Optimization of the interlayer distance for low-loss and low-crosstalk double-layer polymer optical waveguides.

The interlayer distance optimized for low-loss and low-crosstalk double-layer polymer optical waveguides was investigated to enhance their transmission performance. Simulations were conducted to determine the minimal interlayer distances for double-layer optical waveguides with different core sizes. An optimal interlayer distance of 24 µm was identified for a 20 µm × 20 µm double-layer waveguide, which ensured interlayer crosstalk below -30 dB when roughness remained under 80 nm. The double-layer waveguides were fabricated employing ultraviolet lithography combined with the overlay alignment method. Based on experimental optimization, the important fabrication parameters were optimized, such as a plasma treatment time of 10 s, a core exposure dose of 500 mJ/cm2, and a cladding exposure dose of 240 mJ/cm2. Additionally, the fabricated double-layer waveguides, with an interlayer distance of 24.5 µm, exhibited low transmission losses of less than 0.25 dB/cm at 850 nm and 0.40 dB/cm at 1310 nm, respectively. The low interlayer crosstalk values were less than -52 dB at 850 nm and -60 dB at 1310 nm, respectively. The agreement between the experimental results and the simulation findings indicates that this method offers a promising approach for fabricating double-layer waveguides with good performances.

Concise method for high-precision vibration recovery of Φ-OTDR based on the GF-FastICA algorithm.

To efficiently restore the vibration signals of a phase-sensitive optical time domain reflectometer (Φ-OTDR), the GF-FastICA joint algorithm is proposed, which combines guided filtering with fast independent component analysis (FastICA). The marked region of vibration is precisely located by guided filtering. FastICA deals with the optimal phase mixing matrix of the marked region to separate the vibration signals from the noise-containing phase signals. The experimental results show that the GF-FastICA achieves a correlation coefficient of 0.998 for 5-Hz vibration signal recovery from a 14.3-km sensing fiber, verifying the potency of the algorithm. Compared with the traditional method and FastICA only, GF-FastICA improves the root mean square error (RMSE) metric by an order of magnitude, which is approaching an experience value of 10-3.

Highly efficient method for cutting position selection of an x-ray mono-capillary lens based on an improved SCA-CSA algorithm.

In order to efficiently select the optimal cutting position of x-ray mono-capillary lenses, an improved sine cosine algorithm-crow search algorithm (SCA-CSA) algorithm is proposed, which combines the sine cosine algorithm with the crow search algorithm, with further enhancements. The fabricated capillary profile is measured using an optical profiler; then the surface figure error for interest regions of the mono-capillary can be evaluated using the improved SCA-CSA algorithm. The experimental results indicate that the surface figure error in the final capillary cut region is about 0.138 µm, and the runtime is 2.284 s. When compared with the traditional metaheuristic algorithm, the particle swarm optimization algorithm, the improved SCA-CSA algorithm, enhances the surface figure error metric by two orders of magnitude. Furthermore, the standard deviation index of the surface figure error metric for 30 runs also improves by more than 10 orders of magnitude, demonstrating the superior performance and robustness of the algorithm. The proposed method provides significant support for the development of precise cuttings of mono-capillaries.

Highly discriminative and adaptive feature extraction method based on NMF-MFCC for event recognition of Φ-OTDR.

To enhance the capability of phase-sensitive optical time domain reflectometers (Φ-OTDR) to recognize disturbance events, an improved adaptive feature extraction method based on NMF-MFCC is proposed, which replaces the fixed filter bank used in the traditional method to extract the mel-frequency cepstral coefficient (MFCC) features by a spectral structure obtained from the Φ-OTDR signal spectrum using nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF). Three typical events on fences are set as recognition targets in our experiments, and the results show that the NMF-MFCC features have higher distinguishability, with the corresponding recognition accuracy reaching 98.47%, which is 7% higher than that using the traditional MFCC features.

High-sensitivity fiber optic Fabry-Perot ultrasonic sensor based on a grooved silicon diaphragm for partial discharge detection.

An extrinsic fiber optic Fabry-Perot interferometric (EFPI) ultrasonic sensor based on a grooved silicon diaphragm for partial discharge (PD) detection has been proposed. The size of the groove is determined by finite element simulation, which allows the resonant frequency of the sensor to meet the requirements of PD ultrasonic detection and improves the sensitivity of the sensor by 5.07 times compared with that based on a traditional circular diaphragm. The microelectro-mechanical system process is used to fabricate the diaphragm on a silicon-on-insulator wafer, and the prepared diaphragm has a grooved section with a diameter of 829.34 µm and a thickness of only 2.09 µm. At its resonant frequency of 61.5 kHz, the acoustic pressure sensitivity of the sensor is 172.42 mV/Pa. The ultrasonic signal detection capability of the sensor is verified in the PD experiment. Furthermore, the characteristics of the corona discharge are successfully manifested based on the ultrasonic waves detected by the EFPI sensor. It is demonstrated that the proposed sensor is suitable for PD detection due to its high sensitivity, simple production process, and good resistance to environmental interference.

Efficient mode (de)multiplexer with two cascaded horizontal polymer waveguide directional couplers.

In this paper, we present an efficient polymer two-mode (de)multiplexer with two cascaded horizontal waveguide asymmetric directional couplers (ADCs). Through extensive simulations, the optimized waveguide core dimensions were determined, and the distance L from the starting position of the first ADC to the cascaded position was 35300 µm. With the cascaded ADCs, the E21x mode of the wider waveguide was coupled into the E11x mode of the narrower waveguide with a coupling ratio of 96.73% at 1550 nm when the separation between the waveguide cores was 5 µm. The coupling ratio and extinction ratio of the fabricated (de)multiplexer reached a maximum of 96.12% and 14.21 dB at 1540 nm, respectively. The coupling ratios were greater than 90% in the wavelength range 1533-1565 nm with a minimum insertion loss of 9.75 dB. The influence of different cascaded positions on the mode coupling ratio, mainly caused by the large phase difference between the modes owing to the slowly varying envelope approximation, is analyzed theoretically and verified experimentally. The proposed cascaded two-mode (de)multiplexer can reduce the preparation process requirements and increase the channel capacity of optical communication systems.

Compact and efficient three-mode (de)multiplexer based on horizontal polymer waveguide couplers.

A compact and efficient polymer three-mode (de)multiplexer with two cascaded waveguide directional couplers fabricated on the same substrate along the horizontal direction is proposed. Three waveguides formed two couplers, where two narrower waveguides were placed on either side of the central waveguide. By optimizing the core height and width, the two couplers can ensure that the E11x mode of the two narrower waveguides are highly coupled into the E21x and E31x modes of the central waveguide at a wavelength of 1310 nm. The structural size of the fabricated three-mode (de)multiplexer using ultraviolet (UV) lithography technology is in agreement with the designed value. The fabricated device, which is 35 mm long, exhibits coupling ratios of 98.07% and 95.43% for the two couplers, respectively. The insertion losses of the three waveguides are 5.23 dB, 8.58 dB, and 14.39 dB, respectively. The device can achieve the multiplexing of three modes in two dimensions, which can increase the channel capacity of optical communication.

High-efficient disturbance event recognition method of ϕ-OTDR utilizing region-segmentation differential phase signals.

We demonstrate a disturbance event recognition method based on region segmentation, which utilizes differential phase signals of a phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometer (ϕ-OTDR) to recognize disturbance events efficiently. The long-haul sensing fiber is divided into subsensing regions; whereas the phase signals at the two end points of the subsensing regions are subtracted, unwrapped, and differenced to represent the disturbance information. Feature extraction and classification are performed separately on the subsensing regions datasets. The experimental results indicate that the average recognition accuracy of the region-segmentation-based event recognition method is up to 92.9%. Compared to the method without region segmentation, this proposed method improves the average recognition accuracy by 8%; whereas the recognition time of three disturbance events on a 14.8-km sensing system is only 0.39 s. The proposed method provides significant support for the development of disturbance event recognition of the ϕ-OTDR sensor system.

Spherical concave micro-mirror fabricated using gray-tone optical lithography for vertical coupling.

Based on gray-tone optical lithography technology combined with the overlay alignment method, a spherical concave micro-mirror is fabricated at the end of a rectangular optical waveguide (ROW) for low vertical coupling loss. The optimal structures of the spherical concave micro-mirrors were designed through ray-tracing simulation. The results indicate that the minimal vertical coupling loss is only 1.02 dB for the ROW core size of 20 µm × 20 µm. The surface roughness of the micro-mirror is considered, and it should be less than 106 nm to ensure that the vertical coupling loss is less than 1.5 dB. The radius of the fabricated spherical concave micro-mirror was measured as 263.3 µm and the surface roughness of the micro-mirror is 29.19 nm. The vertical coupling loss induced by the micro-mirror was measured as 1.39 dB. 1-dB tolerances in the direction of x-, y-, and z-axes are calculated to be ± 6.9 µm, ± 6.3 µm, and 46.2 µm, respectively.

Hollow-glass-microsphere-assisted half-circle interference for hydrostatic pressure measurement with high sensitivity.

We propose and demonstrate a half-circle interferometer using a hollow glass microsphere (HGM) resonator. The half-circle interference is induced by a mismatch between the fundamental mode in the HGM and the modes in the capillary wall. The theoretical model is verified by comparing the simulated and experimental results. The variation in capillary length induced by the axial pressure contributes the most to the half-circle interference, which features a device with a high hydrostatic pressure sensitivity of -1.099 nm/kPa. This device shows potential as a hydrostatic pressure sensor owing to its stability, high sensitivity, and robustness.

Coexistence of transmission mechanisms for independent multi-parameter sensing in a silica capillary-based cascaded structure.

The coexistence of transmission mechanisms, including Fabry-Perot (FP), Mach-Zehnder (MZ), and anti-resonant (AR), is demonstrated via a silica capillary-based cascaded structure. The analysis for MZ shows that one pathway is formed by the beam refracted into the silica capillary cladding from the air core, rather than being transmitted into the cladding directly at the splicing interface. Using the ray optics method, the two coexistence conditions are derived for FP and MZ, and for FP, MZ and AR, respectively. The existence percentages of the three mechanisms can be obtained using the fast Fourier transform. Finally, the coexistence of multiple transmission mechanisms is applied for independent multi-parameter sensing with the FP-based temperature sensitivity of 10.0 pm/°C and AR-based strain sensitivity of 1.33 nm/N. The third mechanism MZ interference can assist in verifying changes in both the temperature and axial strain. This shows the possibility to optimize the transmission spectra for independent multi-parameter sensing by tailoring the existence percentages of different mechanisms.

Simultaneous measurement of magnetic field and temperature based on two anti-resonant modes in hollow core Bragg fiber.

A simple and compact magnetic field and temperature dual-parameter sensor is proposed, which is based on a sandwich structure consisting of a section of hollow core Bragg fiber (HCBF) filled with magnetic fluid (MF) and two sections of single-mode fiber (SMF). The corresponding relationship between the resonant dip with different periods in the transmission spectrum and specific anti-resonant (AR) mode in the HCBF is determined. The resonant dips based on different AR modes shift differently when the magnetic field intensity and temperature change. Then, the simultaneous measurement of the magnetic field intensity and temperature can be achieved by utilizing a cross matrix. The experimental results show that the maximum magnetic field sensitivity in the range of 0-12 mT is 86.43 pm/mT, and the maximum temperature sensitivity in the range of 20-60 ℃ is 17.8 pm/℃. The proposed sensor has the advantages of compact structure, easy fabrication and low cost, thus, it has great potential applications in the field of simultaneous sensing of magnetic field intensity and temperature in complex environments.

Magneto-refractive properties and measurement of an erbium-doped fiber.

The magneto-refractive properties of an erbium-doped fiber (EDF) are investigated by theoretically analyzing the change in mode characteristics with a magnetic field and experimentally measuring it based on a fiber-optic Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI). The numerical results indicate that the mode effective refractive index (RI) increases as the magnetic field increases, and the mode field intensity distribution tends to be more concentrated in the core region with an increasing magnetic field. The variation in the mode effective RI of the fundamental mode with the magnetic field is greater than that of the higher-order modes. A magneto-refractive measurement system based on a fiber-optic MZI is set up to analyze the magneto-refractive effect of the EDF. The changes in the mode effective RI measured with a direct-current (DC) magnetic field and with a 100 Hz alternating-current (AC) magnetic field are 4.838×10-6 and 4.245×10-6 RIU/mT, respectively. The experimental results are in reasonable agreement with the theoretical analysis. Furthermore, the error between the experimental and numerical results is discussed. The magneto-refractive properties of the EDF exhibit potential in all-fiber magnetic field or current sensing area.

Stepped laser-ablation fabrication of concave micromirrors in rectangular optical waveguides for low loss vertical coupling.

In this report, we present a stepped laser-ablation method for the fabrication of concave micromirrors in rectangular optical waveguides. The numerically simulated vertical coupling loss of the reflection of the concave micromirror can be reduced to 1.53 dB. The processing parameters of the utilized excimer laser, such as the step number, width, and depth, were optimized to fabricate the concave micromirrors. After the thermal reflow process, the measured curve of the circular concave micromirrors obtained using a 3D optical profiler agreed well with a standard circle with a surface roughness of 39.56 nm. Furthermore, vertical coupling for 62.5 µm MMF revealed that the loss of the circular concave micromirror coated with a 50 nm thick Au film is as low as 1.83 dB, corresponding to a high coupling efficiency of 65.61%. This new, convenient, and efficient fabrication technology for the fabrication of concave micromirrors can be applied to vertical coupling for optical printed circuit board (OPCB) interconnection technology.

Transition of Fabry-Perot and antiresonant mechanisms via a SMF-capillary-SMF structure.

In this Letter, we investigate the transition of the well-known Fabry-Perot (FP) and antiresonant (AR) mechanisms via a single-mode fiber (SMF)-capillary-SMF structure. The critical length for this transition is analytically found as a linear relation with the capillary inner diameter based on the ray optic method, which shows the agreement with both numerical simulations and experiments. Evolutions of the transmission and reflection spectra verify that FP and AR mechanisms are closely related to the critical length. An observed AR envelope modulated by the FP mechanism in the reflection strengthens gradually with the increase of the capillary length, which is expected to be a novel method for potential applications in multi-parameters sensing because of its combined mechanisms. The transition and critical lengths can be also found and explained using the same method in other types of AR fibers or waveguides with a hollow core.

Refractive index sensitivity of nano-film coated long-period fiber gratings.

We demonstrate the fabrication of long-period fiber gratings (LPFGs) coated with high index nano-film using the atomic layer deposition (ALD) technology. Higher index sensitivity can be achieved in the transition region of the coated LPFGs. For the LPFG coated by nano-film with a thickness of 100 nm, the high index sensitivity of 3000 nm/RIU and the expanded index sensitive range are obtained. The grating contrast of the over-coupled LPFGs and conventional LPFGs are measured and the over-coupled gratings are found to have a higher contrast in the transition region. The cladding modes transition is observed experimentally with increasing surrounding index using an infrared camera. The theoretical model of the hybrid modes in four-layer cylindrical waveguide is proposed for numerical simulation. The experimental results are well consistent with theoretical analysis.

Exceptional point enhanced nanoparticle detection in deformed Reuleaux-triangle microcavity.

In this paper, we propose a deformed Reuleaux-triangle resonator (RTR) to form exceptional point (EP) which results in the detection sensitivity enhancement of nanoparticle. After introducing single nanoparticle to the deformed RTR at EP, frequency splitting obtains an enhancement of more than 6 times compared with non-deformed RTR. In addition, EP induced a result that the far field pattern of chiral mode responses significantly to external perturbation, corresponding to the change in internal chirality. Therefore, single nanoparticle with far distance of more than 4000 nm can be detected by measuring the variation of far field directional emission. Compared to traditional frequency splitting, the far field pattern produced in deformed RTR provides a cost-effective and convenient path to detect single nanoparticle at a long distance, without using tunable laser and external coupler. Our structure indicates great potential in high sensitivity sensor and label-free detector.