Power-independent technique to extract the dispersion parameters of an optical fiber using four wave mixing

Conventional methods which extract dispersion parameters of an optical fiber using four wave mixing rely on the measurement of optical power in the generated wavelengths, and hence are prone to measurement errors. We propose and demonstrate a power-independent method to extract the dispersion curve of a fiber using four wave mixing (FWM). The analytical equations that have been traditionally used to estimate the phase mismatch in FWM are modified to cater to low-dispersion fibers, and are verified. Experiments to obtain the dispersion curve of a low-dispersion and highly nonlinear fiber are discussed and the results are analyzed. Limitations of any FWM-based method to extract the dispersion curve of a fiber are presented for the first time.     

Tailoring the dispersion properties of photonic crystal fibers

Photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) have had a substantial impact on nonlinear fiber optics and shortpulsed fiber laser systems due to their novel dispersion properties. The large normal or anomalous waveguide dispersion available in such fibers opens up a number of new opportunities not accessible with standard fiber technology. In this contribution, the fundamentals of PCF dispersion are briefly reviewed along with earlier results. In addition, some of our recent work on dispersion tailoring to facilitate nonlinear processes, and dispersion control in lasers will be presented.     

Multiwavelength actively mode-locked fiber ring laser with a dispersion compensated cavity

A multiwavelength actively mode-locked fiber ring laser that utilises a single semiconductor optical amplifier as both a gain and mode-locking element is presented. It is verified experimentally that the number of mode-locked wavelengths may be maximised by compensating for the anomalous intra-cavity dispersion. This is achieved through the inclusion of an appropriate length of normal dispersion fiber in the laser cavity. Using this technique, the number of wavelengths simultaneously mode-locked at 10 GHz was increased from 2 to 5.     

Anomalous dispersion in a solid, silica-based fiber

We demonstrate an all-solid (nonholey), silica-based fiber with anomalous dispersion at wavelengths where silica material dispersion is negative. This is achieved by exploiting the enhanced dispersion engineering capabilities of higher-order modes in a fiber, yielding + 60 ps/nm km dispersion at 1080 nm. By coupling to the desired higher-order mode with low-loss in-fiber gratings, we realize a 5 m long fiber module with a 300 fs/nm dispersion that yields a 1 dB bandwidth of 51 nm with an insertion loss of approximately 0.1 dB at the center wavelength of 1080 nm. We demonstrate its functionality as a critical enabler for an all-fiber, Yb-based, mode-locked femtosecond ring laser.     

Cascaded four-wave mixing generation with pumping in the normal dispersion regime

we report on the generation of cascaded four-wave mixing （CFWM） in a photonic crystal fiber with a high peak power picosecond pulse pumping in the normal dispersion region and a weak continuous wave seeded. We also experimentally investigate the dependence of CFWM bandwidth on the seeding wavelengths. Experimental results demonstrate the existence of optimum seeding wavelengths for broadband CFWM even though the pulse wavelength is 50 nm shorter than the zero dispersion wavelength. And CFWM products spanning more than 300 nm are experimentally obtained.     

Observation of pulse trapping in a near-zero dispersion regime

We report pulse trapping in passively mode-locked fiber lasers operating in a near-zero dispersion regime. Two polarization components of vector pulses have different central wavelengths while copropagating as a unit in fiber lasers. The vector pulses exhibit smooth Gaussian spectral profile without any sidebands, qualitatively distinct from those observed in net-anomalous and net-normal fiber lasers. Numerical simulations suggest that the pulse trapping depends not only on fiber birefringence and cavity dispersion but also on saturable absorption effect. The experimental observations are in good agreement with the numerical simulations.     

Polarization mode dispersion in WDM systems

The coupled nonlinear Schrodinger equations for two wavelength optical pulses in a birefringence fiber are given. The model for treating polarization mode dispersion in two channel (WDM) system is established. Based on this model, optical signal propagation behaviors in two channel WDM with polarization mode dispersion are numerically simulated. The influences of polarization mode dispersion on two channel WDM system are also analyzed.     

Influences of cavity dispersion distribution on the output pulse properties of an all-normal-dispersion fiber laser

In this paper, the influences of the dispersion distribution in the cavity on the output pulse properties of the all-normaldispersion(ANDi) fiber laser are investigated. Our simulations show that, as the relative length of the dispersion fiber increases, the temporal width and the spectral bandwidth of the output pulse for an ANDi fiber laser with fixed total cavity dispersion or fiber length are decreased, while the pulse energy is enhanced and the compressed pulse width is increased.These simulation predictions have been proved by our experimental results. The reason may be that the nonlinear phase shift accumulated in the nonlinear fiber is more than that in the dispersion fiber if they have the same length.     

A QoS-aware wavelength assignment scheme for optical networks

Dispersion in fiber optic is wavelength dependent and it degrades the quality of service (QoS) in an optical network. Although use of dispersion compensating fiber reduces the effects of dispersion but it is very costly. In this paper, we propose a QoS-aware wavelength assignment (QWA) scheme to improve the quality of service in an optical network by reducing the overall dispersion in the network. In this scheme, the connection requests with longer lightpath are assigned the wavelengths having lesser dispersion and the wavelengths having higher dispersion are assigned to the lightpaths with shorter distance. The lightpaths are computed using alternate path routing to achieve the lower blocking probability. The performance analysis of QWA scheme is done in terms of total dispersion using step-index fiber (SIF). Results of our experiments show that QWA scheme outperforms conventional wavelength assignment scheme based on First-Fit method (WAFF).     

A novel hybrid photonic crystal dispersion compensating fiber with multiple windows

A novel dispersion compensating fiber (DCF) with multiple windows is proposed, which is based on hybrid photonic crystal fibers. This type of DCF has a characteristic of multiple negative dispersion windows by the coupling between the hybrid guiding mode in the boundary of each band-gap of the core region and the index guiding mode in the cladding defect area. This is entirely different from the ordinary dual-core mechanism. The proposed DCF can compensate multiple dispersion wavelengths at the same time.     

Photosensitivity-enabled dispersion controllability for quasi-phase-matching in photonic crystal fibers

A novel photonic crystal fiber featured by concentric cores is proposed to induce dispersion controllability by photosensitivity. Chromatic dispersion can be changed from -1827 to 72 ps/nm/km with refractive index modulation of 4 x 10(-4) produced in Ge-doped regions in the fiber. Effective mode area of inner mode is as small as 6.4 mum(2). The proposed fiber enables to achieve quasi-phase-matched nonlinear parametric interaction in a single piece of photonic crystal fiber, by periodically alternating dispersion and compensating for phase mismatching caused by the dispersion.     

Measuring chromatic dispersion of optical fiber using time-of-flight and a tunable multi-wavelength semiconductor fiber laser

We have developed a tunable multi-wavelength semiconductor fiber laser (SFL) for chromatic dispersion measurements of optical fiber based on the time-of flight (TOF) or pulse-delay technique. The SFL incorporates a programmable high-birefringence fiber Sagnac loop to select the separation of the lasing wavelengths between 3.2 and 1.6 nm. The SFL emits 5 and 11 wavelengths for separations of 3.2 and 1.6 nm, respectively, all within the C-band and with an output power uniformity within 3.2 dB. Results from TOF measurements are compared with standard phase-shift techniques; the percent differences between the two methods are within ±1.34% for measurements on various lengths of standard single mode fiber.     

Modulation instability induced by cross-phase modulation in a dual-wavelength dispersion-managed soliton fiber ring laser

We report on the observation of the modulation instability induced by cross-phase modulation in a dual-wavelength operation dispersion-managed soliton fiber ring laser with net negative cavity dispersion. The passively mode-locked operation is achieved by using a nonlinear polarization rotation technique. A new type of dual-wavelength operation, where one is femtosecond pulse and the other is picosecond pulse operation, is obtained by properly rotating the polarization controllers. When the dual-wavelength pulses are simultaneously circulating in the laser ring cavity, a series of stable modulation sidebands appears in the picosecond pulse spectrum at longer wavelength with lower peak power due to modulation instability induced by cross-phase modulation between the two lasing wavelengths. Moreover, the intensities and wavelength shifts of the modulation sidebands can be tuned by varying the power of the femtosecond pulse or the lasing central wavelengths of the dual-wavelength pulses. The theoretical analysis of the modulation instability induced by cross-phase modulation in our fiber laser is also presented.     

A novel broadband dispersion compensating square-lattice photonic crystal fiber

In this paper we propose a novel square-lattice photonic crystal fiber (SPCF) for dispersion compensation in a wide range of wavelengths. Perfectly matched layer (PML) is considered for the boundary treatment and an efficient compact two dimensional finite-difference frequency-domain (2-D FDFD) method is employed to model square-lattice photonic crystal fibers (SPCF). It has been shown with selecting appropriate parameters for SPCF it is possible to obtain high negative dispersion coefficient, negative dispersion slope over E to L wavelengths, confinement losses less than 10^?5?dB/m and splice losses less than 3.6 dB. The designed SPCF exhibits a relative dispersion slope (RDS) of 3.543 × 10^?3 nm^?1 which is closely matched to the RDS of conventional single mode fibers.     

Impacts of dispersion maps on nonlinear distortion in distributed Raman amplified multi-span systems

The influences of dispersion maps on three major nonlinear effects (SPM, XPM and SRS) in distributed Raman amplified fiber transmission systems with periodic dispersion compensation are numerically investigated at identical nonlinear phase shift. The results show that compared with lumped amplification, distributed amplification tends to enhance the SPM/XPM induced penalties provided per span complete DC is used. However, these performance differences can be canceled out by means of optimal dispersion managements. Moreover, distributed Raman amplification can change the optimal dispersion maps for XPM effects. On the other hand, the impacts of SRS crosstalk are mainly determined by wavelength spacing and walk-off parameter, and the effects of dispersion management are quite limited. For a system with properly designed fiber dispersion characteristics, SRS induced waveform distortion can be well suppressed.     

双零色散光子晶体光纤结构参数的变化对其性能的影响

应用多极法,研究了正六边形结构光子晶体光纤的结构参数改变时,波长范围在0.8—1.8μm之间的双零色散光子晶体光纤的色散特性和非线系数随波长的变化规律.对具有相同结构参数的正六边形结构和正八边形结构进行比较,得到正六边形结构的双零色散光子晶体光纤的色散更加平坦,非线性系数有明显增大的结果.因此,正六边形结构更容易获得色散平坦的高非线性双零色散光子晶体光纤.最终设计了在800nm附近具有平坦色散和高非线性的正六边形双零色散光子晶体光纤.     

Effects of third-order dispersion on soliton switching in fiber nonlinear directional couplers

The split-step Fourier method is used to study the energy switching characteristics of fiber nonlinear directional couplers with the third-order dispersion. The effects of the third-order dispersion increases with the third-order dispersion coefficient and input power and result in pulse shift and energy decreases. Adding high-order nonlinear can partly overcomes these effects.     

Broadband dispersion compensation of conventional single mode fibers using microstructure optical fibers

This paper presents a microstructure optical fiber for dispersion compensation in a wide range of wavelengths. The finite-element method with perfectly matched absorbing layers boundary condition is used to investigate the guiding properties. The designed novel dispersion compensating fiber shows that it is possible to obtain a larger negative dispersion coefficient of about −130 to −360 ps/(nm km), better dispersion slope compensation, better compensation ratio, and lower confinement losses less than 10⁻² dB/km in the entire telecommunication (1400–1600 nm) band by using a modest number of design parameters and very simple cladding design.     

An efficient method for supercontinuum generation in dispersion-tailored Lead-silicate fiber taper

In this paper we theoretically study the broadband mid-IR supercontinuum generation (SCG) in a lead-silicate microstructured fiber (the glass for simulation is SF57). The total dispersion of the fiber can be tailored by changing the core diameter of the fiber so that dispersion profiles with two zero dispersion wavelengths (ZDWs) can be obtained. Numerical simulations of the SCG process in a 4 cm long SF57 fiber/fiber taper seeded by femto-second pulses at telecommunications wavelength of 1.55 µm are presented. The results show that a fiber taper features a continuous shift of the longer zero dispersion wavelength. This extends the generated continuum to a longer wavelength region compared to fibers with fixed ZDWs. The phase-matching condition (PMC) is continuously modified in the fiber taper and the bandwidth of the generated dispersive waves (DWs) is significantly broadened.     

Information capacity of optical fiber channels with zero average dispersion

We study the statistics of optical data transmission in a noisy nonlinear fiber channel with a weak dispersion management and zero average dispersion. Applying analytical expressions for the output probability density functions both for a nonlinear channel and for a linear channel with additive and multiplicative noise we calculate in a closed form a lower bound estimate on the Shannon capacity for an arbitrary signal-to-noise ratio.