Wide band single polarization and polarization maintaining fibers using stress rods and air holes.

We propose a new fiber design using both stress rods and air holes for making wide band single polarization fibers as well as polarization maintaining fibers. The key factor that makes the fiber design possible is that the stress-induced birefringence from the stress rods and the form birefringence from air holes are added constructively, which increases the total birefringence and allows more flexible choice of fiber parameters. We established a finite element model that is capable to study both the stress-optic effect and the wave-guide effect. Through the detailed modeling, we systematically explore the role of each major parameter. Different aspects of the fiber properties related to the fundamental mode cutoff, fiber birefringence and effective area are revealed. As a result, fibers with very large single polarization bandwidth as well as larger effective area are identified.

Observation of temporal vector soliton propagation and collision in birefringent fiber.

We report the experimental observation of temporal vector soliton propagation and collision in a linearly birefringent optical fiber. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is both the first demonstration of temporal vector solitons with two mutually incoherent component fields, and of vector soliton collisions in a Kerr nonlinear medium. Collisions are characterized by an intensity redistribution between the two components, and the experimental results agree with numerical predictions of the coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equation.

Effects of bending on the performance of hole-assisted single polarization fibers.

We study the effects of bending on single polarization fiber performance through the use of finite element method in conjunction with the perfectly matched layer (PML) in cylindrical geometry. The cylindrical PML used in this paper allows us to calculate the loss associated with each polarization mode at a given wavelength, specified bending diameter, and specific orientation. We identified a series of bending characteristics of the single polarization fiber by choosing different bending diameters and different orientations. We also conducted experiments to study some aspects of the bending. Good qualitative agreement between numerical and experimental results is found, which helps to understand fiber deployment conditions and can potentially facilitate new design efforts.

Wavelength tunable stretched-pulse mode-locked all-fiber erbium ring laser with single polarization fiber.

A wavelength tunable stretched-pulse mode-locked all-fiber ring laser using single polarization fiber (SPF) was demonstrated. In this laser, a segment of SPF was used simultaneously as a polarizer and a tunable filter in the laser cavity. Self-starting mode-locking with femtosecond output pulses was demonstrated. A wavelength tuning of ~20nm was achieved by bending the SPF with different radii.