Chapter 1. Introduction 1.

1 Brief historical review of silica optical fiber The invention of the low-loss silica glass optical fiber using chemical vapor deposition in 1970 [1] has opened new horizon in communication technology, and led to the possibility of ultra-high capacity information flow. Worldwide competitive research and development efforts followed that invention and brought about astounding progress in photonics technology. It must be noted that two inventions made almost simultaneously in 1970, silica-based glass fiber [1] and continuous wave semiconductor laser operating at room temperature[2], are now clearly seen as the seminal events that marked the inception of the photonics era. Owing to excellent transmission properties of low-loss and high bandwidth as predicted by Kao et al.[3], silica optical fiber is the status quo broadband telecommunications media such as transoceanic cables, terrestrial cables, metro-loops, and customer premises loops. Real time video and audio applications for advanced broadband systems prompted optical manufacturers to develop high volume mass production facilities of fibers such as large perform fabrication[4] and high speed drawing [5] and consequently lower the cost of the fiber. As a result of these efforts, fiber fabrication technology has produced various types of fibers and fiber devices that prompted all-fiber platform in telecommunications, sensing, and metrology. All of these fiber optic innovations and contributions to todays information technologies have led to recent recognition of optical fiber such that Dr. Charles Kao have won the Nobel prize in physics in 2009.[6]

Major research efforts began with achieving low-loss fibers to extend the optical link distance. After the demonstration of fiber with loss of 20 dB/km in 1970, the fiber

process advanced very quickly. By 1973, the loss of less than 5 dB/km was reported at 850 nm [7], approaching the intrinsic scattering limit at that wavelength. Researchers started to explore longer wavelengths where the intrinsic scattering loss is lower. In 1976, the first fiber with loss of 0.47 dB/km at 1200 nm was reported [8].Within three years, the fiber attenuation reached 0.2 dB/km at 1550 nm [9,10], close to the theoretical limit of 0.15 dB/km. The evolution of optical loss reduction efforts is summarized in Fig.1.1.1

Fig.1.1.1 Optical loss spectrum of silica glass single-mode fiber [10] In 1970s, the available light sources near ~850nm, has named the corresponding spectral range in the optical fiber as the First Window. With the advancement of both compound semiconductor technology and fiber fabrication process, the second window

near 1300 nm was flourished in 1980s. As the ultimate low loss was achieved near 1550nm region, the communication widow shifted to this third window in order to take fullest advantage of longer link distances. The third window is also called as C-band, conventional band. With further development of bending loss reduction technology the third window expanded into longer wavelength near 1620nm, which is called as L-band, long band. In recent international standards the optical communication bands have been further classified as O, E, S, C, L, and U bands, which will be discussed in more detail in the following section.

Along with the efforts to reduce the optical loss, there have been intensive researches to control the waveguide properties of optical fibers in order to control the modal dispersion and the chromatic dispersion. As a first step, two types of fibers have been developed in parallel; multimode fiber (MMF) and single mode fiber (SMF). Li and Nolan [12] have made a detailed review on optical fiber development history and schematic routes of development for multimode and single mode optical fibers are summarized in Fig.1.1.2, and Fig.1.1.3, respectively. Starting from a step index fiber, multimode fibers (MMFs) quickly evolved to graded index profile MMF to increase the bandwidth for 850nm light emitting diode (LED) light sources. Graded index MMF diameter started from 50m, and then increased to 62.5m to accommodate 1300 nm LED. As high speed narrow linewidth light sources such as vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) and laser diodes (LDs) replaced LEDs, graded index MMF diameter once again reduced to 50m with further more tailored graded refractive index profile near the center to secure high bandwidths. Presently 10Gbit/sec signals can be transmitted over a several hundred

meters long, using graded index 50m core MMFs and further increase in both data rate and link distance is being explored.

Figure 1.1.2 Multimode fiber technology evolution.[12] Here FDDI is fiber distributed data interface, ATM is asynchronous transfer mode, GbE is giga bit ethernet, FC is fiber channel, and SDH is synchronous digital hierarchy.

In the case of single mode optical fibers the evolution routes are more complicated due to introduction of wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) based on optical amplifiers [13] such as erbium doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) [14] and Raman fiber amplifier (RFA)[15] and their combinations. In WDM-SMF links multitudes of channels are carried within a certain wavelength range where the channels are amplified to restore the attenuated intensity. However chromatic dispersion linearly accumulates and the signal pulses spread out in the time domain to result in inter-symbol-interferences and subsequent bit errors in the data streams as shown in Fig. Therefore it is imperative that chromatic dispersion be properly managed or compensated in long haul WDM systems, which opened various avenues of dispersion controlled fibers such as dispersion shifted fiber (DSF), dispersion flattened fiber (DFF), non-zero dispersion shifted fiber (NZDSF), and dispersion compensating fiber (DCF). Dense WDM systems have also introduced new concepts in fiber design to manage

the high optical power and consequent optical nonlinearity, which brought standardization of effective mode areas, and nonlinear coefficients. Nonlinear effects in optical fibers can be significantly suppressed if the modal area is large enough, and large mode area (LMA)-SMFs have been developed with novel refractive index profiles. [16]

Figure 1.1.3 Single mode fiber technology evolution.[12] Here DWDM, and CDWDM are dense and coarse wavelength division multiplexing, respectively. ULH is ultra long haul, OADM is optical add drop multiplexer, FTTH is fiber to the home, SBS is stimulated Brillouin scattering, EDC is electric dispersion compensation, WP is water-peak.

Massive deployment of optical fiber networks into the customer premises such as in fiber to the home (FTTH) networks has raised more stringent optical nonlinearity issue especially for the case of passive optical network, where a high power signals are distributed to several customer premise using optical power splitters. Especially stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) has become a critical issue because the incident optical power is transferred to backward propagating Stokes shifts.[17] Spatial distribution of compensating dopants such as Al, and Ge across the core has been proposed to suppress SBS.[18] FTTH applications have also raised another fundamental

issue in optical fiber desing-macro bending loss, an essential factor in fiber installation in FTTH environments where tight bending of optical fiber is unavoidable. Bend insensitive fibers have been recently developed to overcome the macro bending loss.[19] The optical loss due to the overtone of hydroxyl (OH) bonds near 1380nm has been recently removed by developing gas-phase dehydration process [20] and expanded the optical communication bands into S and E bands. These suppressed water peak SMFs are being widely deployed in optical networks that look forward expansion from C, L bands to S bands. The communication bandwidth and channel speed have been continuously increasing with new developments in optical device and system technologies, which subsequently demands modification of SMFs structures for optimal dispersion management within the new available bands. Especially the optical wave guide design and optical amplifier bandwidth are strongly correlated and they are continuously evolving to further expand the optical communication bandwidth.

In this book we will focus on dispersion, birefringence and nonlinear properties in optical fibers and describe various types of optical fiber design, fabrication and related international standards.

Dispersion in optical fibers can be categorized into three different types depending on their origins:1) modal dispersion in MMFs, 2) chromatic dispersion in SMFs, and 3) polarization mode dispersion in SMFs.

Modal dispersion in MMF is schematically illustrated in Fig. 1.1.4. The number of guided modes in MMF is in the order of 103 and each mode has different group velocity. As a result of the distribution in group velocities in step index MMF, the effective modal delay is of a few nano-second, 10-9 sec.[21] The effect of modal dispersion in MMFs are schematically illustrated in Fig. 1.1.4. The magnitude of the modal delay in step index MMFs is comparable to the bit period of a few 100 Mbit/sec, ~a few 10-9 sec, which can result in severe overlap and spread of input pulses. Therefore the maximum data rate along a step index MMF cannot exceed 100Mbit/sec for 1km length.

Fig.1.1.4 Impacts of modal delay in multimode fibers (MMF) over digital pulse spreads in comparison with single mode fiber (SMF). The pulse spread due to modal dispersion in MMFs can be significantly reduced by

changing the refractive index distribution in the core from the step profile to a graded one, which allocates a higher refractive index to lower order modes propagating in the shorter optical paths and a lower refractive index to higher order modes propagating in the longer optical paths to effectively synchronize them in the output. This concept is schematically illustrated in Fig. 1.1.4. The issues in MMF designs are discussed in Chapter 5. Despite the elaborated graded index core design in MMFs, there still exists a finite modal delay and reducing the number of modes drastically was sought after as a fundamental solution to overcome the modal dispersion. Single mode fiber (SMF) has achieved an efficient guidance of only the fundamental mode in the second and third window of communications, 1300~1600nm, and the higher order modes were cut-off in the spectral range over ~1200nm. In the fundamental LP01 mode in SMF, there exits two degenerate polarization modes with very similar effective index and they behaves as a single mode. Even though the modal delay in MMF disappears in SMFs as in Fig.1.1.4, there exists chromatic dispersion that linearly accumulates over the propagation length. The effect of chromatic dispersion in SMF is schematically illustrated in Fig. 1.1.5.

Figure 1.1.5 Impacts of chromatic dispersion (D) in single mode fiber (SMF) over the optical signals at =1550nm. Here Gbps is Giga bit per second.

Optical pulse trains at =1550nm experiences the chromatic dispersion of ~17psec/nm km in typical SMFs to result in pulse broadening in the time domain. The chromatic dispersion linearly accumulates along the fiber length and further broadening of pulses will result in distortion of signal and bit errors, as shown in Fig. 1.1.5. The chromatic dispersions penalties in SMFs have been overcome by the waveguide design with novel refractive index profiles, which significantly modify the waveguide dispersion to result in appropriate dispersion value and slope within the optical bands of interests. We will discuss these waveguide design issues for dispersion managements in Chapter 4, and Chapter 9. Chromatic dispersion spectra of the dispersion controlled fibers are shown in Fig. 1.1.6. Conventional SMFs had the zero dispersion near 1310nm and its value monotonically increases to ~17psec/nmkm at 1550nm with the dispersion slope of 0.58psec psec/nm2km. In order to shift the zero dispersion to the lowest loss spectral position ~1550nm, dispersion shifted fibers (DSF) have been developed for single wavelength signal transmission.[23] In order to utilize wider optical communication window, dispersion flattened fibers (DFFs) developments were followed, where zero dispersion occurred near both 1310nm and 1550nm.[24] In WDM systems, however, the having the zero dispersion wavelengths within the WDM channels was found to be critically detrimental by four wave mixing (FWM) penalties.[25] A small but finite chromatic dispersion was found to be optimal and optical fibers with non-zero chromatic dispersion within the band of interests and so called non-zero dispersion shifted fibers (NZDSFs) with optimal dispersion slopes have been playing major roles in long haul applications.[25] As an alternative way to control the chromatics dispersion of SMF, fibers with a negative dispersion and a negative slope near 1550nm were

developed as dispersion compensating fibers (DCFs).[26] Detailed discussions of these dispersion controlled fibers will be given in Chapter 4.

Fig. 1.1.6. Chromatic dispersion spectra of SMFs with various dispersion optimizations. Here NZ-DSF is non zero dispersion shifted fiber. S, C, and L-bands are short wavelength, conventional, and long wavelength band, respectively and their definitions are summarized in Table 1.2.2.

Nominal chromatic dispersion value of DSFs is a few psec/nmkm in the wavelength region of interests, which corresponds to an order of pico-second (~10-12 sec) group delay for 10km fiber with a 0.1nm linewidth () light source. This delay is negligible in comparison to bit period of 10 Gbit/sec digital signals, which is an order of 10-10 sec, and the chromatic dispersion can be overcome.

However, as the data rate further increases to 40 Gbps (Giga bit per second) and higher

whose bit period is the order of 10-11 sec (or a few tens of pico-second), another type of dispersion in optical fiber becomes the major limitation in optical transmission. By slight random deviation of the optical fiber from the perfect circular symmetry, the fundamental LP01 mode is no longer degenerate and two modes in orthogonal polarizations will have different effective indices to result in a group delay as schematically shown in Fig.1.1.7. This dispersion is called as polarization mode dispersion (PMD).

Figure 1.1.7 Impact of polarization mode dispersion in SMF over the time delay between two orthogonal polarization modes in an elliptic core optical fiber. PSP, PMD, and DGD are acronyms for principal state of polarization, polarization mode dispersion, and differential group delay, respectively.

The group delay between two orthogonal polarization modes could exceed a few picosecond for SMF link of a few tens of km, which is comparable to bit period of high data rate digital signals. In order to reduce PMD various fabrication processes have been developed in both perform and optical fiber drawing. Presently the PMD nominal values are less than 0.2 psec/ km .

The future trends in optical communications are summarized in Fig.1.1.8, where the

horizontal axis is the number of WDM channels per optical fiber and the vertical axis is the data rate for each channel. It is noted that the system capacity upgrade direction should face different challenges in dispersion managements. For example if the number of channels are increased for a fixed relatively low data rate, say OC-48 (2.5Gbit/sec), then transmission fibers should resolve the issues in chromatic dispersion and its slope mismatches within the communication band of interests. If the number of channels are fixed to a relatively small number (<10), and only the data rate is increased over OC768 (40 Gbps), then the major problems in optical fiber is PMD and CD. If the direction of capacity expansion is increase in both data-rate and channel-counts, then the fiber designer should resolve the issues combined.

Fig. 1.1.8. High-speed large capacity WDM network directions and accompanying limitations. Here PMD and CD are polarization mode dispersion and chromatic dispersion, respectively. [28]

1.2 International standards for silica optical fibers With rapid deployment of optical fiber communication system worldwide, international standards and agreements on key characteristics, measurements, and tests of optical fibers have started from the middle of 1970s right after the first installation of fiber optic link. International standards in optical fibers have played pivotal roles to draw consensus on performances of optical fibers and their future development directions.[29] Today, standards for optical fibers and cables are being studied by international organizations such as IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission), ISO (International Standards Organization), ITU-T (International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication), ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute), and Bellcore (Bell Communications Research) to name a few. One of main

organizations on standardization for fiber optic telecommunication technique is ITU-T, where standardization efforts are published in Recommendations by thirteen study groups. Among the recommendations, the following series are closely related with optical fibers and cables: series G (Transmission systems and media, digital systems and networks), series K (Protection against interference) and series L (Construction, installation and protection of cables and other elements of outside plant).

IEC also plays equivalently important roles in fiber optic international standard as ITUT, and in most of optical fiber standards both ITU-T and IEC shares common references. IEC has been very strong in test and measurements standards, on the while ITU-T has been widely cited for optical communication system applications. In the following, we listed standards in both IEC and ITU-T that are fundamental in optical fiber design, fabrication, tests, and installation.

IEC standards for optical fiber specifications are;. - IEC 60793-1-1. Optical fibre Part 1: Generic specification Section 1: General; - IEC 60793-2. Optical fibre Part 1: Generic specification Section 2: Product specification; - IEC 60794-1-1. Optical fibre cables Part 1: Generic specification General; - IEC 60794-2. Optical fibre cables Part 2: Indoor cables; - IEC 60794-3. Optical fibre cables Part 3: Duct, buried and aerial cables Corresponding ITU-T Recommendations are: - G.651. Characteristics of a 50/125 m multimode graded index optical fiber able; - G.652. Characteristics of a single-mode optical fiber able; - G.653 Characteristics of a dispersion-shifted single-mode optical fiber able; - G.654 Characteristics of a ut-off shifted single-mode optical fiber and able; - G.655 Characteristics of a non-zero dispersion shifted single-mode optical fiber able; - G.656 Characteristics of a fiber and cable with non-zero dispersion for wideband optical transport; Types of MMF and SMFs specified in ITU-T and IEC are listed in Table 1.2.1

Table 1.2.1 Optical fibers specified in ITU-T and corresponding IEC standards ITU-T Recomm Fiber Category Standard endation G.651 50/125 m multimode gradient IEC 60793-2-10 index optical fiber G.652 Single mode optical fiber IEC60793-2-50 G.653 G.654 G.655 G.656 Dispersion shifted single mode optical fiber Cut-off shifted single mode optical fiber Non-zero dispersion shifted single mode optical fiber Non-zero dispersion shifted single mode optical fiber for wideband optical transport IEC60793-2-50 IEC60793-2-50 IEC60793-2-50 IEC Fiber Category A1 multimode fiber B1.1, B1.3 mode fiber B2 single fiber B1.2 single fiber B4 single fiber single mode mode mode

ITU-T also defined communication bands in optical fibers, O,E,S,C,L, and U band, and the corresponding fiber recommendations are listed in Table 1.2.2

Table 1.2.2 Communication bands and corresponding fiber recommendations in ITU-T. ITU-T optical bands O-original E-extended S-short C-conventional L-long U-ultra-long 1260-1360nm 1360-1460nm 1460-1530nm 1530-1560nm 1560-1625nm 1625-1675nm Fiber recommendations G.652 G.652.C, D G.652, G.654, G. 655 G.652, G.653, G.654, G.655, G.656 G.652, G.654, G.655, G.656 Under study

In the fiber standards, test and measurement recommendations are also important to make the specifications consistent. The standards for test and measurements of optical fiber properties are listed in Table 1.2.3.

Table 1.2.3 Test and measurement standards for optical fibers

IEC Tests and measurements Fiber geometry Coating geometry Fiber length Fiber proof test Tensile strength Coating strippability Stress corrosion susceptibility Fiber curl Attenuation Chromatic dispersion Cut-off wavelength Mode field diameter None Macrobending loss Polarization mode dispersion Damp heat Dry heat Temperature cycle Water immersion Gamma ray irradiation Attenuation uniformity Microbending sensitivity Nuclear radiance Effective area(Aeff) Nonlinear coefficient(n2/Aeff) Raman gain efficiency None Document IEC 60793-1-20 IEC 60793-1-21 IEC 60793-1-22 IEC 60793-1-30 IEC 60793-1-31 IEC 60793-1-32 IEC 60793-1-33 IEC 60793-1-34 IEC 60793-1-40 IEC 60793-1-42 IEC 60793-1-44 IEC 60793-1-45 IEC 60793-1-47 IEC 60793-1-48 IEC 60793-1-50 IEC 60793-1-51 IEC 60793-1-52 IEC 60793-1-53 IEC 60793-1-54 IEC/TS 62033 IEC 62221 IEC/TR62283 IEC/TR 62284 IEC/TR 62284 IEC/TR 62324 ITU-T Tests and measurements Recommendation Cladding diameter, core G.650.1-5.2 concentricity error, cladding non-circularity None None Proof testing G.650.1-5.6 None None None None Attenuation Chromatic dispersion Cut-off wavelength Mode field diameter Chromatic dispersion uniformity None Polarization mode dispersion None None None None None None None None Effective area(Aeff) Nonlinear coefficient(n2/Aeff) None Stimulated Brillouin scattering G.650.1-5.4 G.650.1-5.5 G.650.1-5.3 G.650.1-5.1 G.6650.1Appendix II G.650.2-5.1

G.650.2-Appendix III G.650.2-Appendix II G.650.2-Appendix II

1.3 Classifications of silica optical fibers Silica optical fibers can be grouped in several categories depending on points of view. For example silica optical fibers can be grouped into solid core/cladding fibers and airsilica holey fibers. Each category can be further divided into multimode and single mode as well. Depending on the purposes, silica fibers can be also grouped into dispersion tailored transmission fibers, birefringence controlled fibers, nonlinear fibers, and photonic device fibers. In this section we will categorize optical fibers as in Table. 1.3.1. These categories of optical fibers will be briefly reviewed with their key specification. Table 1.3.1 Classification of optical fibers
MultiMode Fiber Solid Core/Clad Fiber Modal delay optimized MMF Dispersion tailored SMF Single Mode Fiber Birefringence controlled SMF Nonlinear SMF Photonic device SMF MultiMode Fiber Air Silica Holey Fiber Single Mode Fiber Graded MMF index 50m core

DSF, DCF, DFF, NZ-DSF PMF, SMSPF Raman Fiber, Brillouin Fiber Rare earth doped SMF, Photosensitive Fiber, Attenuation Fiber Large N.A. large core fiber for laser delivery DSF, DCF, DFF, NZ-DSF PMF, SMSPF Raman Fiber, Brillouin Fiber Rare earth doped SMF, Photosensitive Fiber,

Large N.A. MMF Dispersion tailored SMF Birefringence controlled SMF Nonlinear SMF Photonic device SMF

SMF: single mode fiber, MMF: multimode fiber, DSF: dispersion shifted fiber, DCF: dispersion compensating fiber, DFF: dispersion flattened fiber, NZ-DSF: non zero dispersion shifted fiber, PMF: polarization maintaining fiber, SMSPF: single mode single polarization fiber

A. Solid Core/Clad Fiber (1) Modal delay optimized MMFs These fibers correspond to ITU-T G.651 and IEC 60793-2-10 standards and the refractive index profiles are optimized to reduce modal delay enabling high data rate transmission. GbE-MMF Giga bit Ethernet (GbE) systems are in general based on multimode fibers with specific characteristics. Several standardization bodies and forums (IEEE, OIF, TIA, IEC, etc), stipulate that low cost, short-distance network systems should combine multimode fibers with a 850 nm Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) or laser diode (LD) sources to connect buildings within a distance of 600 m. In these applications, two types of MMFs are being used. One is a fiber with a 62.5 m core diameter, and the other with a 50 m core diameter. The larger core makes it is easier to couple a laser to the fiber. The number of guided mode in a fiber is roughly proportional to square of the core radius and the number of modes will be about 50 % more in the 62.5 m fiber than the 50 m fiber. The greater the mode number, the more bandwidth degradation will occur due to the modal delay. For example, differential mode delay (DMD) values at =850 nm are 2ns/km and 4ns/km, respectively, for 50 m and 62.5 m fibers. [21] As shown in Fig.1.1.2 recent MMFs for high data rate communications are based on 50 m core diameter fibers.

(2)Dispersion tailored SMF This fiber includes DSF, DFF, DCF, and NZ-DSF and their typical chromatic dispersion spectra are shown Fig. 1.1.6. Dispersion Shifted Fiber (DSF)

A single mode optical fiber with zero-dispersion near =1550 nm region is called Dispersion Shifted Fiber (DSF).[23] The chromatic dispersion in a single mode fiber is sum of the material dispersion and the waveguide dispersion, both in units of ps / km nm . The former has a positive value beyond 1300nm and depends only on

wavelength. The latter maintains a negative value, and is a function of fiber waveguide parameters such as core radius, index profile, core index, relative index difference, and wavelength. Therefore, flexible shift of the zero dispersion wavelength in a single mode fiber is obtainable when one can find a set of the optimum values of fiber parameters making the sum of waveguide and material dispersion zero at a desired wavelength. To balance the waveguide and material dispersions near the 1550 nm region, it is necessary to make the relative index difference () higher than that of conventional SMF. Typically the relative index difference () ranges from 0.6 to 1.0%. Another parameter is the core diameter and the magnitude of the waveguide dispersion increases as the fiber core size decreases. It may be worth noting that the optimum core diameter in DSF is in the range of 4 to 6m, which is much smaller than 10m core diameter of standard SMFs.
NZDSF (Non-Zero Dispersion Shifted Fiber)

DSF is optimized for the single channel transmission but it is vulnerable to nonlinear penalties due to its high index difference and small core diameter. With moderate power levels of single channel signal, DSF can take advantage of both zero dispersion and lowest attenuation at =1550nm. Multiplexing many channels, however, induce nonlinear effects such as a four wave mixing to limit the transmission capacity. [26]. NZDSF was invented to overcome this problem to allow non-zero finite dispersion within the spectral bands of interests.[27] Typical dispersion values of NZDSF are

respectively 4 ( ps / km nm) for 10 Gb/s system and 8 ( ps / km nm) for 40 Gb/s system within the band of interests.
DCF (Dispersion Compensating Fiber)

Negative chromatic dispersion or normal dispersion compresses a signal in the time domain, whereas positive dispersion or anomalous dispersion broadens the signal as it propagates along the fiber. Reduction of total accumulated dispersion can be achieved by adding a certain length of a negative dispersion fiber segment to a long distance transmission fiber that inevitably accumulates a certain amount of a positive dispersion. This negative dispersion fiber is thus called Dispersion Compensation Fiber (DCF).[25] The dispersion is proportional to the fiber length, and its length therefore determines the amount of dispersion compensation needed to cancel the pulse broadening of the input signal. The large negative dispersion can be obtained by controlling the waveguide dispersion as in the case of DSF. The index distribution in the cladding is of a multiple trench type, so the fiber maintains very weakly guiding properties, and the mode field diameter becomes sensitive to wavelength [25]. Because DCF is a lossy fiber in comparison to conventional SMF, the use of the shortest length is desirable to minimize the loss budget allocated in the compensation system. Usually ~1km of DCF can compensate the accumulated chromatic dispersion of about ~5km conventional SMF.

(3) Birefringence controlled SMF PMF(Polarization Maintaining Fibers)

The design of the PMF attempts to destroy the stress distribution that circular symmetry affords in a standard single mode fiber.[30] If successfully designed, it will create an

asymmetric stress distribution along the fiber axis. To achieve this objective, different shapes of stress applying parts (SAP) made of a boron doped silica glass are introduced into the cladding near the circular fiber core. Mismatching of mechanical properties among core, SAP, and cladding is intended to induce the asymmetric residual stresses in the fiber during its cooling period, while the fiber is being drawn from the preform. The non-circular symmetric residual stresses in the fiber induce birefringence in its core, resulting in the removal of the degeneracy of the x- and y-components of the linear polarization. Thus, when an input signal is launched into the fiber, the two orthogonal polarization components formed in the fiber core will propagate with two different group velocities, but maintain the constant value of this differential along a entire length of the fiber. Therefore, the two polarized components maintain the same state of the polarizations along the fiber. Using these special transmission characteristics of PMFs, one is able to conceive of many applications such as sensors, polarization controllers, single fiber polarizers, soliton experiments, etc. It is worth mentioning that in a particular case of PMF design, the loss spectra of the two polarizations can be different. In the long wavelength region, the loss of one polarization may become much larger than that of the other polarization which may follow the standard low loss curve reasonably well to make a single polarization single mode fiber (SPSMF). PMFs are classified according to the geometric fiber structures e.g. PANDA, BOW tie, elliptic core, and elliptic cladding.
(4 ) Nonlinear SMF

Nonlinearities in optical fibers can be generally categorized into two classes[30]. 1) Scattering effects, the frequency dependent optical power transfer, such as stimulated Brillouin scattering(SBS) and stimulated Raman scattering(SRS)

2) Kerr effect, the intensity dependent refractive index related phenomena, such as self-phase modulation(SPM), cross-phase modulation(XPM), modulation

instability(MI), and four wave mixing(FWM). In contrast to the conventional view point to suppress or get rid of these nonlinearities for telecom applications, recently totally opposite viewpoint is rapidly growing to enhance nonlinearities and utilize them for optical sensing, optical signal processing, as well as light sources and amplifiers.

Raman Fiber Stolen et al. first observed the stimulated Raman emission in a single

mode glass optical fiber in 1972 [32] and showed the feasibility of a broadband fiber Raman amplifier (FRA).[15] Raman scattering is a nonlinear optical effect caused by high light intensity. The Raman gain depends mainly on the material composition of the core and cladding of the fiber. Raman amplifiers have proven to be successful in a number of applications such as power amplifiers, pre-amplifiers, and distributed amplifiers. In order to achieve broadband amplification, FRA uses a multi-wavelength pumping technique to spectrally superimpose the Raman gain profiles generated by pump frequencies. FRA can use the standard single mode fiber as a gain medium and Raman fiber is optimized in terms of Raman gain and optical loss.

Brillouin Fibers The light coupled into a solid can interact with the lattice vibrations

(phonons). As a result of this interaction, a portion of the light is scattered and its frequency is shifted from that of the original light. This effect was first observed by French physicist Brillouin around 1920 and named after him. Scattering of photons by acoustic phonons is called Brillouin scattering. Stimulated Brillouin scattering is caused

by nonlinear effect at a light intensity level above the Brillouin threshold level.[17] In stimulated Brillouin scattering the input power is used to generate a backward scattered wave. From a telecommunication transmission standpoint, this phenomenon is undesirable and is to be avoided. However, it was later realized that this effect can be utilized in the design of a fiber laser and a fiber amplifier. Another application of the Brillouin fiber is in the area of sensors, particularly, distributed sensors that are capable of sensing temperature and strain.[33] The principle of a Brillouin fiber sensor is the change in the refractive index of a silica fiber due to surrounding environmental variations that cause a Brillouin shift.

Air-Silica Holey Fiber (ASHF)

It is since 1996 when Knight et al. [34] first reported a transverse periodic air holes structure in silica cladding that intensive and explosive research efforts have begun for innovative nano-micro scale air-silica structured optical fibers and their applications. There are various names for these air-silica guiding optical fibers such as photonic crystal fibers (ASHF), micro-structured optical fiber (MOF), and holey fiber(HF). In this book we will use a term air-silica optical fiber (ASHF) to be more inclusive in classification of similar fibers. These ASHFs have opened a new avenue of guided wave optics and fiber devices demonstrating elegant and innovative optical properties that have not been attainable in prior all-silica fibers. According to Russell [35] ASHFs have provided unprecedented and unique optical properties such as 1) a high refractive index difference, , that enabled flexible controls in the group velocity dispersion, birefringence, nonlinearity, and bending performance, and 2) hollow core guidance that effectively enhance light-gas, light-liquid interaction with a high overlap. There have

been excellent review papers [34-39] and books [40,41] on ASHFs and their applications in recent years. It would be beyond the scope of this chapter to discuss all of the reported ASHFs and the related applications and we will confine the discussions only for 4 types of ASHF as shown in Fig. 1.3.1.

Figure 1.3.1 Four types of ASHF to be discussed in this chapter. (a) effective index guiding (EIG) (b) air hole cladding (AHC) (c) photonic band gap (PBG) (d) hollow ring core (HLC). Here black regions indicate air and grey parts are pure silica, brighter grey in (d) is GeO2 doped silica

These ASHFs also showed tailored dispersion, birefringence control, and optical nonlinearity similar to solid core/clad fibers. The ASHFs also demonstrated MMF structure with higher numerical aperture that could be used in short-reach communications.

It is highly speculated that various applications of ASHF will follow in the coming years especially in the areas of chemical, bio-medical, and environmental sensing with higher sensitivity and resolution.