Manuel B. Marques

Large, nonresonant, intensity dependent refractive index of 4‐dialkylamino‐4’‐nitro‐diphenyl‐polyene side chain polymers in waveguides

We report the experimental evaluation of the intensity‐dependent index of refraction of a new class of third order nonlinear materials, side chain polymers containing 4‐dialkylamino‐4’‐nitro‐stilbene and 4‐dialkylamino‐4’‐nitro‐diphenylbutadiene as side groups. The measurements, based on nonlinear grating coupling into planar waveguides with 30 ps pulses at 1.064 μm, showed large electronic nonresonant n2 Kerr coefficients.

Fiber Loop Mirror Using a Small Core Microstructured Fiber for Strain and Temperature Discrimination

In this work, a fiber loop mirror for the simultaneous measurement of strain and temperature is presented. The loop mirror contains a section of a small core microstructured fiber characterized for strain and temperature sensing. Due to the small core geometry and using a small section length, the structure presents high birefringence and also intermodal interference. The spectral response of this configuration shows the presence of three interferometers. One of them corresponds to the interference of light that propagates in the fast and slow axes (group birefringence) and the others are associated with the interference of light in the two lowest order spatial modes in each of the fiber eigenaxis. These interferometers present distinct sensitivities to strain and temperature for different wavelengths.

Focused ion beam post-processing of optical fiber Fabry-Perot cavities for sensing applications.

Focused ion beam technology is combined with chemical etching of specifically designed fibers to create Fabry-Perot interferometers. Hydrofluoric acid is used to etch special fibers and create microwires with diameters of 15 μm. These microwires are then milled with a focused ion beam to create two different structures: an indented Fabry-Perot structure and a cantilever Fabry-Perot structure that are characterized in terms of temperature. The cantilever structure is also sensitive to vibrations and is capable of measuring frequencies in the range 1 Hz - 40 kHz.

Grating coupling of light pulses into third-order nonlinear waveguides

Distributed grating coupling of light pulses into planar waveguides, exhibiting third-order nonlinear-optical effects, is studied theoretically. The nonlinear interaction taking place between a beam that is Gaussian in time and space and one or more waveguide media with intensity-dependent refractive indexes or absorptions is analyzed, with emphasis on the different effects that result from the relative importance of two-photon absorption dispersive index changes, and their saturation. Criteria for the evaluation of real and imaginary parts of χ(3) by means of grating coupling are outlined.

Strain-Temperature Discrimination Using Multimode Interference in Tapered Fiber

Tapering single-mode-multimode-single-mode structures to enhance sensitivity is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. 50-mm-long coreless multimode fiber sections are spliced between single-mode fibers (SMFs) and tapered. They are characterized in strain, and an increase in strain sensitivity is obtained with taper diameter reduction. Sensitivities as high as -23.69pm/με for the 15-μm taper are attained. Temperature sensitivities also depend on taper diameter. A combination of two different diameter tapered SMF MMF-SMF structures, with cross-sensitivity to strain and temperature, is proposed as a sensing system for the simultaneous measurement of strain and temperature with resolutions of ±5.6 με and ±1.6°C, respectively. A good condition number of 3.16 is achieved with this sensing structure.

Simultaneous measurement of temperature and refractive index using focused ion beam milled Fabry-Perot cavities in optical fiber micro-tips

Optical fiber micro-tips are promising devices for sensing applications in small volume and difficult to access locations, such as biological and biomedical settings. The tapered fiber tips are prepared by dynamic chemical etching, reducing the size from 125 μm to just a few μm. Focused ion beam milling is then used to create cavity structures on the tapered fiber tips. Two different Fabry-Perot micro-cavities have been prepared and characterized: a solid silica cavity created by milling two thin slots and a gap cavity. A third multi-cavity structure is fabricated by combining the concepts of solid silica cavity and gap cavity. This micro-tip structure is analyzed using a fast Fourier transform method to demultiplex the signals of each cavity. Simultaneous measurement of temperature and external refractive index is then demonstrated, presenting sensitivities of - 15.8 pm/K and -1316 nm/RIU, respectively.

300 km-ultralong Raman fiber lasers using a distributed mirror for sensing applications

Several configurations of ultralong Raman fiber lasers (URFL) based on a distributed mirror combined with Bragg gratings or fiber loop mirrors are studied. Two continuous-wave URFL configurations, with single and cascaded cavities using fiber Bragg gratings as mirrors are explored for a 300 km long fiber. For optical sensing, the cavity length was optimized for 250 km using one of the gratings an intensity sensor. Another URFL configuration based in a fiber loop mirror is also reported. For optical sensing using a 300 km long fiber it is shown that the best choice is a hybrid configuration. The sensitivity of the FBG laser sensor range was from (76 ± 2) × 10⁻⁶ με⁻¹ (for lower strain) to (9.0 ± 0.4) × 10⁻⁶ με⁻¹ (for higher strain).

Measurement of third-order nonlinearities of side-chain-substituted polymers

Abstract Optical third harmonic generation at 1.904, 1.579 and 1.064 μm experiments have been performed on thin films fabricated from side chain polymers containing effectively 4-dialkylamino-nitro-benzene, 4-dialkylamino-4′-nitro-stilbene, 4-dialkylamino-4′-nitro-diphenylbutadiene, 4-dialkylamino-4′-nitro-diphenylhexatriene as the side groups. We have measured values of χ (3) (−3ω; ω, ω, ω) in the range of 0.54 × 10 −12 to 7.42 × 10 −12 esu, at 1.904 μm incident radiation, which are comparable to the nonresonant values found in fully conjugated back-bone polymers [1]. The values of χ (3) at both 1.904 and 1.579 μm change by a factor of 15 as the conjugation length is increased.

Fiber modal Michelson interferometers with coherence addressing and heterodyne interrogation

A long-period-grating-based fiber optic Michelson modal interferometer with coherence addressing and heterodyne interrogation is studied as a sensing structure for measuring environmental refractive index, temperature, and liquid level. The effects of several system parameters on the measurements are investigated. Experimental results show that the sensitivity to the external refractive index increases with the order of cladding mode and with a reduction of the fiber diameter. The decrease of the fiber diameter from 125 µm down to 70 μm enhances the sensitivity to the external index by a factor of 2.7. It is also shown that the use of a silica-core fiber increases the sensitivity to the external index by a factor of 1.4 and reduces the thermal sensitivity by a factor of 2.5 compared to a standard fiber.

Dynamics of infrared absorption caused by hydroxyl groups and its effect on refractive index evolution in ultraviolet exposed hydrogen loaded GeO2-doped fibers

The growth dynamics of UV induced IR absorption and related refractive index change in hydrogen loaded GeO2-doped fibers have been studied. We report a higher initial rate and strong saturation for Ge–OH generation compared with Si–OH formation under UV exposure. A close correlation was found between the Ge/Si–OH groups concentration and the induced index change as a function of the UV exposure time.