Low-repetition-rate, all-polarization-maintaining Yb-doped fiber laser mode-locked by a semiconductor saturable absorber

A low-repetition-rate, all-polarization-maintaining（PM）-fiber sub-nanosecond oscillator is presented, which is simple and low-cost, composed of standard components. The ring cavity is elongated by 114-m-long standard PM fiber, and passively mode-locked by a fiber pigtailed semiconductor saturable absorber. Linearly polarized pulses with 1.66 MHz repetition rate and 22 dB polarization extinction ratio are generated at a wavelength of 1030 nm, which is determined by an intracavity filter. In addition, to demonstrate that the oscillator is a good seed for high energy pulse generation, an all-fiber master oscillator power amplifier is built and amplified pulses with energy about 2 μJ are obtained.

Microstructure and properties of novel polarization maintaining fiber

An improved type of elliptical jacket polarization maintaining fiber was developed by using a modified chemical vapor deposition method with special treatment. Different from conventional elliptical jacket, the shape of the stress jacket was transmuted. The cross-section of fiber consists of 5 layers: substrate, outer cladding, stress jacket, inner cladding and core. The cross sectional component distribution was investigated by electron probe microscopy and energy dispersive spectrum. The finite element method was used to calculate the stress birefringence. Based on the analyses of the microstructure, the technological process is improved. The temperature cycling test of the fiber wound into gyroscope coils was performed. The results show that the fiber possesses superior performance at high and low temperatures compared with other fibers. The high homogeneity is achieved by well-controlled modified chemical vapor deposition process. A homogeneous length of 8 km fiber is obtained. With advantages in homogeneity and length, the fiber has great potential in applications such as fiber gyroscopes, fiber hydrophone and other optical fiber sensors.

Low Loss Polarization Maintaining Photonic Crystal Fiber

A low loss polarization maintaining photonic crystal fiber has been fabricated. The fiber loss was 1.3 dB/km at 1550 nm. The polarization crosstalk for a 100-m fiber was -35 dB at 1550 nm.

Fiber transmission demonstrations in vector mode space division multiplexing

Much attention has been focused on the use of scalar modes for space division multiplexing （SDM）. Alternative vector mode bases offer another solution set for SDM, expanding the available trade-offs in system performance and complexity. We present two types of ring core fiber conceived and designed to explore SDM with fibers exhibiting low interactions between supported modes. We review demonstrations of fiber data transmis- sion tbr two separate vector mode bases： one for orbital angular momentum （OAM） modes and one for linearly polarized vector （LPV） modes. The OAM mode demon- strations include short transmissions using commercially available transceivers, as well as kilometer length transmission at extended data rates. The LPV demonstra- tions span kilometer length transmissions at high data rate with coherent detection, as well as a radio over fiber experiment with direct detection of narrowband signals.

High Sensitivity Temperature Sensor Based on Harmonic Vernier Effect

A high-sensitivity temperature sensor based on the harmonic Vernier effect is proposed and verified by experiments.The main component of the sensor is a Sagnac interferometer consisting of two sections of polarization maintaining fibers(PMFs)spliced with an intersection angle of 45o between their fast axes.The harmonic Vernier effect is achieved by setting the length of one of the PMFs an integral multiple(i-times)of the length of the other plus a detuning factor.Compared with the Sagnac interferometer based on the fundamental Vernier effect,the temperature sensitivity of the harmonic Vernier effect is higher,reaching i+1 times of that of the fundamental Vernier effect(i is the order of the harmonic).