We report a detailed study of vector modulation instability (VMI) in highly birefringent fibers with circularly polarized modes in the normal dispersion regime. We show that because of suppression of ...coherent terms, the VMI in circularly birefringent fibers is governed by one set of coupled-mode nonlinear Schrödinger equations regardless of the fiber birefringence. In consequence, the VMI sidebands are polarized linearly and orthogonally to the pump up to the birefringence level of 10 -5 , similarly like in isotropic fibers. For greater birefringence the polarization states of the sidebands become elliptical with opposite handedness while the azimuth angle deviates from orthogonality to the pump. We also point on the dependence of the critical power beyond which the VMI cannot exist upon ellipticity angle θ of the eigenmodes. We show that the critical power gradually increases with the ellipticity angle and for θ > 17.6° the VMI gain is not limited, in contrast to linearly birefringent fibers. Our findings were confirmed experimentally by observation of the isotropic-like VMI in the spun side-hole fiber with nearly circularly polarized eigenmodes, in spite of relatively high birefringence of the order of 2 × 10 -6 .
We present an effective method for free-space selective excitation of different combinations of LP
and LP
polarization modes in a birefringent optical fiber using a Wollaston prism, rotatable ...polarizer, and achromatic half-wave plate. The method is minimally wavelength-dependent and can be used for high-power sources. The relative coupling efficiencies of different modes can be continuously tuned and the suppression rate of the unwanted modes with respect to the targeted mode exceeds 20 dB. We present input system configurations that allow for the excitation of different individual modes and groups of modes and estimate the maximum coupling efficiencies based on numerical simulations. As example applications, we show the generation of Raman sidebands in different modes, gain tunability of intermodal four-wave mixing, and broadband conversion of a supercontinuum light beam from the fundamental to the LP
mode.
We propose an improvement of the interferometric method used up to now to measure the chromatic dispersion in single mode optical fibers, which enables dispersion measurements in higher-order modes ...over a wide spectral range. To selectively excite a specific mode, a spatial light modulator was used in the reflective configuration to generate an appropriate phase distribution across an input supercontinuum beam. We demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach using chromatic dispersion measurements of the six lowest order spatial modes supported by an optical fiber in the spectral range from 450 to 1600 nm. Moreover, we present the results of numerical simulations that confirm sufficient selectivity of higher-order mode excitation.
We demonstrate a fiber-based optical vortex beam source operating in broadband or tunable mode in the spectral range of 1100–1400 nm. The vector vortices of the total angular momenta equal to +2, 0, ...and −2 are obtained by converting the respective linearly polarized (LP
11
) modes of the two-mode birefringent PANDA fiber with stress-applying elements by gradually twisting its output section. At the input end, the PANDA fiber is powered by broadband supercontinuum or tunable Raman solitons generated in the LP
11
polarization modes of a birefringent microstructured fiber with a specially designed dispersion profile and coupled to the respective LP
11
modes of the PANDA fiber. Two pulse lasers operating in different regimes (1 ns/1064 nm and 190 fs/1037 nm) were used as the pump to generate supercontinuum or tunable solitons directly in the LP
11
modes of the microstructured fiber purely excited with a special Wollaston prism-based method. The high modal and polarization purities of the beams after successive transformations were experimentally confirmed. We also proved the vortex nature of the output beams using shearing interferometry.
We present a novel method for determining chromatic dispersion profile from a broadband spectral interferogram obtained by using a white-light interferometry technique. The proposed method is based ...on direct calculations of a second derivative of the registered spectral intensity at extremal points, which in result gives a spectral phase difference derivative further used for dispersion determining. Although the method is best suited for processing interferograms with modulation around a zero level (zero-mean value interferograms) and slowly changing envelope, the conducted numerical tests show that it is highly tolerable to different types of perturbations of the input interference signal. The proposed method can be applied both to spectral interferograms with monotonically changing phase difference as well as containing stationary phase difference points. We demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed method in measurements of chromatic dispersion of commercially available samples like the BK7 glass plate and the Corning SMF-28 optical fiber.
We report on a new phenomenon of light guidance in a fiber core created by an arrangement of holes making a partially open ring. In such structure there is no complete refractive index barrier to ...confine the light and therefore it cannot guide light if untwisted. However, if the open ring of holes is shifted off the symmetry axis of the twisted fiber then the mode confinement and low loss propagation is possible due to purely geometrical effect related to the increase in the optical path of light following the helical route. Properties of such structures, including confinement loss, modal field distribution, birefringence of fundamental modes were investigated both numerically and experimentally. We also studied the effect of bending, which leads to periodic modulation of the propagation characteristics of the twisted fiber. Furthermore, we demonstrate a possibility of displacement measurements based on bend-induced loss using some of the fabricated fibers, in which the sensitivity to bend is controlled by a twist rate and core structure.
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