The efficient conversion of light from a multimode to a single mode optical fiber is an area of active research for applications such as telecommunications, astronomy, and high-power lasers. In this work, we demonstrate the ability to wavefront shape the input to a multimode fibre and achieve high efficiency coupling into a physically connected single mode fibre output. That is, without intermediate free space optics. The wavefront shaping creates a focused diffraction limited spot at the multimode fiber output, which is coupled to the core of the single mode fiber. Light that is not coupled to the single mode fiber core is coupled to the cladding and stripped. We have achieved up to 40% coupling with near diffraction limited output using phase only modulation.
We experimentally demonstrate single frequency pulsed amplification at 1550 nm using an erbium and ytterbium co-doped multimode fiber. At a repetition rate of 10 kHz, 3.5 kW of peak power with 15 dB gain were generated with a pulse duration of 200 ns. By adjusting the seed wavefront using a spatial light modulator, the output can be shaped to a focused spot while maintaining a gain exceeding 10 dB. Further power scaling is anticipated, and our latest results will be presented.
We are developing a 10W-level tunable fibre laser source with a simple design. The source serves dual purposes: firstly, it enables the exploration of how altering pump wavelengths affects the efficiency of 3.5 micron, dual-wavelength pumped mid-infrared fibre laser systems. Secondly, it facilitates the investigation of the exact absorption coefficients of optical materials relevant to the LIGO gravitational wave observatory. This technology holds promise for advancing knowledge and enhancing the sensitivity and precision of gravitational wave detection, our latest results will be presented.
Lasers and amplifiers at 2.1 μm window are of great interest for applications that require high atmospheric transmission. To date, fiber lasers and amplifiers operating at this wavelength are based on single-mode Holmium Doped Fibers (HDF) so that a high-quality output beam can be obtained. However, as can be referred from the case of ytterbium doped fiber power amplifier, limiting nonlinear and thermal effects such as Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) and Transverse Mode Instability (TMI) will become obstacles in scaling single-mode holmium doped fiber amplifiers into the multi-kW power regime. The use of multimode HDF can help to mitigate the SBS and TMI effects, facilitating future power scaling of HDF amplifiers (HDFA). Here we propose and experimentally demonstrate a multimode HDF amplifier where the typical speckle pattern output is shaped into a quality focus by wavefront-shaping the amplifier’s input seed.
Multimode fibers provide a promising platform to efficiently suppress Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) by controlling input excitation. We demonstrate SBS suppression can be formulated as a problem of optimization of the input power distribution among the fiber modes. We provide a method to obtain the optimal power distribution based on linear programming. The SBS growth rate depends linearly on the input power distribution, allowing us to map SBS suppression into a constrained linear optimization, solvable numerically. We show that for a highly multimode step index fiber, optimal input excitation gives 9.5 times higher SBS threshold compared to fundamental mode-only excitation.
Significance: Monitoring the movement and vital signs of patients in hospitals and other healthcare environments is a significant burden on healthcare staff. Early warning systems using smart bed sensors hold promise to relieve this burden and improve patient outcomes. We propose a scalable and cost-effective optical fiber sensor array that can be embedded into a mattress to detect movement, both sensitively and spatially.
Aim: Proof-of-concept demonstration that a multimode optical fiber (MMF) specklegram sensor array can be used to detect and image movement on a bed.
Approach: Seven MMFs are attached to the upper surface of a mattress such that they cross in a 3 × 4 array. The specklegram output is monitored using a single laser and single camera and movement on the fibers is monitored by calculating a rolling zero-normalized cross-correlation. A 3 × 4 image is formed by comparing the signal at each crossing point between two fibers.
Results: The MMF sensor array can detect and image movement on a bed, including getting on and off the bed, rolling on the bed, and breathing.
Conclusions: The sensor array shows a high sensitivity to movement, which can be used for monitoring physiological parameters and patient movement for potential applications in healthcare settings.
Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) provides a major limitation on power scaling in high power fiber lasers and amplifiers. Using wavefront shaping in highly multimode fibers provides a promising avenue to suppress SBS while maintaining good beam quality. We present here a generalized theory for SBS in multimode fiber amplifiers. We find the Stokes susceptibility in terms of eigenmode expansions of the vector optical and acoustic wave equations. An analytical form of the relevant gain matrix is obtained in terms of modal overlap integrals. We will discuss wavefront shaping strategies to suppress SBS based on the properties of the gain matrix.
The ability to perform spatially resolved measurement of extreme temperatures, the order of 1000°C and above, would yield enormous benefit to many heavy industrial processes. While optical fibers can provide spatial information along their length through distributed and multi-point sensing techniques, operation at such temperatures is an area of ongoing research and development. A challenge is that conventional optical fibers, fabricated with a chemically doped core, suffer dopant diffusion at these high temperatures, ultimately limiting their operating lifespan. We can overcome this limitation by using specialty pure silica glass fibers, such as microstructured optical fibers. In this work we demonstrate the ability to use such fibers in a significantly multiplexed configuration with twenty fiber Bragg grating sensing elements written via femtosecond laser ablation.
This paper reports on a multi-point optical fiber pressure sensor using fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) written on an exposed core optical fiber (ECF) by femtosecond laser. The pressure sensing elements were constructed as Fabry-Perot (FP) interferometers of different cavity lengths using pairs of FBGs with identical resonant wavelength. In this fashion an interference pattern was formed within the FBG bandwidth with much narrower fringes, leading to better detection limit. Fast Fourier transform (FFT) was used to calculate the phase change of the FP interference pattern with respect to applied pressure. The pressure sensitivity was proportional to the cavity FP cavity length, and reached -0.672 rad/MPa for the case of FP with 9 mm cavity length. The proposed sensor has potential to measure pressure at very high temperature thanks to its single material configuration.
We demonstrate in-vivo chemical sensing using silk-coated exposed-core microstructured optical fibers (ECFs). The ECF provides advantages in sensitivity due to the direct access of the fiber core to the surrounding environment with integrated measurement along the entire fiber length, rather than simply the fiber tip as is common in other probes. The silk coating provides an encapsulation of the sensor molecules, and is well known as a biocompatible material. This deployable fiber sensor is fabricated with simple splicing and coating techniques, making it practical to be used in a range of biomedical sensing applications, which we demonstrate through pH sensing in a mouse model.
We demonstrate the fabrication of multi-core (imaging) microstructured optical fiber via soft-glass extrusion through a 3D printed die. The combination of 3D metal printing and extrusion allows for unprecedented control of the optical fiber geometry. We have exploited this to demonstrate a 100 pixel rectangular array imaging microstructured fiber. Due to the high refractive index of the glass used (n = 1.62), such a fiber can theoretically have a pixel pitch of less than 2 μm. This opens opportunities for ultra-small, high-resolution imaging fibers fabricated from diverse glass types.
We present recent developments in high temperature sensing using single material silica optical fibers. By using a single material fiber, in this case a suspended-core fiber, we avoid effects due to dopant diffusion at high temperature. This allows the measurement of temperatures up to the dilatometric softening temperature at approximately 1300°C. We demonstrate and compare high temperature sensing in two configurations. The first exploits a small section of single material fiber spliced onto a length of conventional single mode fiber, which operates through multimode interference. The second utilizes a type II fiber Bragg grating written via femtosecond laser ablation.
A Mach-Zehnder interferometer was created from a cavity milled in the taper region next to a microfiber knot resonator. A focused ion beam was used to mill the cavity with 47.8 μm in length. The microfiber knot resonator was created from an 11 μm diameter taper, produced using a filament fusion splicer. After milling the cavity, the microfiber knot resonator spectrum is still visible. The final response of the presented sensor is a microfiber knot resonator spectrum modulated by the Mach-Zehnder interference spectrum. A preliminary result of -8935 ± 108 nm/RIU was obtained for the refractive index sensitivity of the cavity component in a refractive index range of n = 1.333 to 1.341. Simultaneous measurement of refractive index and temperature using this combined structure is a future goal.
The small dimensions of optical fiber sensors are of interest to biological applications, given the ability to penetrate relatively inaccessible regions. However, conventional optical fibers are larger than biological material such as cells, and thus there is a need for further miniaturization. Here we present the fabrication of ultra-small Fabry-Perot cavities written into optical micro-fibers using focused ion beam (FIB) milling. We have fabricated cavities as small as 2.8 μm and demonstrated their use for measuring refractive index. In order to achieve sensitive measurements we interrogate at visible wavelengths, thereby reducing the free spectral range of the interferometer (relative to infra-red interrogation), increasing the number of interference fringes, and allowing for the implementation of the Fourier shift method.
Focused ion beam technology is combined with dynamic chemical etching to create microcavities in tapered optical fiber tips, resulting in fiber probes for temperature and refractive index sensing. Dynamic chemical etching uses hydrofluoric acid and a syringe pump to etch standard optical fibers into cone structures called tapered fiber tips where the length, shape, and cone angle can be precisely controlled. On these tips, focused ion beam is used to mill several different types of Fabry-Perot microcavities. Two main cavity types are initially compared and then combined to form a third, complex cavity structure. In the first case, a gap is milled on the tapered fiber tip which allows the external medium to penetrate the light guiding region and thus presents sensitivity to external refractive index changes. In the second, two slots that function as mirrors are milled on the tip creating a silica cavity that is only sensitive to temperature changes. Finally, both cavities are combined on a single tapered fiber tip, resulting in a multi-cavity structure capable of discriminating between temperature and refractive index variations. This dual characterization is performed with the aid of a fast Fourier transform method to separate the contributions of each cavity and thus of temperature and refractive index. Ultimately, a tapered optical fiber tip probe with sub-standard dimensions containing a multi-cavity structure is projected, fabricated, characterized and applied as a sensing element for simultaneous temperature and refractive index discrimination.
Fiber probe structures composed of two physical microcavities were created using focused ion beam technology. These
structures have a tip-like shape as they were milled in preciously etched tapered fiber tips. The microprobes are then
characterized for temperature and refractive index sensing using a signal filtering technique to discriminate signals from
distinct microcavities. Using fast Fourier transforms combined with band-pass filters, it is possible to reconstruct the
spectra of each cavity independently and thus measure their individual spectral shifts.
We report a high temperature fiber sensor based on the multimode interference effect within a suspended core microstructured optical fiber (SCF). By splicing a short section of SCF with a lead-in single-mode fiber (SMF), the sensor head was formed. A complex interference pattern was obtained in the reflection spectrum as the result of the multiple excited modes in the SCF. The complexity of the interference indicates that there are more than two dominantly excited modes in the SCF, as resolved by Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analysis of the interference. The proposed sensor was subjected to temperature variation from 20°C to 1100°C. The fringe of the filtered spectrum red-shifted linearly with respect to temperature varying between 20°C and 1100°C, with similar temperature sensitivity for increasing and decreasing temperature. Phase monitoring was used for an extended temperature experiment (80 hours) in which the sensor was subjected to several different temperature variation conditions namely (i) step-wise increase/decrease with 100°C steps between 20°C and 1100°C, (ii) dwelling overnight at 400°C, (iii) free fall from 1100°C to 132°C, and (iv) continuous increase of temperature from 132°C to 1100°C. Our approach serves as a simple and cost-effective alternative to the better-known high temperature fiber sensors such as the fiber Bragg grating (FBG) in sapphire fibers or regenerated FBG in photosensitive optical fibers.
Optical fibers are promising tools for performing biological and biomedical sensing due to their small cross section and potential for multiplexing. In particular, fabricating ultra-small sensing devices is of increasing interest for measuring biological material such as cells. A promising direction is the use of interferometric techniques combined with optical fiber post-processing. In this work we present recent progress in the development of Fabry-Perot micro-cavities written into optical fiber tapers using focused ion beam (FIB) milling. We first demonstrate that FIB milled optical fiber microcavities are sensitive enough to measure polyelectrolyte layer deposition. We then present new results on the fabrication and optical characterization of serially-multiplexed dual cavity micro-sensors. Two cavities were written serially along the fiber with two different cavity lengths, producing a total of four reflecting surfaces and thus six possible interferometric pairs/cavities. By using fast Fourier transform it is possible to obtain de-multiplexed measurements for each cavity. This will be particularly important for bioassays where positive and negative controls are required to be measured within close spatial proximity.
We report here on the development of a method to induce a stroke in a specific location within a mouse brain through the use of an optical fibre. By capturing the emitted fluorescence signal generated using the same fibre it is then possible to monitor photochemical changes within the brain in real-time, potentially reducing the requirement for post-operative histology to determine if a stroke has successfully been induced within the animal.
We proposed and experimentally demonstrated an in-fiber interferometric-type sensor by splicing an exposed core microstructured optical fiber (ECF) with lead-in and lead-out single mode fibers (SMFs) for refractive index-based biochemical sensing applications. Due to the multimode characteristic of the ECF, several modes can be excited at the lead-in splicing point and, after propagating through the ECF section, arrive at the lead-out splicing point with different phases forming a multi-arm interference pattern in the transmission spectrum of the device. Two dominant modes were found be consistently excited by maximizing the butt coupling between ECF and SMFs. The interference fringes shifts differently upon applying liquids of different refractive index on the exposed side of the ECF.
Femtosecond laser written Bragg gratings have been written in various exposed-core microstructured optical fibres (ECMOFs) for the first time. The EC-MOFs have different core diameters ranging from 2.7 μm to 12.5 μm and offer different degrees of core access depending on application requirements. Writing a Bragg grating on an open core fibre allows for refractive index based sensing, with a view to multiplexed biosensing. Smaller core fibres are shown both experimentally and theoretically to provide a higher sensitivity, with experimental sensitivities demonstrated up to 6.4 nm/RIU over the refractive index range from 1.333 (water) to 1.377 (isopropanol).
We report, for the first time to our knowledge, the detection of specific strands of DNA based on a soft-glass
microstructured optical fiber (MOF) platform loaded with molecular beacons (MBs). This detection scheme brings
together the intrinsic advantage of MOF for low-volume sensing with a label-free approach, and is highly specific in
identifying complementary (cDNA) from non-complementary (nDNA) sequences at room temperature. The detection
limit of the current sensing scheme is demonstrated to be improvable via coupling to different sets of guided core modes
by means of longitudinal offset in coupling light from the source to the fiber.
We have demonstrated the use of suspended core optical fibers as dip sensors for biological applications based on
fluorophores operating at UV wavelengths for the first time. In this paper, we have demonstrated the use of suspended-core
fibers to measure the fluorescence of 7-Amino-4-methylcoumarin (AMC), which is used as the transduction for the
standard enzyme activity assay of PC6, a biomarker of women's uterine fertility. Concentrations down to 500 nM have
been measured using a 2.1 μm core diameter fiber.
A method for fabricating glass exposed-core microstructured optical fibre is demonstrated. This fibre design consists of a
jacketed suspended optical nano/micro-wire that is partially exposed to the external environment, which is particularly
useful for sensing. These fibres allow for strong evanescent field interactions due to the small core size, while also
providing real-time and potentially distributive measurements. We compare experimentally the exposed-core fibre and
an equivalent enclosed-core microstructured fibre in terms of their performance as evanescent field sensors, and
demonstrate that the exposed-core fibre can provide at least an order of magnitude faster measurement response time.
We demonstrate a new detection limit for fluorescent species in small-core glass microstructured optical fibres. Two
detection schemes are explored: forward detection by an optical spectrum analyser; and backward detection by a
photodiode. In the second scheme, characterisation of the fluorescence signal during fibre filling allows us to accurately
separate quantum-dot fluorescence from intrinsic glass fluorescence. The spectral overlap of these two fluorescence
sources is the principal limit to the detection sensitivity. We demonstrate a detection limit of ~200 pM.
A general model of excitation and fluorescence recapturing by the forward and backward modes of filled microstructured
optical fibres (MOFs) is developed for fluorecence-based fibre optic sensors. It is demonstrated
that the light-matter overlap alone does not determine the optimal fibre choice for maximum sensing efficiency.
Fibre designs with sub-wavelength features and high-index glasses exhibit localised regions of high intensity, and
we show that these regions can lead to approximately two orders of magnitude enhancement of fluorescence recapturing.
We demonstrate higher efficiency of fluorescence recapturing into backward modes in comparison with
that of forward modes. We present experimental results for both backward and forward flourescence recapturing
and demostrate a good qualitative agreement between the numerical model and experimental results.
A model is presented for calculating the performance of fluorescence-based optical-fibre sensors that considers the full
vectorial nature of optical-fibre electromagnetic-field solutions making it suitable for modeling microstructured optical
fibres with wavelength and sub-wavelength-scale features. By applying the model to a specific fibre geometry it is
shown that high-index, small core (subwavelength) fibres allow for enhanced fluorescence capturing due to the
formation of a thin, high-intensity layer at the core-cladding boundary. The model is evaluated in this regime for two
sensing configurations of particular interest for future sensing systems, a side-access sensor for liquid-based sensing and
a thin-layer (surface) sensor. Both configurations can offer improvements for fluorescence-based sensing.
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