High birefringence photonic crystal fiber with high nonlinearity and low confinement loss Tianyu Yang,1 Erlei Wang,1 Haiming Jiang,1,2 Zhijia Hu, and Kang Xie1,3 1
School of Instrument Science and Opto-electronics Engineering, HeFei University of Technology, HeFei 230009, China 2 [email protected] 3 [email protected]
Abstract: A particular photonic crystal fiber (PCF) designed with all circle air holes is proposed. Its characteristics are studied by full-vector finite element method (FEM) with anisotropic perfectly matched layer (PML). The simulation results indicated that the proposed PCF can realize high birefringence (up to 10−2), high nonlinearity (50W−1·km−1 and 68W−1·km−1 in X and Y polarizations respectively) and low confinement loss (less than 10−3dB/km at 1.55um wavelength). ©2015 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: (060.5295) Photonic crystal fibers; (260.1440) Birefringence; (060.4370) Nonlinear optics, fibers; (060.2270) Fiber characterization.
References and links 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.
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Received 21 Jan 2015; revised 14 Mar 2015; accepted 16 Mar 2015; published 23 Mar 2015 6 Apr 2015 | Vol. 23, No. 7 | DOI:10.1364/OE.23.008329 | OPTICS EXPRESS 8329
19. D. Chen and L. Shen, “Ultrahigh birefringent photonic crystal fiber with ultralow confinement loss,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 19(4), 185–187 (2007). 20. L. An, Z. Zheng, Z. Li, T. Zhou, and J. T. Cheng, “Ultrahigh Birefringent Photonic Crystal Fiber With Ultralow Confinement Loss Using Four Airholes in the Core,” J. Lightwave Technol. 27(15), 3175–3180 (2009). 21. W. B. Liang, N. L. Liu, Z. H. Li, and P. X. Lu, “Highly Birefringent Elliptical-Hole Microstructure Fibers With Low Confinement Loss,” J. Lightwave Technol. 30(21), 3381–3386 (2012). 22. H. M. Jiang, E. L. Wang, J. Zhang, L. Hu, Q. P. Mao, Q. Li, and K. Xie, “Polarization splitter based on dual-core photonic crystal fiber,” Opt. Express 22(25), 30461–30466 (2014). 23. T. L. Cheng, Y. Kanou, D. Deng, X. J. Xue, M. Matsumoto, T. Misumi, T. Suzuki, and Y. Ohishi, “Fabrication and characterization of a hybrid four-hole AsSe₂-As₂S₅ microstructured optical fiber with a large refractive index difference,” Opt. Express 22(11), 13322–13329 (2014). 24. R. W. Boyd, Nonlinear Optics 3rd Edition (Academic, 2003) pp.212. 25. I. H. Malitson, “Interspecimen Comparison of the Refractive Index of Fused Silica,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. 55(10), 1205–1209 (1965). 26. E. F. Chillcce, C. M. B. Cordeiro, L. C. Barbosa, and C. H. Brito Cruz, “Tellurite photonic crystal fiber made by a stack-and-draw technique,” J. Non-Cryst. Solids 352(32-35), 3423–3428 (2006). 27. F. Couny, F. Benabid, and P. S. Light, “Large-pitch kagome-structured hollow-core photonic crystal fiber,” Opt. Lett. 31(24), 3574–3576 (2006). 28. N. A. Issa, M. A. van Eijkelenborg, M. Fellew, F. Cox, G. Henry, and M. C. J. Large, “Fabrication and study of microstructured optical fibers with elliptical holes,” Opt. Lett. 29(12), 1336–1338 (2004). 29. C. L. Zhao, X. F. Yang, C. Lu, W. Jin, and M. S. Demokan, “Temperature-Insensitive Interferometer Using a Highly Birefringent Photonic Crystal Fiber Loop Mirror,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 16(11), 2535–2537 (2004). 30. A. I. Siahlo, L. K. Oxenlwe, K. S. Berg, A. T. Clausen, P. A. Andersen, C. Peucheret, A. Tersigni, P. Jeppesen, K. P. Hansen, and J. R. Folkenberg, “A High-Speed Demultiplexer Based on a Nonlinear Optical Loop Mirror With a Photonic Crystal Fiber,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 15(8), 1147–1149 (2003). 31. M. I. Hasan, M. Selim Habib, M. Samiul Habib, and S. M. A. Razzak, “Highly nonlinear and highly birefringent dispersion compensating photonic crystal fiber,” Opt. Fiber Technol. 20(1), 32–38 (2014).
1. Introduction In recent years there has been an increasing interest in photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) [1–4]. Owning to their flexibility design for the cross section, PCFs can realize particular properties such as high birefringence, high nonlinearity, ultra-flatten dispersion, large effective mode area, endlessly single mode, and etc [5–10]. PCFs specially designed for high birefringence can be used as polarization maintaining fibers or single-polarization-single-mode fibers in long distance communications, optical fiber sensing and special laser systems such as fiber gyroscopes and polarization-sensitive optical modulators [11,12]. Generally speaking, there are two kinds of birefringence, namely, geometrical birefringence [13] and stress birefringence [14]. So far, several PCFs have been reported with high birefringence [15–18]. Among them, all elliptical air holes PCFs have been designed to enhance the birefringence up to the order of 10−2 [17,18], but these PCFs suffer from poor light confinement and high propagation loss. To overcome the weakness of poor mode confinement, PCFs with hybrid air holes, i.e. contain circle air holes in the cladding and elliptical air holes in the core area, have been proposed [19–21]. High birefringence and low confinement loss can be achieved for this kind of PCFs, however, it is rather challenging to implement these hybrid designs in the present fabrication processes. In this study we show high birefringence, high nonlinearity and low confinement loss can be achieved simultaneously by a design of all circle-air holes PCF. The complex hybrid air holes design is avoided without degradation of performance, and, since all air holes are circular, this PCF could be fabricated by the stack and draw method or the performs drilling method. The design is illustrated in Fig. 1. Optimum parameters are selected to make sure that the fiber is single-mode above 1.45μm, with modal birefringence of as high as 2.2 × 10−2, nonlinearity of 50W−1·km−1 and 68 W−1·km−1 in the two perpendicular polarizations, and confinement losses of typically less than 10−3dB/km at 1.55μm for both polarizations.
#232993 - $15.00 USD (C) 2015 OSA
Received 21 Jan 2015; revised 14 Mar 2015; accepted 16 Mar 2015; published 23 Mar 2015 6 Apr 2015 | Vol. 23, No. 7 | DOI:10.1364/OE.23.008329 | OPTICS EXPRESS 8330
2. Design and optimization of the PCF structure The cross section of the proposed PCF design is shown in Fig. 1, where three small air holes in the core region and two larger air holes in the first ring of the cladding together form an anisotropic core area. The rest of the cladding is composed of large air holes arranged in a triangular array in silica background. The center-to-center spacing between the air holes is Λ. The diameter of air holes in the cladding is d. The two bigger air holes with diameter d1 are used to enhance modal birefringence of the PCF. The air holes in this design are relatively large compared to most traditional single-mode PCF. The special feature of this PCF structure is the appearance of three small air holes in the core area. Attributed to this special feature, a decreased confinement loss and an enlarged single mode range of operation is realized for the fiber. Among the three unusual air holes the upper one and the lower one are identical in size with diameter d2, while the middle one is slightly larger with diameter d3 and shifted horizontally by a distance L along the X-axis. The two small air holes are placed on the Yaxis with a distance H from the origin. This arrangement establishes an eccentric shape of the core and a reduced area of silica, which result in both high birefringence and high nonlinearity. This design maintains the high level performance of the hybrid air holes design [19–21] while slightly reduces manufacturing difficulty.
Fig. 1. Cross-sectional view of the proposed PCF.
Nonlinearity and birefringence of the PCF depend on concentration and asymmetry of the fiber mode, which is controllable by size and position of the air holes in the core. The commercial software COMSOL Multiphysics, which is based on the full-vector finite element method (FEM) with the perfectly matched layer (PML) boundary condition, is adopted for the analyses of the structure. The field distribution and the modal effective indices are calculated for different modes. After the complex modal effective index (neff) is obtained, the modal birefringence B is determined by the absolute difference of neff for the two polarizations, while the confinement loss is represented by the imaginary part of the neff [11]. The nonlinear coefficient γ is given by Eq. (1), where λ is the operational wavelength, n2 = 3.2 × 10−20m2/W [24] is the nonlinearity index of silica and mode effective area Aeff is given by Eq. (2). In the calculations the refractive index of silica is determined by the Sellmeier equation [25].
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Received 21 Jan 2015; revised 14 Mar 2015; accepted 16 Mar 2015; published 23 Mar 2015 6 Apr 2015 | Vol. 23, No. 7 | DOI:10.1364/OE.23.008329 | OPTICS EXPRESS 8331
γ=
Aeff
2π n2 , λ Aeff
( =
Ω
E 2 dxdy
Ω
(1)
)
2
E 4 dxdy
(2)
.
2.1. Effect of air hole diameter in the cladding on birefringence and nonlinearity To focus on the impact of air hole diameter on the birefringence and the nonlinearity, we change the value of d, the diameter of the holes in the cladding, while fix the other parameters to λ = 1.55μm, Λ = 2μm, d1 = d, d2 = 0.36Λ, d3 = 0.465Λ, L = Λ/8, H = 0.43Λ. Figure 2 shows dependence of the mode effective refractive indices, the modal birefringence, and the nonlinear coefficient as d increases. As illustrated by Fig. 2(a), the effective refractive index of the Y-polarization is always larger than that of the X-polarization. This phenomenon can be understood as that there are more air in the X direction owing to the shape of the core. As d increases, both effective refractive indices of the X and Y polarized modes decrease, while both nonlinear coefficients of the X and Y polarized modes increase. This is because larger d corresponds to larger filling fraction of air holes, in turn means lower average refractive index of the cladding. As a consequence, effective refractive indices of both the X and Y polarized modes decrease. The increase of hole diameter in the cladding nibbles area of the core, and small core area means high concentration of light. Consequently, nonlinear coefficients of both the X and Y polarized modes increase. Birefringence of the fiber increases as d increases. This may also be explained by the concentration of mode fields in the core area as d increases. Since the core is anisotropic, the more field shrinks back to the core, the higher birefringence the mode becomes. As d = 0.86Λ value of the birefringence reaches 0.016. X-polarization Y-polarization
Effective Refractive Index
1.33
Modal Birefringence
0.017 0.016 0.015
1.32
0.014 0.013
1.31
0.012
1.30
0.011 1.29
0.010
(a) 1.28 0.74Λ
0.76Λ
0.78Λ
0.80Λ d
Modal Birefringence
1.34
0.82Λ
0.84Λ
0.009 0.86Λ
60
Nonlinear Coefficient/W ·km
-1
65
-1
70
X-polarization Y-polarization
55 50 45 40 35 0.74Λ
(b) 0.76Λ
0.78Λ
0.80Λ d
0.82Λ
0.84Λ
0.86Λ
Fig. 2. (a)Effective refractive index, modal birefringence, and (b) nonlinear coefficient versus d.
#232993 - $15.00 USD (C) 2015 OSA
Received 21 Jan 2015; revised 14 Mar 2015; accepted 16 Mar 2015; published 23 Mar 2015 6 Apr 2015 | Vol. 23, No. 7 | DOI:10.1364/OE.23.008329 | OPTICS EXPRESS 8332
2.2. Effect of air hole diameter in the core on birefringence and nonlinearity Having decided diameter of the air holes in the cladding, we now consider the air holes in the core. The birefringence and nonlinearity can be adjusted by changing the holes. Figure 4 shows the modal birefringence and the nonlinear coefficient of the Y polarization as functions of d3 for different d2. The other parameters are set to λ = 1.55μm, Λ = 2μm, d = 0.86Λ, d1 = 0.95Λ, L = Λ/8, H = 0.43Λ. The complex modal effective index neff of both the X and Y polarizations decrease with d3. Because the X-polarized mode is more sensitive to change in d3, nx eff decreases at faster rate than ny eff, so the resulting birefringence increases almost linearly with d3. For fixed d3 the birefringence and nonlinearity increase with d2. Confinement of the PCF also increases with d2 and d3. However, the value of d3 can't increase without a limitation. It is bounded by the restriction set by technology of fabrication on thickness of silica wall between two air holes. A compromise between performance and fabrication has to be made. After some considerations we choose d2 = 0.36Λ and d3 = 0.465Λ as the optimized values. (a)
70
X-polarization Y-polarization
0.023
Modal Birefringence
0.022 0.021 0.020
65
0.019 60
0.018 0.017
55
Modal Birefringence
Nonlinear Coefficient/W-1·km-1
75
0.016 50 0.86Λ
0.89Λ
d1
0.92Λ
0.015 0.95Λ
Fig. 3. (a) Modal birefringence and nonlinear coefficient of the proposed PCF versus d1, and electric field distributions of respectively the X (b) and the Y (c) polarized modes at d1 = 0.95Λ.
#232993 - $15.00 USD (C) 2015 OSA
Received 21 Jan 2015; revised 14 Mar 2015; accepted 16 Mar 2015; published 23 Mar 2015 6 Apr 2015 | Vol. 23, No. 7 | DOI:10.1364/OE.23.008329 | OPTICS EXPRESS 8333
70
0.022
d2=0.26Λ
0.021
d2=0.28Λ
Nonlinear Coefficient/W ·km
-1
d2=0.32Λ
0.019
d2=0.34Λ
-1
Modal Birefringence
68
d2=0.30Λ
0.02
d2=0.36Λ
0.018 0.017 0.016 0.015 0.014
66
64
d2=0.26Λ
62
d2=0.28Λ d2=0.30Λ d2=0.32Λ
60
d2=0.34Λ
0.013 (a) 0.012 0.40Λ
0.41Λ
0.42Λ
0.43Λ
d2=0.36Λ
(b)
0.44Λ
0.45Λ
58 0.40Λ
0.465Λ
0.41Λ
0.42Λ
0.43Λ
0.44Λ
0.45Λ
0.465Λ
d3
d3
Fig. 4. (a) Modal birefringence and (b) nonlinear coefficient as functions of d3 for different d2.
2.3. Effect of distribution of the air holes in the core on birefringence and nonlinearity The effect of air hole positions in the core on birefringence and nonlinearity is studied for given diameters of the air holes in the cladding and core. According to the above discussions, restriction on minimum thickness of silica wall between two air holes must be followed. To avoid overlap of air holes in the core with those in the cladding, H and L cannot be set to large values simultaneously. In the following study we fix distance of the two small air holes in the core to H = 0.43Λ and vary offset L. The other parameters are set to λ = 1.55μm, Λ = 2μm, d = 0.86Λ, d1 = 0.95Λ, d2 = 0.36Λ, d3 = 0.465Λ, H = 0.43Λ. Figure 5 shows the birefringence increases monotonically as L decreases. For the same reason as that discussed in the previous section for Fig. 3(a), while the nonlinear coefficient for the X polarization decreases slowly with the change of L, curve of the nonlinear coefficient of the Y polarization is rather flat. The largest nonlinear coefficient are respectively 53.8 W−1·km−1 and 69.2 W−1·km−1 for the two polarizations. Due to the enhanced asymmetry shape of the core, modal birefringence can reach as high as 0.024.
70
0.025
X-polarization Y-polarization
Modal Birefringence 0.024 0.023
65 0.022 60
0.021 0.020
55
0.019
50 Λ/6
Modal Birefringence
Nonlinear Coefficient/W-1·km-1
75
Λ/7
Λ/8
Λ/9
0.018 Λ/10
L
Fig. 5. Modal birefringence and nonlinear coefficient versus L.
It is well known that in a traditional PCF higher order modes will set in as air filling fraction of the cladding becomes large. In our case, this problem is relieved by the presence of the three air holes in the core area. Figure 6 shows the dispersion curves of the fundamental
#232993 - $15.00 USD (C) 2015 OSA
Received 21 Jan 2015; revised 14 Mar 2015; accepted 16 Mar 2015; published 23 Mar 2015 6 Apr 2015 | Vol. 23, No. 7 | DOI:10.1364/OE.23.008329 | OPTICS EXPRESS 8334
core modes and the fundamental-space-filling (FSM) mode for the optimum PCF structure, together with the dispersion curves of the Y-polarized second-order core mode for different value of L. The other parameters are Λ = 2μm, d = 0.86Λ, d1 = 0.95Λ, d2 = 0.36Λ, d3 = 0.465Λ, H = 0.43Λ. When the dispersion curve of a mode falls below the curve of the FSM, it is cutoff. In the new proposed fiber the Y-polarized second-order mode has the highest effective index among all the higher order modes. If it is cutoff all higher order modes are cutoff. So it is enough to investigate the Y-polarized second-order mode for the determination of single-mode and multimode ranges. It is revealed by Figs. 5 and 6 that smaller L leads to higher birefringence, but it also delays cutoff of higher order modes. There exists an optimum value of L for a given application. In order to ensure high birefringence and high nonlinearity, and also meet the single mode range requirement, we choose the value of L to be Λ/8. This leads to a cutoff wavelength of 1.45μm for the Y-polarized second-order mode, which is very good for our rather large air filling fraction of the design. 1.4 Y-polarized 1st-order mode X-polarized 1st-order mode Λ/7 Y--polarized 2nd-order mode Λ/8 Y--polarized 2nd-order mode Λ/9 Y--polarized 2nd-order mode Λ/10 Y--polarized 2nd-order mode FSM
Effective Refractive Index
1.35
1.3
1.25
1.2
1.15 0.8
1
1.2
1.4
λ /μm
1.6
1.8
2
Fig. 6. Dispersion curves of the modes of the proposed fiber. For the 1st-order and the FSM modes, and for the 2nd-order modes L is marked on the figure as a parameter. The other parameters used for the calculations are Λ = 2μm, d = 0.86Λ, d1 = 0.95Λ, d2 = 0.36Λ, d3 = 0.465Λ, H = 0.43Λ.
2.4. Other features of the proposed PCF Confinement loss of a fiber is another important property for light guiding. It limits the total transmission distance in real fiber communication systems. Confinement loss Lc of PCFs can be calculated by [21]
Lc (dB / km) = 8.66 ×
2π
λ
Im[neff ] × 109.
(3)
where Im[neff] is the imaginary part of the effective refractive index. The propagation loss of high order modes is much larger than that of fundamental mode. Furthermore, with the optimum structure parameters the single mode range starts from 1.45μm in our design. Therefore, we only need to focus on the fundamental mode in the following. Confinement losses of both polarizations in the proposed PCF is plotted in Fig. 7 as functions of the number of air hole rings N surrounding the core. It decreases rapidly with N. Since relatively large air holes are used here, light is confined quite well in the core. The presence of the three air holes in the core area also helps the situation, so the confinement loss of the new fiber is much less than that of traditional fibers. The confinement loss of the X-
#232993 - $15.00 USD (C) 2015 OSA
Received 21 Jan 2015; revised 14 Mar 2015; accepted 16 Mar 2015; published 23 Mar 2015 6 Apr 2015 | Vol. 23, No. 7 | DOI:10.1364/OE.23.008329 | OPTICS EXPRESS 8335
polarized mode is lightly larger than that of the Y-polarized mode. This can be explained by the observation of Figs. 3(b) and 3(c) for the mode fields, where it is shown that the Xpolarized mode penetrates the air holes further so is less confined within the core. The confinement loss of the X-polarized mode is about 0.33dB/km for a three-ring PCF and 0.0092dB/km for a four-ring PCF. The confinement losses in both polarizations reduce to below 10−4 as N is 5 or bigger. From simulations it is observed that as the number of rings N surrounding the core changes from 3 to 6, the effective refractive indices, the birefringence, and the nonlinear coefficient of the fundamental modes are almost unchanged. From considerations of fabrication and cost, N = 4 is enough for most applications. From these discussions an optimized structure is arrived with parameters Λ = 2μm, d = 0.86Λ, d1 = 0.95Λ, d2 = 0.36Λ, d3 = 0.465Λ, L = Λ/8, H = 0.43Λ, and N = 4. The new proposed PCF can be fabricated by the stack and draw method or the performs drilling method [22,23]. In recent years there have been some even larger air filling fraction with complex design fabricated [23,26,27], the new proposed design wouldn't be proven a problem. 0
10
X-polarization Y-polarization
-1
Confinement Loss(dB/km)
10
-2
10
-3
10
-4
10
-5
10
-6
10
3
4
N
5
6
Fig. 7. Confinement losses of the proposed PCF at 1.55μm versus N.
When the fiber is not drawn to the precise parameters during fabrication process, the performance of PCFs degrades. The sensitivity of the performance to fluctuations of structure parameters is analyzed to reveal robustness of the design. Figures 8(a) and 8(b) show the birefringence and nonlinear coefficient as the parameters vary up to ± 5% around the designed values. From the curves it is seen that ± 5% variation in center-to-center spacing Λ causes ± 5.2% change in the birefringence and ± 3% change in the nonlinearity. Further investigations show that ± 5% shift in the center holes' position in either X direction or Y direction leads to at most ± 6% change in the birefringence and ± 4% change in the nonlinearity. Our design is demonstrated to have a good tolerance of fabrication errors. Group velocity dispersion of this PCF is evaluated based on the mode effective refractive index, as presented in Fig. 9 for X and Y polarizations as functions of wavelength. In the communication wavelength band both polarizations experience anomalous dispersion. Due to the rather big negative value and almost constant slope, the proposed PCF could be used for dispersion compensation. It is worth mentioning here that if material with higher refractive index, e.g., AsSe2 glass, is used for the background instead of silica, the birefringence and the nonlinear coefficients of the proposed PCF can be further increased [28].
#232993 - $15.00 USD (C) 2015 OSA
Received 21 Jan 2015; revised 14 Mar 2015; accepted 16 Mar 2015; published 23 Mar 2015 6 Apr 2015 | Vol. 23, No. 7 | DOI:10.1364/OE.23.008329 | OPTICS EXPRESS 8336
Fig. 8. (a) Modal Birefringence and (b) nonlinear coefficient in Y polarization as functions of wavelength for different center-to-center spacing Λ.
Fig. 9. Group velocity dispersion of the proposed PCF.
3. Conclusion
To summarize, a high birefringent photonic crystal fiber is proposed and analyzed by the fullvector finite element method. The modal birefringence is 0.022 at 1.55μm with very low confinement losses. The nonlinear coefficients are respectively 50W−1·km−1 and 68W−1·km−1 for X and Y polarizations. Furthermore, single mode range of the fiber is enlarged by the presence of small air holes in the core area. Other properties such as group velocity dispersion are discussed, and tolerance of fabrication is also assessed. The new proposed PCF may found applications in optical fiber sensing [29], polarization maintaining transmission systems [30], and super continuum generation for frequency metrology [12, 31]. Acknowledgment
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 60588502, 60607005, and 60877033).
#232993 - $15.00 USD (C) 2015 OSA
Received 21 Jan 2015; revised 14 Mar 2015; accepted 16 Mar 2015; published 23 Mar 2015 6 Apr 2015 | Vol. 23, No. 7 | DOI:10.1364/OE.23.008329 | OPTICS EXPRESS 8337
School of Instrument Science and Opto-electronics Engineering, HeFei University of Technology, HeFei 230009, China 2 [email protected] 3 [email protected]
Abstract: A particular photonic crystal fiber (PCF) designed with all circle air holes is proposed. Its characteristics are studied by full-vector finite element method (FEM) with anisotropic perfectly matched layer (PML). The simulation results indicated that the proposed PCF can realize high birefringence (up to 10−2), high nonlinearity (50W−1·km−1 and 68W−1·km−1 in X and Y polarizations respectively) and low confinement loss (less than 10−3dB/km at 1.55um wavelength). ©2015 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: (060.5295) Photonic crystal fibers; (260.1440) Birefringence; (060.4370) Nonlinear optics, fibers; (060.2270) Fiber characterization.
References and links 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.
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Received 21 Jan 2015; revised 14 Mar 2015; accepted 16 Mar 2015; published 23 Mar 2015 6 Apr 2015 | Vol. 23, No. 7 | DOI:10.1364/OE.23.008329 | OPTICS EXPRESS 8329
19. D. Chen and L. Shen, “Ultrahigh birefringent photonic crystal fiber with ultralow confinement loss,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 19(4), 185–187 (2007). 20. L. An, Z. Zheng, Z. Li, T. Zhou, and J. T. Cheng, “Ultrahigh Birefringent Photonic Crystal Fiber With Ultralow Confinement Loss Using Four Airholes in the Core,” J. Lightwave Technol. 27(15), 3175–3180 (2009). 21. W. B. Liang, N. L. Liu, Z. H. Li, and P. X. Lu, “Highly Birefringent Elliptical-Hole Microstructure Fibers With Low Confinement Loss,” J. Lightwave Technol. 30(21), 3381–3386 (2012). 22. H. M. Jiang, E. L. Wang, J. Zhang, L. Hu, Q. P. Mao, Q. Li, and K. Xie, “Polarization splitter based on dual-core photonic crystal fiber,” Opt. Express 22(25), 30461–30466 (2014). 23. T. L. Cheng, Y. Kanou, D. Deng, X. J. Xue, M. Matsumoto, T. Misumi, T. Suzuki, and Y. Ohishi, “Fabrication and characterization of a hybrid four-hole AsSe₂-As₂S₅ microstructured optical fiber with a large refractive index difference,” Opt. Express 22(11), 13322–13329 (2014). 24. R. W. Boyd, Nonlinear Optics 3rd Edition (Academic, 2003) pp.212. 25. I. H. Malitson, “Interspecimen Comparison of the Refractive Index of Fused Silica,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. 55(10), 1205–1209 (1965). 26. E. F. Chillcce, C. M. B. Cordeiro, L. C. Barbosa, and C. H. Brito Cruz, “Tellurite photonic crystal fiber made by a stack-and-draw technique,” J. Non-Cryst. Solids 352(32-35), 3423–3428 (2006). 27. F. Couny, F. Benabid, and P. S. Light, “Large-pitch kagome-structured hollow-core photonic crystal fiber,” Opt. Lett. 31(24), 3574–3576 (2006). 28. N. A. Issa, M. A. van Eijkelenborg, M. Fellew, F. Cox, G. Henry, and M. C. J. Large, “Fabrication and study of microstructured optical fibers with elliptical holes,” Opt. Lett. 29(12), 1336–1338 (2004). 29. C. L. Zhao, X. F. Yang, C. Lu, W. Jin, and M. S. Demokan, “Temperature-Insensitive Interferometer Using a Highly Birefringent Photonic Crystal Fiber Loop Mirror,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 16(11), 2535–2537 (2004). 30. A. I. Siahlo, L. K. Oxenlwe, K. S. Berg, A. T. Clausen, P. A. Andersen, C. Peucheret, A. Tersigni, P. Jeppesen, K. P. Hansen, and J. R. Folkenberg, “A High-Speed Demultiplexer Based on a Nonlinear Optical Loop Mirror With a Photonic Crystal Fiber,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 15(8), 1147–1149 (2003). 31. M. I. Hasan, M. Selim Habib, M. Samiul Habib, and S. M. A. Razzak, “Highly nonlinear and highly birefringent dispersion compensating photonic crystal fiber,” Opt. Fiber Technol. 20(1), 32–38 (2014).
1. Introduction In recent years there has been an increasing interest in photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) [1–4]. Owning to their flexibility design for the cross section, PCFs can realize particular properties such as high birefringence, high nonlinearity, ultra-flatten dispersion, large effective mode area, endlessly single mode, and etc [5–10]. PCFs specially designed for high birefringence can be used as polarization maintaining fibers or single-polarization-single-mode fibers in long distance communications, optical fiber sensing and special laser systems such as fiber gyroscopes and polarization-sensitive optical modulators [11,12]. Generally speaking, there are two kinds of birefringence, namely, geometrical birefringence [13] and stress birefringence [14]. So far, several PCFs have been reported with high birefringence [15–18]. Among them, all elliptical air holes PCFs have been designed to enhance the birefringence up to the order of 10−2 [17,18], but these PCFs suffer from poor light confinement and high propagation loss. To overcome the weakness of poor mode confinement, PCFs with hybrid air holes, i.e. contain circle air holes in the cladding and elliptical air holes in the core area, have been proposed [19–21]. High birefringence and low confinement loss can be achieved for this kind of PCFs, however, it is rather challenging to implement these hybrid designs in the present fabrication processes. In this study we show high birefringence, high nonlinearity and low confinement loss can be achieved simultaneously by a design of all circle-air holes PCF. The complex hybrid air holes design is avoided without degradation of performance, and, since all air holes are circular, this PCF could be fabricated by the stack and draw method or the performs drilling method. The design is illustrated in Fig. 1. Optimum parameters are selected to make sure that the fiber is single-mode above 1.45μm, with modal birefringence of as high as 2.2 × 10−2, nonlinearity of 50W−1·km−1 and 68 W−1·km−1 in the two perpendicular polarizations, and confinement losses of typically less than 10−3dB/km at 1.55μm for both polarizations.
#232993 - $15.00 USD (C) 2015 OSA
Received 21 Jan 2015; revised 14 Mar 2015; accepted 16 Mar 2015; published 23 Mar 2015 6 Apr 2015 | Vol. 23, No. 7 | DOI:10.1364/OE.23.008329 | OPTICS EXPRESS 8330
2. Design and optimization of the PCF structure The cross section of the proposed PCF design is shown in Fig. 1, where three small air holes in the core region and two larger air holes in the first ring of the cladding together form an anisotropic core area. The rest of the cladding is composed of large air holes arranged in a triangular array in silica background. The center-to-center spacing between the air holes is Λ. The diameter of air holes in the cladding is d. The two bigger air holes with diameter d1 are used to enhance modal birefringence of the PCF. The air holes in this design are relatively large compared to most traditional single-mode PCF. The special feature of this PCF structure is the appearance of three small air holes in the core area. Attributed to this special feature, a decreased confinement loss and an enlarged single mode range of operation is realized for the fiber. Among the three unusual air holes the upper one and the lower one are identical in size with diameter d2, while the middle one is slightly larger with diameter d3 and shifted horizontally by a distance L along the X-axis. The two small air holes are placed on the Yaxis with a distance H from the origin. This arrangement establishes an eccentric shape of the core and a reduced area of silica, which result in both high birefringence and high nonlinearity. This design maintains the high level performance of the hybrid air holes design [19–21] while slightly reduces manufacturing difficulty.
Fig. 1. Cross-sectional view of the proposed PCF.
Nonlinearity and birefringence of the PCF depend on concentration and asymmetry of the fiber mode, which is controllable by size and position of the air holes in the core. The commercial software COMSOL Multiphysics, which is based on the full-vector finite element method (FEM) with the perfectly matched layer (PML) boundary condition, is adopted for the analyses of the structure. The field distribution and the modal effective indices are calculated for different modes. After the complex modal effective index (neff) is obtained, the modal birefringence B is determined by the absolute difference of neff for the two polarizations, while the confinement loss is represented by the imaginary part of the neff [11]. The nonlinear coefficient γ is given by Eq. (1), where λ is the operational wavelength, n2 = 3.2 × 10−20m2/W [24] is the nonlinearity index of silica and mode effective area Aeff is given by Eq. (2). In the calculations the refractive index of silica is determined by the Sellmeier equation [25].
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Received 21 Jan 2015; revised 14 Mar 2015; accepted 16 Mar 2015; published 23 Mar 2015 6 Apr 2015 | Vol. 23, No. 7 | DOI:10.1364/OE.23.008329 | OPTICS EXPRESS 8331
γ=
Aeff
2π n2 , λ Aeff
( =
Ω
E 2 dxdy
Ω
(1)
)
2
E 4 dxdy
(2)
.
2.1. Effect of air hole diameter in the cladding on birefringence and nonlinearity To focus on the impact of air hole diameter on the birefringence and the nonlinearity, we change the value of d, the diameter of the holes in the cladding, while fix the other parameters to λ = 1.55μm, Λ = 2μm, d1 = d, d2 = 0.36Λ, d3 = 0.465Λ, L = Λ/8, H = 0.43Λ. Figure 2 shows dependence of the mode effective refractive indices, the modal birefringence, and the nonlinear coefficient as d increases. As illustrated by Fig. 2(a), the effective refractive index of the Y-polarization is always larger than that of the X-polarization. This phenomenon can be understood as that there are more air in the X direction owing to the shape of the core. As d increases, both effective refractive indices of the X and Y polarized modes decrease, while both nonlinear coefficients of the X and Y polarized modes increase. This is because larger d corresponds to larger filling fraction of air holes, in turn means lower average refractive index of the cladding. As a consequence, effective refractive indices of both the X and Y polarized modes decrease. The increase of hole diameter in the cladding nibbles area of the core, and small core area means high concentration of light. Consequently, nonlinear coefficients of both the X and Y polarized modes increase. Birefringence of the fiber increases as d increases. This may also be explained by the concentration of mode fields in the core area as d increases. Since the core is anisotropic, the more field shrinks back to the core, the higher birefringence the mode becomes. As d = 0.86Λ value of the birefringence reaches 0.016. X-polarization Y-polarization
Effective Refractive Index
1.33
Modal Birefringence
0.017 0.016 0.015
1.32
0.014 0.013
1.31
0.012
1.30
0.011 1.29
0.010
(a) 1.28 0.74Λ
0.76Λ
0.78Λ
0.80Λ d
Modal Birefringence
1.34
0.82Λ
0.84Λ
0.009 0.86Λ
60
Nonlinear Coefficient/W ·km
-1
65
-1
70
X-polarization Y-polarization
55 50 45 40 35 0.74Λ
(b) 0.76Λ
0.78Λ
0.80Λ d
0.82Λ
0.84Λ
0.86Λ
Fig. 2. (a)Effective refractive index, modal birefringence, and (b) nonlinear coefficient versus d.
#232993 - $15.00 USD (C) 2015 OSA
Received 21 Jan 2015; revised 14 Mar 2015; accepted 16 Mar 2015; published 23 Mar 2015 6 Apr 2015 | Vol. 23, No. 7 | DOI:10.1364/OE.23.008329 | OPTICS EXPRESS 8332
2.2. Effect of air hole diameter in the core on birefringence and nonlinearity Having decided diameter of the air holes in the cladding, we now consider the air holes in the core. The birefringence and nonlinearity can be adjusted by changing the holes. Figure 4 shows the modal birefringence and the nonlinear coefficient of the Y polarization as functions of d3 for different d2. The other parameters are set to λ = 1.55μm, Λ = 2μm, d = 0.86Λ, d1 = 0.95Λ, L = Λ/8, H = 0.43Λ. The complex modal effective index neff of both the X and Y polarizations decrease with d3. Because the X-polarized mode is more sensitive to change in d3, nx eff decreases at faster rate than ny eff, so the resulting birefringence increases almost linearly with d3. For fixed d3 the birefringence and nonlinearity increase with d2. Confinement of the PCF also increases with d2 and d3. However, the value of d3 can't increase without a limitation. It is bounded by the restriction set by technology of fabrication on thickness of silica wall between two air holes. A compromise between performance and fabrication has to be made. After some considerations we choose d2 = 0.36Λ and d3 = 0.465Λ as the optimized values. (a)
70
X-polarization Y-polarization
0.023
Modal Birefringence
0.022 0.021 0.020
65
0.019 60
0.018 0.017
55
Modal Birefringence
Nonlinear Coefficient/W-1·km-1
75
0.016 50 0.86Λ
0.89Λ
d1
0.92Λ
0.015 0.95Λ
Fig. 3. (a) Modal birefringence and nonlinear coefficient of the proposed PCF versus d1, and electric field distributions of respectively the X (b) and the Y (c) polarized modes at d1 = 0.95Λ.
#232993 - $15.00 USD (C) 2015 OSA
Received 21 Jan 2015; revised 14 Mar 2015; accepted 16 Mar 2015; published 23 Mar 2015 6 Apr 2015 | Vol. 23, No. 7 | DOI:10.1364/OE.23.008329 | OPTICS EXPRESS 8333
70
0.022
d2=0.26Λ
0.021
d2=0.28Λ
Nonlinear Coefficient/W ·km
-1
d2=0.32Λ
0.019
d2=0.34Λ
-1
Modal Birefringence
68
d2=0.30Λ
0.02
d2=0.36Λ
0.018 0.017 0.016 0.015 0.014
66
64
d2=0.26Λ
62
d2=0.28Λ d2=0.30Λ d2=0.32Λ
60
d2=0.34Λ
0.013 (a) 0.012 0.40Λ
0.41Λ
0.42Λ
0.43Λ
d2=0.36Λ
(b)
0.44Λ
0.45Λ
58 0.40Λ
0.465Λ
0.41Λ
0.42Λ
0.43Λ
0.44Λ
0.45Λ
0.465Λ
d3
d3
Fig. 4. (a) Modal birefringence and (b) nonlinear coefficient as functions of d3 for different d2.
2.3. Effect of distribution of the air holes in the core on birefringence and nonlinearity The effect of air hole positions in the core on birefringence and nonlinearity is studied for given diameters of the air holes in the cladding and core. According to the above discussions, restriction on minimum thickness of silica wall between two air holes must be followed. To avoid overlap of air holes in the core with those in the cladding, H and L cannot be set to large values simultaneously. In the following study we fix distance of the two small air holes in the core to H = 0.43Λ and vary offset L. The other parameters are set to λ = 1.55μm, Λ = 2μm, d = 0.86Λ, d1 = 0.95Λ, d2 = 0.36Λ, d3 = 0.465Λ, H = 0.43Λ. Figure 5 shows the birefringence increases monotonically as L decreases. For the same reason as that discussed in the previous section for Fig. 3(a), while the nonlinear coefficient for the X polarization decreases slowly with the change of L, curve of the nonlinear coefficient of the Y polarization is rather flat. The largest nonlinear coefficient are respectively 53.8 W−1·km−1 and 69.2 W−1·km−1 for the two polarizations. Due to the enhanced asymmetry shape of the core, modal birefringence can reach as high as 0.024.
70
0.025
X-polarization Y-polarization
Modal Birefringence 0.024 0.023
65 0.022 60
0.021 0.020
55
0.019
50 Λ/6
Modal Birefringence
Nonlinear Coefficient/W-1·km-1
75
Λ/7
Λ/8
Λ/9
0.018 Λ/10
L
Fig. 5. Modal birefringence and nonlinear coefficient versus L.
It is well known that in a traditional PCF higher order modes will set in as air filling fraction of the cladding becomes large. In our case, this problem is relieved by the presence of the three air holes in the core area. Figure 6 shows the dispersion curves of the fundamental
#232993 - $15.00 USD (C) 2015 OSA
Received 21 Jan 2015; revised 14 Mar 2015; accepted 16 Mar 2015; published 23 Mar 2015 6 Apr 2015 | Vol. 23, No. 7 | DOI:10.1364/OE.23.008329 | OPTICS EXPRESS 8334
core modes and the fundamental-space-filling (FSM) mode for the optimum PCF structure, together with the dispersion curves of the Y-polarized second-order core mode for different value of L. The other parameters are Λ = 2μm, d = 0.86Λ, d1 = 0.95Λ, d2 = 0.36Λ, d3 = 0.465Λ, H = 0.43Λ. When the dispersion curve of a mode falls below the curve of the FSM, it is cutoff. In the new proposed fiber the Y-polarized second-order mode has the highest effective index among all the higher order modes. If it is cutoff all higher order modes are cutoff. So it is enough to investigate the Y-polarized second-order mode for the determination of single-mode and multimode ranges. It is revealed by Figs. 5 and 6 that smaller L leads to higher birefringence, but it also delays cutoff of higher order modes. There exists an optimum value of L for a given application. In order to ensure high birefringence and high nonlinearity, and also meet the single mode range requirement, we choose the value of L to be Λ/8. This leads to a cutoff wavelength of 1.45μm for the Y-polarized second-order mode, which is very good for our rather large air filling fraction of the design. 1.4 Y-polarized 1st-order mode X-polarized 1st-order mode Λ/7 Y--polarized 2nd-order mode Λ/8 Y--polarized 2nd-order mode Λ/9 Y--polarized 2nd-order mode Λ/10 Y--polarized 2nd-order mode FSM
Effective Refractive Index
1.35
1.3
1.25
1.2
1.15 0.8
1
1.2
1.4
λ /μm
1.6
1.8
2
Fig. 6. Dispersion curves of the modes of the proposed fiber. For the 1st-order and the FSM modes, and for the 2nd-order modes L is marked on the figure as a parameter. The other parameters used for the calculations are Λ = 2μm, d = 0.86Λ, d1 = 0.95Λ, d2 = 0.36Λ, d3 = 0.465Λ, H = 0.43Λ.
2.4. Other features of the proposed PCF Confinement loss of a fiber is another important property for light guiding. It limits the total transmission distance in real fiber communication systems. Confinement loss Lc of PCFs can be calculated by [21]
Lc (dB / km) = 8.66 ×
2π
λ
Im[neff ] × 109.
(3)
where Im[neff] is the imaginary part of the effective refractive index. The propagation loss of high order modes is much larger than that of fundamental mode. Furthermore, with the optimum structure parameters the single mode range starts from 1.45μm in our design. Therefore, we only need to focus on the fundamental mode in the following. Confinement losses of both polarizations in the proposed PCF is plotted in Fig. 7 as functions of the number of air hole rings N surrounding the core. It decreases rapidly with N. Since relatively large air holes are used here, light is confined quite well in the core. The presence of the three air holes in the core area also helps the situation, so the confinement loss of the new fiber is much less than that of traditional fibers. The confinement loss of the X-
#232993 - $15.00 USD (C) 2015 OSA
Received 21 Jan 2015; revised 14 Mar 2015; accepted 16 Mar 2015; published 23 Mar 2015 6 Apr 2015 | Vol. 23, No. 7 | DOI:10.1364/OE.23.008329 | OPTICS EXPRESS 8335
polarized mode is lightly larger than that of the Y-polarized mode. This can be explained by the observation of Figs. 3(b) and 3(c) for the mode fields, where it is shown that the Xpolarized mode penetrates the air holes further so is less confined within the core. The confinement loss of the X-polarized mode is about 0.33dB/km for a three-ring PCF and 0.0092dB/km for a four-ring PCF. The confinement losses in both polarizations reduce to below 10−4 as N is 5 or bigger. From simulations it is observed that as the number of rings N surrounding the core changes from 3 to 6, the effective refractive indices, the birefringence, and the nonlinear coefficient of the fundamental modes are almost unchanged. From considerations of fabrication and cost, N = 4 is enough for most applications. From these discussions an optimized structure is arrived with parameters Λ = 2μm, d = 0.86Λ, d1 = 0.95Λ, d2 = 0.36Λ, d3 = 0.465Λ, L = Λ/8, H = 0.43Λ, and N = 4. The new proposed PCF can be fabricated by the stack and draw method or the performs drilling method [22,23]. In recent years there have been some even larger air filling fraction with complex design fabricated [23,26,27], the new proposed design wouldn't be proven a problem. 0
10
X-polarization Y-polarization
-1
Confinement Loss(dB/km)
10
-2
10
-3
10
-4
10
-5
10
-6
10
3
4
N
5
6
Fig. 7. Confinement losses of the proposed PCF at 1.55μm versus N.
When the fiber is not drawn to the precise parameters during fabrication process, the performance of PCFs degrades. The sensitivity of the performance to fluctuations of structure parameters is analyzed to reveal robustness of the design. Figures 8(a) and 8(b) show the birefringence and nonlinear coefficient as the parameters vary up to ± 5% around the designed values. From the curves it is seen that ± 5% variation in center-to-center spacing Λ causes ± 5.2% change in the birefringence and ± 3% change in the nonlinearity. Further investigations show that ± 5% shift in the center holes' position in either X direction or Y direction leads to at most ± 6% change in the birefringence and ± 4% change in the nonlinearity. Our design is demonstrated to have a good tolerance of fabrication errors. Group velocity dispersion of this PCF is evaluated based on the mode effective refractive index, as presented in Fig. 9 for X and Y polarizations as functions of wavelength. In the communication wavelength band both polarizations experience anomalous dispersion. Due to the rather big negative value and almost constant slope, the proposed PCF could be used for dispersion compensation. It is worth mentioning here that if material with higher refractive index, e.g., AsSe2 glass, is used for the background instead of silica, the birefringence and the nonlinear coefficients of the proposed PCF can be further increased [28].
#232993 - $15.00 USD (C) 2015 OSA
Received 21 Jan 2015; revised 14 Mar 2015; accepted 16 Mar 2015; published 23 Mar 2015 6 Apr 2015 | Vol. 23, No. 7 | DOI:10.1364/OE.23.008329 | OPTICS EXPRESS 8336
Fig. 8. (a) Modal Birefringence and (b) nonlinear coefficient in Y polarization as functions of wavelength for different center-to-center spacing Λ.
Fig. 9. Group velocity dispersion of the proposed PCF.
3. Conclusion
To summarize, a high birefringent photonic crystal fiber is proposed and analyzed by the fullvector finite element method. The modal birefringence is 0.022 at 1.55μm with very low confinement losses. The nonlinear coefficients are respectively 50W−1·km−1 and 68W−1·km−1 for X and Y polarizations. Furthermore, single mode range of the fiber is enlarged by the presence of small air holes in the core area. Other properties such as group velocity dispersion are discussed, and tolerance of fabrication is also assessed. The new proposed PCF may found applications in optical fiber sensing [29], polarization maintaining transmission systems [30], and super continuum generation for frequency metrology [12, 31]. Acknowledgment
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 60588502, 60607005, and 60877033).
#232993 - $15.00 USD (C) 2015 OSA
Received 21 Jan 2015; revised 14 Mar 2015; accepted 16 Mar 2015; published 23 Mar 2015 6 Apr 2015 | Vol. 23, No. 7 | DOI:10.1364/OE.23.008329 | OPTICS EXPRESS 8337
