Stable multi-wavelength thulium-doped fiber laser based on all-fiber Mach–Zehnder interferometer

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a multi-wavelength thulium-doped fiber（TDF） laser based on all-fiber Mach–Zehnder interferometer（MZI） at 1.9 mm. Here a segment of 4 m single-mode TDF is pumped by 1568 nm fiber laser for 2 mm band optical gain. The MZI includes two cascaded 3 d B coupler. A segment of 3.5 m long un-pumped polarization-maintaining TDF and polarization controller（PC） are joined in the ring cavity to suppress the mode competition. Multi-wavelength lasers at 1.9 mm with wavelength number from one to four are obtained by adjusting the PC and the stability of output power of multi-wavelength fiber laser is analyzed.     

Ultraflat and broadband optical frequency comb generator based on cascaded two dual-electrode Mach–Zehnder modulators

Optical Review - A novel scheme for the generation of ultraflat and broadband optical frequency comb (OFC) is proposed based on cascaded two dual-electrode Mach–Zehnder modulators (DE-MZM)....     

Switching behaviour of nonlinear Mach–Zehnder interferometer based on photonic crystal geometry

Nonlinear Mach–Zehnder interferometer (NMZI) created with photonic crystal waveguides (PCW) and with Kerr-type nonlinearity has been investigated in this paper. The NMZI has been simulated using two-dimensional finite difference time domain (2D-FDTD) method. Input verses output (I /O) characteristics have been obtained for different lengths of the nonlinear arm, nonlinear coefficients of the nonlinear arm, wavelengths of the input beam, sizes of defect rods and NMZI offset. The results obtained are compared with earlier published results of NMZI created with conventional step index waveguides (SIW). It is shown that all useful features of light switching offered by SIW-based NMZIs are also possible with PCW-based NMZIs of extremely small dimensions. Moreover, PCW-based NMZIs offer additional useful feature not available with SIW-based NMZIs.     

A Novel Mach–Zehnder Interferometer Based on Hybrid Liquid Crystal–Photonic Crystal Fiber

We propose a novel all fiber Mach–Zehnder interferometer(MZI) based on photonic crystal fiber(PCF) filled with liquid crystal(LC). The interference between the core mode and the cladding modes of a PCF is utilized.To excite the cladding modes, a region is formed using fiber fusion splicer. Due to the fact that varying effective index difference between the core region and the LC-filled cladding region can cause different transmission spectra,we mainly study the MZIs with different LC-filled structures and different lengths of LC filling. The measured results demonstrate that quite clear interference spectra can be obtained. Through analysis spatial frequency spectrum and temperature spectrum of two MZIs with different LC-filled structures, we can obtain that the MZI with adjacent two LC-filled holes has clearer interference spectrum and higher temperature sensitivity. Thus we choose this MZI to measure the temperature sensitivity with different lengths of LC filling. When the length of LC filling is 2 cm, the temperature sensitivities can be enlarged to 1.59 nm/C. The interferometer shows a good temperature tunability and sensitivity, which can be a good candidate for a highly tunable optical filtering and temperature sensing applications.     

Transmission characteristics of Mach–Zehnder interferometer comb filter based on thermal operation

We propose and experimentally demonstrate switchable and tunable transmission characteristics of a Mach–Zehnder interferometer comb filter based on thermal operation. Its temperature characteristics are investigated to reveal a shift in the peak wavelength position from 0.003 to 0.004 nm/°C and a tunable range of wavelength spacing of 0.76–0.90 nm for maximum and minimum effective lengths, respectively. This configuration provides the unique advantages of an all-fiber structure, tunable wavelength spacing, switchable spectral peaks, independent tuning of the center wavelength and wavelength spacing of the spectral peaks, and low polarization sensitivity. It is relatively simple to fabricate and expected to have applications in temperature fiber optic sensors and multiwavelength fiber laser sources.     

CL-TWE Mach–Zehnder electro-optic modulator based on InP-MQW optical waveguides

In this Letter, we reported the preliminary results of an integrating periodically capacitive-loaded traveling wave electrode(CL-TWE) Mach–Zehnder modulator(MZM) based on InP-based multiple quantum well(MQW)optical waveguides. The device configuration mainly includes an optical Mach–Zehnder interferometer, a direct current electrode, two phase electrodes, and a CL-TWE consisting of a U electrode and an I electrode. The modulator was fabricated on a 3 in. InP epitaxial wafer by standard photolithography, inductively coupled plasma dry etching, wet etching, electroplating, etc. Measurement results show that the MZM exhibits a3 dB electro-optic bandwidth of about 31 GHz, a V_π of 3 V, and an extinction ratio of about 20 dB.     

Signal amplification based on the local nonlinear Mach–Zehnder interferometer

Using the phase modulation of spatial solitons, a new scheme for all-optical signal amplification has been proposed in this paper. The considered structure is composed of the nonlinear Mach–Zehnder interferometer (NMZI) with the straight control waveguide (CWG), the uniform nonlinear medium (NLM) and the linear output waveguide. The local NMZI functions like a phase shifter. The light-induced index changes in the local nonlinear MZI are responsible for the input beam routing in the uniform nonlinear medium. The coupling of the input beam to the output waveguide depends on its propagation direction in the NLM. It is shown that the signal launched at CWG can deflect the beam launched at the NMZI (input beam) and a modulated (amplified) output could be obtained at the output waveguide. Further, signal pulse may be reshaped by appropriately increasing the NLM length. In addition, amplification factor may be enhanced by increasing the NLM length and injecting an appropriate continuous wave beam along with the signal beam at CWG.     

Optimized Design and Fabrication of Mach–Zehnder Interferometer Sensor in Polymer Technology

Abstract

Without any external modulating facilities, through a precisely controlled sensing length of 11,515 μm, the integrated Mach–Zehnder interferometer sensor obtains a quadrature point and linear response in refractive index measuring range of 1.31–1.42 at the wavelength of 1,550 nm. Combined with structure optimization and surface treatment of sensing arm, the sensitivity is measured as 225.4 dB/RIU, and the sensing response time is less than 20 s to analyte solutions. Cost-efficient polymers are used as waveguide materials, and a microfluidic system is achieved.     

Quantum Fisher Information of Entangled Coherent States in a Lossy Mach–Zehnder Interferometer

We give an analytical result for the quantum Fisher information of entangled coherent states in a lossy Mach-Zehnder interferometer recently proposed by Joo et al., [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107 （2011） 083601]. For small loss of photons, we find that the entangled coherent state can surpass the Heisenberg limit. Phrthermore, the formalism developed here is applicable to the study of phase sensitivity of multipartite entangled coherent states.     

Refractometer based on a tapered Mach–Zehnder interferometer with Peanut-Shape structure

A novel refractometer based on tapered Mach–Zehnder modal interferometer (MZI) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. This sensor is composed of a pair of Peanut-Shape structures and an embedded taper – the former excites high-order cladding modes, while the latter enhances the evanescent field. As the effective refractive index (RI) of cladding is based on the changes of surrounding RI, thus extinction ratio will change due to the alteration of the distribution of power in the fiber which is induced by various differences of core and cladding for RI. As a result, the maximum RI sensitivity of 240.78 extinction ratio/RIU (refractive index unit) is achieved within the range from 1.3334 to 1.4081.     

Temperature-insensitive refractive index sensor based on Mach–Zehnder interferometer with two microcavities

We propose a temperature-insensitive refractive index(RI) fiber sensor based on a Mach–Zehnder interferometer. The sensor with high sensitivity and a robust structure is fabricated by splicing a short photonic crystal fiber(PCF) between two single-mode fibers, where two microcavities are formed at both junctions because of the collapse of the PCF air holes. The microcavity with a larger equatorial dimension can excite higher-order cladding modes, so the sensor presents a high RI sensitivity, which can reach 244.16 nm/RIU in the RI range of1.333–1.3778. Meanwhile it has a low temperature sensitivity of 0.005 nm/°C in the range of 33°C–360°C.     

Method for measuring waveguide propagation losses by means of a Mach–Zehnder Interferometer structure

In this paper, a method for measuring waveguide propagation losses by means of a Mach–Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) structure is reported. The method, based on the analysis of the transmission spectra of asymmetric MZIs, enables the propagation losses of the optical waveguides to be calculated without the requirement of identical coupling conditions for each measurement. In addition, the power imbalance of the branching structure in the MZI can also be obtained. Our theoretical analysis is supported by experimental measurements.     

Comparative analysis of long-haul system based on SSB modulation utilising dual parallel Mach–Zehnder modulators

In this paper, we have proposed a long-haul optical transmission system, based on a single sideband (SSB) modulation scheme. Analytical and simulation models have been developed, optimised and demonstrated for the proposed SSB system configurations. The SSB modulation scheme was proposed to overcome dispersion in the fibre. We have shown that the related link losses can be minimized by increasing the quality of the optical signal at the modulation. We have optimised the radio over fibre configuration scheme based on dual parallel dual drive Mach–Zehnder Modulator, thereby increasing transmission length of the fibre. With the proposed SSB, by suppressing some of the harmonics and cancelling one of the sidebands, we have halved the RF power fading and interference. The developed analytical (theoretical/mathematical) model agrees very well with the simulation results using two (both) different commercial simulation tools. The optical signal is boosted while minimizing the number of repeaters. We report a SSB configuration, compensation and amplification with individual spans of 150 km, by extending the length of the link up to 3250 km. The proposed system configuration exhibits high performance with less complexity and lower cost.     

High sensitivity Mach–Zehnder interferometer sensors based on concatenated ultra-abrupt tapers on thinned fibers

This study proposes a simple, cost-effective method to fabricate fiber-based Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) sensors by concatenating two ultra-abrupt fiber tapers together using a fusion splicer. By concatenating, the taper diameter and length ratio is 1:1 that is much greater than that (1:10) by stretching. The refractive index sensitivity is comparable to the MZI sensors based on long-period fiber grating pairs or stretched fiber taper pairs. The MZI fiber claddings are etched to improve the sensitivity of refractive index measurements. The sensitivity is 664.57 nm/RIU (refractive index unit) for the refractive index ranging from 1.3348 to 1.3558, which is 2–6 times greater than those measured by long period fiber gratings (LPFGs) after sensitivity enhancement.     

Polarization insensitive thermally tunable add/drop multiplexer using cascaded Mach–Zehnder coupler

In this paper, a thermally tunable add/drop multiplexer based on a Y symmetric cascaded Mach–Zehnder (CMZ) coupler is found to be polarization dependent due to the stress anisotropy caused by local heating to achieve thermooptic phase change. A thermooptic delay line structure with a stress releasing groove is proposed for reduction of the polarization dependence of a Y symmetric delay line coupler of high index contrast waveguides. It is seen that thermally tunable transmission characteristics of a Y symmetric CMZ device based on the proposed structure is almost polarization independent. It is also found that the reduction of the heating power in the proposed structure is ∼1.6 times smaller than that of the conventional structure. PACS  29.27.Fh; 52.38.Kd     

In-fiber Mach–Zehnder interferometer based on multi-mode fiber and up-taper for curvature sensing

A new type of curvature sensor comprises a stub of multi-mode fiber and an up-taper is proposed and demonstrated experimentally. The whole fabrication process is quite simple and the sensor head is cost effective. Measurement results show that it has a maximum curvature sensitivity of −61.877 nm/m⁻¹ at 1.1718 m⁻¹ (the highest value of reported papers among in-fiber Mach–Zehnder interferometers) and −9.2115 nm/m⁻¹ from 0.865 m⁻¹ to 1.1172 m⁻¹. Temperature sensitivity of 89.01 pm/°C within the range of 20–80 °C has also been achieved, which implies the possibility for measurement of temperature.     

Measuring the fractional orbital angular momentum of a vortex light beam by cascaded Mach–Zehnder interferometers

We design an interferometric method for measuring the fractional orbital angular momentum of a vortex light beam by cascading Mach–Zehnder interferometers. The validity of this method is verified by simulation and theoretical analysis. We demonstrate the method experimentally for two stages of cascaded Mach–Zehnder interferometers, which can measure the fractional topological charge up to two. The experimental results agree with the theoretical results well. Since fractional orbital angular momentum may have a potential application in the field of quantum information, one can utilize the method to detect them easily and precisely.     

Performance comparison of Fabry–Perot and Mach–Zehnder interferometers for molecular Doppler lidar based on fringe-imaging technique

Fringe-imaging Fabry–Perot interferometer (FIFPI) and fringe-imaging Mach–Zehnder interferometer (FIMZI) used as frequency discriminator for incoherent molecular Doppler lidar were analyzed, respectively. For a pure molecular backscattered signal, performances (wind measurement sensitivity and signal-to-noise ratio) of both FIFPI and FIMZI systems were simulated based on the U.S. standard atmospheric model. Comparisons of two systems were made under the same emitting and receiving parameters with certain wind speed dynamic range. Simulated results show that, though relatively lower sensitivity to Doppler shift, the single-channel FIMZI system provides a factor of 1.3 times smaller error in the horizontal wind velocity than that of FIFPI at a range of 20 km. We expect that the FIMZI frequency discriminator would provide an effective technique to improve the measurement accuracy for incoherent molecular Doppler lidar.     

Ultrafast all-optical demultiplexer based on monolithic Mach–Zehnder interferometer with integrated semiconductor optical amplifiers

A monolithically integrated and fully packaged Mach–Zehnder interferometer with semiconductor optical amplifiers (MZI-SOA) is demonstrated as polarisation-independent high-speed demultiplexer for up to 160 Gbit/s optical time division multiplexed (OTDM) data streams.