Introductory Chapter: Application of Optical Fiber for Sensing

1. Introduction The history of the use of optical fiber for sensing applications began with two different, but interrelated, discoveries: laser light and optical fibers. The first laser was built in 1960 by T. H. Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories, based on the theoretical work by C. H. Townes and A. L. Schawlow. A laser provides a source of an intense coherent light, highly collimated, and quasi-monochromatic; its potential for data transfer was immediately envisaged. Naturally, first experiments involved the transmission of the laser beam through the air. However, a communication channel cannot be practically sustained propagating freely through the air, owing to atmospheric attenuation and weather influence. Researchers also conducted experiments by transmitting the laser beam through glass fibers, which soon became the preferred medium for transmission of light. First, optical fibers were not practical to sustain a communication channel mainly due to the presence of impurities in the fiber material, resulting in very high transmission losses (>1000 dB/km), until Corning presented at the beginning of the 1970s optical fibers with (in comparison) very lower transmission losses, with only a few dB/km. Today, typical transmission losses are below 0.2 dB/km. This represents an extraordinary improvement as compared with electrical signal transmission through coaxial cables, not to mention the wider bandwidth available, which is several orders of magnitudes higher

In-Fiber All-Optical Fractional Differentiator Using an Asymmetrical Moiré Fiber Grating

In this work, it is demonstrated numerically that an asymmetric Moiré fiber grating operated in reflection can provide the required spectral response to implement an all-optical fractional differentiator. In our case, the accumulated phase shift is not associated with a point phase shift, as when working with fiber Bragg gratings and long-period gratings with punctual defects, but is distributed all over the grating. The proposed device is supported by numerical simulations, and a dimensionless deviation factor is calculated to make quantitative analysis feasible. The performance of the proposed device is analyzed using numerical simulations by computing the fractional time derivatives of the complex field of an arbitrary transform-limited Gaussian pulse. A comparison with the performance given by theoretical differentiation is also presented

Resonant couplings in U shaped fibers for biosensing

U-shaped tight curvatures in optical fibers lead to resonant couplings between the fundamental and higher order modes that are sensible to different parameters, such as strain or temperature, for example. The optical response of the sensor consists on the shift of the resonant wavelength of the coupling. In the case of singlemode fibers, the coupling involves a so-called 'cladding mode' and, due to its evanescent field, the curved region will be sensible to changes in the external medium, as well. In this paper, we present the fabrication and characterization of a robust, easy-to-make, U-shaped fiber sensor based on singlemode telecom fiber and its application for biosensing. The resonant nature of the sensingmechanism presents the advantage of large dynamic ranges for RI variations without the ambiguity of other techniques such as interferometry. We studied the performance of the U-shaped fiber sensor for different bending radii, to optimize its sensitivity and detection limit at 1550 nm operation wavelength, as well as the effect of temperature on its response. The shift of the resonant wavelength was measured in detail as a function of the external RI within the range [1.33-1,37]; the detection limit was established in (2.88 ± 0.03) × 10−5 RIU. Furthermore, the device was successfully tested as a proof of concept biosensor, using a system model antigen-antibody (BSA-aBSA)

Periodic pulse train conformation based on the temporal Radon-Wigner transform

By using the Radon–Wigner transform (RWT), we analyze the temporal selfimaging or Talbot effect for producing well-conformed pulse trains with variable repetition rates and duty-cycles. The relationships linking the selfimaging conditions with the fractional orders of the RWT are first obtained for unchirped pulse trains. Then, we extend the analysis to chirped pulse sequences by deriving the conditions to be fulfilled by an equivalent unchirped pulse train producing the same selfimage irradiances. This result becomes relevant for observing well-defined high order fractional selfimaging, which are of interest due to their repetition rate multiplication. Besides, the effect of the finite extension of the pulse train on the selfimage quality is analyzed and a condition is found for relating the required minimum pulse number with the chirp parameter of the pulses

Periodic pulse train conformation based on the temporal Radon-Wigner transform

By using the Radon–Wigner transform (RWT), we analyze the temporal selfimaging or Talbot effect for producing well-conformed pulse trains with variable repetition rates and duty-cycles. The relationships linking the selfimaging conditions with the fractional orders of the RWT are first obtained for unchirped pulse trains. Then, we extend the analysis to chirped pulse sequences by deriving the conditions to be fulfilled by an equivalent unchirped pulse train producing the same selfimage irradiances. This result becomes relevant for observing well-defined high order fractional selfimaging, which are of interest due to their repetition rate multiplication. Besides, the effect of the finite extension of the pulse train on the selfimage quality is analyzed and a condition is found for relating the required minimum pulse number with the chirp parameter of the pulses.Centro de Investigaciones Óptica

Periodic pulse train conformation based on the temporal Radon-Wigner transform

By using the Radon–Wigner transform (RWT), we analyze the temporal selfimaging or Talbot effect for producing well-conformed pulse trains with variable repetition rates and duty-cycles. The relationships linking the selfimaging conditions with the fractional orders of the RWT are first obtained for unchirped pulse trains. Then, we extend the analysis to chirped pulse sequences by deriving the conditions to be fulfilled by an equivalent unchirped pulse train producing the same selfimage irradiances. This result becomes relevant for observing well-defined high order fractional selfimaging, which are of interest due to their repetition rate multiplication. Besides, the effect of the finite extension of the pulse train on the selfimage quality is analyzed and a condition is found for relating the required minimum pulse number with the chirp parameter of the pulses.Centro de Investigaciones Óptica

Periodic pulse train conformation based on the temporal Radon-Wigner transform

By using the Radon–Wigner transform (RWT), we analyze the temporal selfimaging or Talbot effect for producing well-conformed pulse trains with variable repetition rates and duty-cycles. The relationships linking the selfimaging conditions with the fractional orders of the RWT are first obtained for unchirped pulse trains. Then, we extend the analysis to chirped pulse sequences by deriving the conditions to be fulfilled by an equivalent unchirped pulse train producing the same selfimage irradiances. This result becomes relevant for observing well-defined high order fractional selfimaging, which are of interest due to their repetition rate multiplication. Besides, the effect of the finite extension of the pulse train on the selfimage quality is analyzed and a condition is found for relating the required minimum pulse number with the chirp parameter of the pulses.Centro de Investigaciones Óptica

Long- and short-term stability of all polarization-maintaining thulium doped passively mode-locked fiber lasers with emission wavelengths at 1.95 µm and 2.07 µm

In this work, we compare the operation of a passively modelocked polarization-maintaining emission in two thulium-doped fiber lasers pumped at 1561 nm, with emission at wavelengths of 1.951 μm in one case and 2.07 μm in the other. We obtained a sequence of light pulses at 15.6 MHz, whose temporal width was 81 ps at 1.95 μm, and a sequence of light pulses at 13.1 MHz, whose tempo- ral width was 94 ps at 2.07 μm. Finally, we also measured the long-term stability of this setup during a 24-h operation, as well as the short-term stability in a simulated harsh environment. The results confirm the superior performance of fiber laser systems with a fully polarization-maintaining design

Passively Modelocked All-PM Thulium-Doped Fiber Laser at 2.07 μm

Here we present a self-started passively mode-locked thulium-doped fiber laser with in-band pumping at 1561 nm that fully retains polarization and emits beyond 2 μm. We obtained a sequence of light pulses at 13.084 MHz, where the pulse and spectral widths were 94 ps and 70 pm, respectively, at 2069.5 nm. The measured instantaneous angular frequency shows that these light pulses are chirp-free

Photonic fractional Fourier transformer with a single dispersive device

In this work we used the temporal analog of spatial Fresnel diffraction to design a temporal fractional Fourier transformer with a single dispersive device, in this way avoiding the use of quadratic phase modulators. We demonstrate that a single dispersive passive device inherently provides the fractional Fourier transform of an incident optical pulse. The relationships linking the fractional Fourier transform order and scaling factor with the dispersion parameters are derived. We first provide some numerical results in order to prove the validity of our proposal, using a fiber Bragg grating as the dispersive device. Next, we experimentally demonstrate the feasibility of this proposal by using a spool of a standard optical fiber as the dispersive device.Centro de Investigaciones Óptica