Woosung Ha

Compact all-fiber Bessel beam generator based on hollow optical fiber combined with a hybrid polymer fiber lens

We report a compact all-fiber Bessel beam generator using hollow optical fiber (HOF) and coreless silica fiber based on a self-assembled polymer lens. A nearly diffraction-free Bessel beam pattern was observed with its focused beam diameter of 20 microm maintained over a propagation distance of 550 microm. The generated Bessel beams were experimentally tested under various structural parameters such as the diameters of the HOF and operating wavelengths. A beam propagation method was applied to simulate the proposed device, which shows good agreement with the experimental observations.

Ultracompact Intrinsic Micro Air-Cavity Fiber Mach–Zehnder Interferometer

A compact intrinsic fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated by incorporating a micro air-cavity ablated by femtosecond laser irradiation. A short cavity of length ~ 10 mum along the single-mode fiber core provided two optical paths: one propagating through the air and the other guided along the ring-shaped silica cladding. A spectral analysis confirmed MZI in a good agreement with experimental results. Temperature-dependent spectral shifts were measured and analyzed.

Acousto-optic control of speckle contrast in multimode fibers with a cylindrical piezoelectric transducer oscillating in the radial direction.

We report efficient acousto-optic control of speckle contrast at the output of multimode fibers (MMFs) using a cylindrical piezoelectric transducer (PZT) vibrating in the radial direction. With appropriate packaging of an MMF around the PZT, periodic stretching and subsequent intensity modulation were achieved over the wound fiber to result in time-averaged smoothing of the output within a short time. It was experimentally confirmed that light passed through the vibrating PZT-fiber assembly maintains the virtually partial coherence irrespective of the guide length and power splitting. Real-time vibration-off/on movies were presented, and their single-frame excerpts were analyzed.

Micro Fresnel Zone Plate Lens Inscribed on a Hard Polymer Clad Fiber Using Femtosecond Pulsed Laser

We report a novel process to directly inscribe a Fresnel zone plate (FZP) lens on the cleaved facet of a hard clad polymer fiber using a femtosecond pulsed laser. The FZPs are designed by adopting modal analysis and free-space diffraction, which are experimentally implemented by locally ablating silica glass using femtosecond laser pulses. A good agreement between the design and fabricated FZP lens is obtained with an exceptionally long focal length over 600 m, which can have a strong potential in all-fiber beam shaping technology and optical interconnections.

Fourier optics along a hybrid optical fiber for Bessel-like beam generation and its applications in multiple-particle trapping

Highly efficient Bessel-like beam generation was achieved based on a new all-fiber method that implements Fourier transformation of a micro annular aperture along a concatenated composite optical fiber. The beam showed unique characteristics of tilted washboard optical potential in the transverse plane and sustained a nondiffracting length over 400 μm along the axial direction. Optical trapping of multiple dielectric particles and living Jurkat cells were successfully demonstrated along the axial direction of the beam in the water.

Speckle Reduction in Near-field Image of Multimode Fiber with a Piezoelectric Transducer

We propose and experimentally demonstrate an effective method to reduce near-field speckle noise at the output of a 50 graded index multimode fiber using a short cylindrical piezoelectric transducer (PZT) vibrating in the radial direction. The fiber was coiled as tightly as possible around the mandrel of the PZT and a periodic stretching effect was caused by the radial oscillations of the actuator. The output of the optical fiber using the He-Ne laser source was intensively observed by a CCD camera. By counting all the pixels corresponding to relative intensity graded into 256 levels in the selected area and by calculating standard deviation and mean value of the intensity, we could measure the speckle contrast and vibration effect quantitatively with reduction ratio of pixels and line profile of the illuminated region. It was clearly observed that the characteristics of the speckle pattern in the vibration-on state were significantly improved over that of the vibration-off state due to time-averaged smoothing.

Speckle reduction in multimode fiber with a piezoelectric transducer in radial vibration for fiber laser marking and display applications

We propose and experimentally demonstrate an effective method to reduce far-field speckle noise in multimode fiber with a short cylindrical piezoelectric transducer (PZT) vibrating in radial direction. In this study, the fiber was coiled as tightly as possible around the mandrel of the PZT and periodic stretching effect was caused by the radial oscillations of the actuator. This technique can be adapted at a high modulation frequency, so the speckle patterns can be time-averaged. The output of the optical fiber was intensively observed by a CCD camera. By counting all the pixels corresponding to relative intensity graded 256 levels in selected area and by calculating the mean value and standard deviation of the intensity, we can measure the speckle contrast and vibration effect in quantitative measurands. It was clearly observed that the characteristics of the speckle pattern in vibration-ON-state were signinficantly reduced than that of vibration-OFF-state by comparing the proposed measurands as well as direct CCD images. We expect that the proposed speckle reduction technology would find viable applications in realization of fiber laser, laser marking, optical trapping and projection display systems.

Multicorelike guidance in a triangular-core hollow optical fiber and spectral evolution of its eigenmode degeneracy

A unique multicorelike guidance was achieved in a microstructured optical fiber composed of a circular air hole at the center surrounded by a high-index triangular core. Unique spectral evolution of the degeneracy was theoretically investigated using a vectorial finite element method to find a threefold degeneracy in both the fundamental and the first excited modes in the visible range, which evolved to twofold degeneracy as the wavelength increased to IR. Experimental measurements also confirmed evolution of the modal intensity from three spatially isolated patterns confined to individual corners into a supermode combining the three corners.

Mask-free hybrid long-period fiber grating fabrication by self-assembled periodic polymerization in silica hollow optical fiber

We report a type of hybrid optical fiber created by filling the central hole of a silica hollow optical fiber (HOF) with an organic polymer to serve as the core. After suitable curing of the polymer filling of the HOF, a self-assembled one-dimensional polymer-air periodic structure was created without the need for an amplitude mask. This acts as a long-period fiber grating device with an axial refractive index modulation. Details of the fabrication method for the hybrid fiber grating and its transmission spectra analysis are reported.

Fiber fuse effect in hollow optical fibers

We examined nonlinear fiber fuse effect (FFE) in hollow optical fibers (HOFs) that consist of a central air hole surrounded by a high-index ring core and silica cladding. In contrast to conventional solid-core fibers, the HOF with a hole diameter of 4 μm showed high threshold power of 4 W, and resulted in unique tadpole-like voids in periodic arrays after the FFE. As the hole diameter increased to 6 μm, plasma propagation was suppressed within the distance of 1 mm inside of the HOF. Detailed comparisons were made in terms of threshold power, void formation, and penetration length.