Numerical analysis of lasing characteristics in highly bend-compensated large-mode-area ytterbium-doped double-clad leakage channel fibers.

The bend-induced mode-area reduction and thermal effects are vital factors that affect the power scaling of fiber lasers. Recently, bend-compensated large-mode-area double-clad modified hybrid leakage channel fiber (M-HLCF) has been reported with a mode area greater than 1000 µm, while sustaining the single-mode behavior at 1064 nm for high-temperature environments. In this work, the lasing characteristics of a newly designed ytterbium-doped double-clad M-HLCF (YDMHLCF) have been numerically investigated for strongly pumped conditions. The doped region size is optimally found through simulations, equivalent to the size of core diameter ∼38 µm in order to achieve maximum conversion efficiency for the bent and straight cases. Numerical simulations further confirm that a 2 m long YDMHLCF exhibits slope efficiency of 78% and conversion efficiency of 79% for the straight case and also almost the same for the practical bending radius of 7.5 cm when pumped with a 975 nm laser source.

Tunable optical parametric amplification characteristics of liquid-filled chalcogenide photonic crystal fibers.

A new technique to attain tunable parametric amplification in photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) through control of chromatic dispersion is proposed and empirically investigated. By infiltrating the air channels of the PCFs with suitable thermo-optic liquids, the zero-dispersion wavelength (ZDW) can be tailored to provide a wider gain spectrum in the mid-IR range and generate blueshifted frequency components. It is deduced that a change of 10-20 nm in the ZDW around the pump creates a gain region several hundred nanometers from the pump wavelength by only varying the temperature of the liquid externally.

Bragg x-ray survey spectrometer for ITER.

Several potential impurity ions in the ITER plasmas will lead to loss of confined energy through line and continuum emission. For real time monitoring of impurities, a seven channel Bragg x-ray spectrometer (XRCS survey) is considered. This paper presents design and analysis of the spectrometer, including x-ray tracing by the Shadow-XOP code, sensitivity calculations for reference H-mode plasma and neutronics assessment. The XRCS survey performance analysis shows that the ITER measurement requirements of impurity monitoring in 10 ms integration time at the minimum levels for low-Z to high-Z impurity ions can largely be met.

Smart nanocarriers for pH-triggered targeting and release of hydrophobic drugs.

The use of hybrid pH-sensitive micelles based mainly on the (PEO)(129)(P2VP)(43)(PCL)(17) ABC miktoarm star copolymer as potential triggered drug delivery systems was investigated. Co-micellization of this star copolymer with a second copolymer labeled by a targeting ligand, i.e. biotin, on the pH sensitive block (poly-2-vinylpyridine) is considered here in order to impart possible active targeting of the tumor cells. Two architectures were studied for these labeled copolymers, i.e. a miktoarm star or a linear ABC terpolymer, and the respective hybrid micelles are compared in terms of cytotoxicity (cells viability) and cellular uptake (using fluorescent dye loaded micelles). Finally, the triggered drug release in the cytosol of tumor cells was investigated by studying, on the one hand, the lysosomal integrity after internalization and, on the other hand, the release profile in function of the pH.

Stealth properties of poly(ethylene oxide)-based triblock copolymer micelles: a prerequisite for a pH-triggered targeting system.

Evaluation of the biocompatibility of pH-triggered targeting micelles was performed with the goal of studying the effect of a poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) coating on micelle stealth properties. Upon protonation under acidic conditions, pH-sensitive poly(2-vinylpyridine) (P2VP) blocks were stretched, exhibiting positive charges at the periphery of the micelles as well as being a model targeting unit. The polymer micelles were based on two different macromolecular architectures, an ABC miktoarm star terpolymer and an ABC linear triblock copolymer, which combined three different polymer blocks, i.e. hydrophobic poly(ε-caprolactone), PEO and P2VP. Neutral polymer micelles were formed at physiological pH. These systems were tested for their ability to avoid macrophage uptake, their complement activation and their pharmacological behavior after systemic injection in mice, as a function of their conformation (neutral or protonated). After protonation, complement activation and macrophage uptake were up to twofold higher than for neutral systems. By contrast, when P2VP blocks and the targeting unit were buried by the PEO shell at physiological pH, micelle stealth properties were improved, allowing their future systemic injection with an expected long circulation in blood. Smart systems responsive to pH were thus developed which therefore hold great promise for targeted drug delivery to an acidic tumoral environment.

Design and simulation of 1310 nm and 1480 nm single-mode photonic crystal fiber Raman lasers.

We have numerically investigated the Raman lasing characteristics of a highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber (HNPCF). HNPCF Raman lasers are designed to deliver outputs at 1.3 microm and 1.48 microm wavelengths through three and six cascades of Raman Stokes cavities when the pumps of 1117 nm and 1064 nm are injected into HNPCF module, respectively. A quantum efficiency of approximately 47% was achieved in a short length of HNPCF for 1.3 microm lasing wavelength. The HNPCF design is modified further to operate in single-mode fashion keeping intact its Raman lasing characteristics. The modified HNPCF design consists of two air-hole rings where the higher-order modes in the central core are suppressed by enhancing their leakage losses drastically, thus ceasing their propagation in the short length of HNPCF. On the other hand, the fundamental mode is well confined to the central core region, unaffecting its lasing performances. Further, the lasing characteristics of HNPCF at 1480 nm are compared with conventional highly nonlinear fiber Raman laser operating at 1480 nm. It is found that one can reduce the fiber length by five times in case of HNPCF with nearly similar conversion efficiency.

Bend-insensitive lasing characteristics of single-mode, large-mode-area ytterbium-doped photonic crystal fiber.

The bend-insensitive lasing characteristics of a newly designed ytterbium-doped photonic crystal fiber (YPCF) are evaluated numerically. The designed YPCF remains single-mode and possesses large-mode-area of 1400 microm(2) at 1064 nm wavelength with the beam quality factor (M(2)) of 1.15, suggesting a diffraction-limited and continuous-wave lasing operation. The doped-region size is optimized for maximum conversion efficiency and it is found through numerical simulations that the doped radius should be more than 21 microm. The "mode expansion", which is the self-expansion of the fundamental mode within the doped region with wavelength increments on bending the fiber, is the basic physical mechanism to give the bend-insensitive lasing performances of YPCF. It leads to an unusual variation of overlap factor when the wavelength is increased. A 41 cm long piece of YPCF demonstrates more than 83% of slope efficiency with 75% of conversion efficiency when pumped with a 975 nm laser source delivering an input power of 1 W.

Strategies for realizing photonic crystal fiber bandpass filters.

Numerical design strategies are presented to achieve efficient broad or narrow band-pass filters based on index-guiding, solid-core, and single-mode photonic crystal fibers (PCFs). The filtering characteristics have been verified through BPM solver. By scaling the pitch constant, the bandpass window can be shifted accordingly. The fiber design constitutes a fluorine-doped central core, enlarged air-holes surrounding the down-doped core, and small air-holes in the cladding. The proposed bandpass filter is based on controlling the leakage losses, so one can tune filter characteristics simply by changing its length. From numerical simulations we show that for large values of air-hole diameter in the first ring, the bandpass window is narrow, while for low doping concentration and small sized air-holes in the first ring, bandpass window is very broad. We also simulate how the hole-size and number of rings in the PCF cladding affects the device characteristics. We find that a 5-cm long PCF with down-doped core and eleven rings of air-holes can result in approximately 440 nm 3-dB bandwidth with more than 90% of transmission. The longer device has reduced transmission and smaller 3-dB bandwidth. Tolerance analysis has also been performed to check the impact of fiber tolerances on the performance of the PCF bandpass filter. It has been observed that the decrement in cladding hole-diameter by 1% reduces the transmission to 21% from its peak value of 93%, however +/-1% tolerance in the inner hole-diameter degrades the transmission to 75% from its peak.

Measurement of chromatic dispersion and Raman gain efficiency of a hole-assisted fiber: Influence of bend.

We have experimentally measured the Raman gain efficiency (RGE) and chromatic dispersion (CD) of a hole-assisted fiber (HAF). The RGE of a HAF was characterized using standard pump on/off technique while the CD of the fiber was measured using optical network analyzer. Theoretical simulations of the modal characteristics and the RGE of HAF were carried out using an accurate full-vectorial finite element method. Further, the bending effects on the CD and the RGE of a HAF with a smallest feasible bending radius are demonstrated. It was found that the CD increases while the RGE is decreased by bending HAF in a smallest bending radius of 5 mm. Numerical predictions from the theory are shown to be in good agreement with the experimental results.