Increased sensitivity in fiber-based spectroscopy using carbon-coated fiber.

Carbon-coated optical fibers are used here for reducing the luminescence background created by the primary-coating and thus increase the sensitivity of fiber-based spectroscopy systems. The 2-3 orders of magnitude signal-to-noise ratio improvement with standard telecom fibers is sufficient to allow for their use as Raman probes in the identification of organic solvents.

Ytterbium-doped fibers fabricated with atomic layer deposition method.

We report on a new fabrication method of producing ytterbium doped fibers by atomic layer deposition (ALD) in combination with the conventional modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) technique. An MCVD soot-preform with a porous layer of SiO(2) is coated with layers of Yb(2)O(3) and Al(2)O(3) prior to sintering, using the gas-phase ALD method. An SEM/EDS material analysis study shows that the dopants successfully penetrate the full thickness of 320 µm of the soot layer. An Yb-doped fiber fabricated by this technique shows a background attenuation of 20 dB/km, a uniform longitudinal Yb-doping profile, and good laser characteristics with a slope efficiency of 80%. Furthermore, we present a comparison in terms of photodarkening between the MCVD-ALD fiber and a solution doped fiber, fabricated with the same MCVD recipe. The new MCVD-ALD fiber appears to be more photodarkening resistant.

Fabrication and optical characterization of silica optical fibers containing gold nanoparticles.

Gold nanoparticles have been used since antiquity for the production of red-colored glasses. More recently, it was determined that this color is caused by plasmon resonance, which additionally increases the material's nonlinear optical response, allowing for the improvement of numerous optical devices. Interest in silica fibers containing gold nanoparticles has increased recently, aiming at the integration of nonlinear devices with conventional optical fibers. However, fabrication is challenging due to the high temperatures required for silica processing and fibers with gold nanoparticles were solely demonstrated using sol-gel techniques. We show a new fabrication technique based on standard preform/fiber fabrication methods, where nanoparticles are nucleated by heat in a furnace or by laser exposure with unprecedented control over particle size, concentration, and distribution. Plasmon absorption peaks exceeding 800 dB m(-1) at 514-536 nm wavelengths were observed, indicating higher achievable nanoparticle concentrations than previously reported. The measured resonant nonlinear refractive index, (6.75 ± 0.55) × 10(-15) m(2) W(-1), represents an improvement of >50×.

Wide wedge-shaped depletion region in thermally poled fiber with alloy electrodes.

A twin-hole fiber was provided with Au-Sn alloy electrodes and thermally poled at 255 masculineC with 4.3 kV applied during 155 minutes. An electric field 6X107 V/m was recorded. The poled fiber was cleaved and etched, revealing that the depletion region overlapped the entire core, was wedge shaped and pointed towards the cathode. The recorded profile closely followed the spatial distribution of the poling field.