Successful fiber sensing technologies and hot topics for the near future

Inside the Photonics field Optical Fiber Sensors (OFS) are currently being used and will still be used in the future in a wide number of applications because its properties present technical advantages over traditional techniques or, sometimes, is practically the only feasible solution. In this paper, the more successful techniques will be reviewed. Then a prospective for the near future of the market and hot topics in which invest research resources will be suggested

Photonic Crystal and Photonic Crystal Fibers Communications

The development of all optical communications could benefit from the index guiding photonic crystal fibers. In communication the photonic crystal fibers could provide many new solutions. Conventional optical fibers have within the last decades revolutionized the communications industry and it is today a mature technology being pushed to its limit with respect to properties such as losses, single mode operation and dispersion. The spectra have been used by others to develop optical frequency standards. The process can potentially be used for frequency conversion in fiber optic network. In this system the dispersive properties can be controlled by the optical lattice making it possible to achieve phase-matched four wave mixing, like look the process taking place in the photonic crystal fibers. In this paper we will discuss the use of photonic crystal fibers in communications

Emerging Prospects of Photonic Crystal Fibers

Photonic crystal fibers are the periodic structures of air holes running along the fiber around a solid or hollow core. These present a diversity of new and improved features beyond what conventional optical fibers can offer. Due to their unique geometric structure, and superior control of guiding properties,PCFs present special properties and capabilities that lead to an spectacular potential for various applications. in optical communications and various other areas.This paper will review recent developmentsand discuss the emerging prospects in this field

Recent advances in the design and implementation of practical fiber optical parametric amplifiers

Conference on Optoelectronic and Microelectronic Materials and Devices, Brisbane, Australia, 8-10 December 2004Fiber optical parametric amplifiers (OPAs) are based on the third-order nonlinear susceptibility of glass fibers. If two strong pumps and a weak signal are fed into a fiber, an idler is generated. Signal and idler can grow together if pump power is high enough, and phase matching occurs. In recent years, impressive performance has been demonstrated in several respects: 1) Gain in excess of 60 dB has been obtained; 2) fiber OPAs can exhibit a large variety of gain spectra: a gain bandwidth of 400 nm has been demonstrated; tunable narrowband gain regions can also be generated; 3) Noise figure of 3.7 dB, limited by other third-order nonlinear process; 4) Polarization-insensitive operation in both one-pump and two-pump configurations; 5) The presence of the idler can be used for wavelength conversion. Also, the spectrum of the idler is inverted with respect to that of the signal; thus by placing an OPA in the middle of a fiber span one can realize mid-span spectral inversion (MSSI) which counteracts the effect of fiber dispersion and some nonlinear effects. Besides using fiber OPA in continuous-wave regime as in typical systems, pulsed-pump has also been demonstrated to achieve larger bandwidth and higher peak gain by combining with optical filtering technique. Furthermore, by modulating the pump it is possible to modulate signal and/or idler at the output. This can be used to implement a variety of signal processing functions, including: fast signal switching; demultiplexing of time-division-multiplexed signals; retiming and reshaping of waveforms; optical sampling. A number of challenges must be overcome in order for fiber OPAs to be useful in communication applications. In multi-wavelength systems, these are: four-wave mixing, cross-phase modulation; and cross-gain modulation between signals. Furthermore, the pump-to-signal relative intensity noise (RIN) transfer and frequency/phase modulation (FM/PM) to signal intensity conversion are also potential challenges for practical fiber OPAs. © 2005 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Slowing of pulses to c/10 with subwatt power levels and low latency using Brillouin amplification in a bismuth-oxide optical fiber

We report the generation of slow light using Brillouin amplification in a short length of highly nonlinear bismuth-oxide fiber. By using just 2m of fiber, we demonstrate a five-fold reduction in group velocity for ~200ns pulses, which we believe to be a record for a slow-light propagation in an optical fiber. Moreover, by virtue of the high nonlinearity per unit length of this fiber, we achieve this at a very modest pump power level of just ~400mW and with a low inherent device latency of 14ns. These results highlight both the merits and practicality of using high nonlinearity nonsilica fibers for slow-light devices