A 3-mode fiber with pure silica core and dual-step index profile is numerically investigated for realizing low DMD and low loss. We found a structure that minimizes DMD while maintaining the low loss property of the pure silica core. We also show that lower loss and larger MFD properties are restricted by the requirement for the micro-bending sensitivity.
Fiber lasers are in the process of revolutionizing modern manufacturing. Further power scaling is still much desired to increase throughput and to break new frontiers in science and defense. It has become very clear now that highly single-mode fibers with large effective mode areas are required to overcome both nonlinear effects and mode instability [1-3]. We have been studying all-solid photonic bandgap fibers (AS-PBF), which have open and highly dispersive cladding, making them ideal for higher-order-mode controls in large-mode-area fibers. I will review our recent progress in this area and, especially in ytterbium-doped AS-PBF lasers and amplifiers.
Polarizing optical fibers are important components for building compact fiber lasers with linearly polarized laser output. Conventional single-mode optical fibers with birefringence can only preserve the polarization when the incident beam is launched properly. Recent reports demonstrate that the birefringence in photonic bandgap fibers (PBFs) can provide single-polarization operation near the edge of transmission band by shifting the transmission band for the light with orthogonal polarizations. Here, we demonstrate a 50μm core Yb-doped polarizing photonic bandgap fiber (PBF) for single-polarization operation throughout the entire transmission band from 1010nm to 1170nm with a polarization extinction ratio (PER) of >5dB/m, which is >15dB/m near the short wavelength edge of the transmission band. The polarizing effect is due to the differential polarization transmission loss presented in this fiber, which is benefited from the fiber birefringence of 3.2x10-4, obtained by incorporating low-index boron-doped rods on either side of the core. The achievement is based on the fact that light at fast axis has lower effective mode index which is closer to the modes in the photonic cladding and thus to be easily coupled into cladding. A 2.6m long straight fiber was tested in a laser configuration without any polarizers to achieve single polarized laser output with a PER value of 21dB at 1026nm lasing wavelength.
A multicore fiber (MCF)-based mode multiplexer/demultiplexer (MUX/DEMUX) that can overcome the alignment issue of the fiber-based mode MUX/DEMUX is proposed. Design concept and fabrication results of the MCF-based mode MUX/DEMUX for two-spatial-mode operation (LP01 and LP11) (2M-MUX/DEMUX) and for three-spatial-mode operation (LP01, LP11a, and LP11b) (3M-MUX/DEMUX) are presented. The fabricated 2M-MUX/DEMUXes for C-band or L-band, using the same MCF with different elongation ratios demonstrate a coupling efficiency of greater than 90% over each band. Finally, a 3M-MUX/DEMUX with a fan-in/fan-out device is presented. The selective excitation of LP01, LP11a, and LP11b modes depending on input ports is experimentally demonstrated.
Multi-core to 7 single-core-fibers fan-out device with multi-core fiber pigtail connector is demonstrated to apply various types of multi-core fiber based sensor. Fused taper type fan-out device and SC type multi-core fiber connector are separately fabricated on each process. The fan-out device and the pigtail multi-core fiber are spliced each other by a specialty fiber fusion splicer. Comparatively low average insertion loss of 0.95 dB and sufficiently low reflectivity of less than -60 dB are achieved.
We propose a PLC-based multi/demultiplexer (MUX/DEMUX) with a mode conversion function for mode division multiplexing (MDM) transmission applications. The PLC-based mode MUX/DEMUX can realize a low insertion loss and a wide working wavelength bandwidth. We designed and demonstrated a two-mode (LP01 and LP11 modes) and a three-mode (LP01, LP11, and LP21 modes) MUX/DEMUX for use in the C-band.
There are still very strong interests for power scaling in high power fiber lasers for a wide range of applications in medical, industry, defense and science. In many of these lasers, fiber nonlinearities are the main limits to further scaling. Although numerous specific techniques have studied for the suppression of a wide range of nonlinearities, the fundamental solution is to scale mode areas in fibers while maintaining sufficient single mode operation. Here the key problem is that more modes are supported once physical dimensions of waveguides are increased. The key to solve this problem is to look for fiber designs with significant higher order mode suppression. In conventional waveguides, all modes are increasingly guided in the center of the waveguides when waveguide dimensions are increased. It is hard to couple a mode out in order to suppress its propagation, which severely limits their scalability. In an allsolid photonic bandgap fiber, modes are only guided due to anti-resonance of cladding photonic crystal lattice. This provides strongly mode-dependent guidance, leading to very high differential mode losses. In addition, the all-solid nature of the fiber makes it easily spliced to other fibers. In this paper, we will show for the first time that all-solid photonic bandgap fibers with effective mode area of ~920μm2 can be made with excellent higher order mode suppression.
The characteristics of a multicore fiber with one-ring structure are reviewed. The one-ring structure, which has no center
core, can overcome issues on the hexagonal close-pack structure that is the most popular multicore structure. The onering
structure has flexibility in the number of cores and is unrelated to the core pitch limitation due to cutoff wavelength
lengthening thank to no center core structure. The one-ring structure is effective to suppress the worst case crosstalk that
is crosstalk assuming all cores carry equal signal power. In the case of hexagonal close-pack structure, the worst case
crosstalk of an inner core is 7.8 dB larger than that between two cores. The different worst crosstalk is observed
depending on the number of nearest neighbor cores. The one-ring structure can limit the degradation to 3.0 dB for all
cores. Fabricated 12-core fiber with the one-ring structure based on the simulation realized effective core area of 80 m2
and very low crosstalk less than -40 dB after 100-km propagation.
KEYWORDS: Optical fibers, Fermium, Frequency modulation, Waveguides, Cladding, Fiber lasers, Birefringence, High power lasers, Defense technologies, Defense and security
There are still very strong interests for power scaling in high power fiber lasers for a wide range of applications in
medical, industry, defense and science. In many of these lasers, fiber nonlinearities are the main limits to further scaling. Although numerous specific techniques have studied for the suppression of a wide range of nonlinearities, the fundamental solution is to scale mode areas in fibers while maintaining sufficient single mode operation. Here the key problem is that more modes are supported once physical dimensions of waveguides are increased. The key to solve this problem is to look for fiber designs with significant higher order mode suppression. In conventional waveguides, all modes are increasingly guided in the center of the waveguides when waveguide dimensions are increased. It is hard to couple a mode out in order to suppress its propagation, which severely limits their scalability. In an all-solid photonic bandgap fiber, modes are guided due to anti-resonance of cladding photonic crystal lattice. This provides strongly modedependent guidance, leading to very high differential mode losses. In addition, the all-solid nature of the fiber makes it easily spliced to other fibers. In this paper, we will show for the first time that all-solid photonic bandgap fibers with effective mode area of ~800m2 can be made with excellent higher order mode suppression.
There are very strong interests for power scaling in high power fiber lasers for a wide range of applications in medical,
industry, defense and science. In many of these lasers, fiber nonlinearities are the main limits to further scaling.
Although numerous specific techniques have studied for the suppression of the wide range of nonlinearities, the
fundamental solution is scaling mode areas in fibers while maintaining sufficient single mode operation. Here the key
problem is that more modes are supported once physical dimensions of waveguides are increased. There are two basic
approaches, lower refractive index contrast to counter the increase of waveguide dimension or/and introduction of
additional losses to suppress higher order modes. Lower index contrast leads to weak waveguides, resulting in fibers no
longer being coil-able. Our research has been focused on designs for significant higher mode suppression. In
conventional waveguides, modes are increasingly guided in the center of the waveguides when waveguide dimensions
are increased. It is hard to couple the modes out to suppress them. This severely limits the scalability of all designs based
conventional fibers. In an all-solid photonic bandgap fiber, modes are guided due to anti-resonance of cladding photonic
crystal lattice. This leads strongly mode-dependent guidance. Our theoretical study has shown that it can have some of
the highest differential mode losses among all designs with equivalent mode areas. Our design and experimental works
have shown the potential of this approach for all-glass fibers with >50μm core which can be coiled for high power
applications.
The limitations of crosstalk and core-to-core distance in step-index multi-core fibers (SI-MCFs) are clarified for long-haul
transmission, and the low-crosstalk MCF structures of trench-assisted MCFs (TA-MCFs) are investigated for
realizing large effective area (Aeff) and high core density, simultaneously, with a limited cladding diameter. It is shown
that the crosstalk between neighboring cores in TA-MCFs can be greatly suppressed even if the Aeff and the cutoff
wavelength are fixed compared with SI-MCFs. In addition, the possibility of MCFs with heterogeneous core
arrangement is considered for transmission fibers and low-crosstalk heterogeneous MCFs with bending radius
insensitive characteristics are investigated.
The bending characteristics of all-solid photonic bandgap fibers (AS-PBGFs) are investigated for aiming to achieve large
mode area (LMA) and effectively single-mode operation with a practically allowable bending radius for Yb-doped fiber
applications. Through detailed numerical simulations, the impacts of the order of photonic bandgap (PBG) on the
bending performance are evaluated and the limitation of core-size enlargement due to bending loss (BL) increase in the
AS-PBGFs with a one-cell core structure is pointed out. In addition, it is found that the AS-PBGFs having a seven-cell
core can achieve sufficient differential BL between the fundamental mode (FM) and the higher-order modes (HOMs)
and a much larger effective area limit as compared with previously-reported index-guiding LMA fibers, by taking into
account practical constraints.
We characterize coupling between two identical collinear hollow core Bragg fibers, assuming TE01 launching condition. Using multipole method and finite element method we investigate dependence of the beat length between supermodes of the coupled fibers and supermode radiation losses as a function of the inter-fiber separation, fiber core radius and index of the cladding. We established that coupling is maximal when fibers are touching each other decreasing dramatically during the first tens of nanometers of separation. However, residual coupling with the strength proportional to the fiber radiation loss is very long range decreasing as an inverse square root of the inter-fiber separation, and exhibiting periodic variation with inter-fiber separation. Finally, coupling between the TE01 modes is considered in a view of designing a directional coupler. We find
that for fibers with large enough core radii one can identify broad frequency ranges where inter-modal coupling strength exceeds super-mode radiation losses by an order of magnitude, thus opening a possibility of building a directional coupler. We attribute such
unusually strong inter-mode coupling both to the resonant effects
in the inter-mirror cavity as well as a proximity interaction between the leaky modes localized in the mirror.
We characterize coupling between two identical collinear hollow
core Bragg fibers, assuming T01 launching condition. Using multipole method and finite element method we investigate dependence of the beat length between supermodes of the coupled fibers and supermode radiation losses as a function of the
inter-fiber separation, fiber core radius and index of the
cladding. We established that coupling is maximal when fibers are
touching each other decreasing dramatically during the first tens
of nanometers of separation. However residual coupling with the
strength proportional to the fiber radiation loss is very long
range decreasing as an inverse square root of the inter-fiber
separation, and exhibiting periodic variation with inter-fiber
separation. Finally, coupling between the T01 modes is considered in a view of designing a directional coupler. We find that for fibers with large enough core radii one can identify
broad frequency ranges where inter-modal coupling strength exceeds
super-mode radiation losses by an order of magnitude, thus opening
a possibility of building a directional coupler. We attribute such
unusually strong inter-mode coupling both to the resonant effects
in the inter-mirror cavity as well as a proximity interaction
between the leaky modes localized in the mirror.
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