Evaluation of high-temperature absorption coefficients of optical fibers

The large absorption coefficient /spl alpha/ of single-mode optical fiber at high temperatures is closely related to the generation of the fiber fuse phenomenon. We propose a high-temperature loss-increase mechanism, which includes three factors that bring about an increase in the /spl alpha/ values: 1) point-defect (Ge E' center) formation; 2) electronic conductivity due to the thermal ionization of a Ge-doped silica core; and 3) thermochemical SiO production in the silica glass. Ge E'-center formation and electronic conductivity in the Ge-doped silica core are dominant factors at temperatures near the critical temperature of 1323 K. However, these factors cannot explain the large /spl alpha/ values observed at high temperatures above 2273 K. By contrast, SiO gas and/or solid, which are thermochemically produced in the silica glass, exhibit large /spl alpha/ values of the order of 10/sup 4/ m/sup -1/ at 2293 K. The /spl alpha/ value estimated at 0.5 /spl mu/m is close to the experimental value reported in the fiber fuse experiments.     

High efficiency 90/spl deg/ silica waveguide bend using an air hole photonic crystal region

We propose the hybrid integration of an air hole photonic crystal (PhC) structure with a high /spl Delta/ (0.75%) single-mode silica waveguide to achieve an ultracompact high efficiency 90/spl deg/ bend for transverse-magnetic polarized light. Diffraction from the periodic boundary between the PhC and silica waveguide regions is shown to seriously degrade the optical efficiency of the bend. A microgenetic algorithm (/spl mu/GA) combined with a two-dimensional finite-difference time-domain method is used to modify the PhC and its boundary layer to suppress this diffraction which in turn maximizes bend efficiency. The final optimized structure has a 99.4% bend efficiency at a wavelength of 1.55 /spl mu/m and occupies an area of only 27 /spl times/ 27 /spl mu/m.     

Polymer optical waveguide vertically coupled to high-Q whispering gallery resonators

We report on a novel implementation of a polymer optical waveguide vertically coupled to the whispering gallery modes of a fused silica resonator disc. This is the first step in bringing high-Q silica discs close to the integrated optics technology. We obtained near-critical coupling and a loaded Q/spl ap/3.4/spl times/10/sup 6/.     

Midinfrared holmium fiber lasers

The use of the high-power Tm/sup 3+/-doped silica fiber laser as a pump source for Ho/sup 3+/-doped silica and Ho/sup 3+/-doped fluoride fiber lasers for the generation of 2.1-/spl mu/m radiation is demonstrated. The Ho/sup 3+/-doped silica fiber laser produced a maximum output power of 1.5 W at a slope efficiency of /spl sim/82%; one of the highest slope efficiencies measured for a fiber laser. In a nonoptimized but similar fiber laser arrangement, a Ho/sup 3+/-doped fluoride fiber laser produced an output power of 0.38 W at 2.08 /spl mu/m at a slope efficiency of /spl sim/50%. A Raman fiber laser operating at 1160 nm was also used to pump a Ho/sup 3+/-doped fluoride fiber laser operating at a wavelength of 2.86 /spl mu/m. An output power of 0.31W was produced at a slope efficiency of 10%. The energy transfer upconversion process that depopulates the lower laser level in this case operates at a higher efficiency when the pump wavelength is closer to the absorption peak of the /sup 5/I/sub 6/ energy level, however, this energy transfer process does not impede to a great extent the performance of the Ho/sup 3+/-doped fluoride fiber laser based on the /spl sim/2.1/spl mu/m laser transition.     

Spot-size converter using vertical ridge taper for low fibre-coupling loss in 2.5%-/spl Delta/ silica waveguides

A novel spot-size converter based on a vertical ridge waveguide taper for super-high-/spl Delta/ silica waveguides is demonstrated. This structure can be formed with a simple fabrication process. The coupling loss between a singlemode fibre and a 2.5%-/spl Delta/ silica waveguide was reduced to 0.31 dB/point compared to 2.7 dB/point for conventional straight waveguides.     

Trimming phase and birefringence errors in planar lightwave circuits with deep ultraviolet femtosecond laser

A deep ultraviolet femtosecond laser was employed to trim phase and birefringence errors in silica planar lightwave circuits. A permanent refractive index change of /spl sim/3.8/spl times/10/sup -4/ and a birefringence change of 1.0/spl times/10/sup -4/ were induced in hydrogen-free Mach-Zehnder planar waveguide circuits. The ultrafast laser enhances the ultraviolet photosensitivity response in silica waveguides by two orders of magnitude greater than that of a nanosecond 248 nm KrF excimer laser.     

45/spl deg/ slanted fibre Bragg grating design with prism coupled holographic exposure

A holographic technique for forming 45/spl deg/ tilted fibre gratings using two 45/spl deg/-90/spl deg/, -45/spl deg/ fused silica prisms is described. The technique reduces fringe distortion due to the lens effects of the fibre during exposure. Details of the experimental system and grating performance are given.     

Athermal optical gain block in C-band by serial concatenations of erbium-doped antimony oxide silica glass fiber

We report a new novel technique to suppress the temperature-dependent gain (TDG) of erbium-doped fiber amplifier in the C-band by providing a composite optical gain block, conventional erbium-doped fiber (EDF) serially concatenated with Sb-doped silica EDF. Compared with conventional EDFs, Sb-doped silica EDF showed an opposite TDG coefficient in the C-band. Detailed experimental athermalization schemes are reported for various concatenating configurations. The temperature-dependent optical gain variation was suppressed within /spl plusmn/0.35 dB for the temperature range of -40/spl deg/C to +80/spl deg/C from 1530 to 1560 nm.     

Analysis and optimization of Q-switched operation of a Tm/sup 3+/-doped silica fiber laser operating at 2 /spl mu/m

Analysis and operation of a Q-switched Tm/sup 3+/-doped silica fiber laser in the wavelength region of 2 /spl mu/m is described when pumped with a Nd:YAG laser operating at 1.319 /spl mu/m. A large core of 17-/spl mu/m diameter was used to increase the laser gain volume, allowing high pump-power absorption and an output of high pulse energy and peak power. An acoustooptic modulator was used as Q-switching element and operated at repetition rates up to 30 kHz. A maximum peak output power of greater than 4 kW and a pulse duration at full-width at half-maximum of 150 ns has been obtained. This is the first report of high peak-power operation of the thulium-doped silica fiber laser.     

Very large effective area singlemode photonic bandgap fibre

A photonic bandgap fibre consisting of a 34 /spl mu/m diameter pure silica core surrounded by a periodic cladding has been modelled and characterised. It guides a robust HE/sub 11/ mode at 1.55 /spl mu/m with a 517 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ effective area and 0.4 dB/m propagation losses.     

Suppression of temperature-dependent gain variation of conventional EDFA by hybrid connection of antimony-doped silica EDF

A new technique to suppress temperature dependence of EDFA gain is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. A specially designed EDF, the glass host of which is Sb-doped silica, showed an opposite sign of temperature dependent gain coefficients in C-band compared to Al-doped silica EDFs. Concatenation of those two EDFs showed an improved gain variation less than /spl plusmn/0.37 dB for the saturated gain over 15 dB, within -40 to +80/spl deg/C.     

Write-once diode/antifuse memory element with a sol-gel silica antifuse cured at low temperature

A write-once programmable memory element is based on a spin-coated sol-gel silica antifuse layer cured at 100/spl deg/C. This antifuse is integrated with a thin-film silicon diode deposited at 160/spl deg/C by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition. When a 3 to 5 V electrical pulse is applied across a diode/antifuse element, the silica breaks down suddenly and the current passing through the element increases irreversibly by more than about 10/sup 4/. The on-state exhibits a diode-like current-voltage characteristic with a forward-reverse asymmetry of nearly 100 at 1 V and is stable if there was hexamethyldisilazane treatment of the wet-gel film before curing.     

Low splice loss between 34 /spl mu/m core diameter Bragg fibre and G-652 fibre by using micro-optics

The splice loss at 1.55 /spl mu/m between a 34 /spl mu/m core diameter singlemode photonic bandgap fibre and a G-652 fibre has been dramatically reduced from 2.5 to 0.8 dB by using a micro-optics composed of graded-index and coreless pure silica fibres.     

210 mW 2.84 /spl mu/m Ho/sup 3+/, Pr/sup 3+/-doped fluoride fibre laser

210 mW of unsaturated continuous-wave output from a Ho/sup 3+/, Pr/sup 3+/-doped fluoride fibre laser is demonstrated using the /spl sim/1100 nm output from a free-running diode-cladding-pumped Yb/sup 3+/-doped silica fibre laser as the pump source. A slope efficiency of 3.2% and an output wavelength of 2.84 /spl mu/m are obtained.     

Reducing the thermal dependence of silica-based arrayed-waveguide grating using inorganic-organic hybrid materials

This study demonstrates the application of a temperature-independent arrayed-waveguide grating (AWG) using a simple hybrid waveguide structure composed of silica core/inorganic-organic hybrid material overcladding layer. The thermooptic effect of the hybrid materials varies over a wide range of temperature and provides athermal characteristics in an AWG. The temperature dependence of the AWG was reduced through the precision control of the thermooptic coefficient of the hybrid materials (/spl Delta//spl lambda/=/spl sim/3pm//spl deg/C).     

Germania-based core optical fibers

Germania-glass-based core silica glass cladding single-mode fibers (/spl Delta/n up to 0.143) with a minimum loss of 20 dB/km at 1.9 /spl mu/m were fabricated by the modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) method. The fibers exhibit strong photorefractivity with the type-IIa-induced refractive-index modulation of 2/spl times/10/sup -3/. The Raman gain of 300 to 59 dB/(km/spl middot/W) was determined at 1.07 to 1.6 /spl mu/m, respectively, in a 75 mol.% GeO/sub 2/ core fiber. Only 3 m of such fibers are enough for the creation of a 10-W Raman laser at 1.12 /spl mu/m with a 13-W pump at 1.07 /spl mu/m. Raman generation in optical fiber at a wavelength of 2.2 /spl mu/m was obtained for the first time.     

Femtosecond laser writing Bragg gratings in pure silica photonic crystal fibres

The fabrication of Bragg gratings in pure silica photonic crystal fibres using ultra-violet femtosecond laser radiation at 267 nm is reported. Gratings have been fabricated with a depth of up to 10 dB and an average index change of /spl Delta/n> 4/spl times/10/sup -4/. Thermal annealing investigations indicate that our grating type is not type II.     

Fiber fuse phenomenon in step-index single-mode optical fibers

The unsteady-state thermal conduction process in step-index single-mode (SM) optical fiber was studied theoretically with the explicit finite-difference method. We considered a high-temperature loss-increase mechanism, which includes two factors that bring about an increase in the absorption coefficients: 1) electronic conductivity due to the thermal ionization of a Ge-doped silica core and 2) thermochemical SiO production in silica glass. The core-center temperature changed suddenly and reached over 4/spl times/10/sup 5/ K when a 1.064-/spl mu/m laser power of 2 W was input into the core layer heated at 2723 K. This rapid heating of the core initiated the "fiber fuse" phenomenon. The high-temperature core areas were enlarged and propagated toward the light source. The propagation rates of the fiber fuse, estimated at 1.064 and 1.48 /spl mu/m, were in fair agreement with the experimentally determined values. We found that the threshold power for initiating the fiber fuse increases from 0.98 to 1.26 W when the input laser wavelength is increased from 1.06 to 1.55 /spl mu/m.     

High-power broadly tunable Ho/sup 3+/-doped silica fibre laser

Tuning of the 2.1 /spl mu/m Ho/sup 3+/-doped silica fibre laser is demonstrated for the first time. The /sup 5/I/sub 7//spl rarr//sup 5/I/sub 8/ transition provides tuning over 144 nm, from 2019 to 2163 nm, and a maximum pump-limited output power of 1.58 W at 2100 nm was produced.     

Air-core photonic-bandgap fiber-optic gyroscope

We report the demonstration of the first air-core photonic-bandgap fiber gyroscope. Because the optical mode in the sensing coil travels largely through air, which has much smaller Kerr, Faraday, and thermal constants than silica, far lower dependencies on power, magnetic field, and temperature fluctuations are predicted. With a 235-m fiber coil, we observe a minimum detectable rotation rate of /spl sim/2.7/spl deg//h and a long-term stability of /spl sim/2/spl deg//h, which are consistent with the Rayleigh backscattering coefficient of the fiber and comparable to that measured with a conventional fiber.