<p>The topic of this thesis is development ofdevices fortelecom applications based on poled optical fibers. The focusis on two different specific functions, wavelength conversionand optical switching.</p><p>Optical switching is demonstrated in a poled optical fiberat telecom wavelengths (~1.55 mm). The fiber has two holesrunning along the core in which electrodes are inserted. Thefiber device is made electro-optically active with a polingprocess in which a strong electric field is recorded in thefiber at a temperature of 270 o C. The fiber is then put in onearm of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and by applying a voltageacross the two electrodes in the fiber the refractive index ismodulated and the optical signal switched from one output portto the other. So far the lowest switching voltage achieved is~1600 V which is too high for a commercial device, but byoptimizing the design of the fiber and the poling process aswitching voltage as low as 50 V is aimed for.</p><p>A method to deposit a thin silver electrode inside the holesof an optical fiber is also demonstrated. A new way of creatingperiodic electrodes by periodically ablating the silver filmelectrode inside the holes of an optical fiber is also shown.The periodic electrodes can be used to create a quasi-phasematched (QPM) nonlinearity in the fiber which is useful forincreasing the efficiency of a nonlinear process such aswavelength conversion. Poling of a fiber with silver electrodesshowed a huge increase in the nonlinearity. This could be dueto a resonant enhancement caused by silver nanoclusters.</p><p><b>Keywords:</b>Poling, twinhole fiber, fiber electrodes,silver film electrodes, silver diffusion, quasi-phase matching,optical switching, frequency conversion, optical modulation</p>

The topic of this thesis is development ofdevices fortelecom applications based on poled optical fibers. The focusis on two different specific functions, wavelength conversionand optical switching. Optical switching is demonstrated in a poled optical fiberat telecom wavelengths (~1.55 mm). The fiber has two holesrunning along the core in which electrodes are inserted. Thefiber device is made electro-optically active with a polingprocess in which a strong electric field is recorded in thefiber at a temperature of 270 o C. The fiber is then put in onearm of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and by applying a voltageacross the two electrodes in the fiber the refractive index ismodulated and the optical signal switched from one output portto the other. So far the lowest switching voltage achieved is~1600 V which is too high for a commercial device, but byoptimizing the design of the fiber and the poling process aswitching voltage as low as 50 V is aimed for. A method to deposit a thin silver electrode inside the holesof an optical fiber is also demonstrated. A new way of creatingperiodic electrodes by periodically ablating the silver filmelectrode inside the holes of an optical fiber is also shown.The periodic electrodes can be used to create a quasi-phasematched (QPM) nonlinearity in the fiber which is useful forincreasing the efficiency of a nonlinear process such aswavelength conversion. Poling of a fiber with silver electrodesshowed a huge increase in the nonlinearity. This could be dueto a resonant enhancement caused by silver nanoclusters. <b>Keywords:</b>Poling, twinhole fiber, fiber electrodes,silver film electrodes, silver diffusion, quasi-phase matching,optical switching, frequency conversion, optical modulation / NR 20140805

<p>The topic of this thesis is the development of devices for telecom applications based on poled optical fibers. The focus is on a specific function, optical switching/modulation.</p><p>Some of the most important results are summarized below. Optical switching at telecom wavelengths (1.55 μm) is demonstrated in an all-fiber switch based on a fiber with internal electrodes. The fiber is made electro-optically active with a thermal poling process in which a strong electric field is recorded in the glass at a temperature of 255 °C. After poling, the fiber is put in one arm of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and by applying a voltage across the two electrodes the refractive index is modulated and the optical signal switched from one output port to the other. A switching voltage of 190 V at 1550 nm was achieved, which to the best of our knowledge is the lowest value reported. By carefully matching the lengths of the fibers in the two arms of the interferometer the optical bandwidth could be made as large as 20 nm. The extinction ratio, determined by the power ratio in the two arms, was 30 dB and the highest modulation frequency was 30 MHz. Poled fibers were packaged to increase the thermal and mechanical stability and to make handling easier. 40 Gb/s transmission test through the device showed no bit-error-rate performance degradation. Protection switching of a 10 Gb/s signal is also demonstrated.</p><p>The depletion region in a poled fiber was found to be wedge-shaped and very wide, 13 μm and completely overlapped with the core. In a time-resolved poling experiment the recorded electric field was measured. The sign of the field changed after ~20 min, when the depletion region passed through the core, which led to the conclusion that an electric field is present also outside of the depletion region.</p><p>A ring laser was constructed with an erbium doped fiber as the gain medium. A fiber modulator was placed inside the cavity and when a small RF signal, with a frequency matched to the cavity ground frequency, was applied to the modulator the laser was modelocked. The output pulse train contained pulses of sub ns duration and is the first demonstration of mode-locking using poled fibers.</p><p>A sampled grating with 16 channels spaced by 50 GHz was inserted into the cavity. The fiber modulator had optical bandwidth of 7 nm with center wavelength that depends on the applied voltage. By applying of 10 – 210 V to the modulator it was possible to tune the laser to 11 of the 16 channels for a total tuning range of over 4 nm.</p><p>A scheme to deposit 1 μm thin silver electrodes inside the holes of an optical fiber is demonstrated together with a new method of creating periodic electrodes by periodically ablating the silver film electrodes. The periodic electrodes are used to create a quasi-phase matched (QPM) nonlinearity in a fibers which is showed in a proof of principle experiment.</p>

The topic of this thesis is the development of devices for telecom applications based on poled optical fibers. The focus is on a specific function, optical switching/modulation. Some of the most important results are summarized below. Optical switching at telecom wavelengths (1.55 μm) is demonstrated in an all-fiber switch based on a fiber with internal electrodes. The fiber is made electro-optically active with a thermal poling process in which a strong electric field is recorded in the glass at a temperature of 255 °C. After poling, the fiber is put in one arm of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and by applying a voltage across the two electrodes the refractive index is modulated and the optical signal switched from one output port to the other. A switching voltage of 190 V at 1550 nm was achieved, which to the best of our knowledge is the lowest value reported. By carefully matching the lengths of the fibers in the two arms of the interferometer the optical bandwidth could be made as large as 20 nm. The extinction ratio, determined by the power ratio in the two arms, was 30 dB and the highest modulation frequency was 30 MHz. Poled fibers were packaged to increase the thermal and mechanical stability and to make handling easier. 40 Gb/s transmission test through the device showed no bit-error-rate performance degradation. Protection switching of a 10 Gb/s signal is also demonstrated. The depletion region in a poled fiber was found to be wedge-shaped and very wide, 13 μm and completely overlapped with the core. In a time-resolved poling experiment the recorded electric field was measured. The sign of the field changed after ~20 min, when the depletion region passed through the core, which led to the conclusion that an electric field is present also outside of the depletion region. A ring laser was constructed with an erbium doped fiber as the gain medium. A fiber modulator was placed inside the cavity and when a small RF signal, with a frequency matched to the cavity ground frequency, was applied to the modulator the laser was modelocked. The output pulse train contained pulses of sub ns duration and is the first demonstration of mode-locking using poled fibers. A sampled grating with 16 channels spaced by 50 GHz was inserted into the cavity. The fiber modulator had optical bandwidth of 7 nm with center wavelength that depends on the applied voltage. By applying of 10 – 210 V to the modulator it was possible to tune the laser to 11 of the 16 channels for a total tuning range of over 4 nm. A scheme to deposit 1 μm thin silver electrodes inside the holes of an optical fiber is demonstrated together with a new method of creating periodic electrodes by periodically ablating the silver film electrodes. The periodic electrodes are used to create a quasi-phase matched (QPM) nonlinearity in a fibers which is showed in a proof of principle experiment. / QC 20101015