Effect of Gamma-Ray Irradiation on the Growth of Au Nano-Particles Embedded in the Germano-Silicate Glass Cladding of the Silica Glass Fiber and its Surface Plasmon Resonance Response.

The effect of γ-ray irradiation on the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensing capability of refractive index (n = 1.418⁻1.448) of the silica glass optical fiber comprised of germano-silicate glass cladding embedded with Au nano-particles (NPs) was investigated. As the γ-ray irradiation increased from 1 h to 3 h with the dose rate of 1190 Gy/h, the morphology of the Au NPs and the SPR spectrum were found to change. The average diameter of Au NPs increased with the aspect ratio from 1 to 2, and the nano-particles became grown to the clusters. The SPR band wavelength shifted towards a longer wavelength with the increase of total dose of γ-ray irradiation regardless of the corresponding refractive indices. The SPR sensitivities (wavelength/refractive index unit, nm/RIU) also increased from 407 nm/RIU to 3553 nm/RIU, 1483 nm/RIU, and 2335 nm/RIU after the γ-ray irradiation at a total dose of 1190 Gy, 2380 Gy, and 3570 Gy, respectively.

UV Photoluminescence of Alumino-Germano-Silicate Glass Optical Fiber Incorporated with Gd2O3 Nano-Particles Upon Illumination of Xenon-Lamp.

Alumino-germano-silicate glass optical fiber incorporated with Gd2O3 nano-particles (NPs) was developed by using the modified chemical vapor deposition and the drawing process. The formation of spherical Gd2O3 NPs in the fiber core with average diameter of 10.8 nm was confirmed by the TEM. The distinct absorption peaks in the fiber preform appearing in the UV region at 205, 247, 253, 274, and 312 nm were due to the incorporated Gd2O3 NPs via reorganization of the seven 4f electrons into various multiplets of Gd ions. In the case of the optical fiber obtained by drawing of the preform at high temperature about 2150 °C, absorption peaks due to Gd2O3 NPs were found to appear at 383 and 455 nm, which were red-shifted from 274 and 312 nm of the preform, respectively, and it may be due to increase in the size of Gd2O3 NPs after the drawing process. To investigate the photoluminescence (PL) property for UV sensor applications, the PL of the fiber was obtained by illumination of the Xenon-lamp. A PL band appeared in the wavelength band from 370 nm to 450 nm, centering at about 400 nm, which can be attributed to the presence of Gd2O3 NPs embedded in the fiber core. It was also found that the PL intensity at 400 nm showed linear dependence with the excitation power from 0 to 400 W.

Temperature and Vibration Dependence of the Faraday Effect of Gd2O3 NPs-Doped Alumino-Silicate Glass Optical Fiber.

All-optical fiber magnetic field sensor based on the Gd2O3 nano-particles (NPs)-doped alumino-silicate glass optical fiber was developed, and its temperature and vibration dependence on the Faraday Effect were investigated. Uniformly embedded Gd2O3 NPs were identified to form in the core of the fiber, and the measured absorption peaks of the fiber appearing at 377 nm, 443 nm, and 551 nm were attributed to the Gd2O3 NPs incorporated in the fiber core. The Faraday rotation angle (FRA) of the linearly polarized light was measured at 650 nm with the induced magnetic field by the solenoid. The Faraday rotation angle was found to increase linearly with the magnetic field, and it was about 18.16° ± 0.048° at 0.142 Tesla (T) at temperatures of 25 °C-120 °C, by which the estimated Verdet constant was 3.19 rad/(T∙m) ± 0.01 rad/(T∙m). The variation of the FRA with time at 0.142 T and 120 °C was negligibly small (-9.78 × 10-4 °/min). The variation of the FRA under the mechanical vibration with the acceleration below 10 g and the frequency above 50 Hz was within 0.5°.

Gamma-ray radiation response at 1550 nm of fluorine-doped radiation hard single-mode optical fiber.

We have investigated gamma-ray radiation response at 1550 nm of fluorine-doped radiation hard single-mode optical fiber. Radiation-induced attenuation (RIA) of the optical fiber was measured under intermittent gamma-ray irradiations with dose rate of ~10 kGy/h. No radiation hardening effect on the RIA by the gamma-ray pre-dose was found when the exposed fiber was bleached for long periods of time (27~47 days) at room-temperature. Photo-bleaching scheme upon 980 nm LD pumping has proven to be an effective deterrent to the RIA, particularly by suppressing the incipient RIA due to room-temperature unstable self-trapped hole defects (STHs). Large temperature dependence of the RIA of the optical fiber together with the photo-bleaching effect are worthy of note for reinforcing its radiation hard characteristics.

Radial-firing optical fiber tip containing conical-shaped air-pocket for biomedical applications.

We report a novel radial-firing optical fiber tip containing a conical-shaped air-pocket fabricated by deforming a hollow optical fiber using electric arc-discharge process. The hollow optical fiber was fusion spliced with a conventional optical fiber, simultaneously deforming into the intagliated conical-shaped region along the longitudinal fiber-axis of the fiber due to the gradual collapse of the cavity of the hollow optical fiber. Then the distal-end of the hollow optical fiber was sealed by the additional arc-discharge in order to obstruct the inflow of an external bio-substance or liquid to the inner air surface during the surgical operations, resulting in the formation of encased air-pocket in the silica glass fiber. Due to the total internal reflection of the laser beam at the conical-shaped air surface, the laser beam (λ = 632.8 nm) was deflected to the circumferential direction up to 87 degree with respect to the fiber-axis.

Thermo-optic coefficient measurement of liquids based on simultaneous temperature and refractive index sensing capability of a two-mode fiber interferometric probe.

A fiber-optic interferometric probe based on a two-mode fiber (TMF) is proposed and demonstrated for measuring the thermo-optic coefficients (TOCs) of liquid samples. The proposed probe can be simply fabricated by fusion-splicing a short piece of TMF to a lead single mode fiber (SMF) with small lateral offset, which makes interference between LP(01) and LP(02) modes. The sensing responses of the probe to temperature and surrounding refractive index (SRI) have been experimentally investigated to show the capability of simultaneous measurements; the phase change of the reflection spectrum was related to temperature variation and the intensity change was to SRI variation. The data analysis is made not only in the spectral domain but in the Fourier domain also to effectively quantify the measurements. The TOCs of several liquid samples including water, ethanol, and acetone have been obtained with the proposed method.

Effect of Zn addition on non-resonant third-order optical nonlinearity of the Cu-doped germano-silicate optical glass fiber.

Cu/Zn-codoped germano-silicate optical glass fiber was manufactured by using the modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) process and solution doping process. To investigate the reduction effect of Zn addition on Cu metal formation in the core of the Cu/Zn-codoped germano-silicate optical glass fiber, the optical absorption property and the non-resonant third-order optical nonlinearity were measured. Absorption peaks at 435 nm and 469 nm in the Cu/Zn-codoped germano-silicate optical glass fiber were contributed to Cu metal particles and ZnO semiconductor particles, respectively. The effective non-resonant optical nonlinearity, gamma, of the Cu/Zn-codoped germano-silicate optical glass fiber was measured to be 1.5097 W(-1) x km(-1) by using the continuous-wave self-phase modulation method. The gamma of the Cu/Zn-codoped germano-silicate optical glass fiber was about four times larger than that of the reference germano-silicate optical glass fiber without any dopants. The increase of the effective non-resonant optical nonlinearity, gamma, of the Cu/Zn-codoped germano-silicate optical glass fiber, can be attributed to the enhanced nonlinear polarization due to incorporated ZnO semiconductor particles and Cu metal ions in the glass network. The Cu/Zn-codoped germano-silicate optical glass fiber showed high nonlinearity and low transmission loss at the optical communication wavelength, which makes it suitable for high-speed-high-capacity optical communication systems.

Effective supercontinuum generation by using highly nonlinear dispersion-shifted fiber incorporated with Si nanocrystals.

The dispersion-shifted fiber (DSF) incorporated with Si nanocrystals (Si-NCs) having highly nonlinear optical property was fabricated to investigate the effective supercontinuum generation characteristics by using the MCVD process and the drawing process. Optical nonlinearity was enhanced by incorporating Si nanocrystals in the core of the fiber and the refractive index profile of a dispersion-shifted fiber was employed to match its zero-dispersion wavelength to that of the commercially available pumping source for generating effective supercontinuum. The non-resonant nonlinear refractive index, n2, of the Si-NCs doped DSF measured by the cw-SPM method was measured to be 7.03 x 10(-20) [m2/W] and the coefficient of non-resonant nonlinearity, gamma, was 7.14 [W(-1) km(-1)]. To examine supercontinuum generation of the Si-NCs doped DSF, the femtosecond fiber laser with the pulse width of 150 fs (at 1560 nm) was launched into the fiber core. The output spectrum of the Si-NCs doped DSF was found to broaden from 1300 nm to wavelength well beyond 1700 nm, which can be attributed to the enhanced optical nonlinearity by Si-NCs embedded in the fiber core. The short wavelength of the supercontinuum spectrum in the Si-NCs doped DSF showed shift from 1352 nm to 1220 nm for the fiber length of 2.5 m and 200 m, respectively.

Fabrication of highly nonlinear germano-silicate glass optical fiber incorporated with PbTe semiconductor quantum dots using atomization doping process and its optical nonlinearity.

Germano-silicate glass optical fiber incorporated with PbTe semiconductor quantum dots (SQDs) in the core was fabricated by using the atomization process in modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) process. The absorption bands attributed to PbTe semiconductor quantum dots in the fiber core were found to appear at around 687 nm and 1055 nm. The nonlinear refractive index measured by the long-period fiber grating (LPG) pair method upon pumping with laser diode at 976.4 nm was estimated to be ~1.5 × 10(-16) m2/W.

A simple and reliable method to determine LP(11) cutoff wavelength of bend insensitive fiber.

We present a simple and reliable method based on the spectral splice loss measurement to determine the cutoff wavelength of bend insensitive fiber.

Development of a highly sensitive compact sized optical fiber current sensor.

We have experimentally developed a highly sensitive and a compact size current sensor by using the CdSe quantum dots-doped bend insensitive optical fiber, operating in the visible band of wavelength. The modified sensitivity of this sensor was about 675 microrad/(Turn.A.m) for the loop radius of just 10 mm, which is more than 16 times larger than that of the single mode optical fiber current sensor.

Design and development of a trenched optical fiber with ultra-low bending loss.

We have designed and experimentally demonstrated a single mode optical fiber with a very low bending loss of about 0.014 dB/loop at 1550 nm for a bending radius of 5 mm.

Near zero bending loss in a double-trenched bend insensitive optical fiber at 1550 nm.

We have developed a new single-mode optical fiber (SMF) which exhibits ultra low bend sensitivity over a wide communication band. The measured mean bending loss at 1550 nm was about 0.0095 dB for a loop of 10 mm diameter.

Enhanced current sensitivity in the optical fiber doped with CdSe quantum dots.

A new optical fiber current sensor using a CdSe quantum dots doped optical fiber has been demonstrated with high Faraday rotation for remote sensing of current from 0 to 40 Amperes. It showed enhancement in the current sensitivity by about 2 times than that of the single mode optical fiber current sensor at 632 nm.

Bend insensitive optical fiber with ultralow bending loss in the visible wavelength band.

We report experimental development of a single-mode optical fiber optimized for a wavelength band of 400 nm to 700 nm, which showed negligible bending loss of 0.09 dB/loop at 400 nm and 0.23 dB/loop at 633 nm for a loop diameter of 10 mm.

Single-mode optical fiber design with wide-band ultra low bending-loss for FTTH application.

We propose a new design of a single-mode optical fiber (SMF) which exhibits ultra low bend sensitivity over a wide communication band (1.3 microm to 1.65 microm). A five-cladding fiber structure has been proposed to minimize the bending loss, estimated to be as low as 4.4x10(-10) dB/turn for the bend radius of 10 mm.

Design of a trenched bend insensitive single mode optical fiber using spot size definitions.

We have designed a bend insensitive single mode optical fiber with a low-index trench using spot-size definitions and their optimization technique. The bending loss at a 5 mm of bending radius was negligible, while single mode properties were intact.

Effect of aluminum on the formation of silver metal quantum dots in sol-gel derived alumino-silicate glass film.

The effect of aluminum incorporation on silver metal quantum dots formation in the alumino-silicate glass film processed by sol-gel process was investigated. The sol-gel derived glass was coated onto the silica glass plate by spin coating with the mixture solution of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), C2H5OH, H2O, AgNO3, Al(NO3)3. 39H2O, and HNO3 with the molar ratios of Ag/Si = 0.12 and Al/Si varying from 0 to 0.12. The formation of the silver metal quantum dots was confirmed by the measurements of the UV/VIS optical spectra, the X-ray diffraction patterns, and the transmission electron microscope images. While the radius of silver metal quantum dots increased with the increase of aluminum concentration, the concentration of the silver metal quantum dots decreased. The formation of the silver metal quantum dots was found strongly suppressed by incorporation of aluminum ions in the glass. The change in the glass structure due to the aluminum incorporation was investigated by the analysis of the Raman spectra. The silver ions in the glass contributed to form stable (Al:Ag)O4 tetrahedra by pairing with aluminum ions and thus clustering of silver metal quantum dots was hindered.

Fabrication and optical characteristics of a novel optical fiber doped with the Au nanoparticles.

Optical fibers containing gold metal nanoparticles were developed by modified chemical vapor deposition, in which Au(OH)3 and tetraethyl-orthosilicate (TEOS) was used via sol-gel process to incorporate gold metals by providing the reduction atmosphere. The absorption peak appeared near 490 nm was found to be due to the surface plasmon resonance of the gold nanoparticles incorporated in the fiber core.

Surface Plasmon Resonance Characteristics of Optical Fiber Incorporated with Au Nano-Particles in Cladding Region.

A novel surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor based on specialty optical fiber having its cladding doped with Au nano-particles (NPs) was developed by modified chemical vapor deposition process. To optimize the SPR absorption and sensitivity of the fiber SPR sensor, effect of the fiber length (20 cm-90 cm) on sensing capability of refractive index (n = 1.418-1.448) was investigated. Absorption peaks appearing at 392 and 790 nm were due to SPR from Au NPs in the cladding region of the optical fiber. The SPR was found to occur at particular wavelengths around 390 nm for the corresponding refractive indices regardless of the length of the fiber, increased with the increase of the index. The measured SPR sensitivities (wavelength/RIU) of the fiber were estimated to be 407 nm/RIU, 217 nm/RIU, and 54 nm/RIU with the fiber lengths of 20 cm, 45 cm, and 90 cm, respectively. The SPR absorption intensity and FWHM decreased with the increase of the fiber length because the propagation loss of the signal through the fiber cladding region increased.