An enhanced demand for lightweight materials in automotive applications has resulted in the growth of the use of injection molded discontinuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastics. During the intensive injection molding process, severe fiber breakage arises in the plasticating stage leading to a broad fiber length distribution. Fiber orientation distribution (FOD) is another highly anisotropic feature of the final injection molded parts induced by the mold filling process. The mechanical and other properties can be highly dependent on the fiber length distribution and fiber orientation distribution. The residual fiber length in the final part is of great significance determining the mechanical performances of injection molded discontinuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites. One goal of this research is to develop a fiber length characterization method with reproducible sampling procedure in a timely manner is described. In this work is also proposed an automatic fiber length measurement algorithm supported by Matlab®. The accuracy of this automatic algorithm is evaluated by comparing the measured results using this in-house developed tool with the manual measurement and good agreement between the two methods is observed. Accurate predictions of fiber orientation are also important for the improvement of mold design and processing parameters to optimize mechanical performances of fiber-reinforced thermoplastics. In various fiber orientation models, a strain reduction factor is usually applied to match the slower fiber orientation evolution observed experimentally. In this research, a variable strain reduction factor is determined locally by the corresponding local flow-type and used in fiber orientation simulation. The application of the variable strain reduction factor in fiber orientation simulations for both non-lubricated squeeze flow and injection molded center-gated disk, allows the simulated fiber re-orient rate to be dependent on the local flow-type. This empirical variable strain reduction factor might help to improve the fiber orientation predictions especially in complex flow, because it can reflect the different rates at which fibers orient during different flow conditions. Finally, the stiffness of injection-molded long-fiber thermoplastics is investigated by micro-mechanical methods: the Halpin-Tsai (HT) model and the Mori-Tanaka model based on Eshelby's equivalent inclusion (EMT). We proposed an empirical model to evaluate the effective fibers aspect ratio in the computation for the fiber bundles under high fiber content in the as-formed fiber composites. After the correction, the analytical predictions had good agreement with the experimental stiffness values from tensile tests on the composites. Our analysis shows that it is essential to incorporate the effect of the presence of fiber bundles to accurately predict the composite properties. / PHD / An enhanced demand for lightweight materials in automotive applications has resulted in the growth of the use of injection molded discontinuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastics. The injection molding process results in fiber length and fiber orientation distributions in the final parts. The mechanical and other properties can be highly dependent on the fiber length distribution and fiber orientation distribution. This work focuses on the process-structure-property relationship of fiber-thermoplastic composites. A novel fiber length measurement procedure and an automatic fiber length measurement tool were developed to improve the accuracy of fiber length measurement. The existing fiber orientation models have been improved by integration of the flow-type dependent fiber orientation kinetics. To improve the stiffness predictions, an empirical model has been developed to include the effects of fiber clumping on the elastic properties of injection molded fiber composites.

The lasers operating in the wavelength range of 900 - 1000 nm have caused intense attention because they are in great demands for: 1. Highpower blue and deep UV laser generation 2. High power single-mode pump laser source 3. Light detection and Lidar , etc. And now, there are actually many different types of lasers can generate laser in this wavelength range. For example, Nd and Yb doped fiber laser, Nd and Yb doped glass and crystal lasers, OPO and SHG laser, etc. Among all this options, we decided to study the Nd-doped fiber laser for their outstanding advantages: 1. As fiber laser, it possess all the advantages of any fiber lasers have, such as: high power scalability, excellent beam quality, high spectral and intensity stability, super compactness, robustness and reliability. 2. Comparing to other rare-earth-ion, the Nd^3+ ions have a more broad emission wavelength range from 900-950 nm. My goals for doing this thesis research are:1.Experimentally and theoretically investigate Nd-doped fiber lasers and amplifiers at 9xx nm. 2. Develop 9xx nm single frequency fiber lasers and amplifiers. 3.Obtain directions for developing high power single-frequency Nd-doped fiber laser sources at 9xx nm. To achieve these goals, 1. Nd-doped fiber lasers at 934 nm were investigated. 2. Core-pumped and cladding-pumped Nd-doped fiber amplifiers are also investigated. 3. The simulation of the Nd-doped fiber amplifiers have been done.

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A long period fiber grating (LPFG) is formed by inducing the periodic refractive index variation along a fiber. A lot of work has been done to fabricate the LPFGs in the photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) to function as all-fiber band-rejection filters, interferometers, and sensing applications. In this thesis, we propose a novel LPFG based on the gel-filled PCF. The PCF filled with the UV gel was exposed to the high-intensity UV light through the mask. The periodic index variation is formed along the fiber in the cladding region, resulting in the LPFG. By measuring the propagation losses of our LPFG, three spectral dips in the transmission bands are observed at 872 nm, 1309 nm, and 1418 nm as the grating period is 600 £gm, which indicates the mode coupling from the fundamental core mode to the higher order modes (HOMs) of the gel-filled PCFs. By using a full-vector finite-difference frequency-domain (FDFD) method, we numerically calculate the phase match condition for our LPFGs. The calculated resonant wavelengths are 875 nm, 1319 nm, and 1415 nm. Very good agreement between the measured resonant wavelengths and the numerical results is obtained. We also fabricate the selectively gel-filled LPFGs to reduce the propagation losses by utilizing a simple selectively blocking technique. In addition, we measure and discuss the sensing sensitivities of the UV-induced LPFGs, including the temperature, strain, curvature, torsion, and surrounding refractive index (SRI) sensitivities. The measured sensitivity to temperature is 1.7 nm/¢XC from 25 ¢XC to 45 ¢XC. As the surrounding refractive index is increased to 1.377, the dip position has a maximum shift of 2 nm. Compared with other LPFGs, the UV-induced LPFGs are more insensitive to bending and strain due to the complete cladding structure. This could benefit the stability of the temperature sensors, based on our UV-induced LPFGs.

Fiber coils had been widely investigated as optical current sensors for a long time. In this thesis we have fabricated the LMA-10 PCF coils. By using the Sagnac fiber loop, we can obtain the transmission spectrum of the PCF coils. The measured birefringence of the SMF coil and the PCF coil are 1.49¡Ñ10^-5 at £f= 959.27 nm and 1.31¡Ñ10^-5 at £f = 1264.3 nm, respectively. The birefringence of the SMF coil agrees well with the theoretical result. The properties of PCF coils for variant fiber turns and cylinder sizes are discussed. As we increase the number of fiber turns, the fringe spacing becomes smaller due to the increasing phase difference. The birefringence of the PCF coil decreases with the increasing cylinder radius. Besides, we also measure the temperature sensitivities of the SMF coil and PCF coil to be 130 pm/oC and 64.55 pm/ oC, respectively. We have also demonstrated the sensing properties of the PCF coils. By introducing a displacement along the cylinder, the bending on the PCF coil can be induced. The measured bending sensitivity is -3.732 nm/m^-1. In addition, the water depth sensing properties are obtained by horizontally and vertically immersing the PCF coils into the water. As we put the PCF coil horizontally into the water, the shift of the measured spectra shows a exponential relation to the water depth. As for the vertically immersed PCF coil, the linear water depth sensitivity is -11.658 nm/cm. Finally, we propose the transverse displacement sensor based on the PCF coil. The measured sensitivity to transverse displacement can be as large as 903.9 nm/cm.

Optical communication dominates the wire-communication since the requirement of the high speed data transfer in the Internet. Fiber Solder Ferrule (FSF) plays an important role in transceiver modules of the optical communication. For the reason to keep the coupling efficiency between the laser diode and fiber after time using and a various temperature operation, fiber has to be carefully fixed in the metal ferrule. The fixing of the fiber now is finished to let the melting solder flow into a 400£gm diameter ferrule by the capillary action manually. The stability and accuracy of this method can not match the required performance. And the human operation makes this process more unstable to cut down the yield below 30% even by an experienced operator. So, this study analyzes the FSF process and proposes an active strategy to replace the original passive method by capillary action. An active soldering mechanism is implemented to precisely and stable filling the solder into the ferrule. The yield can be significantly raised from 25% to 75%.

The maximum capacity of an optical fiber transmission system more than doubled every year to match the fast-growing communication need. The technology break through in dry fiber fabrication opens the possibility for fiber bandwidth all the way from 1300nm to 1600nm. The fast increasing demand of communication capacity results in the emergence of wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology, which results in the need for ultra-wideband optical amplifier. Cr4+:YAG has a strong spontaneous emission that covers 1300nm to 1600nm. Besides, its absorption spectrum is between 900nm to 1200nm, which matches with the pumping source in current erbium doped optical amplifier. Such a fiber is, therefore, eminently suitable for optical amplifier applications. In this article, we will introduce the development of ultra-wideband optical amplifier using the double-clad Cr4+:YAG crystal fiber, which is grown by laser heated pedestal growth(LHPG) technique. Its material properties as well as optical gain will be characterized. By butt-coupling method, a low insertion loss of 4.2 dB was achieved in a SMF-CDF-SMF configuration, and it was measured to demonstrate a gross gain of 2.4 dB at 1 W bi-directional pump power. Moreover, theoretical models and numerical simulations have been developed to predict the experimental results. Numerical simulation indicates that the efficiency of mode overlapping between signal and pump is crucial to gain performance. The mode overlapping efficiency is about 25%~30% for our crystal fiber under current circumstances. In the future, we will make an attempt to reduce the index contrast between core and cladding for better mode overlapping efficiency. At the same time, we also try to grow crystal fiber of smaller core diameter to improve gain performance.

The rapid developments in optical and electronic technologies have accelerated developments of solid state laser technology. The diode-pumped solid state laser has the merits of the diode laser, such as compactness, low cost, and the merits of the solid state laser, such as high laser quality, high conversion efficiency, long lifetime, and simple structure. In addition, the diode-pumped solid state lasers have made it a feature star among lasers. One of the problems in solid state laser is the heat removal. The crystal fiber is used as the laser gain medium in this work to be able to reduce largely the volume of solid-state laser, and improve the heat disappearance. There are many different methods to grow crystal fibers, LHPG method one of the best because single crystal fibers can be grown with small diameters at very fast rate, and accurate control. We have gown high quality Nd:YAG crystal fiber with diameter of 23~285 mm. After cladding, grinding, polishing, and coating, we could ready to fabricate the Nd:YAG crystal fiber laser. We have successfully implemented diode-laser pumped Nd:YAG crystal fiber laser. The lasing threshold power is 143 mW, and the maximum output power is 38 mW. In the feature, we shall improve the cooling system, the cladding, and coating to further increase the conversation efficiency and output power.

This paper presents a search method of coupling between the laser and fiber , search method to make up through the fiber and the laser inter-position deviation caused optical transmission loss , this search method is applied in the array-alignment is different from the traditional single-alignment , the advantage for the method is simple, through the rough alignment then blind search and angle search , for fiber array find the coupling of the greatest optical power position. In the experiment there are four degrees of freedom to use precise stage to fine-tune the location of fiber array , to reduce losses due to tools to reach precise alignment of purpose ,so we prove our method can achieve the objective of the fiber-optic alignment in our experiments.