Fabrication Of Photonic Crystal Fibers Research Articles

Highly Efficient Yb-Doped Double Clad Photonic Crystal Fiber by Melting Technology

High-power fiber lasers have been developed rapidly since the invention of rare-earth-doped double clad fibers, while the scaling of output power is limited by nonlinear and thermal effects, fiber damage threshold as well. Photonic crystal fiber (PCF) has been used to mitigate this limitation due to large mode area and relatively low core index. In this work, we developed a simplified & flexible method to fabricate Yb <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3+</sup> doped double-clad (YDDC) PCF for fiber lasers. Systematic simulations and experiments were carried out for fiber characterization and laser performance evaluation. By improving the fabrication process of PCF, the YDDC PCF exhibited good properties, and the laser slope efficiency was measured above 86.8%. It is shown from the results that the proposed PCF fabrication method has huge potentials for applications of high-power fiber lasers.

A novel design of all-optical 4 to 2 encoder with multiple defects in silica-based photonic crystal fiber

An encoder logic gate is a combinational circuit that performs the coding operation on the input binary data, and 2n input lines are encoded with n bits. In this paper, we present a new design of a high-speed all-optical 4 to 2 encoder using a solid-core photonic crystal fiber (PCF) composed of pure silica. The proposed structure consisting of an optical buffer and two optical OR gates has four input ports and two output ports in a square lattice of PCF. The plane-wave expansion method is used to compute the band structure of the encoder, and the beam propagation method is applied to calculate the transmission and the electric field distribution of optical light inside the device. We demonstrate that the proposed 4 to 2 encoder can operate in the C-band, ranging from 1530 nm to 1565 nm, which is an appropriate device for telecommunication applications. The numerical results demonstrate that the normalized transmission values less than 0.02 % and greater than 95 % are supposed to be logic 0 and logic 1, respectively. The maximum delay of the encoder is 0.3 ps, and its total footprint is 50 μm × 30 μm×3 mm; thus, due to the relatively simple and low-cost fabrication of PCFs and their applications in photonics-based systems, the proposed device can be used in optical communications and networking.

Highly sensitive SPR PCF biosensors based on Ag/TiN and Ag/ZrN configurations

We numerically present and analyze a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) bimetallic photonic crystal fiber (PCF) biosensor using full vectorial finite element method. The bimetallic configuration is based on Silver and (TiN or ZrN) as alternative plasmonic materials. The reported design relies on PCF with an external channel to house the analyte. The inner surface of the channel is coated by a silver layer followed by TiN or ZrN to protect the silver layer from oxidation. The proposed biosensor can be implemented to detect the unknown analytes, organic chemicals, biological analytes, and biomolecules via the sensitive resonant peaks to the analyte refractive index variations for both polarized modes with high linearity. In this study, a comparison is made between the Ag/TiN configuration and the Ag/ZrN counterpart in terms of sensitivity, losses, and linearity. The geometrical parameters are optimized to achieve high refractive index sensitivities of 7000 nm/RIU for quasi-transverse electric (TE) mode and 6900 nm/RIU for quasi-transverse magnetic (TM) mode, respectively for the Ag/TiN configuration. However, the quasi TE and quasi TM modes achieve high sensitivity of 5300 and 5400 nm/RIU, respectively using the Ag/ZrN configuration. The standard PCF fabrication technologies can be used to fabricate the proposed SPR PCF biosensors.

Polarization Converter Based on Square Lattice Photonic Crystal Fiber with Double-Hole Units

In this study, a novel polarization converter (PC) based on square lattice photonic crystal fiber (PCF) is proposed and analyzed. For each square unit in the cladding, two identical circular air holes are arranged symmetrically along the y = x axis. With the simple configuration structure, numerical simulations using the FDTD analysis demonstrate that the PC has a strong polarization conversion efficiency (PCE) of 99.4% with a device length of 53 μ m, and the extinction ratio is −21.8 dB. Considering the current PCF fabrication technology, the structural tolerances of circular hole size and hole position have been discussed in detail. Moreover, it is expected that over the 1.2∼1.7 μ m wavelength range, the PCE can be designed to be better than 99% and the corresponding extinction ratio is better than − 20 dB .

Infiltrated Photonic Crystal Fibers for Sensing Applications.

Photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) are a special class of optical fibers with a periodic arrangement of microstructured holes located in the fiber’s cladding. Light confinement is achieved by means of either index-guiding, or the photonic bandgap effect in a low-index core. Ever since PCFs were first demonstrated in 1995, their special characteristics, such as potentially high birefringence, very small or high nonlinearity, low propagation losses, and controllable dispersion parameters, have rendered them unique for many applications, such as sensors, high-power pulse transmission, and biomedical studies. When the holes of PCFs are filled with solids, liquids or gases, unprecedented opportunities for applications emerge. These include, but are not limited in, supercontinuum generation, propulsion of atoms through a hollow fiber core, fiber-loaded Bose–Einstein condensates, as well as enhanced sensing and measurement devices. For this reason, infiltrated PCF have been the focus of intensive research in recent years. In this review, the fundamentals and fabrication of PCF infiltrated with different materials are discussed. In addition, potential applications of infiltrated PCF sensors are reviewed, identifying the challenges and limitations to scale up and commercialize this novel technology.

Structure formation dynamics in drawing silica photonic crystal fibres

The special features of photonic crystal fibres (PCFs) are achieved by their air hole structures. PCF structure is determined and formed by its origin preform design and drawing process. Therefore, structure formation dynamics in drawing PCF is important for the fabrication of PCF achieving desirable structure and thus the intended feature. This paper will investigate structure formation dynamics of PCF drawing in relation to key parameters and conditions, such as hole dimension, temperature, pressure, etc.

Highly sensitive photonic crystal fiber biosensor based on titanium nitride

A highly sensitive surface plasmon resonance photonic crystal fiber (PCF) biosensor based on Titanium Nitride (TiN) as a new alternative plasmonic material is proposed and analyzed. The TiN has high stability, high conductivity, and corrosion resistance which make it an ideal material for nanofabrication. The suggested biosensor is analyzed by full vectorial finite element method with perfectly matched layer as boundary conditions. In this paper, the biosensor geometrical parameters are studied to achieve high sensitivity for both polarized modes. A refractive index sensitivity of 7700 and 3600 nm/RIU for quasi-transverse electric and quasi transverse magnetic modes, respectively, are obtained. Additionally, the reported biosensor could be used for detecting an unknown analyte refractive index ranging from 1.32 to 1.34 with a high linearity. Further, the proposed biosensor structure is easy for fabrication using standard PCF fabrication current technologies.

Label free detection for DNA hybridization using surface plasmon photonic crystal fiber biosensor

In this paper, a novel design of a highly sensitive surface plasmon (SP) photonic crystal fiber (PCF) biosensor for DNA hybridization detection is presented and analyzed. Through this study, the coupling between the core guided modes in a silica core D-shaped PCF and the SP modes around the gold nano-wires is studied and verified. Further, the structural geometrical parameters of the proposed biosensors are adjusted to achieve the highest sensitivity for DNA hybridization detection. The analysis is carried out using full vectorial finite element method. The proposed biosensor achieves a high sensitivity of 94.59 nm/RIU. To the best of the author’s knowledge, it is the first time to introduce a label free SP PCF DNA biosensor with high sensitivity. Moreover, the structure of the suggested sensor is easy for fabrication with standard PCF fabrication technologies. Furthermore, the suggested biosensor has a great potential for DNA classification based applications.

Development of thermally stable glass from SiO2-Bi2O3-PbO-ZnO-BaO oxide system suitable for all-solid photonic crystal fibers

The series of SiO2-Bi2O3-PbO-ZnO-BaO and SiO2-TiO2-Bi2O3-PbO-Na2O glasses were synthetized to obtain non-crystallizing materials, dedicated to fabrication of photonic crystal fibers. During composition development, the thermal properties were investigated according to the change of chemical composition. The glasses contain high concentrations of heavy metal oxides for high refractive index, large nonlinear refractive index and spectrally broad transmission window from 0.5 to 4.5 μm. Their thermal properties are optimized to enable drawing of all-solid glass photonic crystal fibers in tandem with previously designed highly nonlinear glass PBG81 based on SiO2-Ga2O3-Bi2O3-PbO-CdO system. This creates novel dual glass combinations for PCF fibers. We have also investigated influence of melting conditions on the final thermal and optical properties, including absorption from water contamination at around 2.8 μm.

Recent advances in plasmonic photonic crystal fibers: design, fabrication and applications

Flexibility in engineering holey structures and controlling the wave guiding properties in photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) has enabled a wide variety of PCF-based plasmonic structures and devices with attractive application potential. Metal thin films, nanowires, and nanoparticles are embedded for achieving surface plasmon resonance (SPR) or localized SPR within PCF structures. This paper begins with an outline of plasmonic sensing principles. This is followed by an overview of fabrication and experimental investigation of plasmonic PCFs. Reported plasmonic PCF designs are categorized based on their target application areas, including optical/biochemical sensors, polarization splitters, and couplers. Finally, design and fabrication considerations, as well as limitations due to the structural features of PCFs, are discussed.

High resolution Shack-Hartmann sensor based on array of nanostructured GRIN lenses.

We present a novel method for the development of a micro lenslets hexagonal array. We use gradient index (GRIN) micro lenses where the variation of the refraction index is achieved with a structure of nanorods made of 2 types of glasses. To develop the GRIN micro lens array, we used a modified stack-and-draw technology which was originally applied for the fabrication of photonic crystal fibers. This approach results in a completely flat element that is easy to integrate with other optical components and can be effectively used in high refractive index medium as liquids. As a proof-of-concept of the method we present a hexagonal array of 469 GRIN micro lenses with a diameter of 20 µm each and 100% fill factor. The GRIN lens array is further used to build a Shack-Hartmann detector for measuring wavefront distortion. A 50 lens/mm sampling density is achieved.

Reducing losses in solid-core photonic crystal fibers using chlorine dehydration

The fabrication of photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) involves the stacking of multiple preform elements, providing many opportunities for contamination by water vapor or dust particles and causing increased fiber loss. Even after manufacture, diffusion of water vapor into the hollow channels is known to cause a slow increase in loss if the fibers are stored in a humid environment. In this paper we report a systematic study of three methods to reduce OH-related loss in solid-core PCFs: (1) treating the stack (primary preform) with chlorine or oxygen; (2) treating the cane (intermediate preform) with chlorine or oxygen; and (3) using a dry gas for pressurization of the hollow channels during the final step of fiber drawing. Each treatment is independently found effective in reducing OH-related loss, although stack treatment alone is not sufficient if the canes are subsequently stored for a longer time. On the other hand, chlorine-treatment of the canes and/or using a suitably dry gas using fiber drawing significantly lowers the loss even when the canes have been stored for more than two years in a closed tube at room temperature and at relative humidities in the range ~20% to ~50%.

Diffractive optics development using a modified stack-and-draw technique.

We present a novel method for the development of diffractive optical elements (DOEs). Unlike standard surface relief DOEs, the phase shift is introduced through a refractive index variation achieved by using different types of glass. For the fabrication of DOEs we use a modified stack-and-draw technique, originally developed for the fabrication of photonic crystal fibers, resulting in a completely flat element that is easy to integrate with other optical components. A proof-of-concept demonstration of the method is presented-a two-dimensional binary optical phase grating in the form of a square chessboard with a pixel size of 5 μm. Two types of glass are used: low refractive index silicate glass NC21 and high refractive index lead-silicate glass F2. The measured diffraction characteristics of the fabricated component are presented and it is shown numerically and experimentally that such a DOE can be used as a fiber interconnector that couples light from a small-core fiber into the several cores of a multicore fiber.

Challenges and Solutions in Fabrication of Silica-Based Photonic Crystal Fibers: An Experimental Study

The fabrication process of photonic crystal fibers based on a stack-and-draw method is presented in full detail in this article. In addition, improved techniques of photonic crystal fiber preform preparation and fabrication are highlighted. A new method of connecting a handle to a preform using only a fiber drawing tower is demonstrated, which eliminates the need for a high-temperature glass working lathe. Also, a new technique of modifying the photonic crystal fiber structural pattern by sealing air holes of the photonic crystal fiber cane is presented. Using the proposed methods, several types of photonic crystal fibers are fabricated, which suggests potential for rapid photonic crystal fibers fabrication in laboratories equipped with and limited to only a fiber drawing tower.

Two-core photonic crystal fiber with zero intermodal dispersion

Intermodal dispersion (IMD) in a two-core fiber can distort or even breakup pulses propagating in the fiber, and thus limit the usefulness of the fiber for applications that involve the transmission of ultrashort pulses. In this paper, we analyze a two-core photonic crystal fiber (PCF) for the elimination of IMD. The refractive index of the two cores required is slightly lower than the surrounding index and can serve as an effective parameter for the control of the wavelength at which the IMD disappears. The fiber has a conventional PCF structure and is compatible with the existing PCF fabrication technology.

Design and fabrication of bismith-silicate photonic crystal fiber

The process of design and fabrication of bismuth-silicate photonic crystal fiber (Bi-PCF) is reported. The Bi-PCF was fabricated by stack and draw method. This is the first trial of the fabrication of photonic crystal fiber made of bismuth-based glass with stack and draw method. The Bi-PCF structure was designed to reduce group-velocity-dispersion (GVD) in a plausible process. Thermal properties of the glass are investigated to establish the fabrication process. The applying pressure and pumping in fiber preform preparation were effectively utilized to control the air-hole diameter and arrangement. The fabricated Bi-PCF shows the well reduced GVD as the numerical calculation predicted. Fusion splicing between Bi-PCF and SMF-28 was also demonstrated.

Study of photonic crystal fiber with an air core

Photonic crystal fibers with an air hole in the core are analyzed by finite-element method. The relations of mode field distribution, confinement loss and dispersion characteristics with fiber structure parameter and wavelength are achieved. The principle of guiding light in air hole is explained by diffraction and the characteristics of photonic crystal fiber. For the fiber with low loss, single-mode, tightly confined light in the air core, the ranges of structure parameters and wavelengths are obtained. An optimal fiber structure is designed, of which the mode is tightly confined in the air core, and the confinement loss α=5.9× 10-5 dB/km. These provide theoretical instruction for the design and fabrication of photonic crystal fiber with an air hole in the core. The high intensity in an air hole, coupled with long interaction length, promises a new class of experiments in light-matter interaction and nonlinear fiber optics.

Design, Fabrication, and Sensor Applications of Photonic Crystal Fibers

Photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) with regularly placed air holes running along the fiber oer flexible design and unique transmission characteristics, like unlimited single-mode operation, that are hard to obtain in conventional optical fibers. In this paper, we will discuss the design, fabrication and sensor applications of photonic crystal fibers, particularly twin-core photonic crystal fibers (TCPCFs) and highly birefringent photonic crystal fibers (HB-PCFs). A numerical analysis of PCFs with various design was performed using a computer code developed with finite element method (FEM). Fabrication of PCFs is mainly based on the well-known stack-and-draw method. Controlled gas pressurization was employed during the fiber drawing process, and the microstructure of PCFs was well preserved by pressurizing the core and cladding regions independently. We will also describe the sensor applications of the fabricated PCFs for measuring the strain, bending, and transverse loads, e.g., TC-PCF-based in-line interferometers and HB-PCF-based birefringent interferometers. In the case of a TC-PCF-based in-line sensor, the small dierence in the eective indices of the two core modes leads to interference fringes, and the birefringence due to the twin cores results in polarization-dependent fringe spacing. A novel intensity-based bend sensor is demonstrated utilizing the bend-induced spatial fringe shift. With a HB-PCF inserted between two linear polarizers, the resulting interference pattern can be used to obtain the transverse load sensitivity for dierent angles of the applied load.

Nanostructured elliptical gradient-index microlenses

We show theoretical and experimental characterizations of a nanostructured gradient-index lens. The elliptical lens is a nonguiding element fabricated using the mosaic method, which is widely used for the fabrication of photonic crystal fibers. For the first time we show experimental data in the optics regime that confirm the effective medium approximation for discrete mosaic structures with subwavelength feature size. This opens the door for the development of general asymmetric gradient-index materials.

Photonic crystal fiber with novel dispersion properties

Our recent research on designing microstructured fiber with novel dispersion properties is reported in this paper. Two kinds of photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) are introduced first. One is the highly nonlinear PCF with broadband nearly zero flatten dispersion. With introducing the germanium-doped (Ge-doped) core into highly nonlinear PCF and optimizing the diameters of the first two inner rings of air holes, a new structure of highly nonlinear PCF was designed with the nonlinear coefficient up to 47W−1·km−1 at the wavelength 1.55 μm and nearly zero flattened dispersion of ±0.5 ps/(km·m) in telecommunication window (1460–1625 nm). Another is the highly negative PCF with a ring of fluorin-doped (F-doped) rods to form its outer ring core while pure silica rods to form its inner core. The peak dispersion −1064 ps/(km·nm) in 8 nm full width at half maximum (FWHM) wavelength range and −365 ps/(km·m) in 20 nm (FWHM) wavelength range can be reached by adjusting the structure parameters. Then, our recent research on the fabrication of PCFs is reported. Effects of draw parameters such as drawing temperature, feed speed, and furnace temperature on the geometry of the final photonic crystal fiber are investigated.