No abstract

A method for fabrication of a new type of optical fiber with dispersion varying along the fiber length is described. The main optical parameters of a drawn fiber are theoretically studied and experimentally measured. These fibers are of great interest for nonlinear fiber optics. Such applications of the fibers, such as high-quality soliton pulse compression, soliton pulsewidth stabilization through compensation of losses, and generation of a high-repetition-rate train of practically uninteracting solitons, are considered.

We demonstrate a novel amplification regime in a counter-pumped, relatively long (2 meters), large mode area, highly Yb-doped and polarization-maintaining tapered fiber, which offers a high peak power directly from the amplifier. The main feature of this regime is that the amplifying signal propagates through a thin part of the tapered fiber without amplification and experiences an extremely high gain in the thick part of the tapered fiber, where most of the pump power is absorbed. In this regime, we have demonstrated 8 ps pulse amplification to a peak power of up to 0.76 MW, which is limited by appearance of stimulated Raman scattering. In the same regime, 28 ps chirped pulses are amplified to a peak power of 0.35 MW directly from the amplifier and then compressed with 70% efficiency to 315 ± 10 fs, corresponding to an estimated peak power of 22 MW.

Undoped-silica-core F-doped-silica-cladding optical fibers (“undoped fibers”) are an important fiber type for applications requiring resistance to ionizing radiation (e.g., the nuclear industry, space, and military applications), the most important fundamental radiation-induced color centers arising in such fibers being self-trapped holes (STH). Despite the previous in-depth STH investigations, there have remained a few not-fully understood issues, such as the relationship between the radiation-induced absorption (RIA) bands due to STH in undoped fibers, on the one hand, and in bulk silica samples, on the other, the role of strain in the silica network in the STH occurrence, and possible peculiarities of short-lived STH-like radiation-induced color centers at temperatures above RT. To address these issues, we investigate the RIA spectra in undoped fibers with different frozen-in strain in their silica network immediately in the process of γ-irradiation to a dose of 1 kGy, the irradiation temperature being in the range ±60 °C or liquid nitrogen temperature (LNT). Gaussian decomposition of the RIA spectra measured at LNT has yielded STH bands at 2.6 and 2.16 eV together with the “classical” STH bands at 1.88 and 1.63 eV observed in fibers more frequently than the former bands. Based on this observation, it is proposed that all the STH bands observable in fibers fall into two classes: those inherent in silica and those strain-assisted, which can adjoin each other in the fiber silica network. The inherent STH include the well-known low-temperature infrared absorption and the bands at 2.6 and 2.16 eV; the strain assisted STH, the 1.88- and 1.63-eV bands. The 1.88-eV band is argued to be due to STH1, the 1.63-eV one, due to STH2. Anomalously high RIA at T = 0 and +60 °C is revealed and explained for the first time. The former effect is found to be caused by extreme compression of silica at T ∼ 0 °C enhancing the strain-assisted STH bands. The anomaly at T = +60 °C is found to be due to a previously unknown broad RIA band at ∼1.08 eV, which is likely to be associated with STH or self-trapped electrons and to result from either large network strain at the compression phases of enhanced thermal oscillation, or large expansion at the opposite phases. The RIA enhancement at T = +60 °C observed in this paper for the first time can influence fiber applications in the nuclear industry associated with high temperatures and high dose rates.

Bismuth-doped fiber lasers operating in the range 1300-1470 nm have been demonstrated for the first time, to our knowledge. It has been shown that Bi-doped alumina-free phosphogermanosilicate fibers reveal optical gain in a wavelength range of 1240-1485 nm with pumping at 1205, 1230, or 808 nm.