Microstructure-Fiber Based Optical Parametric Amplifier in the 1550nm Telecom Band

R. Tang; P. Devgan; J. Sharping; P. Voss; J. Lasri; P. Kumar

Microstructure-Fiber Based Optical Parametric Amplifier in the 1550nm Telecom Band

R. Tang^*, P. Devgan, J. Sharping, P. Voss, J. Lasri, P. Kumar

^*Corresponding author for this work

IIN - International Institute for Nanotechnology

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

We demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, a telecom-band optical parametric amplifier made with microstructure fiber. Preliminary measurements yield signal gain >15dB over ~20nm range around 1550nm using only 23m of fiber.

Original language	English (US)
Title of host publication	Optical Fiber Communication Conference, OFC 2003
Publisher	Optica Publishing Group (formerly OSA)
Pages	562-563
Number of pages	2
ISBN (Electronic)	1557527318
State	Published - 2003
Event	Optical Fiber Communication Conference, OFC 2003 - Atlanta, United States Duration: Mar 23 2003 → …

Publication series

Name	Optics InfoBase Conference Papers

Conference

Conference	Optical Fiber Communication Conference, OFC 2003
Country/Territory	United States
City	Atlanta
Period	3/23/03 → …

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
Mechanics of Materials

Cite this

@inproceedings{3faa99127ef24f139a884c5a71594d8d,

title = "Microstructure-Fiber Based Optical Parametric Amplifier in the 1550nm Telecom Band",

abstract = "We demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, a telecom-band optical parametric amplifier made with microstructure fiber. Preliminary measurements yield signal gain >15dB over ~20nm range around 1550nm using only 23m of fiber.",

author = "R. Tang and P. Devgan and J. Sharping and P. Voss and J. Lasri and P. Kumar",

note = "Funding Information: FWM in a MF having zero-dispersion wavelength near 750nm, we demonstrated over 13dB gain in ~6m-long MF with a pump peak power of only 6W [8]. However, a MF-based FOPA for use in the telecom-band has not been demonstrated yet. In this paper, we report, for the first time to our knowledge, a Microstructure Fiber Optical Parametric Amplifier (MFOPA) operating in the 1550nm region. In our preliminary measurements, we demonstrate more than 15dB gain over approximately 20nm range, achieving a peak net gain of 22.5dB. Experimental Setup A schematic diagram of our MFOPA is shown in Fig. 1. We used two cascaded pieces of MFs instead of one for two reasons: the first is that the two pieces allow us to obtain higher FWM gain for a certain pump power. The second reason is that the two MFs can provide complementary gain spectra due to their different zero-dispersion wavelengths, and as a result, significantly improve the gain bandwidth. We previously demonstrated this kind of two-stage FOPA by using cascaded dispersion-shifted fibers [9]. Both MFs were fabricated at Crystal-Fibre A/S. The first piece is 12.5m long and consists of a silica core with an average diameter of 2.4 +/-0.2µm surrounded by a hexagonal array of approximately 0.8µm diameter air voids. The zero-dispersion wavelength for this piece of MF is 1544 +/-5nm (as given by the manufacturer) and the total loss is measured to be 1.7dB, including connector loss on each end of the fiber. The second piece of MF is 11.0m long and has the same geometric properties as the first piece, but the zero-dispersion wavelength and the loss are 1558 +/-5 nm and 2.2dB (once again, including connector losses), respectively. The approximate zero-dispersion wavelength of the composite 23m MF is 1555 +/-5 nm. The pump source for the MFOPA was derived from a CW DFB laser having 1557.4nm wavelength. In order to achieve high peak pump power with use of a moderate power EDFA, we chopped the CW light from the DFB laser. A LiNbO3 Mach-Zehnder intensity modulator was employed for this purpose. The resulting pulses had a width of 100ns and a repetition rate of 250kHz. The duty cycle was 1:37.4, taking into account the extinction ratio of amplitude modulation. The chopped light was further phase modulated using a 1.7Gb/s, PRBS in order to minimize the stimulated Brillouin scattering. The pulses were then amplified by an EDFA to compensate for the loss caused by the intensity and the phase modulators and filtered by a 1nm optical-bandpass filter (OBF) to suppress the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) at the signal wavelengths. A second EDFA was then used to boost the peak power of the pulses to allow the signal to see gain through the FWM process. The signal source, which was used to measure the net gain of the MFOPA, was a CW laser that is tunable from 1530 to 1580nm. An 80/20 coupler combined the pump with the signal into the cascaded MFs. With a strong pump, the signal was amplified and an idler was simultaneously generated having a frequency that satisfies ωi = 2ωp -ωs. The input signal power was around 1mW and the pump peak power exceeded 5W. After being amplified by a train of pump pulses, the amplified signal, which also took on a pulsed shape, was optically filtered and detected with a photodetector and an optical spectrum analyzer. We measured the gain at the peak of the amplified signal pulses after adjusting the fiber polarization controllers (FPC) in both the pump and the signal paths to allow for optimum FWM. The leakage from the strong pump at the signal wavelength was then subtracted and the net signal gain determined. Results Figure 2 shows an example of the optical spectrum measured at the output of the MFOPA with the OBF removed. Since the pump is chopped with a duty cycle of 1/37.4, only 1/37.4 of the CW input signal is amplified, leading to the upper trace in Fig. 2. Hence, the MFOPA gain = 37.4*(Pout - PASE)/Pin, where Pout is the measured output signal power with the pump on, PASE is the leakage ASE power at the signal wavelength, and Pin is the signal power measured at the output with the pump off. Therefore, for the case shown in Fig. 2, the MFOPA gain is ~20dB. In Fig. 3, we present preliminary results for the wavelength and pump-power dependence of the MFOPA gain. Figure 3(a) shows the measured (symbols) and calculated (dashed curves) gain spectra for two different pump powers. Since there were two pieces of MFs with connectors in between, the constant path-averaged peak pump power (CPAPPP) should be calibrated separately in each piece. Setting P1 as the CPAPPP in the first MF and P2 to be that in the second, the upper curve (triangles) corresponds to a case in which P1= 9.5W and P2= 6.9W and the lower curve (circles) for P1= 9W and P2= 6.5W. The gain spectra features two high-gain lobes, one on each side of the pump wavelength. In these measurements, we achieved signal gains >15dB over ~20nm optical bandwidth with the peak net gain as high as 22.5dB. The measurements also agree well with the FWM theory [dashed curves in Fig. 3(a)]. It is well known that, in the case of perfect phase matching, the peak gain is exponentially proportional to the fiber length, the pump power, and the fiber nonlinear coefficient [10]. In our case, the nonlinear coefficient for each MF in the theoretical fit was γ = 24m-1W-1. Figure 3(b) shows the measured pump-power dependence of the parametric gain at the peak-gain wavelengths of 1552 and 1563nm in Fig. 3(a). The measured gain behavior versus the pump power is in a good agreement with the theoretical predictions [10]. Conclusions In conclusion, we have demonstrated the first, to the best of our knowledge, microstructure-fiber optical parametric amplifier in the 1550nm telecom band. In initial measurements we obtained gains >15dB over approximately 20nm bandwidth, achieving a peak net gain of 22.5 dB. Acknowledgements We thank Rene Kristiansen of Crystal Fiber A/S for loan of the connectorized MFs. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grants: ANI-0123495, ECS-0000241, and the IGERT DGE-9987577. References 1. Z. Yusoff, J. H. Lee, W. Belardi, T. M. Monro, P. C. Teh, and D. J. Richardson, “Raman effects in a highly nonlinear holey fiber: amplification and modulation,” Opt. Lett. 27, 424 (2002). 2. P. Petropoulos, T. M. Monro, W. Belardi, K. Furusawa, J. H. Lee, and D. J. Richardson, “2 R-regenerative all-optical switch based on a highly nonlinear holey fiber,” Opt. Lett. 26, 1233 (2001). 3. L. K. Oxenlowe A. I. Siahlo, K. S. Berg, A. Tersigni, A. T. Clausen, C. Peucheret, P. Jeppesen, K. P. Hansen, and J. R. Jensen, “A photonic crystal fibre used as a 160 to 10Gb/s demultiplexer,” OECC, post-deadline paper 1-4 (2002). 4. W. Belardi, J. H. Lee, K. Furusawa, A. Yusoff, P. Petropoulos, M. Ibsen, T. M. Monro, and D. J. Richardson, “A 10Gbit/s tunable wavelength converter based on four-wave-mixing in highly nonlinear holey fibre,” ECOC, post-deadline paper 1.2 (2002). 5. J. E. Sharping, M. Fiorentino, P. Kumar, and R. S. Windeler, “All-optical switching based on cross-phase modulation in microstructure fiber,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 14, 77 (2002). 6. J. Hansryd and P. A. Andrekson, “Broad-band continuous-wave-pumped fiber optical parametric amplifier with 49dB gain and wavelength-conversion efficiency,” IEEE Photon. Technal. Lett. 13, 194 (2001). 7. M. C. Ho, K. Uesaka, M. Marhic, Y. Akasaka, and L. G. Kazovsky, “200-nm-bandwidth fiber optical amplifier combining parametric and Raman gain,” J. Lightwave Technol. 19, 977 (2001). 8. J. E. Sharping, M. Fiorentino, A. Coker, P. Kumar, and R. S. Windeler, “Four-wave mixing in microstructure fiber,” Opt. Lett. 26, 1048 (2001). 9. Y. Su, L. Wang, A. Agarwal, and P. Kumar, “All-optical limiter using gain flattened fibre parametric amplifer,” Electron. Lett. 36, 1103 (2000). 10. J. Hansryd, P. A. Andrekson, M. Westlund, J. Li, and P. O. Hedekvist, “Fiber-based optical parametric amplifier and their applications,” IEEE J. Select. Top. Quant. Electron. 8, 506 (2002). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2003 OSA/OFC 2003.; Optical Fiber Communication Conference, OFC 2003 ; Conference date: 23-03-2003",

year = "2003",

language = "English (US)",

series = "Optics InfoBase Conference Papers",

publisher = "Optica Publishing Group (formerly OSA)",

pages = "562--563",

booktitle = "Optical Fiber Communication Conference, OFC 2003",

}

Tang, R, Devgan, P, Sharping, J, Voss, P, Lasri, J & Kumar, P 2003, Microstructure-Fiber Based Optical Parametric Amplifier in the 1550nm Telecom Band. in Optical Fiber Communication Conference, OFC 2003., ThT2, Optics InfoBase Conference Papers, Optica Publishing Group (formerly OSA), pp. 562-563, Optical Fiber Communication Conference, OFC 2003, Atlanta, United States, 3/23/03.

TY - GEN

T1 - Microstructure-Fiber Based Optical Parametric Amplifier in the 1550nm Telecom Band

AU - Tang, R.

AU - Devgan, P.

AU - Sharping, J.

AU - Voss, P.

AU - Lasri, J.

AU - Kumar, P.

N1 - Funding Information: FWM in a MF having zero-dispersion wavelength near 750nm, we demonstrated over 13dB gain in ~6m-long MF with a pump peak power of only 6W [8]. However, a MF-based FOPA for use in the telecom-band has not been demonstrated yet. In this paper, we report, for the first time to our knowledge, a Microstructure Fiber Optical Parametric Amplifier (MFOPA) operating in the 1550nm region. In our preliminary measurements, we demonstrate more than 15dB gain over approximately 20nm range, achieving a peak net gain of 22.5dB. Experimental Setup A schematic diagram of our MFOPA is shown in Fig. 1. We used two cascaded pieces of MFs instead of one for two reasons: the first is that the two pieces allow us to obtain higher FWM gain for a certain pump power. The second reason is that the two MFs can provide complementary gain spectra due to their different zero-dispersion wavelengths, and as a result, significantly improve the gain bandwidth. We previously demonstrated this kind of two-stage FOPA by using cascaded dispersion-shifted fibers [9]. Both MFs were fabricated at Crystal-Fibre A/S. The first piece is 12.5m long and consists of a silica core with an average diameter of 2.4 +/-0.2µm surrounded by a hexagonal array of approximately 0.8µm diameter air voids. The zero-dispersion wavelength for this piece of MF is 1544 +/-5nm (as given by the manufacturer) and the total loss is measured to be 1.7dB, including connector loss on each end of the fiber. The second piece of MF is 11.0m long and has the same geometric properties as the first piece, but the zero-dispersion wavelength and the loss are 1558 +/-5 nm and 2.2dB (once again, including connector losses), respectively. The approximate zero-dispersion wavelength of the composite 23m MF is 1555 +/-5 nm. The pump source for the MFOPA was derived from a CW DFB laser having 1557.4nm wavelength. In order to achieve high peak pump power with use of a moderate power EDFA, we chopped the CW light from the DFB laser. A LiNbO3 Mach-Zehnder intensity modulator was employed for this purpose. The resulting pulses had a width of 100ns and a repetition rate of 250kHz. The duty cycle was 1:37.4, taking into account the extinction ratio of amplitude modulation. The chopped light was further phase modulated using a 1.7Gb/s, PRBS in order to minimize the stimulated Brillouin scattering. The pulses were then amplified by an EDFA to compensate for the loss caused by the intensity and the phase modulators and filtered by a 1nm optical-bandpass filter (OBF) to suppress the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) at the signal wavelengths. A second EDFA was then used to boost the peak power of the pulses to allow the signal to see gain through the FWM process. The signal source, which was used to measure the net gain of the MFOPA, was a CW laser that is tunable from 1530 to 1580nm. An 80/20 coupler combined the pump with the signal into the cascaded MFs. With a strong pump, the signal was amplified and an idler was simultaneously generated having a frequency that satisfies ωi = 2ωp -ωs. The input signal power was around 1mW and the pump peak power exceeded 5W. After being amplified by a train of pump pulses, the amplified signal, which also took on a pulsed shape, was optically filtered and detected with a photodetector and an optical spectrum analyzer. We measured the gain at the peak of the amplified signal pulses after adjusting the fiber polarization controllers (FPC) in both the pump and the signal paths to allow for optimum FWM. The leakage from the strong pump at the signal wavelength was then subtracted and the net signal gain determined. Results Figure 2 shows an example of the optical spectrum measured at the output of the MFOPA with the OBF removed. Since the pump is chopped with a duty cycle of 1/37.4, only 1/37.4 of the CW input signal is amplified, leading to the upper trace in Fig. 2. Hence, the MFOPA gain = 37.4*(Pout - PASE)/Pin, where Pout is the measured output signal power with the pump on, PASE is the leakage ASE power at the signal wavelength, and Pin is the signal power measured at the output with the pump off. Therefore, for the case shown in Fig. 2, the MFOPA gain is ~20dB. In Fig. 3, we present preliminary results for the wavelength and pump-power dependence of the MFOPA gain. Figure 3(a) shows the measured (symbols) and calculated (dashed curves) gain spectra for two different pump powers. Since there were two pieces of MFs with connectors in between, the constant path-averaged peak pump power (CPAPPP) should be calibrated separately in each piece. Setting P1 as the CPAPPP in the first MF and P2 to be that in the second, the upper curve (triangles) corresponds to a case in which P1= 9.5W and P2= 6.9W and the lower curve (circles) for P1= 9W and P2= 6.5W. The gain spectra features two high-gain lobes, one on each side of the pump wavelength. In these measurements, we achieved signal gains >15dB over ~20nm optical bandwidth with the peak net gain as high as 22.5dB. The measurements also agree well with the FWM theory [dashed curves in Fig. 3(a)]. It is well known that, in the case of perfect phase matching, the peak gain is exponentially proportional to the fiber length, the pump power, and the fiber nonlinear coefficient [10]. In our case, the nonlinear coefficient for each MF in the theoretical fit was γ = 24m-1W-1. Figure 3(b) shows the measured pump-power dependence of the parametric gain at the peak-gain wavelengths of 1552 and 1563nm in Fig. 3(a). The measured gain behavior versus the pump power is in a good agreement with the theoretical predictions [10]. Conclusions In conclusion, we have demonstrated the first, to the best of our knowledge, microstructure-fiber optical parametric amplifier in the 1550nm telecom band. In initial measurements we obtained gains >15dB over approximately 20nm bandwidth, achieving a peak net gain of 22.5 dB. Acknowledgements We thank Rene Kristiansen of Crystal Fiber A/S for loan of the connectorized MFs. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grants: ANI-0123495, ECS-0000241, and the IGERT DGE-9987577. References 1. Z. Yusoff, J. H. Lee, W. Belardi, T. M. Monro, P. C. Teh, and D. J. Richardson, “Raman effects in a highly nonlinear holey fiber: amplification and modulation,” Opt. Lett. 27, 424 (2002). 2. P. Petropoulos, T. M. Monro, W. Belardi, K. Furusawa, J. H. Lee, and D. J. Richardson, “2 R-regenerative all-optical switch based on a highly nonlinear holey fiber,” Opt. Lett. 26, 1233 (2001). 3. L. K. Oxenlowe A. I. Siahlo, K. S. Berg, A. Tersigni, A. T. Clausen, C. Peucheret, P. Jeppesen, K. P. Hansen, and J. R. Jensen, “A photonic crystal fibre used as a 160 to 10Gb/s demultiplexer,” OECC, post-deadline paper 1-4 (2002). 4. W. Belardi, J. H. Lee, K. Furusawa, A. Yusoff, P. Petropoulos, M. Ibsen, T. M. Monro, and D. J. Richardson, “A 10Gbit/s tunable wavelength converter based on four-wave-mixing in highly nonlinear holey fibre,” ECOC, post-deadline paper 1.2 (2002). 5. J. E. Sharping, M. Fiorentino, P. Kumar, and R. S. Windeler, “All-optical switching based on cross-phase modulation in microstructure fiber,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 14, 77 (2002). 6. J. Hansryd and P. A. Andrekson, “Broad-band continuous-wave-pumped fiber optical parametric amplifier with 49dB gain and wavelength-conversion efficiency,” IEEE Photon. Technal. Lett. 13, 194 (2001). 7. M. C. Ho, K. Uesaka, M. Marhic, Y. Akasaka, and L. G. Kazovsky, “200-nm-bandwidth fiber optical amplifier combining parametric and Raman gain,” J. Lightwave Technol. 19, 977 (2001). 8. J. E. Sharping, M. Fiorentino, A. Coker, P. Kumar, and R. S. Windeler, “Four-wave mixing in microstructure fiber,” Opt. Lett. 26, 1048 (2001). 9. Y. Su, L. Wang, A. Agarwal, and P. Kumar, “All-optical limiter using gain flattened fibre parametric amplifer,” Electron. Lett. 36, 1103 (2000). 10. J. Hansryd, P. A. Andrekson, M. Westlund, J. Li, and P. O. Hedekvist, “Fiber-based optical parametric amplifier and their applications,” IEEE J. Select. Top. Quant. Electron. 8, 506 (2002). Publisher Copyright: © 2003 OSA/OFC 2003.

PY - 2003

Y1 - 2003

N2 - We demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, a telecom-band optical parametric amplifier made with microstructure fiber. Preliminary measurements yield signal gain >15dB over ~20nm range around 1550nm using only 23m of fiber.

AB - We demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, a telecom-band optical parametric amplifier made with microstructure fiber. Preliminary measurements yield signal gain >15dB over ~20nm range around 1550nm using only 23m of fiber.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85136813773&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85136813773&partnerID=8YFLogxK

M3 - Conference contribution

AN - SCOPUS:85136813773

T3 - Optics InfoBase Conference Papers

SP - 562

EP - 563

BT - Optical Fiber Communication Conference, OFC 2003

PB - Optica Publishing Group (formerly OSA)

T2 - Optical Fiber Communication Conference, OFC 2003

Y2 - 23 March 2003

ER -

Microstructure-Fiber Based Optical Parametric Amplifier in the 1550nm Telecom Band

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