Bending effect characterization of individual higher-order modes in few-mode fibers

Seeing the strong suppression of higher order modes in single trench fiber using the S2 technique

The single trench fiber (STF) is a promising fiber design for mode area scaling and higher order mode (HOM) suppression. In this Letter, we experimentally demonstrate the strong HOM-suppression in a homemade STF using the spatially and spectrally resolved imaging (S²) technique. This STF has a 20-µm core and its performance is compared to a conventional step-index fiber with almost the same parameter. Results show that the bending loss of the HOM in STF is 8-times larger than conventional fiber at a bend radius of 7 cm. In addition, when severe coupling mismatch is introduced at the input end of the fiber, the STF can keep the fundamental-mode output while the conventional fiber cannot. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time to experimentally analyze the HOM content in an STF and compare its performance with that of a conventional fiber. Our results indicate the great potential of the STF for filtering the HOM in fiber laser applications.

Highly Sensitive Temperature Sensor Based on Cascaded Polymer-Infiltrated Fiber Mach–Zehnder Interferometers Operating near the Dispersion Turning Point

High-accuracy temperature measurement plays a vital role in biomedical, oceanographic, and photovoltaic industries. Here, a highly sensitive temperature sensor is proposed and demonstrated based on cascaded polymer-infiltrated Mach–Zehnder interferometers (MZIs), operating near the dispersion turning point. The MZI was constructed by splicing a half-pitch graded index fiber (GIF) and two sections of single-mode fiber and creating an inner air cavity based on femtosecond laser micromachining. The UV-curable polymer-infiltrated air cavity functioned as one of the interference arms of MZI, and the residual GIF core functioned as the other. Two MZIs with different cavity lengths and infiltrated with the UV-curable polymers, having the refractive indexes on the different sides of the turning point, were created. Moreover, the effects of the length and the bending way of transmission SMF between the first and the second MZI were studied. As a result, the cascaded MZI temperature sensor exhibits a greatly enhanced temperature sensitivity of −24.86 nm/°C based on wavelength differential detection. The aforementioned result makes it promising for high-accuracy temperature measurements in biomedical, oceanographic, and photovoltaic applications.

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.