Spontaneous pump depolarization in ultralong cavity Raman fiber laser amplifiers.

We present an experimental demonstration of polarization-independent performance in a forward and backward-pumped 2nd-order ultralong cavity Raman laser amplifiers with highly polarized pumps. Our findings show that the depolarization of the Stokes component due to gain saturation leads to polarization-insensitive performance in terms of output gain and relative intensity noise in the signal. These results pave the way for the use of individual highly polarized low-RIN semiconductor laser diodes in Raman-amplified optical communications.

Experimental Demonstration of Low-Uncertainty Calibration Methods for Bragg Grating Interrogators.

In this paper we propose and demonstrate two alternative methods for the high-precision calibration of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) interrogators. The first method is based on the direct comparison between the wavelength measurements of the interrogator under test and a calibrated wavemeter, while analyzing a simulated symmetric Bragg grating constructed by a tunable filter and a fiber mirror. This first method is applicable to most commercial systems but presents an uncertainty limited by the spectral width and the wavelength stability of the tunable filter. The second method consists in measuring multiple reference absorption lines of calibrated absorption gas cells. This second method presents lower uncertainties, limited only by the optical resolution of the interrogator and the wavelength uncertainty of the reference cell absorption lines. However, it imposes more restrictive requirements on the interrogator software. Both methods were experimentally demonstrated by calibrating multiple commercial systems, reaching uncertainties down to 0.63 pm at a central wavelength of 1550 nm.

Open-Cavity Spun Fiber Raman Lasers with Dual Polarization Output.

Random distributed feedback fiber Raman lasers, where the feedback mechanism is provided by Rayleigh backscattering, have attracted a good deal of attention since they were first introduced in 2010. Their simple and flexible design, combined with good lasing efficiency and beam quality properties, comparable to those of standard cavity lasers, have led to multiple applications, particularly in the fields of fiber sensing and optical communications. In spite of these advances, the polarization properties of random fiber Raman lasers, which can strongly affect their performance in both sensing and communications, have barely been explored so far. In this article we experimentally and theoretically study the polarization properties of different open-cavity laser designs, based on either standard transmission fibers or low polarization-mode-dispersion spun fibers. By using high-power, highly-polarized pumps, we demonstrate controllable polarization-pulling and simultaneous lasing at close wavelengths with different output polarization properties in random distributed feedback fiber Raman lasers. These results advance our understanding of the polarization dynamics in ultralong lasers, and pave the way to the design of novel fiber laser sources capable of polarization-sensitive sensing and distributed amplification.

Demonstration and Methodology of Structural Monitoring of Stringer Runs out Composite Areas by Embedded Optical Fiber Sensors and Connectors Integrated during Production in a Composite Plant.

Embedding optical fibers sensors into composite structures for Structural Health Monitoring purposes is not just one of the most attractive solutions contributing to smart structures, but also the optimum integration approach that insures maximum protection and integrity of the fibers. Nevertheless this intended integration level still remains an industrial challenge since today there is no mature integration process in composite plants matching all necessary requirements. This article describes the process developed to integrate optical fiber sensors in the Production cycle of a test specimen. The sensors, Bragg gratings, were integrated into the laminate during automatic tape lay-up and also by a secondary bonding process, both in the Airbus Composite Plant. The test specimen, completely representative of the root joint of the lower wing cover of a real aircraft, is comprised of a structural skin panel with the associated stringer run out. The ingress-egress was achieved through the precise design and integration of miniaturized optical connectors compatible with the manufacturing conditions and operational test requirements. After production, the specimen was trimmed, assembled and bolted to metallic plates to represent the real triform and buttstrap, and eventually installed into the structural test rig. The interrogation of the sensors proves the effectiveness of the integration process; the analysis of the strain results demonstrate the good correlation between fiber sensors and electrical gauges in those locations where they are installed nearby, and the curvature and load transfer analysis in the bolted stringer run out area enable demonstration of the consistency of the fiber sensors measurements. In conclusion, this work presents strong evidence of the performance of embedded optical sensors for structural health monitoring purposes, where in addition and most importantly, the fibers were integrated in a real production environment and the ingress-egress issue was solved by the design and integration of miniaturized connectors compatible with the manufacturing and structural test phases.

Temperature dependence mitigation in stationary Fourier-transform on-chip spectrometers.

We present two techniques for mitigating the effects of temperature drifts in waveguide spatial heterodyne Fourier-transform on-chip spectrometers. In high-resolution devices, large optical path length differences result in an increased sensitivity to temperature variations and impose stringent requirements on the thermal stabilization system. In order to overcome this limitation, here we experimentally demonstrate two new temperature mitigation techniques based on a temperature-sensitive calibration and phase error correction. The spectrometer chip under analysis comprises an array of 32 Mach-Zehnder interferometers fabricated on a silicon-on-insulator platform. The optical path delays are implemented as microphotonic spirals of linearly increasing length up to 3.779 cm, yielding a spectral resolution of 17 pm. We demonstrate that the degradation in retrieved spectra caused by temperature drift is effectively eliminated by temperature-sensitive calibration and phase error correction.

A Novel Fiber Optic Based Surveillance System for Prevention of Pipeline Integrity Threats.

This paper presents a novel surveillance system aimed at the detection and classification of threats in the vicinity of a long gas pipeline. The sensing system is based on phase-sensitive optical time domain reflectometry (ϕ-OTDR) technology for signal acquisition and pattern recognition strategies for threat identification. The proposal incorporates contextual information at the feature level and applies a system combination strategy for pattern classification. The contextual information at the feature level is based on the tandem approach (using feature representations produced by discriminatively-trained multi-layer perceptrons) by employing feature vectors that spread different temporal contexts. The system combination strategy is based on a posterior combination of likelihoods computed from different pattern classification processes. The system operates in two different modes: (1) machine + activity identification, which recognizes the activity being carried out by a certain machine, and (2) threat detection, aimed at detecting threats no matter what the real activity being conducted is. In comparison with a previous system based on the same rigorous experimental setup, the results show that the system combination from the contextual feature information improves the results for each individual class in both operational modes, as well as the overall classification accuracy, with statistically-significant improvements.

Impact of input FBG reflectivity and forward pump power on RIN transfer in ultralong Raman laser amplifiers.

Relative intensity noise transfer from the pump to the signal in 2nd-order ultra-long Raman laser amplifiers for telecommunications is characterized numerically and experimentally. Our results showcase the need for careful adjustment of the front FBG reflectivity and the relative contribution of forward pump power, and their impact on performance. Finally, our analysis is verified through a 10 × 30 GBaud DP-QPSK transmission experiment, showing a large Q factor penalty associated with the combination of high forward pumping and high reflectivities.

Modulation instability-induced fading in phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometry.

Phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometry (φOTDR) is a simple and effective tool allowing the distributed monitoring of vibrations along single-mode fibers. We show in this Letter that modulation instability (MI) can induce a position-dependent signal fading in long-range φOTDR over conventional optical fibers. This fading leads to a complete masking of the interference signal recorded at certain positions and therefore to a sensitivity loss at these positions. We illustrate this effect both theoretically and experimentally. While this effect is detrimental in the context of distributed vibration analysis using φOTDR, we also believe that the technique provides a clear and insightful way to evidence the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam recurrence associated with the MI process.

Brillouin optical time-domain analysis assisted by second-order Raman amplification.

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a new method to extend the range of Brillouin optical time domain analysis (BOTDA) systems. It exploits the virtual transparency created by second-order Raman pumping in optical fibers. The idea is theoretically analyzed and experimentally demonstrated in a 50 km fiber. By working close to transparency, we also show that the measurement length of the BOTDA can be increased up to 100 km with 2 meter resolution. We envisage extensions of this technique to measurement lengths well beyond this value, as long as the issue of relative intensity noise (RIN) of the primary Raman pump can be avoided.

Cavity dispersion management in continuous-wave supercontinuum generation.

Supercontinuum generation using continuous-wave pumping is usually obtained by pumping a suitable fiber with a high-power fiber laser. Whereas many studies have concentrated in optimizing the dispersion characteristics of the nonlinear medium (the fiber) used to obtain the spectral broadening, very few have actually concentrated in optimizing the pump laser characteristics, and in particular, the dispersion in the cavity. In this paper we experimentally demonstrate that the fiber laser cavity dispersion has a strong influence in Raman fiber laser-pumped continuous-wave supercontinuum generation. We show that anomalous dispersion in the cavity favors spectral broadening over normal dispersion, since large, high-contrast intensity noise appears at the output of the laser. Additionally, we find that there is an optimum value of chromatic dispersion coefficient to obtain the most efficient broadening.

Spectrally-bounded continuous-wave supercontinuum generation in a fiber with two zero-dispersion wavelengths.

A common issue in fiber-based supercontinuum (SC) generation under continuous-wave pumping is that the spectral width of the resulting source is related to the input power of the pump laser used. An increase of the input pump power leads to an increase of the spectral width obtained at the fiber output, and therefore, the average power spectral density (APSD) over the SC spectrum does not grow according to the input power. For some applications it would be desired to have a fixed spectral width in the SC and to increase the average PSD proportionally to the input pump power. In this paper we demonstrate experimentally that SC generation under continuous-wave (CW) pumping can be spectrally bounded by using a fiber with two zero-dispersion wavelengths (ZDWs). Beyond a certain pump power, the spectral width of the SC source remains fixed, and the APSD of the SC grows with the pump power. In our experiment we generate a reasonably flat, spectrally-bounded SC spanning from 1550 nm to 1700 nm. The spectra l width of the source is shown to be constant between 3 and 6 W of pump power. Over this range, the increase in input power is directly translated in an increase in the output APSD. The experimental results are confirmed by numerical simulations, which also highlight the sensitivity of this configuration to variations in the fiber dispersion curve. We believe that these results open the way for tailoring the spectral width of high-APSD CW SC by adjusting the fiber dispersion.

High-power and high-accuracy integrating sphere radiometer: design, characterization, and calibration.

We describe the design, characterization, and calibration of a high-power and high-accuracy transfer standard for optical power measurements in fibers based on an integrating sphere radiometer working from -50 to +30 dBm. The integrating sphere radiometer has been calibrated in the spectral range 1250-1650 nm by use of an electrically calibrated pyroelectric radiometer and four tunable laser diodes. The total uncertainty obtained is less than +/-0.8% for these wavelength and power ranges.

Reference-frequency generation by Raman-enhanced four-photon mixing.

Reference-frequency generation for optical fiber instrumentation is now restricted to the frequency bands in which the reference materials have well-resolved absorption lines. We study analytically and experimentally the possibility of generating reference wavelengths by use of Raman-enhanced four-photon mixing in an optical fiber. We show that it is possible to generate efficiently frequencies that are 10-40 nm away from the absorption bands of the usual reference materials: acetylene (12C2H2), hydrogen cyanide (HCN), and similar or derived species. As a demonstration we use an acetylene cell to generate reference frequencies that cover the whole C (1530-1565 nm) and some part of the L (1565-1625 nm) transmission bands of the optical fiber.

Enhanced method for the reconstruction of zero-dispersion wavelength maps of optical fibers by measurement of continuous-wave four-wave mixing efficiency.

The zero-dispersion wavelength map of an optical fiber can be obtained from measurement of end-to-end four-wave mixing efficiency at various wavelengths. A fast and unambiguous algorithm for reconstruction of the zero-dispersion wavelength map of an optical fiber by measurement of four-wave mixing efficiency is proposed. This method can produce high-resolution results in a few seconds. We also study the limitations of this technique that are due to polarization-mode dispersion (PMD). Simple practical rules to avoid the effects of PMD in such measurements are established.

Retrieval of the zero-dispersion wavelength map of an optical fiber from measurement of its continuous-wave four-wave mixing efficiency.

We present a novel algorithm for reconstruction of the longitudinal distribution of zero-dispersion wavelength in an optical fiber from low power, end-to-end measurements of four-wave mixing efficiency. It is based on a modified version of the error-reduction approach used in classic phase-retrieval problems. Experimental results demonstrate the validity of this algorithm.