Fiber Collimator Research Articles

Bidirectional SMF and PF‐POF transmission of 400 Gbps Nyquist shaped on DP‐QPSK systems

AbstractThis work experimentally shows a transmission path based on standard single‐mode optical fiber and perfluorinated graded‐index plastic optical fiber with the connections between distinct optical fibers being made by fiber collimators using free‐space optical transmission. The data stream consists of a bidirectional 400 Gbps optical transmission using four wavelength channels with quadrature phase‐shift keying modulation format, combined with dual‐polarization and Nyquist pulse‐shaped. The results obtained seeks to study the use of short‐distance cables in plastic optical fiber as a flexible means of interconnection, when inserted between single‐mode optical fibers or as a coupling medium between devices with single‐mode optical inputs/outputs located in data centers/video headends.

Fiber orientation measurement from mesoscale CT scans of prepreg platelet molded composites

X-ray computed tomography (CT) analysis is used to measure the heterogeneous fiber orientation fields in a 20 cm3 composite bracket made from prepreg platelet-based molding compound (PPMC). The as-molded mesostructure of the complete geometry is captured using material density gradients in 50 µm resolution CT scans without the need to resolve individual fibers. Fiber collimation and physical density gradients within intact platelets of this material system facilitates nondestructive assessment of average local fiber orientation at the component scale. Microscopy-based validation of the local orientation measurements indicate the accuracy that can be attained utilizing the density-based structure tensor CT analysis method. Local orientation field measurements for the complete geometry can be mapped into a “digital twin” model, for purposes such as experimental performance simulation and validation of molding process orientation state predictions. Composite designers, analysts, and material suppliers can employ this methodology to more confidently utilize PPMCs and morphologically similar composite material systems.

A fiber-optic bolometer based on a high-finesse silicon Fabry-Pérot interferometer.

We report a fiber-optic bolometer based on a high-finesse silicon Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI). The silicon FPI absorbs and converts the incident radiation into temperature variations, which are interrogated by the shift of the reflection spectrum of the FPI. The FPI is a silicon pillar with one side coated with a high-reflectivity dielectric mirror and the other side coated with a gold mirror. A multimode fiber collimator is applied between the FPI and lead-in single-mode fiber to reduce the round-trip diffraction loss, giving rise to a high-finesse of 35 of the FPI. The sensor is demodulated using a low-cost distributed feedback diode laser. A dummy bolometer was used to effectively reduce the common noises from the laser wavelength drift and ambient temperature variations. Experimental results show that, compared with a previously reported fiber-optic bolometer, the one reported here has a 5-fold decrease in noise and a 7-fold increase in responsivity with a noise equivalent power density (NEPD) of 0.27 W/m2, which is comparable with the NEPDs of the state-of-the-art resistive bolometers.

Ultrasonic imaging of seismic physical models using a fringe visibility enhanced fiber-optic Fabry-Perot interferometric sensor.

A fringe visibility enhanced fiber-optic Fabry-Perot interferometer based ultrasonic sensor is proposed and experimentally demonstrated for seismic physical model imaging. The sensor consists of a graded index multimode fiber collimator and a PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) diaphragm to form a Fabry-Perot interferometer. Owing to the increase of the sensor's spectral sideband slope and the smaller Young's modulus of the PTFE diaphragm, a high response to both continuous and pulsed ultrasound with a high SNR of 42.92 dB in 300 kHz is achieved when the spectral sideband filter technique is used to interrogate the sensor. The ultrasonic reconstructed images can clearly differentiate the shape of models with a high resolution.

A Miniature Fiber Collimator for Highly Sensitive Bend Measurements

A Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) composed of a miniature fiber collimator is proposed and demonstrated for high-sensitivity bend measurements. The device consists of a quarter-pitch graded index fiber (GIF) spliced with a section of silica tube, which is interposed between single-mode fibers. The divergence angle of the included miniature fiber collimator was 0.058 rad, which was found to enhance the sensitivity of the proposed FPI to -3.353 dB/degree over the applied angle range. In comparison, the divergence angle without the collimator was 0.130 rad and FPI sensitivity was -0.618 dB/degree over the applied angle range. The fiber bend sensors demonstrated in this paper are compact, robust, and highly sensitive, and hence, are promising in various biomedical applications.

Long-distance optical fiber collimation system for Doppler vibrometer

In order to solve the problem of weak signal, messy waveform at zero-point and difficult demodulation, when the optical Doppler vibrometer in the long-distance non-contact measurement, in this paper, a new type of optical fiber collimation system is proposed. The system mainly uses an augmented beam shaping system at the end of a small C-lens optical fiber collimator and the Gaussian beam is collimated and optimized by ZEMAX software. Through the coupling test of finished product of optical fiber collimation system, and compared with the signal coupling efficiency of C-lens collimator. The experimental results show that the improved collimation system can meet the working distance of 2 meters, and the coupling efficiency of space return optical up to 6.3%, which greatly enhances the Doppler signal contrast and improves the long-distance optical fiber Doppler vibration measurement accuracy.

Measurement system and model for simultaneously measuring 6DOF geometric errors.

A measurement system to simultaneously measure six degree-of-freedom (6DOF) geometric errors is proposed. The measurement method is based on a combination of mono-frequency laser interferometry and laser fiber collimation. A simpler and more integrated optical configuration is designed. To compensate for the measurement errors introduced by error crosstalk, element fabrication error, laser beam drift, and nonparallelism of two measurement beam, a unified measurement model, which can improve the measurement accuracy, is deduced and established using the ray-tracing method. A numerical simulation using the optical design software Zemax is conducted, and the results verify the correctness of the model. Several experiments are performed to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed system and measurement model.

Towards fully commercial, UV-compatible fiber patch cords.

We present and analyze two pathways to produce commercial optical-fiber patch cords with stable long-term transmission in the ultraviolet (UV) at powers up to ~ 200 mW, and typical bulk transmission between 66-75 %. Commercial fiber patch cords in the UV are of great interest across a wide variety of scientific applications ranging from biology to metrology, and the lack of availability has yet to be suitably addressed. We provide a guide to producing such solarization-resistant, hydrogen-passivated, polarization-maintaining, connectorized and jacketed optical fibers compatible with demanding scientific and industrial applications. Our presentation describes the fabrication and hydrogen loading procedure in detail and presents a high-pressure vessel design, calculations of required H2 loading times, and information on patch cord handling and the mitigation of bending sensitivities. Transmission at 313 nm is measured over many months for cumulative energy on the fiber output of > 10 kJ with no demonstrable degradation due to UV solarization, in contrast to standard uncured fibers. Polarization sensitivity and stability are characterized yielding polarization extinction ratios between 15 dB and 25 dB at 313 nm, where we find patch cords become linearly polarizing. We observe that particle deposition at the fiber facet induced by high-intensity UV exposure can (reversibly) deteriorate patch cord performance and describe a technique for nitrogen purging of fiber collimators which mitigates this phenomenon.

A high sensitive fiber-optic strain sensor with tunable temperature sensitivity for temperature-compensation measurement

A high sensitive fiber-optic strain sensor, which consists of a cantilever, a tandem rod and a fiber collimator, was proposed. The tandem rod, which transfer the applied strain to the cantilever, was used for tuning the temperature sensitivity from −0.15 to 0.19 dB/°C via changing the length ratio of the rods. Moreover, due to the small beam divergence of the collimator, high strain sensitivity can be realized via incident-angle sensitive detection-mechanism. A strain detection-range of 1.1 × 103 με (with a sensing length of 21.5 mm), a detection limit of 5.7 × 10−3 με, and a maximum operating frequency of 1.18 KHz were demonstrated. This sensor is promising for compensating the thermal-expansion of various target objects.

Propagation characteristics of photonic bandgap fiber collimator with C-lens

Propagation characteristics of photonic bandgap fiber collimator with C-lens

Design of a noncooled fiber collimator for compact, high-efficiency fiber laser arrays.

A high-power fiber laser collimator and array of collimators are described with optical architecture, allowing one to transmit almost 100% of the full power output from fiber facets. In the case of coherent beam combining, more than 70% of the full power can be focused into a diffraction limited spot determined by the diameter of the conformal aperture. The truncated-Gaussian beam tails are not trapped inside the array but are redirected through the output lenses and dispersed outside of the array along with the main collimated beam, thus eliminating the requirement for cooling the array. Detailed analysis is presented for the beam tail propagation geometry's dependence on array optical parameters, including the interior redirecting lenses. The parasitic scattering from imperfections of the interior lenses is estimated to be as small as a few watts when 1.5-2 kW is emitted by each fiber facet.

Light propagation characteristics in photonic crystal fibers with α-power profiles of air hole diameter distributions and their application to fiber collimator

Light propagation characteristics in photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) with α-power profiles of air hole diameter distributions were theoretically investigated. It was clarified that the intensity peak of the beam propagating in the PCF with Gaussian beam excitation varied periodically with little power attenuation. It was found that the envelope of the periodic intensity variation depended on α. We theoretically demonstrated that the PCF with the α-power profile of the air hole diameter distribution could be applied to a collimator for a conventional PCF with uniform air holes in Gaussian beam excitation to reduce coupling loss, where a PCF of appropriate length with the α-power air hole diameter distribution was spliced to a conventional PCF. It was also found that the coupling efficiency was higher for a larger α.

Low-Cost Plate-Type MOEMS Uniaxial Vibration Sensor Based on Metal Etching and Fiber Collimator Technique

In order to give full play the unique advantage of micro-opto-eclectro-mechanical system (MOEMS) sensor, one novel low-cost plate-type MOEMS uniaxial vibration sensor based on metal etching and fiber collimator technique is proposed and studied in this paper. Core vibration element of the MOEMS vibration sensor is fabricated by the metal etching technique, and its fiber collimator instrument is made up by ultra-polished ceramic ferrule and plane fiber flange. All these techniques can reduce the fabrication cost of the MOEMS vibration sensor greatly. A theory calculation model of the MOEMS vibration sensor is established and further verified by simulation experiments. The first-order resonant frequency of the MOEMS vibration sensor obtained from the simulation experiment is 1536 Hz. Lower resonant frequency confirms that the MOEMS vibration senor can achieve high-precision acceleration measurement theoretically. Limited by detection frequency range of the reference sensor, amplitude calibration experiment of fixed frequency (500 Hz) is carried out and experiment results prove the excellent performance of the MOEMS vibration sensor.

Comparative efficiency analysis of fiber-array and conventional beam director systems in volume turbulence.

The performance of two prominent laser beam projection system types is analyzed through wave-optics numerical simulations for various atmospheric turbulence conditions, propagation distances, and adaptive optics (AO) mitigation techniques. Comparisons are made between different configurations of both a conventional beam director (BD) using a monolithic-optics-based Cassegrain telescope and a fiber-array BD that uses an array of densely packed fiber collimators. The BD systems considered have equal input power and aperture diameters. The projected laser beam power inside the Airy size disk at the target plane is used as the performance metric. For the fiber-array system, both incoherent and coherent beam combining regimes are considered. We also present preliminary results of side-by-side atmospheric beam projection experiments over a 7-km propagation path using both the AO-enhanced beam projection system with a Cassegrain telescope and the coherent fiber-array BD composed of 21 densely packed fiber collimators. Both wave-optics numerical simulation and experimental results demonstrate that, for similar system architectures and turbulence conditions, coherent fiber-array systems are more efficient in mitigation of atmospheric turbulence effects and generation of a hit spot of the smallest possible size on a remotely located target.

Fiber-Optic Michelson Interferometric Acoustic Sensor Based on a PP/PET Diaphragm

A novel acoustic sensor based on a polypropylene/poly (ethylene terephthalate) (PP/PET) diaphragm is demonstrated. The Michelson interferometer is formed by two beams of light that are reflected into optical fiber collimators by both sides of the PP/PET film. The deformation of diaphragm caused by acoustic signal will be magnified twice in the optical path of proposed sensor. The sensitivity of our proposed sensor is more than −128 dB re 1 rad/ $\mu $ Pa in the frequency range of 90–4000 Hz, and a signal-to-noise ratio of $\sim 42$ dB is achieved at 600 Hz. Due to its superiorities of low cost, small size, high sensitivity, and easy fabrication, the proposed sensor exhibits a potential for low-frequency acoustic sensing and healthy monitoring.

Effect of optical parameters on fiber laser welding of ultrahigh strength steels and weld mechanical properties at subzero temperatures

The recently developed direct-quenched ultrahigh strength steels have a combination of high tensile strength and toughness properties at subzero temperatures down to −80 °C. The low carbon content of the material is beneficial for weldability. Modern high power lasers provide an excellent opportunity to modify the focal point diameter by changing the feeding fiber diameter, collimation and focal length, and thus modify the beam intensity and heat input in actual welding process. In this study, butt joints of Optim 960 QC direct-quenched ultrahigh strength steel with a thickness of 8 mm were welded with 10 kW fiber laser with various different optical setups in order to evaluate the characteristics of the joints within the range of low to high heat inputs possible for this welding process. The mechanical properties of the joints were studied by subjecting the specimens to a number of destructive tests of mechanical properties. The weld metal hardness and tensile strength was tested. It was found that high quality butt joints with superior tensile strength could be obtained. However, having a high level of all these properties in the joint narrows, the process parameters' window and the heat input needs to be strictly controlled.

System for simultaneously measuring 6DOF geometric motion errors using a polarization maintaining fiber-coupled dual-frequency laser.

A novel method for simultaneously measuring six degree-of-freedom (6DOF) geometric motion errors is proposed in this paper, and the corresponding measurement instrument is developed. Simultaneous measurement of 6DOF geometric motion errors using a polarization maintaining fiber-coupled dual-frequency laser is accomplished for the first time to the best of the authors' knowledge. Dual-frequency laser beams that are orthogonally linear polarized were adopted as the measuring datum. Positioning error measurement was achieved by heterodyne interferometry, and other 5DOF geometric motion errors were obtained by fiber collimation measurement. A series of experiments was performed to verify the effectiveness of the developed instrument. The experimental results showed that the stability and accuracy of the positioning error measurement are 31.1 nm and 0.5 μm, respectively. For the straightness error measurements, the stability and resolution are 60 and 40 nm, respectively, and the maximum deviation of repeatability is ± 0.15 μm in the x direction and ± 0.1 μm in the y direction. For pitch and yaw measurements, the stabilities are 0.03″ and 0.04″, the maximum deviations of repeatability are ± 0.18″ and ± 0.24″, and the accuracies are 0.4″ and 0.35″, respectively. The stability and resolution of roll measurement are 0.29″ and 0.2″, respectively, and the accuracy is 0.6″.

Deep turbulence effects mitigation with coherent combining of 21 laser beams over 7 km.

We demonstrate coherent beam combining and adaptive mitigation of atmospheric turbulence effects over 7km under strong scintillation conditions using a coherent fiber array laser transmitter operating in a target-in-the-loop setting. The transmitter system is composed of a densely packed array of 21 fiber collimators with integrated capabilities for piston, tip, and tilt control of the outgoing beams wavefront phases. A small cat's-eye retro reflector was used for evaluation of beam combining and turbulence compensation performance at the target plane, and to provide the feedback signal for control of piston and tip/tilt phases of the transmitted beams using the stochastic parallel gradient descent maximization of the power-in-the-bucket metric.

Transient beam oscillation with a highly dynamic scanner for laser beam fusion cutting

Abstract Sheet metals with thicknesses >8 mm have a distinct cutting performance. The free choice of the optical configuration composed of fiber diameter, collimation, and focal length offers many opportunities to influence the static beam geometry. Previous analysis points out the limitations of this method in the thick section area. Within the present study, an experimental investigation of fiber laser fusion cutting of 12 mm stainless steel was performed by means of dynamical beam oscillation. Two standard optical setups are combined with a highly dynamic galvano-driven scanner that achieves frequencies up to 4 kHz. Dependencies of the scanner parameter, the optical circumstances, and the conventional cutting parameters are discussed. The aim is to characterize the capabilities and challenges of the dynamic beam shaping in comparison to the state-of-the-art static beam shaping. Thus, the trials are evaluated by quality criteria of the cut edge as surface roughness and burr height, the feed rate, and the cut kerf geometry. The investigation emphasizes promising procedural possibilities for improvements of the cutting performance in the case of fiber laser fusion cutting of thick stainless steel by means of the application of a highly dynamic scanner.

A 20-m/40-Gb/s 1550-nm DFB LD-Based FSO Link

An innovative free-space optical (FSO) link using laser light propagation to achieve transmission rate of 40 Gb/s at a wavelength of 1550 nm is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Over a 20-m free-space link, brilliant bit-error-rate performance and clear eye diagram are obtained in the proposed 1550-nm distributed feedback (DFB) laser diode (LD)-based FSO links. As far as we know, it is the first time that a 1550-nm externally modulated laser transmitter cascaded with an erbium-doped fiber amplifier and a pair of fiber collimators to successfully set up a 20-m/40-Gb/s FSO link has been employed. Compared with the 680-nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser-based FSO link, this proposed 1550-nm DFB LD-based FSO link is attractive not only because it has longer free-space transmission distance but because it supplies higher bandwidth operation as well. Such a 1550-nm DFB LD-based FSO link provides the benefits of optical wireless communications for longer transmission distance and higher transmission rate, which is thoroughly helpful for optical wireless network applications.