Polarization Independent Three-Element Solc-Type Birefringent Optical Fiber Loop Filters

Polarization-independent birefringent optical fiber loop filters with narrowband transmission characteristics are studied. Using Jones matrix analysis, a three-element fiber loop filter structure, performing as a Solc-type narrow band filter is designed and fabricated. By selecting proper splice angles between these three elements as well as their birefringence, a narrowband, polarization-independent periodic optical filter with 0.63-nm transmission bandwith and 2.71-nm transmission period is realized     

Imaging characteristics of a birefringent lens under broadband illumination

This paper reports the imaging characteristics of an optical system consisting of a lens made of a uniaxial birefringent crystal sandwiched between two linear polarizers under polychromatic input illumination. The optic axis of the birefringent crystal is perpendicular to the lens axis and for an initial investigation, the spectral profile of the input beam is considered to be uniform for all wavelengths. The study reveals that if the variation of the birefringence parameters of the device with the wavelength is less, a larger bandwidth may be used without considerably deviating from the imaging characteristics under strictly monochromatic illumination. The nonlinear variation of birefringence with wavelength results in an asymmetric axial irradiance distribution. This obviates an optimal operating wavelength as well as a proper choice of the lens material. It is found that no appreciable change in image quality under diffraction-limited condition results for an input beam having 632 nm operating wavelength and 60 nm bandwidth. Therefore, it may be feasible to use this system with a white light source in conjunction with a wavelength-selective filter.     

Polarized optical filtering from general linearly twisted structures

It is shown that a stack of linearly twisted birefringent plates with arbitrary successive twist angle acts as a spectral filter assuming the total twist equals an odd integer of π/2, and each plate acts as a full wave plate. The classical fan Solc filter is shown to be a very special case of the present concept. Based on this finding, spontaneously twisted structures analogous to the twisted liquid crystals and helical sculptured thin films can basically act as polarization filters if their molecular or nano-rod thickness and the local birefringence satisfy the full waveplate condition. Giving a certain number of full wave plates it is shown that there are many ways to arrange their successive twist and get the same transfer function.     

Dispersion of birefringence of quartz and limespar

The value of the birefringence is the basic optical constant of all birefringent cuts. An exact knowledge of birefringence is necessary primarily for cuts with prescribed path difference, i.e. for delay plates, sensitive plates, compensators, Lyot filters, chain filters etc. When calculating such cuts one usually starts out from the data given in some basic tables [1], [2]. During the more than 10 years of practice in this field, however, partial deviations have appeared which could be explained only by insufficiently exact data.     

基于非线性偏振旋转效应的多波长光纤激光器

多波长光纤激光器是未来波分复用光通信系统的理想光源,提出和展示了一个基于非线性偏振旋转效应的多波长光纤激光器,非线性偏振旋转诱导的强度相关非均匀损耗能有效地抑制均匀加宽增益介质掺铒光纤中的模式竞争,从而使光纤激光器在室温下产生稳定的多波长输出,实验实现了最多18个波长的多波长输出.另外,此激光器没有使用传统的滤波器,而是在激光腔内插入一段保偏光纤,保偏光纤与偏振相关隔离器构成一等效Lyot双折射光纤周期性滤波器.利用这种在线型的双折射光纤滤波器简化了光纤激光器的结构,使它更易于集成.还实验研究了多波长输出随抽运功率的演化,发现抽运功率对多波长的均匀性影响很大.     

基于高双折射光子晶体光纤环镜的全光纤平顶梳状滤波器(英文)

A novel all-fibre flat-top comb filter based on a high birefringence photonic crystal fibre loop mirror is proposed and demonstrated. We simulate theoretically its output spectra and experimentally realize a flat-top output with a high extinction ratio. Compared to filters consisting of the conventional Panda polarization maintaining fibre, filters based on a high birefringence photonic crystal fibre loop mirror have better temperature stability. This kind of filter can be expected to be used widely in Wave...     

Correlation between the birefringence and the structural parameter in photonic crystal fiber

In order to simply design a highly birefringent photonic crystal fiber (HB-PCF), we numerically simulated the correlation between the birefringence and the structural parameter of photonic crystal fiber with square-lattice or triangle-lattice air-holes by using multipole method. It is shown that the phase birefringence B(λ) and the group birefringence G(λ) can be modulated by the structure parameter of normalized wavelength λ/Λ and the relative air-hole size d/Λ. Numerical results show very high phase and group birefringence of the order of 10⁻². The group birefringence becomes negative in the region where phase birefringence increases with an increase in normalized wavelength that does not appear in traditional highly birefringent fibers.     

基于高双折射光子晶体光纤环镜的全光纤平顶梳状滤波器

A novel all-fibre flat-top comb filter based on a high birefringence photonic crystal fibre loop mirror is proposed and demonstrated. We simulate theoretically its output spectra and experimentally realize a flat-top output with a high extinction ratio. Compared to filters consisting of the conventional Panda polarization main- taining fibre, filters based on a high birefringence photonic crystal fibre loop mirror have better temperature stability. This kind of filter can be expected to be used widely in Wavelength-division-multiplexing（WDM） systems in the future.     

Thermal characteristics of a fiber Fabry-Perot etalon made of highly birefringent fiber

Fiber Fabry-Perot etalon (FFPE) is a device designed as an optical frequency filter, and its transmission characteristics change depending on temperature. The temperature dependence of the transmission frequency of an FFPE made of a highly birefringent fiber was found to be −2:31 GHz/deg, which is almost the same as that of a conventional etalon. On the contrary, its temperature dependence of the transmission frequency separation due to birefringence was found to be −140 MHz/deg. This is about 18 times larger than that for a conventional FFPE, and it implies that an FFPE made of highly birefringent fiber is promising as a temperature sensor with a high precision.     

Effective dichroism in forward scattering by inhomogeneous birefringent medium

The Mueller matrix model for inhomogeneous medium characterized by simultaneous linear and circular birefringence for single scattering in the forward direction is derived. We find that the presence of inhomogeneity results in the occurrence of new polarization effects. In particular, forward scattering by inhomogeneous birefringent medium exhibits linear and circular dichroism. We show that in the case of weak depolarization (when Cloude's entropy is less than 0.5), the initial parameters for linear and circular birefringence can be obtained from deterministic Mueller matrix associated with the largest eigenvalue of Cloude's coherency matrix. Sample calculations are given for quartz.     

All-fiber birefringent filter with fine tunability and changeable spacing

A novel all-fiber birefringent filter has been proposed and demonstrated. Simulation results show that the birefringence fiber filter with one section of polarization-maintenance fiber (PMF) can be finely tuned with its free spectrum range, and the filter with two sections of PMFs can generate changeable wave-length spacing. Experiment agrees well with simulation. This filter has potential applications for flexible multiwavelength fiber laser.     

Tuneable Sagnac comb filter including two wave retarders

In this paper we study theoretically and experimentally a wavelength-tuneable Sagnac birefringence filter. The device is a Sagnac interferometer including a symmetric fibre coupler and a length of high-birefringence fibre in the loop. A wave retarder is inserted at each end of the birefringent fibre for absolute wavelength tuning. We show theoretically that wavelength tuning through wave plate orientation ensuring constant amplitude of the filtering function is possible only if a minimum of two wave retarders are included in the setup. The position of the transmission peaks then varies linearly with the angle of one of the retarders and can be adjusted over one entire channel spacing. This happens only when a quarter-wave retarder and a half-wave retarder are used, if the former is oriented at 45° with respect to the fibre birefringence axes, while the orientation of the latter serves as the adjustment parameter. The theoretical predictions are confirmed by the experimental results.     

A novel polarization splitter based on dual-core hybrid photonic crystal fibers

Highly birefringent dual-core photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) can be used as a polarization splitter because the orthogonal polarization modes with dissimilar coupling lengths are easily separated from each other. Different from the traditional methods achieving high birefringence, a new highly birefringent hybrid PCF that guides light by both index guiding and bandgap guiding is proposed. Firstly, a novel polarization splitter based on this kind of dual-core hybrid PCF is designed. The transmission modes, coupling lengths for the two orthogonal polarizations and performance of the proposed polarization splitter are investigated and numerically analyzed. The results demonstrate that it is possible to obtain a 4.72-mm-long polarization splitter. The splitting ratio is better than −20 dB in a large wavelength range of 1.53-1.72 μm. Its bandwidth is about 190 nm.     

Research on new type temperature-insensitive quartz filter

A new type temperature-insensitive quartz filter is presented in this paper, which is composed of three polarizers, a quartz birefringent crystal and a quartz rotation crystal. Based on the principle that the fluctuations of the quartz birefringence and specific rotation have an opposite trend with the temperature change, the temperature effect on output center wavelength of this new type quartz filter is investigated in detail theoretically and experimentally. The theoretical and experimental results show that this new type quartz filter is indeed insensitive to temperature change. It will have a certain application in the stability output of optical filter when temperature change as we believe.     

光学玻璃应力双折射叠加

为解决在光学玻璃应力双折射测量中遇到的双折射叠加问题,利用光学等效原理,使用一个线性双折射模型和一个旋转器来代替叠加模型。对叠加的情况做了分析和计算,得到了叠加后的特征延迟、主应力方向和旋转角随两个应力模型主应力方向夹角变化的曲线。理论分析表明,应力双折射叠加不是应力双折射的简单相加,而是与叠加模型各自的应力双折射值和主应力方向的夹角有关。实验结果与理论计算相吻合。应力双折射叠加对实际光学玻璃测试造成不良影响,使测量精度降低,特别是有透光支撑机构或折射液容器的情况下,应力双折射叠加的影响不可忽略。     

Polarization-maintaining fiber-based optical low-coherence reflectometer for characterization and ranging of birefringence

We describe a polarization-maintaining fiber-based polarization-sensitive optical low-coherence reflectometer for measurement of depth-resolved birefringence. Unlike for other fiber-based polarization-sensitive optical low-coherence reflectometers, here the linear birefringence of a sample can be measured from data recorded in a single A scan. Simultaneous measurement of retardation and orientation of birefringent axes with mica wave plates is demonstrated. The measured retardation is insensitive to sample rotation in the plane perpendicular to ranging.     

磁场中双折射光纤的琼斯矩阵等效模型

采用延迟器与旋光器的串联模型, 研究磁场中双折射光纤的偏振传输特性, 将它们的琼斯矩阵按照两种不同的顺序级联相乘, 导出了两种等效模型中等效相位延迟量、等效快轴方向和等效旋光角的解析表达式。研究发现, 当光纤同时具有线双折射和圆双折射时, 单位长度的等效相位延迟量并不等于其固有的线双折射, 等效旋光角也不等于其法拉第旋转角, 它们同时都与光纤的固有线双折射和磁场引起的圆双折射相关联。且在不同级联顺序的两种等效模型中, 等效相位延迟器的快轴方向都不与光纤的双折射主轴重合, 而是分别向两个相反的方向偏移一定的角度, 偏移角为等效旋光角的一半。     

Polychromatic intensity point spread function of a birefringent lens

We study the intensity point spread function (IPSF) of a uniaxial birefringent lens sandwiched between two linear polarizers under broadband illumination having flat-top spectral profile. The optic axis of the birefringent crystal is perpendicular to the lens axis. For monochromatic input illumination, a low-power birefringent lens offers enhanced resolution under parallel-polarizers configuration and apodization under crossed-polarizers configuration with a single focus as well. At a relatively high value of birefringence parameter, the proposed system behaves as a double-focus lens. The present communication uses a novel technique to study the effect of polychromatic illumination on the imaging characteristics of birefringent lenses. The studies reveal that the imaging characteristics of the low-power birefrigent lens does not deteriorate considerably under polychromatic illumination. However, for a polychromatic beam with large bandwidth, the imaging behavior of the system having high birefringence parameter deviates appreciably from that under strictly monochromatic illumination. The said system even loses its inherent bi-focal nature due to depolarization of polarized polychromatic light upon passage through the birefringent crystal.     

The Impact of Linear Filter Preprocessing in the Interpretation of Permutation Entropy

Permutation Entropy (PE) is a powerful tool for measuring the amount of information contained within a time series. However, this technique is rarely applied directly on raw signals. Instead, a preprocessing step, such as linear filtering, is applied in order to remove noise or to isolate specific frequency bands. In the current work, we aimed at outlining the effect of linear filter preprocessing in the final PE values. By means of the Wiener–Khinchin theorem, we theoretically characterize the linear filter’s intrinsic PE and separated its contribution from the signal’s ordinal information. We tested these results by means of simulated signals, subject to a variety of linear filters such as the moving average, Butterworth, and Chebyshev type I. The PE results from simulations closely resembled our predicted results for all tested filters, which validated our theoretical propositions. More importantly, when we applied linear filters to signals with inner correlations, we were able to theoretically decouple the signal-specific contribution from that induced by the linear filter. Therefore, by providing a proper framework of PE linear filter characterization, we improved the PE interpretation by identifying possible artifact information introduced by the preprocessing steps.