Nonlinear beam self-imaging and self-focusing dynamics in a GRIN multimode optical fiber: theory and experiments

Beam self-imaging in nonlinear graded-index multimode optical fibers is of interest for many applications, such as implementing a fast saturable absorber mechanism in fiber lasers via multimode interference. We obtain an exact solution for the nonlinear evolution of first and second order moments of a laser beam carried by a graded-index multimode fiber, predicting that the spatial self-imaging period does not vary with power. Whereas the amplitude of the oscillation of the beam width is power-dependent. We have experimentally studied the longitudinal evolution of beam self-imaging by means of femtosecond laser pulse propagation in both the anomalous and the normal dispersion regime of a standard telecom graded-index multimode optical fiber. Light scattering out of the fiber core via visible fluorescence emission and harmonic wave generation permits us to directly confirm that the self-imaging period is invariant with power. Spatial shift and splitting of the self-imaging process under the action of self-focusing are also emphasized

Numerical life prediction of mechanical fatigue for hot forging tools

Issu de : ESAFORM 2009 - 12th ESAFORM Conference on material forming, Enschede, THE NETHERLANDS, 27–29 April 2009International audienceIn the forging industry, tools represent an important part in term of production and costs. Enhancing their life cycle is then a challenging issue. Several mechanical and thermal mechanisms are responsible for hot forging tools damage such as wear, thermal and mechanical fatigue. This work will be focused only on the mechanical fatigue life prediction for hot forging tools. Both experimental data analysis and numerical simulation will be discussed in this paper. The aim is to perform qualitative and quantitative indicators of mechanical fatigue. First, experimental data of fatigue tests are used to identify both plastic strain-based Manson Coffin and stress-based Basquin life laws for 2 tool steel grades. These laws are quite classical for fatigue prediction [1-4]. The half-life strain or stress amplitudes are usually used for their identification but these amplitudes are very expensive to obtain from a numerical point of view since it is well known that hot work martensitic steels present a continuous cyclic softening from the first cycle till the rupture. Therefore an important number of cycles have to be simulated to reach these mechanical parameters at half-life. For all theses reasons, an alternative methodology is used [4]. The fatigue life curves are established using the mechanical parameters that are identified from the first hysteresis loops of fatigue experiments. Comparisons are performed with the fatigue laws coming from more classical identification procedure performed at half life cycle. Good agreement is shown between experimental data and the new laws. A lower scattering is even observed in experimental results in comparison to the traditional fatigue laws. Then these new laws are introduced in the commercial software Forge® and are then applied to different industrial cases. A pretty good agreement is observed between predicted tool life and industrial value

Multiphoton-absorption-excited up-conversion luminescence in optical fibers

We experimentally demonstrate a previously unforeseen nonlinear effect in optical fibers: up-conversion luminescence generation excited by multiphoton absorption of femtosecond infrared pulses. We directly estimate the average number of photons involved in the up-conversion process, by varying the wavelength of the pump source. We highlight the role of nonbridging oxygen hole centers and oxygen-deficient center defects and directly compare the intensity of side-scattered luminescence with numerical simulations of pulse propagation

Femtosecond nonlinear losses in multimode optical fibers

Research on multimode optical fibers is arousing a growing interest, for their capability to transport high-power laser beams, coupled with novel nonlinear optics-based applications. However, when beam intensities exceed a certain critical value, optical fiber breakdown associated with irreversible modifications of their refractive index occurs, triggered by multiphoton absorption. These processes have been largely exploited for fiber material microstructuration. Here we show that, for intensities slightly below the breakdown threshold, nonlinear absorption strongly affects the dynamics of a propagating beam as well. We experimentally analyze this sub-threshold regime, and highlight the key role played by spatial self-imaging in graded-index fibers for enhancing nonlinear optical losses. We characterize the nonlinear power transmission properties of multimode fibers for femtosecond pulses propagating in the near-infrared spectral range. We show that an effective N-photon absorption analytical model is able to describe well the experimental data

Spatiotemporal mode decomposition of ultrashort pulses propagating in graded-index multimode fibers

We develop a spatiotemporal mode decomposition technique to study the mode power distribution of ultrashort pulses emerging from long spans of graded-index multimode fiber, for different input laser conditions. We find that beam mode power content in the dispersive pulse propagation regime can be described by the Bose-Einstein law, as a result of the process of power diffusion from linear and nonlinear mode coupling among nondegenerate mode groups. In the soliton regime, the output mode power distribution approaches the Rayleigh-Jeans la

Spatiotemporal guided bullets in multimode fiber

Beam self-imaging of ultrashort pulses in nonlinear graded-index (GRIN) multimode optical fibers is of interest for many applications, including spatiotemporal mode-locking in fiber lasers. We obtained a new analytical description for the nonlinear evolution of a laser beam of arbitrary transverse shape propagating in a GRIN fiber. The longitudinal beam evolution could be directly visualized by means of femtosecond laser pulses, propagating in the anomalous or in the normal dispersion regime, leading to light scattering out of the fiber core via the emission of blue photo-luminescence. As the critical power for self-focusing is approached and even surpassed, a host of previously undisclosed nonlinear effects is revealed, including strong multiphoton absorption by oxygen-deficiency center defects and Germanium inclusions, splitting and shifting of the self-imaging period, filamentation, and conical emission of the guided light bullets. We discovered that nonlinear loss has a profound influence on the process of high-order spatiotemporal soliton fission. The beam energy carried by the fiber is clamped to a fixed value, and nonlinear bullet attractors with suppressed Raman frequency shift and fixed temporal duration are generated, leading to highly efficient frequency conversion of the input near-infrared femtosecond pulses into mid-infrared multimode solitons

Spatial beam cleaning in multimode GRIN fibers. Polarization effects

The beam self-cleaning effect in graded-index multimode optical fibers has several interesting potential applications, such as high-resolution nonlinear imaging and mode-locked fiber lasers. Most experimental and theoretical studies of beam selfcleaning have neglected the role of the state of polarization of light. In this work, we fill this gap by reporting extensive experimental investigations of beam self-cleaning in multimode fibers, for beams with different input states of light polarization. We found that the state of polarization undergoes a complex evolution, which may lead either to full conservation of the input state of polarization, or to nearly complete light depolarization at the fiber output. The former outcome is compelling for applications based on the beam self-cleaning effect, such as multimode mode-locked fiber lasers for micromachining, and multimode devices for microscopy and endoscopy. The latter result, instead, permits to test the limits of validity of current purely scalar theoretical approaches for describing nonlinear propagation in multimode fibers

Multimode optical fiber beam-by-beam cleanup

We introduce and experimentally demonstrate the concept of all-optical beam switching in graded-index multimode optical fibers. Nonlinear coupling between orthogonally polarized seed and signal beams permits to control the spatial beam quality at the fiber output. Remarkably, we show that even a weak few-mode control beam may substantially enhance the quality of an intense, highly multimode signal beam. We propose a simple geometrical representation of the beam switching operation, whose validity is quantitatively confirmed by the experimental mode decomposition of the output beam. All-optical switching of multimode beams may find important applications in high-power beam delivery and fiber lasers