Standard Photonic Crystal Fiber Research Articles

Design and analysis of highly nonlinear, low dispersion AlGaAs-based photonic crystal fiber

Abstract An AlGaAs based standard photonic crystal fiber structure is reported for low dispersive nonlinear optics applications. By employing a finite element solver with perfectly matched layer boundary condition, the key propagation characteristics are investigated over a broad wavelength span (1–5 μm) by taking the different air filling fraction values. The proposed work provides an effective fundamental mode area of 7.30 μm2 with nonlinearity in the order of 8.325 W−1m−1 at a low absorption wavelength of 1.55 μm and zero-dispersion wavelength close to 3 μm.

Optimization and performance analysis of SERS-active suspended core photonic crystal fibers

Recently, surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS)-active photonic crystal fiber (PCFs) probes have gained great interest for biosensing applications due to the tremendous advantages it has over the conventional planar substrate based SERS measurements, with improvements on the detection sensitivity and reliability in measurements. So far, two main approaches were employed to get the analyte molecule in the vicinity of nanoparticles (NPs) inside PCFs in order to achieve the SERS effect. In the first case, analyte and NPs are pre-mixed and injected inside the holes of the PCF prior to the measurement. In the second approach, controlled anchoring of the NPs inside the inner walls of the PCF was achieved prior to the incorporation of the analyte. Although many studies have been conducted using one configuration or the other, no clear trend is emerging on which one would be the best suited for optimizing the biosensing properties offered by SERS active-PCF. In this paper, we investigate the performances of both configurations along with their interplays with the core size of the PCF probe. We have fabricated several samples of a standard PCF design with different core sizes, and SERS measurements of a standard Raman-active molecule are realized in the same conditions for enabling direct comparisons of the SERS intensity and measurement reliabilities between each configuration, yielding clear directions on the optimization of the SERS-active PCF probe. We envision that this study will pave the way for next-generation clinical biosensors for body fluid analysis, as it exhibits high sensitivity and excellent reliability.

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.

A comparative study and experimental observations of optical fiber sagnac interferometric based strain sensor by using different fibers

Abstract Designing of strain monitoring system is a vibrant topic for the researchers. Strain monitoring systems are required in various fields such as mechanics, aeronautics, metallurgy and health monitoring of complex structures etc. Researchers designed different strain monitoring systems based on requirements. In this paper, we have reported a comparative study of Optical Fiber Sagnac Interferometer (OFSI) based strain sensors using three different types of fiber, i.e Polarization Maintaining Fiber (PMF), Standard Photonic Crystal Fiber (PCF) and High Birefringence Photonic Crystal Fiber (Hi-Bi PCF). The transmission spectrums of the sensors were recorded using Optical Spectrum Analyzer (OSA). We have experimentally analyzed the response and sensitivity of the sensors at different applied strains. The experimental results show that the optical interferometric strain sensor using PMF is having highest sensitivity in comparison to other sensors.

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.

Modelling a nonlinear optical switching in a standard photonic crystal fiber infiltrated with carbon disulfide

In this letter, a numerical analysis is developed for the propagation of ultrafast optical pulses through a standard photonic crystal fiber (PCF) consisting of two infiltrated holes using carbon disulfide (CS2). This material is a good choice since it has highly nonlinear properties, what makes it a good candidate for optical switching and broadband source at low power compared to traditional nonlinear fiber coupler. Based on supermodes theory, a set of generalized nonlinear equations is presented in order to study the propagation characteristics. It is shown in this letter that it is possible to get optical switching behavior at low power and how the dispersion, as well as, the two infiltrated holes separation influence this effect. Finally, we see that supercontinuum generation can be induced equally in both infiltrated holes despite no initial excitation at one hole.

Maximizing power output from continuous-wave single-frequency fiber amplifiers.

This Letter reports on a method of maximizing the power output from highly saturated cladding-pumped continuous-wave single-frequency fiber amplifiers simultaneously, taking into account the stimulated Brillouin scattering and transverse modal instability thresholds. This results in a design figure of merit depending on the fundamental mode overlap with the doping profile, the peak Brillouin gain coefficient, and the peak mode coupling gain coefficient. This figure of merit is then numerically analyzed for three candidate fiber designs including standard, segmented acoustically tailored, and micro-segmented acoustically tailored photonic-crystal fibers. It is found that each of the latter two fibers should enable a 50% higher output power than standard photonic crystal fiber.

Determining optimum operating conditions of the polarization-maintaining fiber with two far-lying zero dispersion wavelengths for CARS microscopy.

Single femtosecond laser-based coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy, using a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) pumped in the near-IR to generate a supercontinuum for the Stokes source, is rapidly being adopted as a cost-effective approach. A PCF with two closely-lying zero dispersion wavelengths is a popular choice for the Stokes source, but it is often limited to imaging lipids. A polarization-maintaining PCF with two far-lying zero dispersion wavelengths offers important advantages for polarization CARS microscopy, and for CARS imaging in the fingerprint region. This PCF fiber, though commercially available, has limited use for CARS microscopy in the C-H bond region. The main problem is that the supercontinuum from this fiber is typically noisier than that from a standard PCF with two closely-lying zero dispersion wavelengths. To overcome this, we determined the optimum operating conditions for generating a low-noise supercontinuum out of a PCF with two far-lying zero dispersion wavelengths, in terms of the input parameters of the excitation pulse. We measured the relative intensity noise (RIN) of the Stokes and the corresponding CARS signal as a function of the input laser parameters in this fiber. We showed that the results of CARS imaging using this alternate fiber are comparable to those achieved using the standard fiber, for input laser pulse conditions of low average power, narrow pulse width with slightly positive chirp, and polarization direction parallel to the slow axis of the selected fiber.