Bending Loss Research Articles

Low-loss and power-efficient phase shifter based on an optimized multimode spiral silicon waveguide.

Low-loss and energy-efficient phase shifters are an effective tool to reduce the power consumption of large-scale photonic integrated circuits. In this work, a low-loss and power-efficient thermo-optic phase shifter has been demonstrated on the silicon-on-insulator platform. The multimode spiral waveguide is optimized to obtain lower power consumption and low cross talk. The waveguide width is beyond the single-mode region in consideration of low propagation loss. The optimized ultra-low loss 180° Bezier bends are used to further reduce the bending loss. The experimental results show that the excess loss of the phase shifter is only 0.36 dB at 1550-nm wavelength and the power consumption is 4.87 mW/π.

Design and Analysis of the Low Bend Losses 2D Photonic Crystal Fiber-based Rhombic Ring Resonator for Magnetic Field Sensor

We designed and analyzed a magnetic field sensor with low bend losses 2D photonic crystal fiber based on a rhombic ring resonator. The proposed design consists of silicon rods with a diameter of 200 nm in the X and Z directions, which are 61 × 61 silicon rods. The Refractive Index (RI) of silicon is n = 3.48 at λ = 1.55 mm and the number of air holes along the direction is 33 × 33. It was found that the photonic crystal fibers used the photonic band gap phenomenon to guide light but rather an area of the fiber core with a lower refractive index of 0.9 nm. It is important to note that there are low bend losses in 2D photonic crystal fibers, enabling response to small changes in the magnetic fluid viscosity, refractive index, and other physical parameters. The flow of electromagnetic energy, indicated by the Poynting vector (s), indicates that the magnitude of the power carrier per unit area in the direction of S is approximately 1.23 W/m2.

Embedding Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors in Carbon Composite Structures for Accurate Strain Measurement

Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors written by femtosecond laser pulses in polyamide-coated low bending loss optical fibers are succesfully embedded in carbon composite structures, following laminating and light resin moulding processes which optimize the size of each ply to address aesthetic, drapability and structural requirements of the final components. The sensors are interrogated by a tunable laser operating at around 1.55 μm and their response to temperature and strain variations is characterized in a thermally controlled chamber and by bending tests using suspended calibrated loads and a laser scanning system. Experimental results are in good agreement with simulations, confirming that the embedding process effectively overcomes potential issues related to FBG spectral distortion, birefringence and losses. In particular the effects of the composite material non homogeneity and FBG birefringence are investigated to evaluate their impact on the monitoring capabilities. A bi-material mechanical beam model is proposed to characterize the orthotropic laminates, pointing out better accuracy in estimating the applied load with respect to the classical homogeneous beam model. A comparative analysis, performed on different instrumented carbon composite samples and supported by theory, points out the repeatability of the FBG sensors embedding process and the effectiveness of the technology for real time accurate strain measurement. Based on such measurements damages and/or changes in local stiffness can be effectively detected, allowing for structural health monitoring of composite structures for applications in specific industrial fields like automotive and aerospace.

Integrated barium titanate electro-optic modulators operating at CMOS-compatible voltage.

We propose monolithically integrated electro-optical modulators based on thin-film x-cut barium titanate that exhibit large modulation bandwidth and operate at voltages compatible with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology. The optical and radio frequency parameters of the modulator are systematically simulated, calculated, and optimized, respectively. Our simulation includes the evaluation of single-mode conditions, the separation distance between the electrode edge and the waveguide edge, bending loss, optical field distribution, and half-wave voltage-length product for optical parameters, and characteristic impedance, attenuation constant, radio frequency effective index, and -3d B modulation bandwidth for radio frequency parameters. By engineering both the microwave and photonic circuits, we have achieved high electro-optical efficiencies and group-velocity matching simultaneously. Our numerical simulation and theoretical analysis show that the half-wave voltage-length product was 0.48V·cm, and the -3d B modulation bandwidths with a device length of 5mm and 10mm were 262GHz and 107GHz, respectively. Overall, our study highlights the potential of the proposed modulators for low driving voltage and high-performance optical communication systems.

Anti-resonant hollow-core terahertz fiber based on Bragg structure elements

An anti-resonant hollow-core terahertz fiber applying Bragg structure as the basic unit is presented, the basic unit is composed of two or three concentric tubes which is cut and connected by an outer ring. Simulations results show that the proposed fiber has the transmission characteristics of both conventional anti-resonant structure and Bragg fiber, and its confinement loss could be 2–3 orders of magnitude lower than that of an anti-resonant hollow-core terahertz fiber composed of only a single semi-tube as the anti-resonant unit, and the total transmission loss is one order of magnitude lower, which can achieve a low transmission loss of 0.5 dB/m or less with the bandwidth of 0.15 THz. In addition, the appropriated choice of the outer ring diameter can effectively suppress the mode coupling between the core and cladding, thereby reducing its confinement loss and bending loss. The proposed fibers show great potential for applications in terahertz wave communication and the fabrication of terahertz sensors.

Mid-infrared integrated silicon–germanium ring resonator with high Q-factor

We report the realization of a silicon–germanium on silicon ring resonator with high Q-factor at mid-infrared wavelengths. The fabricated ring exhibits a loaded Q-factor of 236 000 at the operating wavelength of 4.18 µm. Considering the combined waveguide propagation losses and bending losses, which are measured to be below 0.2 dB/cm, even higher Q-factors could be achieved on this platform. Furthermore, our dispersion engineering of the waveguides should make these microrings suitable for nonlinear optical applications. These results pave the way for sensing applications and nonlinear optics in the mid-infrared range.

Observation of Generalized Dynamic Localizations in Arbitrary‐Wave Driven Synthetic Temporal Lattices

AbstractDynamic localization (DL) refers to a wavefunction confinement effect of electrons in periodic lattices under an ac electric field driving. Recent studies have transplanted DLs from electronic to photonic systems using periodically curved waveguide lattices, where the ac electric field is mimicked by the waveguide's bending curvature. However, due to the severe limitations of bending losses and poor tunability for highly curved, arbitrarily shaped waveguides, present studies mainly focus on DL under the simplest sinusoidal‐wave driving; its extension to an arbitrary‐wave driving remains challenging. Here, by constructing a synthetic temporal lattice with a coupled fiber‐loop circuit, the limitations of spatially curved waveguides are circumvented and generalized DLs are experimentally demonstrated under arbitrary‐wave driving. First, by applying band‐collapse criteria, the general conditions for the driving field's symmetry to achieve DLs are revealed. Then, two representative even‐function driving fields of square‐ and triangle‐waveforms are chosen, and wave‐packet revivals are observed as signatures of DLs. As a counter‐example, the breakdown of DL is also verified using odd‐function driving field of sawtooth‐waveform. The work reveals the conditions for realizing generalized DLs and experimentally verifies them using synthetic lattice schemes. This paradigm may find potential applications in versatile temporal‐waveform reshaping, pulse manipulations for optical communications, and signal processing.

Performance analysis of photonic crystal fiber structure based on different highly nonlinear materials

Generally, fiber with a large mode area is desired for fiber laser and beam delivery applications. But the use of these fiber types is restricted to linear optical applications due to the lower value of the nonlinear coefficient. This paper investigates a single material-based photonic crystal fiber (PCF) with improved optical characteristics, applicable for linear and nonlinear optics. The light propagation in the structure is explored by applying finite element solver-based COMSOL multiphysics software. Five nonlinear optical materials are utilized as background material to get the optimized material with high performance PCF. Using this PCF, the improved optical properties of PCF such as moderate effective mode area of 115.85 [Formula: see text], chromatic dispersion, confinement loss of 10[Formula: see text] dB/m, the nonlinear coefficient of 543W[Formula: see text]Km[Formula: see text], splicing loss of 2.013 dB, and numerical aperture are numerically analyzed. This single-mode PCF also shows the low bending loss for the bending radius of 7[Formula: see text]mm. The amended PCF structure is found to be suitable for high-power fiber laser, supercontinuum generation, wavelength conversion, and slow-light generation.

Optical properties of a Moiré-lattice photonic crystal fiber with controllable magic angle

Inspired by the unique electrical properties of bilayer-twisted graphene with moiré superlattice, the light manipulation using photonic moiré structures has attracted tremendous research interest. In this paper, the moiré-lattice arrangement is introduced into the cladding of fiber to construct the moiré-lattice photonic crystal fiber (PCF) with two identical triangular-lattice or square-lattice layers of air holes rotated by a certain angle. The optical properties of the moiré-lattice PCF are studied in detail by varying the rotation angle with regards to the dispersion, effective mode field area, nonlinear coefficient and bending loss. Numerical results show that the optical properties of guiding mode can be flexibly regulated and optimized by the rotation angle. Moreover, the fiber can maintain single-mode transmission and low bending loss at different rotation angles. This moiré-lattice PCF provides a new way of regulating the structure for optimizing the fiber properties and offers a guidance for engineering moiré-lattice fiber devices.

Polarization Splitting at Visible Wavelengths with the Rutile TiO2 Ridge Waveguide.

On-chip polarization control is in high demand for novel integrated photonic applications such as polarization division multiplexing and quantum communications. However, due to the sensitive scaling of the device dimension with wavelength and the visible-light absorption properties, traditional passive silicon photonic devices with asymmetric waveguide structures cannot achieve polarization control at visible wavelengths. In this paper, a new polarization-splitting mechanism based on energy distributions of the fundamental polarized modes in the r-TiO2 ridge waveguide is investigated. The bending loss for different bending radii and the optical coupling properties of the fundamental modes in different r-TiO2 ridge waveguide configurations are analyzed. In particular, a polarization splitter with a high extinction ratio operating at visible wavelengths based on directional couplers (DCs) in the r-TiO2 ridge waveguide is proposed. Polarization-selective filters based on micro-ring resonators (MRRs) with resonances of only TE or TM polarizations are designed and operated. Our results show that polarization-splitters for visible wavelengths with a high extinction ratio in DC or MRR configurations can be achieved with a simple r-TiO2 ridge waveguide structure.

Low-loss multi-mode anti-resonant hollow-core fibers.

In this work, multi-mode anti-resonant hollow-core fiber (AR-HCF) with 18 fan-shaped resonators is fabricated and characterized. The ratio of core diameter over transmitted wavelengths in the lowest transmission band is up to 85. The measured attenuation at 1 µm wavelength is below 0.1 dB/m and the bend loss below 0.2 dB/m at a bend radius smaller than 8 cm. Modal content of the multi-mode AR-HCF is characterized using the S2 imaging technique and seven LP-like modes in total are identified using a 23.6 meter fiber length. Multi-mode AR-HCFs for longer wavelengths are fabricated by scaling up the same design, extending the transmission window beyond 4 µm wavelength. Low-loss multi-mode AR-HCF could find applications in the delivery of high-power laser light with a medium beam quality, where higher coupling efficiency and laser damage threshold are expected.

Optimizing graded-index few-mode fiber for space division multiplexing.

We investigate the graded-index few-mode fiber (GI-FMF) to realize a 4-LP-mode (i.e. LP01, LP11, LP21, and LP02) fiber for mode-division-multiplexed transmission. This study optimizes the GI-FMF for both, first, for large effective indices differences (Δneff), and second, for low differential mode delay (DMD) between any two LP modes, for different optimized parameters. Thus, it shows that GI-FMF is suitable for both weakly-coupled few-mode fiber (WC-FMF) as well as strongly-coupled few-mode fiber (SC-FMF) via adjusting the profile parameter (α), refractive index difference between core and cladding (nco - nclad), and core radius (a). We report the optimized parameters for WC-GI-FMF with large effective indices difference (Δneff) of 0.6 × 10-3 and low |DMD| of 5.4 ns/km while the minimum effective mode area (Min.|Aeff|) is 80 µm2 and bending loss (BL) of the highest order mode is 0.005 dB/turn (much lower than 10 dB/turn) at a 10 mm bend radius. Here, we could break down the degeneracy between LP21 and LP02 mode, which remains a challenging task in GI-FMF. To the best of our knowledge, this is the lowest DMD (5.4 ns/km) ever reported for such a weakly-coupled (Δneff = 0.6 × 10-3) 4-LP-mode FMF. Similarly, we optimized the parameters for SC-GI-FMF with Δneff of 0.1 × 10-3 and the lowest DMD of 0.9 ns/km while Min.|Aeff| is ≫ 100 µm2 and BL of higher order mode is 6 dB/turn (< 10 dB/turn) at 10 mm bend radius. Further, we investigate narrow air trench-assisted SC-GI-FMF to reduce the DMD and achieve the lowest DMD of 16 ps/km for a 4-LP-mode GI-FMF with a minimum Δneff of 0.7 × 10-5.

Coiling an optical fiber for long-range dynamic displacement and force sensing

Optical fiber sensors have been applied on detecting various physical parameters. In this work, inspired by the mechanism of tendril coiling, we designed a spring-like sensor using optical fibers based on macro bending loss. The proposed optical-fiber spring has good elasticity like a mechanical spring and thus can be used to measure large displacement. As a contact-type sensor, the fabricated optical-fiber spring can measure dynamic displacement, whose range is 4 orders of magnitude higher than that of the point-wise fiber Bragg grating displacement sensor. In addition to the point-wise displacement sensing, we further integrated the optical-fiber spring with a Kresling origami to form a force sensor.

Transverse mode instability considering bend loss and heat load.

Previously, we developed a highly efficient transverse mode instability model by integrating stimulated thermal Rayleigh scattering and quasi-3D fiber amplifier models, enabling the consideration of the 3D gain saturation effect, with its accuracy verified by reasonable fit to experimental data. Bend loss was however ignored. Higher-order-mode bend loss can be very high especially for fibers with core diameters below 25µm and is sensitive to the local heat load. By using a FEM mode solver to account for bend loss and local heat-load-induced bend loss reduction, the transverse mode instability threshold is studied in detail, resulting in some interesting new insights.

Design and Analysis of a Large Mode Field Area and Low Bending Loss Multi-Cladding Fiber with Comb-Index Core and Gradient-Refractive Index Ring.

The large mode field area fiber can raise the tolerance of power, and high requirements for the bending characteristics of optical fibers are needed. In this paper, a fiber composed of a comb-index core, gradient-refractive index ring, and multi-cladding is proposed. The performance of the proposed fiber is investigated by using a finite element method at a 1550 nm wavelength. When the bending radius is 20 cm, the mode field area of the fundamental mode can achieve 2010 μm2, and the bending loss is reduced to 8.452 × 10-4 dB/m. Additionally, when the bending radius is smaller than 30 cm, there are two variations with low BL and leakage; one is a bending radius of 17 cm to 21 cm, and the other is from 24 cm to 28 cm (except for 27 cm). When the bending radius is between 17 cm and 38 cm, the highest bending loss is 1.131 × 10-1 dB/m and the lowest mode field area is 1925 μm2. It has a very important application prospect in the field of high-power fiber lasers and telecom applications.

A Weakly-Coupled Double Bow-Tie Multi-Ring Elliptical Core Multi-Mode Fiber for Mode Division Multiplexing across C+L+U Band

We herein present a weakly-coupled double bow-tie multi-ring elliptical core multi-mode fiber (DBT-MREC-MMF) supporting 22 eigenmodes for mode division multiplexing across the C+L+U band. The proposed fiber introduces a multi-ring elliptical core, bow-tie air holes, and bow-tie stress-applying areas to effectively split adjacent eigenmodes. By utilizing the finite element method (FEM), we accordingly optimized the fiber to support the 22 modes under the weakly-coupled condition. We evaluated the impact of fiber parameters on the minimum effective refractive index difference (min Δneff) between adjacent eigenmodes, model birefringence (Bm), and bending loss at a wavelength of 1550 nm. Additionally, broadband performance metrics, such as effective modal index (neff), effective index difference (Δneff), effective mode area (Aeff), differential mode delay (DMD), and chromatic dispersion (D), were comprehensively studied over the entire C+L+U band, ranging from 1530 to 1675 nm. The proposed fiber is capable of supporting 22 completely separated eigenmodes with a min Δneff between adjacent eigenmodes larger than 3.089 × 10−4 over the entire C+L+U band. The proposed DBT-MREC-MMF holds great potential for use in short-haul communication systems that require MDM to improve transmission capacity and expand bandwidth.

Transmission and Confocal Imaging Characteristics of Bendable ABS/Ag-Coated Hollow Waveguide at Low THz Band

A bendable Ag-coated hollow waveguide (HWG) based on the acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) tube is fabricated for low-loss transmission and imaging of low-frequency terahertz (THz) waves. ABS plastic tubing is selected since it allows growing a smooth silver (Ag) reflective film with good adhesion to the inner wall and contributes to constructing a bendable THz HWG structure. The low-loss transmission window of the ABS/Ag-coated HWG is at 0.2-1.0 THz. The attenuation characteristics of the as-prepared waveguide samples with different bore sizes (2.3, 3.2, and 4.2 mm) at 100 and 300 GHz are investigated. The 3.2-mm-bore THz waveguide exhibits good bendability and transmission performances. Its measured straight transmission loss is 1.02 dB/m at 300 GHz, and the bending loss reaches 1.56 dB/m at 150° (the curvature radius is 10 cm). Moreover, a far-field confocal waveguide-based THz imaging system is established based on the ABS/Ag-coated HWG. High-quality imaging with a super-resolution of 1.12 mm was achieved using the 3.2-mm-bore waveguide samples at 100 GHz.

Weak optical modes for high-density and low-loss photonic circuits

Dielectric optical waveguides constitute the main building blocks of photonic integrated circuits (PICs). Channels with high refractive index contrast can provide very compact PIC components, whereas structures with lower index exhibit less propagation loss. A hybrid concept that can combine the best of high- and low-index materials is highly required. Here, we devise a new approach to realize compact and low-loss hybrid optical waveguides based on the interaction of weak optical modes. This is a rather universal approach that can be applied to a wide range of optical materials. To prove the principle, the hybrid waveguide structure is formed by combining a low-index polymer and a thin layer of silicon nitride. For this material combination, a minimum bending radius of 90 µm (for a bending loss of 0.005 dB/90°) and a propagation loss of 0.7 dB/cm are achieved. The viability of this platform is demonstrated through a series of high-performance novel PIC components. This hybrid waveguide platform enabled by a powerful and simple design concept holds great promise for high-density and low-loss PICs.

All-Glass Single-Mode Leakage Channel Microstructured Optical Fibers with Large Mode Area and Low Bending Loss

The paper presents the results of theoretical and experimental studies of all-glass leakage channel microstructured optical fibers (MOFs) with a large mode area and low bending losses. These MOFs contain two layers of fluorine-doped silica glass elements with a reduced refractive index, different diameters, and different distances between them. A numerical analysis of the properties of these MOFs was performed using the finite element method. The leakage losses for the fundamental and higher-order modes were calculated in the spectral range from 0.65 μm to 1.65 μm. Simulation results show that the proposed MOF design allows for single-mode guidance in the spectral range from 0.92 μm to 1.21 μm with a bending radius of down to 0.08 m. The measured losses of the fabricated MOF with a core diameter of 22.5 μm and a bending radius of 0.1 m were less than 0.1 dB/m in the spectral range from 0.9 μm to 1.5 μm. It is demonstrated that the segments of this MOF longer than 5 m are single-mode.

Impact of the central refractive index dip of fibers on high-power applications

Central refractive index dip is a common phenomenon in the fibers fabricated by the modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) technology, which is the main fabrication technique for high-power laser fibers. In this paper, we present a numerical analysis of the dip effect on high-power-related parameters for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. Three aspects including mode field parameter, beam quality, and bending performance are studied under different dip parameters and bending radii. It is found that the dip is possible to increase the effective mode area and the bending loss, which offers a flexible way to suppress the non-linear effects and filter the higher-order modes by optimizing the dip parameters. Besides, different from the mode area and bending loss, beam quality exhibits an interesting trend when the dip radius increases. The results could facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the dip fiber properties, which also offer guidance to evaluate and design the fiber with central refractive index dip for high-power applications.