Mikhail Sumetsky

Fabrication and study of bent and coiled free silica nanowires: Self-coupling microloop optical interferometer

We fabricated nanometer- and micrometer-order diameter optical fibers (NMOFs) by drawing them in a microfurnace comprising a sapphire tube heated with a CO(2) laser. Using very short - a few mm long - fiber biconical tapers having a submicron waist, which can be bent locally in a free space by translation of the taper ends, we studied the effect of bending and looping on the transmission characteristics of a free NMOF. In particular, we have demonstrated an optical interferometer built of a coiled self-coupling NMOF.

Thinnest optical waveguide: experimental test.

A thin dielectric waveguide with a subwavelength diameter can exhibit very small transmission loss only if its diameter is greater than a threshold value, while for smaller diameters, waveguide loss grows dramatically. The threshold diameter of transition between these waveguiding and nonwaveguiding regimes is primarily determined by the wavelength of propagating light and, to a much lesser degree, by the characteristic length of the waveguides long-range nonuniformity. For this reason, the transmission spectrum of a thin waveguide allows immediate and quite accurate determination of its thickness. An experimental test of these facts is performed for a tapered microfiber. Good agreement with the recently developed theory of adiabatic microfiber tapers is demonstrated.

Group-delay ripple correction in chirped fiber Bragg gratings

Group-delay ripple (GDR) introduced by systematic and random errors in chirped fiber Bragg grating fabrication is the most significant impediment to application of these devices in optical communication systems. We suggest and demonstrate a novel iterative procedure for GDR correction by subsequent UV exposure by use of a simple solution of the inverse problem for the coupled-wave equation. Our method is partly based but does not fully rely on the accuracy of this solution. In the experiment we achieved substantial reduction of the low-frequency group-delay ripple, from +/- 15 to +/- 2 ps, which resulted in dramatic improvement of the optical signal-to-noise-ratio system penalty, from 7 to less than 1 dB, for a chirped fiber Bragg grating used as a dispersion compensator in a 40-Gbit/s carrier-suppressed return-to-zero system.

Probing optical microfiber nonuniformities at nanoscale

We demonstrate a novel, simple, and comprehensive method for probing optical microfiber surface and bulk distortions with subnanometer accuracy. The method employs a regular optical fiber as a probe that slides along a microfiber transmitting the fundamental mode. The fraction of radiation power absorbed in the probe depends on the local distribution of the mode propagating in the microfiber. From the measured variation of the absorbed power, we determine the variation of the effective microfiber radius, which takes into account both the microfiber radius and refractive index variations. Furthermore, we verify the cylindrical symmetry of the microfiber nonuniformities by probing the microfiber from different sides. These results explain observed transmission losses in silica microfibers and open broad opportunities for microfiber investigation.

Fiber Bragg gratings for dispersion compensation in optical communication systems

This paper presents an overview of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) fabrication principles and applications with emphasis on the chirped FBG used for dispersion compensation in high-speed optical communication systems. We discuss the range of FBG parameters enabled by current fabrication methods, as well as the relation between the accuracy of FBG parameters and the performance of FBG-based dispersion compensators. We describe the theory of the group delay ripple (GDR) generated by apodized chirped fiber gratings using the analogy between noisy gratings and superstructure Bragg gratings. This analysis predicts the fundamental cutoff of the high frequency spatial noise of grating parameters in excellent agreement with the experimental data. We review the iterative GDR correction technique, which further improves the FBG quality and potentially enables consistent fabrication of FBG-based dispersion compensators and tunable dispersion compensators with unprecedented performance.

160-Gb/s tunable dispersion slope compensator using a chirped fiber Bragg grating and a quadratic heater

We demonstrate a tunable dispersion slope compensator using a linearly chirped fiber Bragg grating and a thin-film heater that provides a variable quadratic temperature gradient along the grating. We achieved 2-10-ps/nm/sup 2/ compensation over 3 nm suitable for 160-Gb/s return-to-zero signals.

Coupled high Q-factor surface nanoscale axial photonics (SNAP) microresonators

We report the first experimental demonstration of coupled identical super-high Q-factor bottle microresonators formed by periodic nanoscale variation of the optical fiber radius. The Q-factor of the fabricated microresonator series exceeds 107.

Tunable dispersion compensation devices: group delay ripple and system performance

We present a comprehensive study of system impact of group delay ripples in tunable resonant dispersion compensating devices. We suggest simple criteria for estimation of the OSNR penalty caused by phase ripples and define practical characterization rules for single and multiple channel dispersion compensating devices.

Photo-induced SNAP: fabrication, trimming, and tuning of microresonator chains

We introduce multiple series of uncoupled and coupled surface nanoscale axial photonics (SNAP) microresonators along the 30 micron diameter germanium-doped photosensitive silica optical fiber and demonstrate their permanent trimming and temporary tuning with a CO2 laser and a wire heater. Hydrogen loading allows us to increase the introduced variation of the effective fiber radius by an order of magnitude compared to the unloaded case, i.e., to around 5 nm. It is demonstrated that the CO2 laser annealing of the fabricated microresonator chain can be used to modify the fiber radius variation. Depending on the CO2 laser beam power, the microresonator effective radius variation can be increased in depth up to the factor of two or completely erased. In addition, we demonstrate temporary tuning of a microresonator chain with a wire heater.

Reduction of group delay ripple of multi-channel chirped fiber gratings using adiabatic UV correction

We demonstrate reduction of group delay ripple (GDR) from 24 ps to 9 ps peak to peak in a four channel 43 Gb/s dispersion compensating chirped fiber grating by adiabatic UV post processing. The eye opening penalty due to the grating GDR was improved from ~2dB to <1dB for all of the channels over a range of carrier frequencies of 15GHz. Our results demonstrate that at 43 Gb/s, the adiabatic UV correction technique is sufficient to substantially improve multi-channel fiber grating performance. We also discuss three limitations of the correction technique which cause GDR to vary from channel to channel: Noise in the sampling function, cladding mode loss, and varying channel reflectivity. While these limitations are visible in our results they do not reduce the effectiveness of the adiabatic correction for our gratings.