Fiber Residual Stress Effects on Modal Gain Equalization of Few-Mode Fiber Amplifier.

The modal gain equalization (MGE) of few-mode fiber amplifiers (FMFAs) ensures the stability of signal transmission. MGE mainly relies on the multi-step refractive index (RI) and doping profile of few-mode erbium-doped fibers (FM-EDFs). However, complex RI and doping profiles lead to uncontrollable residual stress variations in fiber fabrication. Variable residual stress apparently affects MGE due to its impacts on the RI. So, this paper focuses on the residual stress effects on MGE. The residual stress distributions of passive and active FMFs were measured using a self-constructed residual stress test configuration. As the erbium doping concentration increased, the residual stress of the fiber core decreased, and the residual stress of the active fibers was two orders of magnitude lower than that of the passive fiber. Compared with the passive FMF and the FM-EDFs, the residual stress of the fiber core completely transformed from tensile stress to compressive stress. This transformation led to an obvious smooth RI curve variation. The measurement values were analyzed with FMFA theory, and the results show that the differential modal gain of the FMFA increased from 0.96 to 1.67 dB as the residual stress decreased from 4.86 to 0.01 MPa.

Few-Mode Fiber Characterization System Based on the Spatially and Spectrally Imaging Technique.

With the widespread use of few-mode fibers, mode characteristics testing becomes essential. In this paper, current few-mode fiber testing techniques are discussed, and the S2 imaging technique is chosen and demonstrated to be capable of few-mode fiber characterization in principle. As a result, the few-mode fiber characterization system with the S2 imaging technique is built and used to obtain accurate mode dispersion of two-mode fibers (a commonly used few-mode fiber) of different lengths. Then, various filters are applied to extract the fundamental and high-order modes to acquire mode coupling components (discrete and distributed mode coupling). The proposed system spectrally characterizes the few-mode fiber by resolving the interference information from the superimposed optical field spatially and has a simple structure and easy operation, which will provide parameter guidance for FMF designing and the FMF sensing experiment optimizing.

Recent Progress in Distributed Brillouin Sensors Based on Few-Mode Optical Fibers.

Brillouin scattering is a dominant inelastic scattering observed in optical fibers, where the energy and momentum transfer between photons and acoustic phonons takes place. Narrowband reflection (or gain and loss) spectra appear in the spontaneous (or stimulated) Brillouin scattering, and their linear dependence of the spectral shift on ambient temperature and strain variations is the operation principle of distributed Brillouin sensors, which have been developed for several decades. In few-mode optical fibers (FMF's) where higher-order spatial modes are guided in addition to the fundamental mode, two different optical modes can be coupled by the process of stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS), as observed in the phenomena called intermodal SBS (two photons + one acoustic phonon) and intermodal Brillouin dynamic grating (four photons + one acoustic phonon; BDG). These intermodal scattering processes show unique reflection (or gain and loss) spectra depending on the spatial mode structure of FMF, which are useful not only for the direct measurement of polarization and modal birefringence in the fiber, but also for the measurement of environmental variables like strain, temperature, and pressure affecting the birefringence. In this paper, we present a technical review on recent development of distributed Brillouin sensors on the platform of FMF's.

High SNR Φ-OTDR with Multi-Transverse Modes Heterodyne Matched-Filtering Technology.

Phase-sensitive optical time domain reflectometer (Φ-OTDR) has attracted attention in scientific research and industry because of its distributed dynamic linear response to external disturbances. However, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of Φ-OTDR is still a limited factor by the weak Rayleigh Backscattering coefficient. Here, the multi-transverse modes heterodyne matched-filtering technology is proposed to improve the system SNR. The capture efficiency and nonlinear threshold are increased with multiple transverse modes in few-mode fibers; the incident light energy is permitted to be enlarged by a wider probe pulse by using heterodyne matched-filtering without spatial resolution being deteriorated. As far as we know, this is the first time that both multi-transverse modes integration method and digital heterodyne matched filtering method have been used to improve the SNR of Φ-OTDR simultaneously. Experimental results show that the noise floor is reduced by 11.4 dB, while the target signal is kept. We believe that this proposed method will help DAS find important applications in marine acoustic detection and seismic detection.

Temperature Insensitivity Polarization-Controlled Orbital Angular Momentum Mode Converter Based on an LPFG Induced in Four-Mode Fiber.

We propose a novel method for generating ±1-order orbital angular momentum (OAM) in long-period fiber gratings (LPFGs) by adjusting a polarization controller (PC). An LPFG, inscribed in a four-mode fiber (4MF) using a CO2 laser, was used to generate OAM±1 across a broad range of wavelengths from 1530 nm to 1630 nm. Additionally, the OAM vortex phase remained stable while the temperature increased from 23 °C to 50 °C. The LPFG, as a temperature sensor, and its temperature sensitivity was measured to be 38.6 ± 0.37 pm/°C at the resonant wavelength of 1625 nm. This design offers simple fabrication and several properties which are highly beneficial for all-fiber optical communications based on the OAM mode-division multiplexing technique.

Fabrication and Characterization of an Optimized Low-Loss Two-Mode Fiber for Optoacoustic Sensing.

An optimized multi-step index (MSI) 2-LP-mode fiber is proposed and fabricated with low propagation loss of 0.179 dB/km, low intermodal crosstalk and excellent bend resistance. We experimentally clarified the characteristics of backward Brillouin scattering (BBS) and forward Brillouin scattering (FBS) induced by radial acoustic modes (R0,m) in the fabricated MSI 2-LP-mode fiber, respectively. Via the use of this two-mode fiber, we demonstrated a novel discriminative measurement method of temperature and acoustic impedance based on BBS and FBS, achieving improved experimental measurement uncertainties of 0.2 °C and 0.019 kg/(s·mm2) for optoacoustic chemical sensing. The low propagation loss of the sensing fiber and the new measurement method based on both BBS and FBS may pave the way for long-distance and high spatial resolution distributed fiber sensors.

All-solid anti-resonant single crystal fibers.

In this paper, a novel all-solid anti-resonant single crystal fiber (AR-SCF) with high refractive index tubes cladding is proposed. By producing the cladding tubes with high refractive index material, the AR guiding mechanism can be realized for the SCF, which can reduce the mode number to achieve single-mode or few-mode transmission. The influences of different materials and structures on the confinement loss and effective guided mode number for wavelengths of 2-3 µm are investigated. Then, the optimal AR-SCF structures for different wavelengths are determined. Furthermore, the influences of different fabrication errors are analyzed. This work would provide insight to new opportunities in the novel design of SCFs by AR, which would greatly impact the fields of laser application, supercontinum generation, and SCF sensors.

Magnetic Nanoparticles Functionalized Few-Mode-Fiber-Based Plasmonic Vector Magnetometer.

In this work, we demonstrate a highly-sensitive vector magnetometer based on a few-mode-fiber-based surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor functionalized by magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) in liquid. To fabricate the sensor, a few-mode fiber is side-polished and coated with a gold film, forming an SPR sensor that is highly sensitive to the surrounding refractive index. The vector magnetometer operates based on the mechanism whereby the intensity and orientation of an external magnetic field alters the anisotropic aggregation of the MNPs and thus the refractive index around the fiber SPR device. This, in turn, shifts the resonance wavelength of the surface plasmon. Experimental results show the proposed sensor is very sensitive to magnetic-field intensity and orientation (0.692 nm/Oe and -11.917 nm/°, respectively). These remarkable sensitivities to both magnetic-field intensity and orientation mean that the proposed sensor can be used in applications to detect weak magnetic-field vectors.