Fused-Polished Fiber Couplers

We report on fused-polished fiber couplers with a new fabrication method. This structure so fabricated is promising while achieving high-performance all-fiber WDM devices. Potential advantages and prospects of our works are presented.

Real-Time 4-Mode MDM Transmission Using Commercial 400G OTN Transceivers and All-Fiber Mode Multiplexers

Weakly-coupled mode division multiplexing(MDM)technique is considered a promising candidate to enhance the capacity of an optical transmission system,in which mode multiplexers/demultiplexers(MMUX/MDEMUX)with low insertion loss and modal crosstalk are the key components.In this paper,a low-modal-crosstalk 4-mode MMUX/MDEMUX for the weakly-coupled triple-ring-core few-mode fiber(TRC-FMF)is designed and fabricated with side-polishing processing.The measurement results show that a pair of MMUX/MDEMUX and 25 km weakly-coupled TRC-FMF MDM link achieve low modal crosstalk of lower than−17.5 dB and insertion loss of lower than 11.56 dB for all the four modes.Based on the TRC-FMF and all-fiber MMUX/MDEMUX,an experiment for 25 km real-time 4-mode 3-λwavelength division multiplexing(WDM)-MDM transmission is conducted using commercial 400G optical transport network(OTN)transceivers.The experimental results prove weakly-coupled MDM techniques facilitate a smooth upgrade of the optical transmission system.

Experimental demonstration of single-mode fiber coupling using adaptive fiber coupler

Coupling plane wave into a single-mode fiber （SMF） with high and steady coupling efficiency is crucial for fiber- based free-space laser systems, where random angular jitters are the main influencing factors of fiber coupling. In this paper, we verified a new adaptive-optic device named adaptive fiber coupler （AFC） which could compensate angular jitters and improve the SMF coupling efficiency in some degree. Experiments of SMF coupling under the angular jitter situation using AFC have been achieved. Stochastic parallel gradient descent （SPGD） algorithm is employed as the control strategy, of which the iteration rate is 625 Hz. In closed loop, the coupling efficiency keeps above 65% when angular errors are below 80/3tad. The compensation bandwidth is 35 Hz at sine-jitter of 15 ~rad amplitude with average coupling efficiency of above 60%. Also, experiments with simulated turbulence have been studied. The average coupling efficiency increases from 31.97% in open loop to 61.33% in closed loop, and mean square error （MSE） of coupling efficiency drops from 7.43% to 1.75%.

Relationship between rheological manufacturing process and optical performance of optical fiber coupler

Through theoretical analysis and experiments, the viscoelastic mechanical model of optical fiber coupler in the process of fused biconical taper was established, and the numerical analysis in non-uniform temperature field was made. The results show that the rheological parameters, such as drawing speed and fused temperature, have a tremendous influence on stress distribution and performance of optical fiber coupler, especially the influence of fused temperature. The change of fused temperature by 5℃ can lead to the change of the maximum stress by 30% and stress difference by 20% in the same cross section. The change of temperature gradient by 3% can result in the change of stress difference by 90%. In the present condition of rheological technology, rheological defects such as crystallizations and microcracks are easy to generate in the optical fiber coupler.

Experimental measurement and numerical analysis of fused taper shape for optical fiber coupler

To find out the effect of the shape of fused taper region on the optical fiber coupler, the fiber couplers were fabricated at different drawing speeds with a six-axes fiber coupler machine. The results, which were obtained fi＇om the shape of fused taper region measured with microscope, show that there is a close correlation between the cone angle and optical performance of fiber coupler. High-performance fiber coupler cannot be obtained until rheological shape is controlled accurately. The numerical analysis model, which was built based on generalized Maxwell viscoelastic theory, is resolved with ANSYS software. The calculated results accord with the experimental data. It can apply a theoretic basis for forecasting the shape of fiber coupler fabricated under the conditions of different technological parameters.

Novel manufacturing method of optical fiber coupler

Based on the coupling mode theory that the coupling ratio of fiber coupler changes periodically with center distance of two optical fibers, a novel manufacturing method of optical fiber couplers was developed with fused biconical taper experimental system. Its fabrication process is that the fiber is fused but not stretched when light begins to split, and the reduction of diameter of fiber is dependent on the theological characteristic of the fused fiberglass. The performance of the coupler was tested. The results show that the performance of the novel optical fiber coupler meets the performance expectations, and its diameter of coupling region （about 30 μm） is twice as long as that of classical fused biconical taper coupler （about 16 μm）, so the default, that is, the device is easy to fracture, is restrained and the reliability is greatly improved.

High-frequency fused high-voltage arc tapering process power supply for of fiber

The performance of the optical fiber coupler prepared with fused biconical taper method is determined by the quality of fused stretching. Besides, the stable high-temperature heat source is the essential guarantee for fused stretching process to go smoothly. The way of using AC （alternating current） arc as the heat source is proposed in this article. In addition, the paper also introduces high-frequency high-voltage power supply with the characteristics of constant current and restricted voltage, which is composed of preceding voltage regulation part and following inverter.

Effect of technological parameters on optical performance of fiber coupler

To find out the influence of technological parameters on optical performance of fused optical fiber device, the fiber coupler was served as subject investigated by using the fused biconical taper machining as experimental setup. Fused fiber coupler's optical performances such as insertion loss, excess loss, directivity and uniformity were tested with the optical test system that was constituted of tunable laser and optical spectrum analyzer. Especially the relationship between optical performance and drawing speed was investigated. The experimental results show that the optical performance is closely related to process conditions. At fused temperature of 1 200 ℃, there exists a drawing speed of 150 μms, which makes the device's performance optimum. Out of this speed region, the optical performance drops quickly. At drawing speed of 200 μms, the excess loss is relatively small when the fused temperature is above 1 200 ℃. So the technological parameters have close relationship with optical performance of the coupler, and the good performance coupler can't get until the drawing speed and fused temperature match accurately.

Structure analysis of optical fiber coupler with infrared spectrometry

To obtain excellent performance optical fiber couplers, the structural difference of SiO2 in couplers with different manufacturing techniques was investigated. With 740-FT-IR infrared spectrometric analyzer, the infrared absorption spectrum of SiO2 in couplers at different drawing velocities was measured, and two characteristic peaks in the wavenumber range of 6502000 cm-1 were observed. One characteristic peak is at about 943 cm-1, which is （attributed） to Si—O—Si bond asymmetric stretching vibration, the other is at about 773 cm-1, which is attributed to （Si—O—Si） bond symmetric stretching vibration. From the infrared spectrum, it is found that the intensity and wavenumber of the characteristic peaks are related to the manufacturing technique of couplers. The characteristic peak at （about） 943 cm-1 becomes steeper when increasing the drawing velocity. At the drawing velocity of 150 μm/s, the distance between the two characteristic peaks is maximum, and then the optical fiber coupler has excellent performance, indicating that the performance of the optical fiber coupler has a close relationship with the wavenumber of the two characteristic peaks.

Trichromatic Optical Fiber Radiation Thermometer

The study on trichromatic optical fiber radiation thermometers is especially useful for the non-contact accurate temperature measurement of those materials with the emissivities changing dramatically with wavelength.On the basis of the trichromatic thermometry principle,the operation wavelengths of the thermometer are selected properly so as to compensate the emissivity influence on measurement result effectively. Using 1×3 branching fiber coupler and narrow band filter significantly improves the instrument reliability.The instrument is self-calibrated,multi -functional and easy touse due to the embodied microcontroller and some other techniques.

Realization of Tapered Waveguide by Stretching the Rod Waveguide

By stretching the rod waveguide with different velocities in opposite directions,the tapered waveguide can be fabricated.In condition of taking no account of volume expansion caused by heating and under the assumptions of volume conservation,the rod waveguide can be stretched freely in the heated region without being stretched outside of the heated region. A model,which shows the relation of the transition shape and the two factors,that is the ratio of two velocity and the heated region length,is presented for the shape of the taper transition through mathematic deduction.Based on this model,a desired tapered waveguide can be fabricated.The tapered waveguide are widely used for fabricating tapered fiber couplers and sensors.In addition,the conclusion can be used for fabricating fused fiber coupler.

Distributed Weak Fiber Bragg Grating Vibration Sensing System Based on 3 × 3 Fiber Coupler

A novel distributed weak fiber Bragg gratings （FBGs） vibration sensing system has been designed to overcome the disadvantages of the conventional methods for optical fiber sensing networking, which are： low signal intensity in the usually adopted time-division multiplexing （TDM） technology, insufficient quantity of multiplexed FBGs in the wavelength-division multiplexing （WDM） technology, and that the mixed WDM/TDM technology measures only the physical parameters of the FBG locations but cannot perform distributed measurement over the whole optical fiber. This novel system determines vibration events in the optical fiber line according to the intensity variation of the interference signals between the adjacent weak FBG reflected signals and locates the vibration points accurately using the TDM technology. It has been proven by tests that this system performs vibration signal detection and demodulation in a way more convenient than the conventional methods for the optical fiber sensing system. It also measures over the whole optical fiber, therefore, distributed measurement is fulfilled, and the system locating accuracy is up to 20m, capable of detecting any signals of whose drive signals lower limit voltage is 0.2 V while the frequency range is 3 Hz - 1 000 Hz. The system has the great practical significance and application value for perimeter surveillance systems.

Asymmetrical tapered SMS fiber coupler for simultaneous measurement of temperature and refractive index and its application for biosensing

An asymmetrical tapered singlemode–multimode–singlemode(SMS)fiber coupler based on two parallel physical contact SMS fiber structures was proposed.Since the coupler includes modes both from fiber core and cladding,two dips of the transmission spectrum exhibit different sensing characteristics to the surrounding temperature and refractive index(RI)change,which allows the use of the standard matrix inversion method to determine temperature and RI simultaneously.The temperature sensitivities of 0.0498 and 0.0324 nm/℃ and RI sensitivities of 1151.76 and 1325.66 nm/RIU have been achieved,respectively.For biosensing application,with the functionalized fiber coupler sensor,a human chorionic gonadotropin concentration of 0.05 mIU/mL has been detected for a wavelength shift of 0.2 nm with good stability and excellent selectivity.The developed tapered SMS fiber coupler structure has advantages of simultaneous measurement of two independent parameters,simple configuration,low cost,and good repeatability that offer a great potential for medical diagnostics.

Generation of cylindrical vector beams in a mode-locked fiber laser using a mode-selective coupler

We experimentally obtain cylindrical vector beams（CVBs） in a passively mode-locked fiber laser based on nonlinear polarization rotation. A mode-selective coupler composed of both a single-mode fiber（SMF） and a twomode fiber（TMF） is incorporated into the cavity to act as a mode converter from LP01 mode to LP11 mode with broad spectral bandwidth. CVBs in different mode-locked states including single-pulse, multi-pulse, and bound pulse are obtained, for the first time to our best knowledge. The ultrafast CVBs with different operation states have potential applications in many fields such as laser beam machining, nanoparticle manipulation, and so on.

Ring microfiber coupler erbium-doped fiber laser analysis

A non-adiabatic microfiber coupler is fabricated by flame brushing technique and then theoretically and experimentally analyzed.The effective length of the microfiber coupler is determined by simulation,and a low-noise laser is demonstrated using various lengths of erbium-doped fiber（EDF） when incorporated in a laser setup.At 18.6-mW input pump power,the maximum output power of 20 μW and the lowest lasing threshold of 3.8 mW are obtained with a 90-cm-long EDF.

Hybrid Optical Comb Filter with Multi-Port Fiber Coupler for DWDM Optical Network

Optical comb filters based on multi-port fused fiber couplers are proposed and numerically analyzed, 3-arm MZI composed by 1×7 fiber splitter and 3×3 fiber coupler, and 2-stage cascaded FIR type MZI interleave filter.

Laser Trimming for Adjustment of Grating Offset in Phase-Shifted Fiber Grating Coupler for All-Optical Switching Application

We theoretically investigated laser trimming to adjust grating offset in phase-shifted fiber grating coupler (FGC) for all-optical switching application. It was clarified that the trimming made the extinction ratio higher in all-optical FGC switch.

Study on a Multiplexer a 40 Gb/s OTDM System

In a 4×10Gb/s OTDM system (optical time-division-multiplication) system, multiplexing devices are key devices. The time interval of four channels of the 40Gb/s OTDM system is 25ps respectively. If the time intervals are no accurate, will induce the system performance to degeneration. In order to make out OTDM device and carry out a transmission experiment in a 40Gb/s OTDM system, a kind of OTDM device is researched. This scheme be used to fabricate multiplex device. Also the device have been used to a 4...