Acousto-optic modulation of optical reflection properties in fiber Bragg gratings and the application in fiber lasers

This thesis aims to investigate the interaction of acoustic waves and fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) in standard and suspended-core fibers (SCFs), to evaluate the influence of the fiber, grating and modulator design on the increase of the modulation efficiency, bandwidth and frequency. Initially, the frequency response and the resonant acoustic modes of a low frequency acousto-optic modulator (f < 1.2 MHz) are numerically investigated by using the finite element method. Later, the interaction of longitudinal acoustic waves and FBGs in SCFs is also numerically investigated. The fiber geometric parameters are varied and the strain and grating properties are simulated by means of the finite element method and the transfer matrix method. The study indicates that the air holes composing the SCF cause a significant reduction of the amount of silica in the fiber cross section increasing acousto-optic interaction in the core. Experimental modulation of the reflectivity of FBGs inscribed in two distinct SCFs indicates evidences of this increased interaction. Besides, a method to acoustically induce a dynamic phase-shift in a chirped FBG employing an optimized design of modulator is shown. Afterwards, a combination of this modulator and a FBG inscribed in a three air holes SCF is applied to mode-lock an ytterbium doped fiber laser. To improve the modulator design for future applications, two other distinct devices are investigated to increase the acousto-optic interaction, bandwidth and frequency (f > 10 MHz). A high reflectivity modulation has been achieved for a modulator based on a tapered fiber. Moreover, an increased modulated bandwidth (320 pm) has been obtained for a modulator based on interaction of a radial long period grating (RLPG) and a FBG inscribed in a standard fiber. In summary, the results show a considerable reduction of the grating/fiber length and the modulator size, indicating possibilities for compact and faster acousto-optic fiber devices. Additionally, the increased interaction efficiency, modulated bandwidth and frequency can be useful to shorten the pulse width of future all-fiber mode-locked fiber lasers, as well, to other photonic devices which require the control of the light in optical fibers by electrically tunable acoustic waves.

Múltiplas antenas como alternativa para aumentar a taxa de extração de chaves secretas em redes veiculares com desvanecimento lento

The communication in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) is commonly divided in two scenarios, namely vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I). Aiming at establishing secure communication against eavesdroppers, recent works have proposed the exchange of secret keys based on the variation in received signal strength (RSS). However, the performance of such scheme depends on the channel variation rate, being more appropriate for scenarios where the channel varies rapidly, as is usually the case with V2V communication. In the communication V2I, the channel commonly undergoes slow fading. In this work we propose the use of multiple antennas in order to artificially generate a fast fading channel so that the extraction of secret keys out of the RSS becomes feasible in a V2I scenario. Numerical analysis shows that the proposed model can outperform, in terms of secret bit extraction rate, a frequency hopping-based method proposed in the literature.

Influência da temperatura de calcinação do fosfogesso no desempenho de cimentos supersulfatados

The supersulfated cement (CSS) basically consist of up to 90% blast furnace slag, 10-20% of a source of calcium sulfate and a small amount of alkali activator, covered by European standard EN 15743/2010. Because of this SSC are considered "green cement" low environmental impact. The source of calcium sulfate used in the preparation of CSS can be obtained from natural sources, such as gypsum or from alternative sources (industrial products), such as phosphogypsum. The phosphogypsum is a by-product of the fertilizer industry, used in the production of phosphoric acid. In this process the phosphate rock is treated with sulfuric acid to give as the major product phosphoric acid (H3PO4), gypsum and a small amount of hydrofluoric acid. The chemical composition of gypsum is basically calcium sulfate dihydrate (CaSO4.2H2O), similar to gypsum, because it can be used in this type of cement. To become anhydrous, the calcination of gypsum is necessary. The availability of the source of calcium sulfate to react with the slag is dependent on its solubility that is directly related to its calcination temperature. The solubility of the anhydrous gypsum decreases with increasing calcination temperature. This study investigated the influence of temperature of calcination of phosphogypsum on the performance of CSS. Samples were prepared with 10 and 20% of phosphogypsum calcinated at 350 to 650 ° C using KOH as an alkaline activator at three different concentrations (0.2, 0.5 and 0.8%). The results showed that all mortars presented the minimum values required by EN 15743/2010 for 7 and 28 days of hydration. In general CSS containing 10% phosphogypsum showed slightly better compressive strength results using a lower calcination temperature (350 °C) and curing all ages. The CSS containing 20% of calcined gypsum at 650 °C exhibit satisfactory compressive strenght at 28 days of hydration, but at later ages (56 to 90 days) it strongly reduced. This indicates that the calcination temperature of phosphogypsum has a strong influence on the performance of the CSS.