Observation of optical nonlinearities in an all-solid transverse Anderson localizing optical fiber.

An all-solid transverse Anderson localizing optical fiber (TALOF) was fabricated using a novel combination of the stack-and-draw and molten core methods. Strong Anderson localization is observed in multiple regions of the fiber cross section associated with the higher index strontium aluminosilicate phases randomly arranged within a pure silica matrix. Further, to the best of our knowledge, nonlinear four-wave mixing is reported for the first time in a TALOF.

Core-suction technique for the fabrication of optical fiber preforms.

A novel technique, named "core suction," for fabricating optical fiber preforms has been devised. The technique involves drawing the molten nonconventional core glass material into the cladding tube to form the preform. The developed technique is simple, inexpensive, and shows great potential for fabricating preforms of highly nonlinear nonconventional glasses as the core material. Preforms were made with Schott SF6 and a lead-tellurium-germanate glass in silica cladding tubes, and these preforms were then pulled into fibers.