Characterization of microstructured optical fibers for wideband dispersion compensation

Microstructured optical fibers (MOFs) with small hole-to-hole spacing and large airholes are designed to compensate the anomalous dispersion and the dispersion slope of single-mode fibers. The geometrical parameters that characterize triangular MOFs are chosen to optimize the fiber length and the compensation over a wide wavelength range. A proper design of the photonic crystal fiber geometry allows us to achieve dispersion values of approximately -1700 ps nm(-1) km(-1) at 1550 nm and to compensate the dispersion of standard fibers within +/- 0.5 ps nm(-1) km(-1) over a 100-nm range. The MOF dispersion properties have been studied by means of a numerical simulator for modal analysis based on the finite-element method.     

Fiber designs with significantly reduced nonlinearity for very long distance transmission

A class of low-nonlinearity dispersion-shifted fibers based on depressed-core multistep index profiles is investigated. A systematic approach for designing these fibers in which a reference W-index profile is used to initiate the design ispresented. Transmission properties, including effective area, mode-field diameter, dispersion, dispersion slope, and cutoff wavelength, are evaluated for several design examples. The effects of varying fiber dimensions and indices on effective area and mode-field diameter are assessed. It is shown that there is a trade-off between these two properties and, generally, larger effective areas are associated with larger mode-field diameters. Dispersion-shifted single-mode fiber designs with effective areas of from 78 to 210 mum(2) and the corresponding mode-field diameter of from 8.94 to 14.94 mum, dispersion less than 0.07 ps/nm km, and dispersion slope of approximately 0.05 ps/nm(2) km are presented.     

Design optimization of a dual-core dispersion-compensating fiber with a high figure of merit and a large effective area for dense wavelength-division multiplexed transmission through standard G.655 fibers

We report design optimization in terms of index-profile parameters of a dual-core dispersion-slope-compensating fiber suitable for broadband dispersion compensation in standard G.655 and G.655b single-mode fibers over the C and L bands of fiber amplifiers and additionally over the S band for the G.655b fibers. It takes into account profiles that can be achieved with state-of-the-art fabrication techniques such as modified chemical-vapor deposition. Relatively high mode effective areas ensure the reduced sensitivity of the fiber to detrimental nonlinear effects when the fiber is integrated into a dense wavelength-division-multiplexed network. The theoretical figures of merit of these DCFs were found to be > or = 700 (ps/dB)/nm; furthermore, the estimated bend losses were also quite low, even for bend radii as small as 16 mm.     

Proposal for optical fiber designs with ultrahigh effective area and small bending loss applicable to long haul communications

A proposal for the multiclad MII optical fiber structure with ultralarge effective area and small bending loss is presented. For the proposed structure small dispersion and dispersion slope are obtained thanks to what we believe to be a novel design method. The suggested design method is based on a weighted fitness function, which is applied to the genetic algorithm optimization technique. In the meantime, the foregoing structure introduces a special fiber whose mode field diameter is small and approximately insensitive to the variation of the effective area. Compared to the work reported previously, our method can precisely set the zero dispersion wavelength. The designed dispersion-shifted single-mode fibers have effective area, mode field diameter, and quality factor respectively within [150-194.79] microm(2), [6.82-7.95] microm, and [3.04-3.85] at lambda(0)=1.55 microm. An analytical method is used for the calculation of the dispersion and its slope. These calculations give dispersion and dispersion slope of [(-2.57 x 10(-4))-(-0.085)] ps/km/nm and approximately 0.064 ps/km x nm(2), respectively.     

Photonic crystal fiber for dispersion compensation

The dispersion and mode characteristics in a dual-concentric-core photonic crystal fiber, based on pure silica, are simulated by the multipole method. The fiber exhibits very large negative dispersion due to anticrossing of two individual inner core and outer core modes. Near the wavelength of 1.55 microm, we could obtain narrowband dispersion-compensating fiber with dispersion values of -23,000 ps/km/nm, broadband dispersion-compensating fiber with dispersion values from -1000 ps/km/nm to -2500 ps/km/nm over a 200 nm range, and kappa values near 300 nm, which matched well with standard single mode fiber. It shows that even if there are some changes in the structure parameters during fabrication, these fibers can still maintain a fine dispersion-compensating property.     

Highly nonlinear all-solid photonic crystal fibers with low dispersion slope

A fluorine-doped trench-assisted structure is proposed to improve the nonlinearity of photonic crystal fibers (PCFs). Three all-solid highly nonlinear PCFs with low dispersion slope and low confinement loss are designed. They exhibit all normal dispersion, two zero dispersion wavelengths (ZDWs) and one ZDW just at 1.55 μm, respectively. The lowest dispersion slope is 5.12×10(-4) ps/(km·nm(2)), which is 2 orders of magnitude lower than that of conventional highly nonlinear fibers. A nonlinear coefficient of 31.5 W(-1)·km(-1) and low loss of 9.62×10(-5) dB/km at 1.55 μm has been achieved for this PCF.     

Characterization of birefringence dispersion in polarization-maintaining fibers by use of white-light interferometry

A new method for measuring the birefringence dispersion in polarization-maintaining fibers (PMFs) with high sensitivity and accuracy is presented. The method employs white-light interferences between two orthogonally polarized modes of PMFs. The group birefringence of the fiber is calibrated first. Then the birefringence dispersion and its variation along different fiber sections are acquired by analyzing the broadening of interferograms at different fiber lengths. The main sources of error are investigated. Birefringence dispersions of two PANDA fibers at their operation wavelength are measured to be 0.011 ps/(km nm) and 0.018 ps/(km nm). A measurement repeatability of 0.001 ps/(km nm) is achieved.     

Dynamic O-band to C-band wideband wavelength converter for integrated VCSEL-based optical interconnects

ABSTRACT

Real-time wavelength conversion and traffic routing at key network nodes is a fundamental requirement for current optical interconnects. This work experimentally demonstrates a broadband wavelength conversion from O-band to C-band employing commercially available, power efficient VCSELs. A 1310?nm VCSEL is directly modulated with 8.5 Gbps data and transmitted over 22?km G. 652 fibre with a 0.53 dB penalty. The received data is used to run a 1550?nm VCSEL located at the network integration node, achieving the first reported wavelength conversion from O-to-C-band. VCSEL wavelength tuneability with changing bias current functionality is further exploited to route the converted wavelength over 400?GHz spectra range for integration into wavelength flexible networks. The newly converted wavelength is transmitted over 24.7?km of G. 655 fibre, incurring a maximum penalty of 1.86?dB. Results from this work proves an enabling development technology for wavelength converters for transparent contention resolution in current and future optical Interconnects.     

Hole-assisted lightguide fibers with small negative dispersion and low dispersion slope

A nonzero dispersion shifted fiber design based on hole-assisted lightguide fiber is presented. The proposed fiber has low dispersion slope around -0.01 ps/nm(2)-km and small negative dispersion values over the wavelength range from 1530 to 1620 nm. It can be used as a transmission medium for a long-haul dense wavelength-division-multiplexed system.     

Dispersion-compensating photonic crystal fiber with wavelength tunability based on a modified dual concentric core structure

We present a 5-layer air-hole dispersion-compensating photonic crystal fiber (PCF) with a modified dual concentric core structure, based on central rod doping. The finite element method (FEM) was used to investigate the structure numerically. If the structural parameters remain unchanged, a high degree of linear correlation between the central rod refractive index and the operating wavelength can be achieved in the wavelength range of 1.5457–1.5857 μm, which suggests that the operating wavelength can be determined by the refractive index of the centre rod. A negative dispersion coefficient between –5765.2 ps/km/nm and –6115.8 ps/km/nm was obtained by calculation and within the bandwidth of 108 nm (1.515–1.623 μm) around 1.55 μm, a dispersion coefficient of –3000 ps/km/nm can be ensured for compensation. In addition, this proposed PCF also has the advantage of low confinement loss, between 0.00011 and 0.00012 dB/m, and ease of fabrication with existing technology. The proposed PCF has good prospects in dispersion-compensating applications.     

Ultrabroad supercontinuum generation in tellurite equiangular spiral photonic crystal fiber

Simulations are presented of a very broad and flat supercontinuum (SC) in both the normal and anomalous group velocity dispersion regimes of the same equiangular spiral photonic crystal fiber at low pumping powers. For a pump wavelength at 1557?nm and average pump power of 11.2?mW, we obtained a bandwidth >3?μm (970?nm–4100?nm) at 40 dB below the peak spectral power with fiber dispersion ～2.1?ps/km nm at 1557?nm. In the same fiber, at pump wavelength 1930?nm and average pump power of 12?mW the SC bandwidth was more than two octaves (1300?nm–3700?nm) and dispersion was ～1.3?ps/km nm at 1930?nm. This demonstrates the potential use of the fiber for multi-wavelength pumping with commercially available sources at fairly low power.     

Ultra-flattened negative dispersion for residual dispersion compensation using soft glass equiangular spiral photonic crystal fiber

Abstract

We present a numerical investigation of an equiangular spiral photonic crystal fibre (ES-PCF) in soft glass for negative flattened dispersion and ultra-high birefringence. An accurate numerical approach based on finite element method is used for the simulation of the proposed structure. It is demonstrated that it is possible to obtain average negative dispersion of –526.99 ps/nm/km over 1.05–1.70 μm wavelength range with dispersion variation of 3.7 ps/nm/km. The proposed ES-PCF also offers high birefringence of 0.0226 at the excitation wavelength of 1.55 μm. The results here show that the idea of using the proposed fibre can be potential means of effectively directing for residual dispersion compensation, fibre sensor design, long distance data transmission system and so forth.     

Three octave spanning supercontinuum by red-shifted dispersive wave in photonic crystal fibers

This article presents a three-layer index guided lead silicate (SF57) photonic crystal fiber which simultaneously promises to yield large effective optical nonlinear coefficient and low anomalous dispersion that makes it suitable for supercontinuum (SC) generation. At an operating wavelength 1550 nm, the typical optimized value of anomalous dispersion and effective nonlinear coefficient turns out to be ~4 ps/km/nm and ~1078 W^?1km^?1, respectively. Through numerical simulation, it is realized that the designed fiber promises to exhibit three octave spanning SC from 900 to 7200 nm using 50 fs ‘sech’ optical pulses of 5 kW peak power. Due to the cross-phase modulation and four-wave mixing processes, a long range of red-shifted dispersive wave generated, which assists to achieve such large broadening. In addition, we have investigated the compatibility of SC generation with input pulse peak power increment and briefly discussed the impact of nonlinear processes on SC generation.     

Polarization-maintaining optical fibers with low dispersion over a wide spectral range

The total dispersion characteristics of the doubly clad Panda (or bow-tie) fibers have been investigated. It is shown that the contribution of the photoelastic effect to the total dispersion becomes of the order of several psec/km x nm in the 1.5-1.7-microm wavelength region. By careful adjustment of the cutoff wavelength, the total dispersion is reduced to within +/- 1 psec/km x nm over the 1.38-1.70-microm wavelength region for the HE(11)(x) mode and 1.38-1.68 microm for the HE(11)(y) mode, respectively.     

Broadband dispersion-compensating fiber for high-bit-rate transmission network use

The optimum refractive-index profile and drawing temperature were investigated so as to maximize the figure of merit for multicladding broadband dispersion-compensating fibers. Based on the results of the investigation, the authors have fabricated a highly bend-resistant fiber with a 92.6-ps/(nm dB) figure of merit using the modified chemical-vapor deposition method for dispersion compensation in the 1.5-1.6-μm wavelength region. The manufactured dispersion compensator does not suffer bend loss at 1.55 μm for curvatures of radia of 6.3 and 3.3 cm, and it has a 1.1-dB/km bend loss at a curvature of radius of 1.6 cm. Codoping the germanium silicate core with fluorine diminishes the optical loss down to 0.70 dB/km at a 1.55-μm wavelength.     

A single-mode highly birefringent dispersion-compensating photonic crystal fiber using hybrid cladding

Based on the hybrid cladding design, a single-mode photonic crystal fibre (PCF) is proposed to achieve an ultra-high birefringence and large negative dispersion coefficient using finite-element method. Simulation results reveal that with optimal design parameters, it is possible to achieve an ultra-high birefringence of 2.64 × 10^?2 at the excitation wavelength of 1.55 μm. The designed structure also shows large dispersion coefficient about ?242.22 to ?762.6 ps/nm/km over the wavelength ranging from 1.30 to 1.65 μm. Moreover, residual dispersion, effective dispersion, effective area, confinement loss and nonlinear coefficient of the proposed PCF are discussed thoroughly.     

Highly birefringent large negative dispersion-flattened photonic crystal fibre for broadband residual dispersion compensation

A triangular lattice photonic crystal fibre is presented in this paper for residual dispersion compensation. The fibre exhibits a flattened negative dispersion of ?992.01 ± 6.93 ps/(nm-km) over S+C+L wavelength bands and ?995.83 ± 0.42 ps/(nm-km) over C-band. The birefringence is about 4.4 × 10^?2 at the excitation wavelength of 1550 nm which is also very high. Full vector finite element method (FEM) with a perfectly matched absorbing layer (PML) boundary condition is applied to numerically investigate the guiding properties of this PCF. The fibre operates at fundamental mode only. All these properties endorse this fibre as a suitable candidate for compensating residual dispersion and polarization maintaining applications.     

Fabrication of matched cladding and depressed cladding single mode optical fibers

Abstract

Modified chemical vapor deposition method was used to fabricate single mode optical fibers. Both matched and depressed cladding single mode fibers were designed and fabricated. Loss as low as 0.3 dB/km has been obtained at wavelength 1.55 μm.     

Time-resolved reflectance and transmittance measurements of laser-induced free carriers in germanium, silicon, and zinc selenide at 10.6 microm

We present experimental results of reflectance and transmittance measurements of infrared radiation by high-density photogenerated free carriers in polycrystalline germanium, polycrystalline silicon, and chemical vapor deposition zinc selenide windows. Linearly polarized 1064 and 532 nm wavelength light from a Nd:YAG laser with a 130 ps pulse width were used to generate free carriers in the samples. Reflectance and transmittance were measured at a 10.6 microm wavelength using a linearly polarized CO2 laser.     

Highly birefringent photonic crystal fibers with near-zero dispersion at 1550 nm wavelength

This paper presents highly birefringent photonic crystal fibers with simultaneously near-zero dispersion and low confinement losses. The finite difference time domain method with anisotropic perfectly matched layer boundaries is used as the simulation software. According to simulation, it is shown that photonic crystal fibers with hybrid cladding and artificial defects along one of the orthogonal axes sufficiently results in a very high birefringence of the order 10^?2 which is two orders of magnitude higher than that of the conventional polarization maintaining fibers. Such a fiber also assumes both near-zero dispersion and low confinement losses at the 1550 nm wavelength. Optical fibers with novel properties such as high birefringence, near-zero dispersion, and low confinement losses may have applications in optical sensing applications.