Polymer optical fibre Bragg gratings

This paper provides a review of the current state of research and development into polymer fibre Bragg gratings, along with a description of some current challenges. © 2012 OSA.

Single process femtosecond microfabrication of key components for integrated optics

We present recent results on femtosecond microfabrication of key components for integrated optics such as highly curved low-loss waveguides in glasses, depressed cladding waveguides in crystals. Details of microfabrication and characterisation are discussed. © 2009 Optical Society of America.

Power-controlled phase-matching and instability of CW propagation in multicore optical fibers with a central core

We present modulation instability analysis including azimuthal perturbations of steady-state continuous wave (CW) propagation in multicore-fiber configurations with a central core. In systems with a central core, a steady CW evolution regime requires power-controlled phase matching, which offers interesting spatial-division applications. Our results have general applicability and are relevant to a range of physical and engineering systems, including high-power fiber lasers, optical transmission in multicore fiber, and systems of coupled nonlinear waveguides. © 2013 Optical Society of America.

Evaluation of impact of beam size on fibre Bragg grating fabrication

Fabrication of gratings has gone a long way since the onset by Kenneth Hill in 1976. Basic fabrication techniques such as holographic and phase-mask which have distinguishing advantages (variable wavelength, and high repeatability consecutively) have since been modified in an effort to combine the advantages of both methods. These basic methods are inherently simple and have few controls, they have been combined and modified over time to enable the possibility of fabricating gratings with complex modulation index and phase profiles.

Device fabrication by femtosecond laser inscription

Microfabrication of photonic devices by means of femtosecond (fs) laser pulses is reviewed. Adaptive modeling of fs laser pulse propagation was performed for detailed study of different regimes. Submicron structures are demonstrated in both infrared and UV ranges. Applications to fibre based devices and prototype integrated planar devices are discussed. © 2007 Optical Society of America.

Refractometer based on a liquid core FBG device

A 1.2X500μm slot was engraved across a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) using femtosecond laser patterning and chemical etching. liquid core FBGs were constructed and their sensitivity to refractive index of up to 10-6/pm was measured.

Tunable pure dispersion slope compensators realized with novel complex gratings

We present a novel tunable dispersion compensator that can provide pure slope compensation. In experiments, we achieve dispersion slope tuning range of +/-650ps/nm2with >0.9nm usable bandwidth.

Abnormal photosensitivity effects and the formation of type IA FBGs

We report the abnormal photosensitivity effects leading to the formation of Type IA FBGs. We show the rate at which these gratings form is related to the intensity of the UV inscription laser. We report the first measurement of the reflection along the gratings’ length.

A flexible approach for the apodization of planar waveguide Bragg gratings

A novel single-step technique for the apodization of planar waveguide Bragg gratings based on the polarization control method is proposed. First results are presented, showing successful side-lobe suppression in the reflection spectrum of the gratings.

High accuracy interrogation of a WDM FBG sensor array using radiation modes from a B-FBG

We report the development of a WDM optical sensor array interrogation system using the radiation modes from a BFBG. We present results indicating 70nm bandwidth, with 0.2um RMS noise and a minimum WDM spacing of 30um. We further show the system to be polarization independent.

Tailored waveform generation in mode-locked fiber lasers by in-cavity pulse shaper

We numerically show the possibility of pulse shaping in a mode-locked fiber laser by inclusion of an amplitude-phase spectral filter into the laser cavity. Various advanced temporal waveforms are generated, including parabolic, flat-top and triangular pulses. © 2014 OSA.

Nonlinear multicore waveguiding structures with balanced gain and loss

We study existence, stability, and dynamics of linear and nonlinear stationary modes propagating in radially symmetric multicore waveguides with balanced gain and loss. We demonstrate that, in general, the system can be reduced to an effective PT-symmetric dimer with asymmetric coupling. In the linear case, we find that there exist two modes with real propagation constants before an onset of the PT-symmetry breaking while other modes have always the propagation constants with nonzero imaginary parts. This leads to a stable (unstable) propagation of the modes when gain is localized in the core (ring) of the waveguiding structure. In the case of nonlinear response, we show that an interplay between nonlinearity, gain, and loss induces a high degree of instability, with only small windows in the parameter space where quasistable propagation is observed. We propose a novel stabilization mechanism based on a periodic modulation of both gain and loss along the propagation direction that allows bounded light propagation in the multicore waveguiding structures.

On the use of the type I and II scheme for classifying ultrafast laser direct-write photonics

The use of the Type I and Type II scheme, first introduced and used by fiber Bragg grating researchers, has recently been adopted by the ultrafast laser direct-write photonics community to classify the physical geometry of waveguides written into glasses and crystals. This has created confusion between the fiber Bragg grating and direct-write photonics community. Here we propose a return to the original basis of the classification based on the characteristics of the material modification rather than the physical geometry of the waveguide.

Dispersion engineering of highly nonlinear chalcogenide suspended-core fibers

Chalcogenide optical fibers are currently undergoing intensive investigation with the aim of exploiting the excellent glass transmission and nonlinear characteristics in the near- and mid-infrared for several applications. Further enhancement of these properties can be obtained, for a particular application, with optical fibers specifically designed that are capable of providing low effective area together with a properly tailored dispersion, matching the characteristics of the laser sources used to excite nonlinear effects. Suspended-core photonic crystal fibers are ideal candidates for nonlinear applications, providing small-core waveguides with large index contrast and tunable dispersion. In this paper, the dispersion properties of As2S3 suspended-core fibers are numerically analyzed, taking into account, for the first time, all the structural parameters, including the size and the number of the glass bridges. The results show that a proper design of the cladding struts can be exploited to significantly change the fiber properties, altering the maximum value of the dispersion parameter and shifting the zero-dispersion wavelengths over a range of 400 nm.

Nonlinear propagation of an optical speckle field

We provide a theoretical explanation of the results on the intensity distributions and correlation functions obtained from a random-beam speckle field in nonlinear bulk waveguides reported in the recent publication by Bromberg et al. [Nat. Photonics 4, 721 (2010) ].. We study both the focusing and defocusing cases and in the limit of small speckle size (short-correlated disordered beam) provide analytical asymptotes for the intensity probability distributions at the output facet. Additionally we provide a simple relation between the speckle sizes at the input and output of a focusing nonlinear waveguide. The results are of practical significance for nonlinear Hanbury Brown and Twiss interferometry in both optical waveguides and Bose-Einstein condensates. © 2012 American Physical Society.