Hollow fibers for delivery of harmonic pulses of Q-switched Nd:YAG lasers

Flexible hollow fibers for delivery of the second, third, and fourth harmonic pulses of Q-switched Nd:YAG lasers are introduced. For the doubled (532-nm) wavelength, we fabricated a hollow fiber with an internal metal and polymer film by using a silver-mirror plating and a liquid-phase-coating method. For tripled (355-nm) and quadrupled (266-nm) Nd:YAG in the ultraviolet region, we fabricated aluminum hollow fibers with or without an internal polymer layer by using the metal-organic chemical-vapor deposition method. Both types of fiber show high stability for the transmission of high-peak power laser pulses with low transmission losses.     

Investigation of optical fibers for gas-phase, ultraviolet laser-induced-fluorescence (UV-LIF) spectroscopy

We investigate the feasibility of transmitting high-power, ultraviolet (UV) laser pulses through long optical fibers for laser-induced-fluorescence (LIF) spectroscopy of the hydroxyl radical (OH) and nitric oxide (NO) in reacting and non-reacting flows. The fundamental transmission characteristics of nanosecond (ns)-duration laser pulses are studied at wavelengths of 283 nm (OH excitation) and 226 nm (NO excitation) for state-of-the-art, commercial UV-grade fibers. It is verified experimentally that selected fibers are capable of transmitting sufficient UV pulse energy for single-laser-shot LIF measurements. The homogeneous output-beam profile resulting from propagation through a long multimode fiber is ideal for two-dimensional planar-LIF (PLIF) imaging. A fiber-coupled UV-LIF system employing a 6 m long launch fiber is developed for probing OH and NO. Single-laser-shot OH- and NO-PLIF images are obtained in a premixed flame and in a room-temperature NO-seeded N(2) jet, respectively. Effects on LIF excitation lineshapes resulting from delivering intense UV laser pulses through long fibers are also investigated. Proof-of-concept measurements demonstrated in the current work show significant promise for fiber-coupled UV-LIF spectroscopy in harsh diagnostic environments such as gas-turbine test beds.     

Optical properties of end-sealed hollow fibers

We propose sealing techniques for medical hollow fibers to protect the inner surface of fibers from debris or water that scatters from targets. First, hollow fibers are sealed with a film of polymer that is easily formed by use of a dipping technique. The transmission loss of 20-microm-thick sealing film was 0.2 dB for Er:YAG laser light, and the maximum energy that is available for the film was 180 mJ. Second, a sealed glass cap was applied to the output end of hollow fiber. The silica-glass cap with a wall thickness of 400 microm shows a transmission loss of 0.5 dB and was not damaged by radiation of 400-mJ energy pulses.     

Sensor properties of hollow-core photonic crystal fibers

A new class of hollow-core photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) with various modifications of spatial lattices is considered. The influence of the PCF structure geometry on the photonic band gap (PBG) in the visible spectral range is demonstrated. A relationship between a change in the PCF core refractive index due to filling of the hollow core with various liquids and the PBG position is established. PCFs show new possibilities for use as biological and chemical sensors.     

七孔涤纶纤维对CPE-AO2246微观结构和性能的影响

利用氯化聚乙烯(CPE)、 2, 2-亚甲基-双( 4-甲基-6-叔丁基苯酚) (AO2246)和三维卷曲七孔中空涤纶纤维(SHPF)制备了一系列的SHPF/CPE-AO2246三元复合材料。通过DMA、 SEM、 SW230吸声仪以及HD026NE电子织物强力仪等对复合材料的微观结构和性能进行了测试及分析。结果表明, 加入的SHPF纤维充当了结晶诱导作用, 在复合材料中产生了大量AO2246的包覆式结晶, 从而加速了网络结构的形成; 含有20%质量比(以CPE和AO2246总质量为基)纤维的SHPF/CPE-AO2246复合材料的最大储能模量是未加纤维的3倍多, 由于复合材料的储能模量增幅较大而使其损耗因子下降较快, 但材料损耗模量-温度曲线下的面积(LA)随纤维含量增加而增大, 说明材料的阻尼耗能能力并未下降; SHPF纤维的加入使材料的力学性能获得了较大的改善, 中空网络结构的形成赋予三元复合材料吸声性能。     

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.     

Hollow fibers of yttria-stabilized zirconia (8YSZ) prepared by calcination of electrospun composite fibers

8YSZ fibers were synthesized by calcination of PVP/zirconium oxychloride/yttrium nitrate composite fibers (PVP-Precursor) obtained by electrospinning. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicated that the 8YSZ fibers are hollow and the gas released during organic binder decomposition resulted in the formation of hollow center in fibers. Proper controlling heating rate is necessary to the formation of hollow structure. Both X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy analysis indicated that the 8YSZ fibers have crystal structure of tetragonal phase. The hollow structure should make the fibers to have a higher resistance to sintering than solid fibers at elevated temperature. This result has important applications in catalytic combustion.     

Analysis and design of terahertz photonic crystal fibers by an effective-index method

An effective-index method (EIM) is used to analyze and design photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) for the terahertz radiation. By building an analogy between a conventional optical fiber and a PCF, the EIM solves the effective index of the fiber cladding and the effective modal index of a PCF analytically. The EIM is first validated by comparison with available data in the reference, showing that the role of material dispersion is negligible at higher frequencies. Terahertz PCFs with flattened dispersion are designed based on this method and the scaling property of the Maxwell equations.     

Formation and magnetic properties of M-Sr ferrite hollow fibers via organic gel-precursor transformation process

The M-Sr ferrite hollow fibers have been successfully prepared by the organic gel-precursor transformation process. The phase formation process of M-Sr ferrite is analyzed by FTIR, XRD and consists of the gel-precursor thermal decomposition and the subsequent ferrite phase formation from strontium oxide and iron oxide. The M-Sr ferrite hollow fibers obtained are characterized with SEM and XRD, and show a high aspect ratio, fine diameters around 4 μm and a ratio of the hollow diameter to the fiber diameter being about 1/2. The optimized M-Sr ferrite hollow fibers are composed of nanograins with a hexagonal plate morphology. Magnetic properties are measured with VSM under a maximum applied of 1194 kA m⁻¹. The M-Sr ferrite hollow fibers formed at 1100 °C for 2 h with the specific saturation magnetization of 53.5 A m² kg⁻¹ possess a shape anisotropy characteristic and the coercivity for the aligned hollow fibers parallel and perpendicular to the applied field is correspondingly 385 and 357 kA m⁻¹.     

Self-assembly of uniform nanoporous silica fibers

Self-assembly of nanoporous silica shapes is of great interest for modern nanotechnology because of uniform pore size, simplicity, and low cost of production. However, there are two major problems that prevent broad use of the self-assembly process. First, the process brings too broad a variety of the assembled shapes. Secondly, the yield of the desired shapes is far from 100%. Here, we describe a process of acidic self-assembly of silica shapes that is free of both of these problems. The process described results in virtually a 100% of very uniform fibers. Each fiber has a hexagonal cross section of approximately 2 /spl mu/m and a length of approximately 5 /spl mu/m. The highly uniform pores with periodicity of 3.8 nm are unidirectional along the fiber. These new fibers can be used in chromatography, drug delivery, manufacturing nanowires, nanoreactors for "one-dimensional" chemistry, etc.     

Optical fiber array for the delivery of high peak-power laser pulses for fluid flow measurements

Fiber delivery of 64.7 mJ laser pulses (approximately 6 ns duration) from a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser operating at 532 nm is demonstrated. A custom diffractive optical element was used to shape the laser beam and facilitate coupling into a linear fiber array. This launch arrangement achieves an improvement in launch efficiency compared with a circular fiber bundle evaluated in previous work and the delivery of higher pulse energies is demonstrated. The bundle is capable of delivering light of sufficient pulse energy and, importantly, with suitable focusability, to generate a thin light sheet for the fluid flow measurement technique of particle image velocimetry (PIV). Fiber delivery offers an advantage, in terms of optical access, for the application of PIV to enclosed measurement volumes, such as the cylinder of a combustion engine.     

Attenuation measurement of infrared optical fibers by use of a hollow-taper-based coupling method

An alternative method for attenuation measurement of infrared (IR) fibers is described. The method includes a simple technique for direct laser-to-fiber coupling with an uncoated glass hollow taper. The operating principle of the hollow taper is based on the grazing-incidence effect of light reflection. The hollow taper forms a smooth Gaussian-shaped profile of the output laser emission and provides the proper conditions for equilibrium-mode distribution of optical power within the test IR fibers. The experimental hollow-taper-based coupling method is used for measurement of attenuation and bending losses of various kinds of IR fiber, including solid-core (fluoride, chalcogenide, and germanium-doped) and hollow fibers.     

Scattering, absorption, and extinction by thin fibers

For electromagnetic wave incidence on a thin fiber at an angle theta i with the fiber axis, induced currents are described by linear combinations of driven and traveling waves exp(+/-ikz cos theta i) and exp(+/-imkz), where the complex factor m serves to remove singularities in the normalizing constants of the currents. The fiber may be solid, hollow, or coated, with quite general constitutive parameters. Results are given for scattering, absorption, extinction, and radar cross sections, using energy conservation and reciprocity as consistency checks, and compared with independent computations, including the Born approximation for tenuous conductors and dielectrics. In addition, the far field amplitude of a 50 wavelength conductor is obtained and compared with the well-known long-wire approximation.     

Spectral transformation of femtosecond Cr:forsterite laser pulses in a flint-glass photonic-crystal fiber

Nonlinear-optical performance of photonic-crystal fibers (PCFs) made of highly nonlinear TF10 glass is studied and compared with the general tendencies of nonlinear-optical interactions in fused-silica PCFs. The loss of TF10 glass PCFs prevents the generation of supercontinuum emission with a broad and flat spectrum, which typically requires propagation lengths comparable with or exceeding the attenuation length of the fiber. However, dispersive-wave emission of solitons, induced by high-order dispersion, phase-matched four-wave-mixing processes, and self-phase-modulation-induced spectral broadening are substantially enhanced in TF10 glass PCFs due to the high material nonlinearity, providing a high efficiency of frequency conversion of Cr:forsterite laser pulses.     

聚合物共混制备纳米和多孔碳纤维及性能研究

聚丙烯腈(PAN)和聚甲基丙烯酸甲酯(PMMA)共混膜的结构和尺寸可由两组分比例和分子量调整。以PAN为碳前驱体,PMMA为热分解聚合物,并控制m(PAN)/m(PMMA)为30/70和70/30,通过湿法纺丝制备了PAN/PMMA共混纤维。以m(PAN)/m(PMMA)为30/70和70/30的共混纤维为原丝经碳化后获得了纳米碳纤维(CNFs)和多孔碳纤维(PCFs)。利用扫描电镜观察了所得CNFs和PCFs的形貌,发现单根CNFs的直径为50～150nm,PCFs中孔的直径为0.1～1μm。由CNFs和PCFs的拉曼光谱分析了不同碳化温度对CNFs和PCFs石墨化程度的影响,结果表明随碳化温度升高,石墨化程度也增加,同时电导率也随之提高。     

Influence of bending on power distribution in step-index plastic optical fibers and the calculation of bending loss

A means of calculating optical power distribution in bent multimode optical fibers is proposed. It employs the power-flow equation approximated by the Fokker-Planck equation that is solved by the explicit finite-difference method. Conceptually important steps of this procedure include (i) dividing the full length of the bent optical fiber into a finite number of short, straight segments; (ii) solving the power equation for each segment sequentially to find its output distribution; and (iii) expressing that output distribution in rotated coordinates of the subsequent segment along the curved fiber to determine the input distribution for that subsequent segment and thus enable the calculation of the power flow and output distribution for it. The segment length and bend-induced perturbation of output angles are determined by geometric optics. The resulting power distributions are given at different cross sections along the curved fiber axis. They vary with the radius of fiber curvature and launch conditions. Results are compared to those for straight fiber. Bending loss is calculated as well.     

Carbonic anhydrase immobilized on hollow fiber membranes using glutaraldehyde activated chitosan for artificial lung applications

Extracorporeal CO₂ removal from circulating blood is a promising therapeutic modality for the treatment of acute respiratory failure. The enzyme carbonic anhydrase accelerates CO₂ removal within gas exchange devices by locally catalyzing HCO₃ ^? into gaseous CO₂ within the blood. In this work, we covalently immobilized carbonic anhydrase on the surface of polypropylene hollow fiber membranes using glutaraldehyde activated chitosan tethering to amplify the density of reactive amine functional groups for enzyme immobilization. XPS and a colorimetric amine assay confirmed higher amine densities on the chitosan coated fiber compared to control fiber. Chitosan/CA coated fibers exhibited accelerated CO₂ removal in scaled-down gas exchange devices in buffer and blood (115 % enhancement vs. control, 37 % enhancement vs. control, respectively). Carbonic anhydrase immobilized directly on hollow fiber membranes without chitosan tethering resulted in no enhancement in CO₂ removal. Additionally, fibers coated with chitosan/carbonic anhydrase demonstrated reduced platelet adhesion when exposed to blood compared to control and heparin coated fibers.     

Preparation of Fiber Optics for the Delivery of High-Energy High-Beam-Quality Nd:YAG Laser Pulses

Recent improvements in design have made it possible to build Nd:YAG lasers with both high pulse energy and high beam quality. These lasers are particularly suited for percussion drilling of holes of as much as 1-mm diameter thick (a few millimeters) metal parts. An example application is the production of cooling holes in aeroengine components for which 1-ms duration, 30-J energy laser pulses produce holes of sufficient quality much more efficiently than with a laser trepanning process. Fiber optic delivery of the laser beam would be advantageous, particularly when one is processing complex three-dimensional structures. However, lasers for percussion drilling are available only with conventional bulk-optic beam delivery because of laser-induced damage problems with the small-diameter (approximately 200-400-mum) fibers that would be required for preserving necessary beam quality. We report measurements of beam degradation in step-index optical fibers with an input beam quality corresponding to an M(2) of 22. We then show that the laser-induced damage threshold of 400-mum core-diameter optical fibers can be increased significantly by a CO(2) laser treatment step following the mechanical polishing routine. This increase in laser-induced damage threshold is sufficient to propagate 25-J, 1-ms laser pulses with a 400-mum core-diameter optical fiber and an output M(2) of 31.     

Efficient Bragg gratings in phosphosilicate and germanosilicate photonic crystal fiber

We present ArF laser-induced dynamics of Bragg grating (BG) growths in phosphosilicate-doped or germanosilicate-doped core photonic crystal fibers (PCFs). To this end, we have adapted the technique of H2 loading, usually used in conventional fiber, to the case of microstructured fiber, allowing both the concentration of hydrogen in the PCFs to be kept nearly constant for the time of the exposure and the BG spectra to be easily recorded. We compared the characteristics of BG growths in the two types of PCF to those in conventional step-index fibers. We then conducted a study of the thermal stability of the BGs in PCFs through 30 min of isochronal annealing. At the same time we discuss the role played by the microstructuration and the doping with regard to the grating contrast and the Bragg wavelength stability.     

Improved hollow-core photonic crystal fiber design for delivery of nanosecond pulses in laser micromachining applications

We report the delivery of high-energy nanosecond pulses (approximately 65 ns pulse width) from a high-repetition-rate (up to 100 kHz) Q-switched Nd:YAG laser through the fundamental mode of a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (HC-PCF) at 1064 nm. The guided mode in the HC-PCF has a low overlap with the glass, allowing delivery of pulses with energies above those attainable with other fibers. Energies greater than 0.5 mJ were delivered in a single spatial mode through the hollow-core fiber, providing the pulse energy and high beam quality required for micromachining of metals. Practical micromachining of a metal sheet by fiber delivery has been demonstrated.