小发生变化;进一步指出当采用三束连续泵浦光时,同样可以在一定波长范围内实现多泵浦四波混频效应。这些研究对于开发基于光子晶体光纤中多泵浦四波混频效应工作的超快光子器件具有一定的指导意义。     

Theoretical investigation of band-gap and mode characteristics of anti-resonance guiding photonic crystal fibres

With the full-vector plane-wave method (FVPWM) and the full-vector beam propagation method (FVBPM),the dependences of the band-gap and mode characteristics on material index and cladding structure parameter in antiresonance guiding photonic crystal fibres (ARGPCFs) are sufficiently analysed.An ARGPCF operating in the nearinfrared wavelength is shown.The influences of the high index cylinders,glass interstitial apexes and silica structure on the characteristics of band-gaps and modes are deeply investigated.The equivalent planar waveguide theory is used for analysing such an ARGPCF filled by the isotropic materials,and the resonance and the anti-resonance characteristics can be well predicted.