Nonlinear Properties of Chalcogenide Glass Fibers

Abstract

Chalcogenide glasses have demonstrated high third-order Kerr (χ (3) ) nonlinearities up to 1000x higher than silica glass which make them attractive for applications such as nonlinear switching, optical regeneration, Raman amplification, parametric amplification, and supercontinuum generation. Poling of chalcogenide glasses to induce an effective second order (χ (2) ) nonlinearity has also been demonstrated and opens the possibility for the use of poled glass waveguides for applications such as frequency conversion or electro-optic modulation. Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) has also been investigated in As 2 S 3 and As 2 Se 3 single-mode fibers. The threshold intensity for the stimulated Brillouin scattering process was measured and used to estimate the Brillouin gain coefficient. Preliminary results indicate record high values for the figure of merit and theoretical gain, compared to silica, which bodes well for slow-light based applications in chalcogenide fibers.