Dispersion-shifted all-solid high index-contrast microstructured optical fiber for nonlinear applications at 155μm

Abstract

Abstract:We report the fabrication of an all-solid highly nonlinear microstructured optical fiber. The structured preform was made by glass extrusion using two types of commercial lead silicate glasses that provide high index-contrast. Effectively single-moded guidance was observed in the fiber at 1.55µm. The effective nonlinearity and the propagation loss at this wavelength were measured to be 120W -1 km -1 and 0.8dB/m, respectively. Numerical simulations indicate that the fiber is dispersion-shifted with a zero-dispersion-wavelength of 1475nm and a dispersion slope of 0.16ps/nm 2 /km respectively at 1.55µm. These predictions are consistent with the experimentally determined dispersion of +12.5ps/nm/km at 1.55µm. Tunable and efficient four-wave-mixing based wavelength conversion was demonstrated at wavelengths around 1.55µm using a 1.5m-length of the fiber.

Wavelength Conversion in a Short Length of a Solid Lead–Silicate Fiber

“…The high propagation losses of the fibre are believed to be due to the surface roughness of the various glass elements used to construct the fibre preform. Polishing the glasses would allow us to reduce the losses down to the material losses (~1 dB/m) [6]. By measuring the self-phase-modulation (SPM) response of the fibre, the nonlinear coefficient was found to be ~ 820 W -1 km -1…”

Dispersion management in soft glass all-solid photonic crystal fibres

“…The standard glasses used in APCF fabrication are the commercially available Schott LLF1 and SF57. The nonlinear properties and relatively low losses on the level of single dBs per meter of these fibres were confirmed in several designs [19,20]. In addition, the influence of the cross−section profile geometry on the single−mode operation and high nonlinearity was examined [17].…”

“…Several successful exam− ples of the theoretical and practical development of all−solid photonic bandgap fibres with a low index core have also been reported in soft and pure silica glasses [11][12][13][14]. For index guided fibres different cross−section profiles are pro− posed, e. g., hexagonal lattice of microrods [1,12,13,15,16] W−type rings [17][18][19][20] and chirped Bragg−like geometry [21].…”

Dispersion controlled highly nonlinear fibers for all-optical processing at telecoms wavelengths

“…An elegant solution to overcome these drawbacks is to use a high index-contrast all-solid microstructured optical fiber (MOF) rather than a holey fiber: in these microstructured fibers holes are replaced with solid regions of a second glass, which significantly reduces the occurrence of structural deformations induced during the fiber drawing and helps maintain the original relative scale factor of high index/low index features when going from preform to fiber [37][38][39]. Furthermore, any losses due to interface scattering can be substantially reduced in this case by accurately polishing the surfaces of the glass elements used to fabricate the preform.…”

“…Furthermore, any losses due to interface scattering can be substantially reduced in this case by accurately polishing the surfaces of the glass elements used to fabricate the preform. Following this idea, we recently fabricated an all-solid one-dimensional (1D) MOF with low loss, high nonlinearity and low dispersion at 1.55µm [39]. Two chemically compatible commercial optical glasses, SF6 and LLF1 (respectively high-index and low-index, see Table 2), were used for this MOF.…”