Compact linear polarization spectrometer based on radiation mode shaped in-fiber diffraction grating.

We propose a compact linear polarization spectrometer based on the in-fiber polarization-dependent diffraction grating. The beam profile of radiated light of the grating is shaped to be a Gaussian profile to improve the performance of the spectrometer, where the size of the focused light spot is reduced from 44 um to 33 um with the shaped radiation mode of the grating. Based on the experimental results, the proposed spectrometer can achieve 0.05 nm resolution and 115 nm wavelength responding range from 1495 nm to 1610 nm. To verify the performance of the proposed fiber spectrometer, we measure the transmission spectra of an excessively tilted fiber grating, which has a pair of orthogonal polarization transmission spectra. Compared with the traditional measuring method, the proposed fiber spectrometer integrates the polarizing and spectral analyzing functions in the measuring system and achieves the polarization-sensitive spectral analysis, which shows good wavelength consistency and perfect polarization characteristics.

In-fiber single-polarization diffraction grating based on radiant tilted fiber grating.

In this Letter, we propose an in-fiber single-polarization diffraction grating based on a radiant tilted fiber grating (TFG), in which the s-polarization light could be diffracted from the fiber core to free space with the wavelength-dependent diffraction angle. For the first time, we have presented the theoretical model of angular dispersion of a radiant TFG by employing the Fourier optics analysis method. The angular dispersion of the radiant TFG has been numerically characterized in terms of tilt angle, period, and wavelength. In the experiment, we have measured the diffraction angles and angular dispersion of the radiant TFGs with tilt angles of 41°, 45°, and 47° UV-inscribed into single-mode fiber, where the experimental results matched well with the simulation results. The simulation and experimental results have indicated that the diffraction light of radiant TFGs has a linear polarization state with over 0.99 degree of polarization at the tilt angle range from 41° to 47°.

Low-cost temperature- and strain-insensitive twist sensor based on a hybrid fiber grating structure.

We proposed and experimentally demonstrated a temperature- and strain-insensitive twist sensor based on a hybrid fiber grating structure, in which the hybrid grating structure is constructed with a 45°-tilted fiber grating and a chirped fiber Bragg grating UV-inscribed in a single-mode fiber in series. The sensing performance has been evaluated by experimental and numerical analyses, which are in good consistency. The experimental results show that the hybrid-grating-structure-based twist sensor has a maximum twist sensitivity up to 15.037 dB/rad. Moreover, due to the invariability of the fiber birefringence and the state of polarization of the input light, such sensor has intrinsically low temperature and strain sensitivities of 7.86×10-3 dB/°C and 6.7×10-5 dB/µÎµ, corresponding to the maximum twist measurement error resulting from temperature and strain of 5.2×10-4 rad/°C and 4.5×10-6 rad/µÎµ, respectively.

Multiwavelength Er-doped fiber laser using an all-fiber Lyot filter.

We experimentally demonstrated a multiwavelength Er-doped fiber ring laser system by employing an all-fiber Lyot filter (AFLF) and a highly nonlinear fiber (HNLF). The AFLF was employed as a polarizing filter to generate a nonlinear polarization rotation effect and the highly dense and narrow bandwidth comb-like channels. A 1-km-long HNLF was used to enhance the nonlinearity of the laser cavity and suppress the mode competition for multiwavelength operation. In the experiment, 97 laser output channels within a 3 dB bandwidth simultaneously were excited under 224 mW pump power. The power fluctuation of lasing channels was less than 0.182 dB, and the wavelength shift was less than 0.04 nm in 100 min, after treating the AFLF in a thermostatic ice bath. Meanwhile, the output laser was highly polarized with a degree of polarization up to 99.9%.