Coconut revival: new possibilities for the 'tree of life'

Proceedings of the International Coconut Forum held in Cairns, Australia, 22-24 November 2005. Coconut is one of the most important crops grown in the humid tropics, with more than 11 million farmers, mostly smallholders with low income, growing the palm in 90 countries. These proceedings document the vast range of topics covered in the forum, including R&D, business and government, and regional and international agency interests.

Low-cost in-fiber WDM devices using tilted FBGs

We report the realization of low-cost in-fiber WDM device function utilizing efficient side-detection of strong radiation mode out-coupling from tilted FBGs. The spatial-to-spectral conversion efficiency as high as 0.32 mm/nm is demonstrated.

Highly thermally responsive hybrid in-fiber slab waveguide grating structure with a plastic core and a silica cladding

A 1.2(height)×125(depth)×500(length) micro-slot was engraved along a fiber Bragg grating by chemically assisted femtosecond laser processing. By filling epoxy and UV-curing, waveguide with plastic-core and silica-cladding was created, presenting high thermal responding coefficient of 211pm/°C.

Hydrodynamic modeling of mineral wool fiber suspensions in a two-dimensional flow

A consequence of a loss of coolant accident is that the local insulation material is damaged and maybe transported to the containment sump where it can penetrate and/or block the sump strainers. An experimental and theoretical study, which examines the transport of mineral wool fibers via single and multi-effect experiments is being performed. This paper focuses on the experiments and simulations performed for validation of numerical models of sedimentation and resuspension of mineral wool fiber agglomerates in a racetrack type channel. Three velocity conditions are used to test the response of two dispersed phase fiber agglomerates to two drag correlations and to two turbulent dispersion coefficients. The Eulerian multiphase flow model is applied with either one or two dispersed phases.

Embedded progressive-three-layered fiber long-period gratings for respiratory monitoring

A long-period grating (LPG) was written into a progressive three-layered single-mode fiber that was embedded into a flexible platform as a curvature sensor. The spectral location and profile of the LPGs were unaltered after implantation in the platform. The curvature sensitivity was 3.747 nm m with a resolution of ± 1.1 × 10-2 m-1. The bend sensor is intended to be part of a respiratory monitoring system and was tested on a resuscitation training manikin. © 2003 society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Waveguide-saturable absorber fabricated by femtosecond pulses in YAG:Cr4+ crystal for Q-switched operation of Yb-fiber laser

A waveguide-saturable absorber with low propagation loss is fabricated by femtosecond pulses in YAG:Cr4+ crystal. Q-switch operation of a Yb fiber laser with the new saturable absorber having absorption saturation parameters similar to the bulk YAG:Cr4+ crystal is demonstrated.

Microchanneled chirped fiber Bragg grating formed by femto-second laser aided chemical etching for refractive index and temperature measurements

In this work, a microchanneled chirped fiber Bragg grating (MCFBG) is proposed and fabricated through the femtosecond laser-assisted chemical etching. The microchannel (~550 µm) gives access to the external index liquid, thus inducing refractive index (RI) sensitivity to the structure. In the experiment, the transmission bands induced by the reduced effective index in the microchannel region were used to sense the surrounding RI and temperature changes. The experimental results show good agreement with the theoretical analysis. The proposed MCFBG offers enhanced RI sensitivity without degrading the robustness of the device showing good application potential as bio-chemical sensors.

10-Gb/s transmission over 100 Mm of standard fiber using 2R regeneration in an optical loop mirror

The transmission of a 10-Gb/s data stream was demonstrated experimentally over a practically unlimited distance in a standard single-mode fiber system using nonlinear optical loop mirrors as simple in-line 2R regenerators. Error-free propagation over 100 000 km has been achieved with terrestrial amplifier spacing. © 2004 IEEE.

Passive nonlinear pulse shaping in normally dispersive fiber

We propose a simple method for passive nonlinear optical pulse shaping that utilizes pulse prechirping and nonlinear propagation in a normally dispersive nonlinear fiber to generate various temporal waveforms of practical interest from conventional laser pulses.