Analysis of the Dielectric Properties of Alkali-Free Aluminoborosilicate Glasses by Considering the Contributions of Electronic and Ionic Polarizabilities in the GHz Frequency Range.

Recently, the investigation of the dielectric properties of glasses in the GHz frequency range has attracted great interest for use in printed circuit boards (PCBs) as a reinforcing material in the application of high-speed 5G/6G communications. In particular, glasses with low dielectric properties are a prerequisite for high-frequency applications. In this study, the GHz dielectric properties of alkali-free aluminoborosilicate glasses without and with La2O3 were analyzed using the Clausius-Mossotti equation where both the electronic and ionic polarizabilities contribute to the dielectric constant. The dielectric polarizability (αD) and oxide ion polarizability (αO2-) were calculated from the measured dielectric constant (εGHz) at 1 GHz and the glass density. The dielectric constants (εopt) at the optical frequencies and electronic polarizabilities (αe) of the glasses were calculated from the refractive index measured at 633 nm and the glass density. The εGHz values were found to be significantly higher than the εopt values in both series of glasses, due to the ionic polarizability (αi), which contributes additionally to the εGHz. The lower dielectric constants of the La2O3-incoporated glasses than that of the reference glass without La2O3 may be due to the lower ionic polarizability originated from the incorporation of the high cation field strength of the La3+ ions.

Effect of Gamma-Ray Irradiation on the Growth of Au Nano-Particles Embedded in the Germano-Silicate Glass Cladding of the Silica Glass Fiber and its Surface Plasmon Resonance Response.

The effect of γ-ray irradiation on the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensing capability of refractive index (n = 1.418⁻1.448) of the silica glass optical fiber comprised of germano-silicate glass cladding embedded with Au nano-particles (NPs) was investigated. As the γ-ray irradiation increased from 1 h to 3 h with the dose rate of 1190 Gy/h, the morphology of the Au NPs and the SPR spectrum were found to change. The average diameter of Au NPs increased with the aspect ratio from 1 to 2, and the nano-particles became grown to the clusters. The SPR band wavelength shifted towards a longer wavelength with the increase of total dose of γ-ray irradiation regardless of the corresponding refractive indices. The SPR sensitivities (wavelength/refractive index unit, nm/RIU) also increased from 407 nm/RIU to 3553 nm/RIU, 1483 nm/RIU, and 2335 nm/RIU after the γ-ray irradiation at a total dose of 1190 Gy, 2380 Gy, and 3570 Gy, respectively.

Temperature and Vibration Dependence of the Faraday Effect of Gd2O3 NPs-Doped Alumino-Silicate Glass Optical Fiber.

All-optical fiber magnetic field sensor based on the Gd2O3 nano-particles (NPs)-doped alumino-silicate glass optical fiber was developed, and its temperature and vibration dependence on the Faraday Effect were investigated. Uniformly embedded Gd2O3 NPs were identified to form in the core of the fiber, and the measured absorption peaks of the fiber appearing at 377 nm, 443 nm, and 551 nm were attributed to the Gd2O3 NPs incorporated in the fiber core. The Faraday rotation angle (FRA) of the linearly polarized light was measured at 650 nm with the induced magnetic field by the solenoid. The Faraday rotation angle was found to increase linearly with the magnetic field, and it was about 18.16° ± 0.048° at 0.142 Tesla (T) at temperatures of 25 °C-120 °C, by which the estimated Verdet constant was 3.19 rad/(T∙m) ± 0.01 rad/(T∙m). The variation of the FRA with time at 0.142 T and 120 °C was negligibly small (-9.78 × 10-4 °/min). The variation of the FRA under the mechanical vibration with the acceleration below 10 g and the frequency above 50 Hz was within 0.5°.

UV Photoluminescence of Alumino-Germano-Silicate Glass Optical Fiber Incorporated with Gd2O3 Nano-Particles Upon Illumination of Xenon-Lamp.

Alumino-germano-silicate glass optical fiber incorporated with Gd2O3 nano-particles (NPs) was developed by using the modified chemical vapor deposition and the drawing process. The formation of spherical Gd2O3 NPs in the fiber core with average diameter of 10.8 nm was confirmed by the TEM. The distinct absorption peaks in the fiber preform appearing in the UV region at 205, 247, 253, 274, and 312 nm were due to the incorporated Gd2O3 NPs via reorganization of the seven 4f electrons into various multiplets of Gd ions. In the case of the optical fiber obtained by drawing of the preform at high temperature about 2150 °C, absorption peaks due to Gd2O3 NPs were found to appear at 383 and 455 nm, which were red-shifted from 274 and 312 nm of the preform, respectively, and it may be due to increase in the size of Gd2O3 NPs after the drawing process. To investigate the photoluminescence (PL) property for UV sensor applications, the PL of the fiber was obtained by illumination of the Xenon-lamp. A PL band appeared in the wavelength band from 370 nm to 450 nm, centering at about 400 nm, which can be attributed to the presence of Gd2O3 NPs embedded in the fiber core. It was also found that the PL intensity at 400 nm showed linear dependence with the excitation power from 0 to 400 W.

Surface Plasmon Resonance Characteristics of Optical Fiber Incorporated with Au Nano-Particles in Cladding Region.

A novel surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor based on specialty optical fiber having its cladding doped with Au nano-particles (NPs) was developed by modified chemical vapor deposition process. To optimize the SPR absorption and sensitivity of the fiber SPR sensor, effect of the fiber length (20 cm-90 cm) on sensing capability of refractive index (n = 1.418-1.448) was investigated. Absorption peaks appearing at 392 and 790 nm were due to SPR from Au NPs in the cladding region of the optical fiber. The SPR was found to occur at particular wavelengths around 390 nm for the corresponding refractive indices regardless of the length of the fiber, increased with the increase of the index. The measured SPR sensitivities (wavelength/RIU) of the fiber were estimated to be 407 nm/RIU, 217 nm/RIU, and 54 nm/RIU with the fiber lengths of 20 cm, 45 cm, and 90 cm, respectively. The SPR absorption intensity and FWHM decreased with the increase of the fiber length because the propagation loss of the signal through the fiber cladding region increased.

Development of Germano-Silicate Optical Fiber Incorporated with Germanium Nanoparticles and Its Optical Characteristics.

The germano-silicate optical fiber incorporated with Ge nanoparticles with enhanced optical nonlinearity was developed by using modified chemical vapor deposition and drawing processes. A broad photoluminescence band obtained by pumping with the 404 nm superluminescent diode was found to appear from 540 nm to 1,000 nm. The non-resonant nonlinear refractive index, n2, of the fiber measured by the continuous wave self-phase modulation method was 4.95 x 10(-20) m2/W due to the incorporated Ge nanoparticles in the fiber core. The enhancement of the non-resonant optical non-linearity may be due to the creation of the NBOs and other defects from the incorporated Ge-NPs in the fiber core.

Gamma-ray radiation response at 1550 nm of fluorine-doped radiation hard single-mode optical fiber.

We have investigated gamma-ray radiation response at 1550 nm of fluorine-doped radiation hard single-mode optical fiber. Radiation-induced attenuation (RIA) of the optical fiber was measured under intermittent gamma-ray irradiations with dose rate of ~10 kGy/h. No radiation hardening effect on the RIA by the gamma-ray pre-dose was found when the exposed fiber was bleached for long periods of time (27~47 days) at room-temperature. Photo-bleaching scheme upon 980 nm LD pumping has proven to be an effective deterrent to the RIA, particularly by suppressing the incipient RIA due to room-temperature unstable self-trapped hole defects (STHs). Large temperature dependence of the RIA of the optical fiber together with the photo-bleaching effect are worthy of note for reinforcing its radiation hard characteristics.

Radial-firing optical fiber tip containing conical-shaped air-pocket for biomedical applications.

We report a novel radial-firing optical fiber tip containing a conical-shaped air-pocket fabricated by deforming a hollow optical fiber using electric arc-discharge process. The hollow optical fiber was fusion spliced with a conventional optical fiber, simultaneously deforming into the intagliated conical-shaped region along the longitudinal fiber-axis of the fiber due to the gradual collapse of the cavity of the hollow optical fiber. Then the distal-end of the hollow optical fiber was sealed by the additional arc-discharge in order to obstruct the inflow of an external bio-substance or liquid to the inner air surface during the surgical operations, resulting in the formation of encased air-pocket in the silica glass fiber. Due to the total internal reflection of the laser beam at the conical-shaped air surface, the laser beam (λ = 632.8 nm) was deflected to the circumferential direction up to 87 degree with respect to the fiber-axis.

Optical properties of the fiber-optic temperature sensor based on the side-hole fiber filled with indium.

A highly sensitive temperature sensor was made by use of a side-hole glass fiber filled with indium metal, and its optical properties were investigated. The temperature sensitivity of the fiber-optic temperature sensor was dλ/dT=-7.38 nm/K. The temperature sensitivity was also examined in sensors made by different lengths of the side-hole fiber and the indium-filled fiber region. The temperature sensitivity could be varied in the range of -1.83 to -7.38 nm/K by changing the relative length between the side-hole fiber and the indium-filled fiber region.

Amplification by white light-emitting diode pumping of large-core Er-doped fiber with 12 dB gain.

We have developed a cost-effective, high-capacity Er-doped fiber amplifier based on the high-power white LED and a large-core Er-doped fiber. Er ions of the fiber with absorption bands at 453, 488, 523, and 654 nm were simultaneously excited by LED pumping and amplification with optical gain over 12 dB at 1550 nm was obtained.

Thermo-optic coefficient measurement of liquids based on simultaneous temperature and refractive index sensing capability of a two-mode fiber interferometric probe.

A fiber-optic interferometric probe based on a two-mode fiber (TMF) is proposed and demonstrated for measuring the thermo-optic coefficients (TOCs) of liquid samples. The proposed probe can be simply fabricated by fusion-splicing a short piece of TMF to a lead single mode fiber (SMF) with small lateral offset, which makes interference between LP(01) and LP(02) modes. The sensing responses of the probe to temperature and surrounding refractive index (SRI) have been experimentally investigated to show the capability of simultaneous measurements; the phase change of the reflection spectrum was related to temperature variation and the intensity change was to SRI variation. The data analysis is made not only in the spectral domain but in the Fourier domain also to effectively quantify the measurements. The TOCs of several liquid samples including water, ethanol, and acetone have been obtained with the proposed method.

Effect of infiltration pressure on the birefringent properties of a side-hole fiber filled with indium.

The effect of the infiltration pressure on the birefringent properties of a side-hole fiber filled with indium was investigated by the fiber-optic Sagnac loop interferometry. The fiber was made at the various gas pressures during the metal infiltration process. It was found that the birefringence of the fiber strongly decreased from 5.55×10(-4) to 1.68×10(-4) with the increase of the pressure from 15 to 45 bars, due to the compensation effect of the pressure applied during the infiltration. The temperature dependence of the birefringence, dB(m)/dT, was found to be constant of ∼-3.06×10(-6)/K regardless of the magnitude of the pressure.

Effective supercontinuum generation by using highly nonlinear dispersion-shifted fiber incorporated with Si nanocrystals.

The dispersion-shifted fiber (DSF) incorporated with Si nanocrystals (Si-NCs) having highly nonlinear optical property was fabricated to investigate the effective supercontinuum generation characteristics by using the MCVD process and the drawing process. Optical nonlinearity was enhanced by incorporating Si nanocrystals in the core of the fiber and the refractive index profile of a dispersion-shifted fiber was employed to match its zero-dispersion wavelength to that of the commercially available pumping source for generating effective supercontinuum. The non-resonant nonlinear refractive index, n2, of the Si-NCs doped DSF measured by the cw-SPM method was measured to be 7.03 x 10(-20) [m2/W] and the coefficient of non-resonant nonlinearity, gamma, was 7.14 [W(-1) km(-1)]. To examine supercontinuum generation of the Si-NCs doped DSF, the femtosecond fiber laser with the pulse width of 150 fs (at 1560 nm) was launched into the fiber core. The output spectrum of the Si-NCs doped DSF was found to broaden from 1300 nm to wavelength well beyond 1700 nm, which can be attributed to the enhanced optical nonlinearity by Si-NCs embedded in the fiber core. The short wavelength of the supercontinuum spectrum in the Si-NCs doped DSF showed shift from 1352 nm to 1220 nm for the fiber length of 2.5 m and 200 m, respectively.

Effect of Zn addition on non-resonant third-order optical nonlinearity of the Cu-doped germano-silicate optical glass fiber.

Cu/Zn-codoped germano-silicate optical glass fiber was manufactured by using the modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) process and solution doping process. To investigate the reduction effect of Zn addition on Cu metal formation in the core of the Cu/Zn-codoped germano-silicate optical glass fiber, the optical absorption property and the non-resonant third-order optical nonlinearity were measured. Absorption peaks at 435 nm and 469 nm in the Cu/Zn-codoped germano-silicate optical glass fiber were contributed to Cu metal particles and ZnO semiconductor particles, respectively. The effective non-resonant optical nonlinearity, gamma, of the Cu/Zn-codoped germano-silicate optical glass fiber was measured to be 1.5097 W(-1) x km(-1) by using the continuous-wave self-phase modulation method. The gamma of the Cu/Zn-codoped germano-silicate optical glass fiber was about four times larger than that of the reference germano-silicate optical glass fiber without any dopants. The increase of the effective non-resonant optical nonlinearity, gamma, of the Cu/Zn-codoped germano-silicate optical glass fiber, can be attributed to the enhanced nonlinear polarization due to incorporated ZnO semiconductor particles and Cu metal ions in the glass network. The Cu/Zn-codoped germano-silicate optical glass fiber showed high nonlinearity and low transmission loss at the optical communication wavelength, which makes it suitable for high-speed-high-capacity optical communication systems.

Precision and accuracy of the analog mean-delay method for high-speed fluorescence lifetime measurement.

The analog mean-delay (AMD) method is a new alternative method to measure the lifetime of a fluorescence molecule. Because of its powerful advantages of accurate lifetime determination, good photon economy, and a high photon detection rate, the AMD method is considered to be very suitable for high-speed confocal fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM). For the practical usage of the AMD method in FLIM (AMD-FLIM), detailed study on various experimental conditions and parameters that affect the precision and the accuracy of the AMD method is required. In this paper, we present the relation between the precision and accuracy of the lifetime versus iteration number in the AMD method, the best cutoff frequency of a low-pass filter used in the AMD-FLIM system for a given fluorophore, and the optimum position and width of the integration window by using Monte Carlo simulations and a series of AMD-FLIM experiments.

Fabrication of highly nonlinear germano-silicate glass optical fiber incorporated with PbTe semiconductor quantum dots using atomization doping process and its optical nonlinearity.

Germano-silicate glass optical fiber incorporated with PbTe semiconductor quantum dots (SQDs) in the core was fabricated by using the atomization process in modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) process. The absorption bands attributed to PbTe semiconductor quantum dots in the fiber core were found to appear at around 687 nm and 1055 nm. The nonlinear refractive index measured by the long-period fiber grating (LPG) pair method upon pumping with laser diode at 976.4 nm was estimated to be ~1.5 × 10(-16) m2/W.

High-speed confocal fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) with the analog mean delay (AMD) method.

We demonstrate a high-speed confocal fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) whose accuracy and photon economy are as good as that of a time-correlated single photon counting (TCSPC). It is based on a new lifetime determination scheme, the analog mean delay (AMD) method. Due to the technical advantages of multiple fluorescence photon detection capability, accurate lifetime determination scheme and high photon detection efficiency, the AMD method can be the most effective method for high-speed confocal FLIM. The feasibility of real-time confocal FLIM with the AMD method has been demonstrated by observing the dynamic reaction of calcium channels in a RBL-2H3 cell with respect to 4αPDD stimulus. We have achieved the photon detection rate of 125 times faster than a conventional TCSPC based system in this experiment.

Referencing techniques for the analog mean-delay method in fluorescence lifetime imaging.

The analog mean-delay (AMD) method is a new powerful alternative method in determining the lifetime of a fluorescence molecule for high-speed confocal fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy. Even though the photon economy and the lifetime precision of the AMD method are proven to be as good as those of the state-of-the-art time-correlated single photon counting method, there have been some speculations and concerns about the accuracy of this method with respect to the absolute lifetime value of a fluorescence probe. In the AMD method, the temporal waveform of an emitted fluorescence signal is directly recorded with a slow digitizer whose bandwidth is much lower than the temporal resolution of the lifetime to be measured. We have found that the drifts and the fluctuations of the absolute zero position in a measured temporal waveform are the major problems in the AMD method. We have proposed electrical and optical referencing techniques that may suppress these errors. It is shown that there may exist more than 2 ns drift in a measured temporal waveform during the period of the first 12 min after electronic components are turned on. The standard deviation of a measured lifetime after this warm-up period can be as large as 51 ps without any referencing technique. We have shown that this error can be reduced to 9 ps with our electronic referencing technique. It is demonstrated that this can be further reduced to 4 ps by the optical referencing technique we have introduced.

Development of a highly sensitive compact sized optical fiber current sensor.

We have experimentally developed a highly sensitive and a compact size current sensor by using the CdSe quantum dots-doped bend insensitive optical fiber, operating in the visible band of wavelength. The modified sensitivity of this sensor was about 675 microrad/(Turn.A.m) for the loop radius of just 10 mm, which is more than 16 times larger than that of the single mode optical fiber current sensor.

A simple and reliable method to determine LP(11) cutoff wavelength of bend insensitive fiber.

We present a simple and reliable method based on the spectral splice loss measurement to determine the cutoff wavelength of bend insensitive fiber.