Lifetime extending and performance improvements of optical fibers via loading

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11048145-B2
Application number	US-201916658747-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 21, 2019
Priority date	Jul 11, 2008
Publication date	Jun 29, 2021
Grant date	Jun 29, 2021

Abstract

A method of making a microstructured optical fiber including loading the core and cladding materials of the fiber with hydrogen and deuterium at a loading temperature; annealing the fiber at a selected temperature Tanneal; pumping the fiber with radiation; and reducing the temperature of the fiber and storing the fiber at the reduced temperature before the step of pumping the fiber; and wherein the method allows the hydrogen and the deuterium to become bound to the core material and the cladding material.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An optical supercontinuum system comprising:
a pulsed pump light source;
a microstructured optical fiber, said fiber comprising a core and a cladding comprising a core material and a cladding material, respectively, at least a part of said core comprising silica;
said pulsed pump light source being arranged to feed said fiber with pulses; and
said core material and/or said cladding material comprising hydrogen and/or deuterium.

2. The optical supercontinuum system of claim 1 , wherein said core material and/or said cladding material comprises said hydrogen.

3. The optical supercontinuum system of claim 2 , wherein said hydrogen comprises hydrogen that is bound to said core material and/or cladding material.

4. The optical supercontinuum system of claim 3 , wherein said hydrogen comprises hydrogen that is chemically bound to said core material and/or cladding material.

5. The optical supercontinuum system of claim 2 , wherein said core material comprises said hydrogen.

6. The optical supercontinuum system of claim 5 , wherein said hydrogen comprises hydrogen that is bound to said core material.

7. The optical supercontinuum system of claim 6 , wherein said hydrogen comprises hydrogen that is chemically bound to said core material.

8. The optical supercontinuum system of claim 2 , wherein said cladding material comprises said hydrogen.

9. The optical supercontinuum system of claim 8 , wherein said hydrogen comprises hydrogen that is bound to said cladding material.

10. The optical supercontinuum system of claim 9 , wherein said hydrogen comprises hydrogen that is chemically bound to said cladding material.

11. The optical supercontinuum system of claim 2 , where said core material and said cladding material each comprise said hydrogen.

12. The optical supercontinuum system of claim 1 , wherein said core material and/or said cladding material comprises said deuterium.

13. The optical supercontinuum system of claim 12 , wherein said deuterium comprises deuterium that is bound to said core material and/or cladding material.

14. The optical supercontinuum system of claim 13 , wherein said deuterium comprises deuterium that is chemically bound to said cladding material.

15. The optical supercontinuum system of claim 12 , wherein said core material comprises said deuterium.

16. The optical supercontinuum system of claim 15 , wherein said deuterium comprises deuterium that is bound to said core material.

17. The optical supercontinuum system of claim 16 , wherein said deuterium comprises deuterium that is chemically bound to said core material.

18. The optical supercontinuum system of claim 12 , wherein said cladding material comprises said deuterium.

19. The optical supercontinuum system of claim 12 , where said core material and said cladding material each comprise said deuterium.

20. The optical supercontinuum system of claim 1 , wherein said core material has a Germanium content of less than 0.001 at %.

21. The optical supercontinuum system of claim 1 , wherein the hydrogen and/or deuterium comprised in said core material and/or said cladding material increases the lifetime of the fiber by reducing photo-induced degradation caused by the pulses from said pulsed pump light source.

22. The optical supercontinuum system of claim 21 , wherein said microstructured optical fiber of said supercontinuum light source has a lifetime of more than 2000 operating hours.

23. The optical supercontinuum system of claim 1 , wherein the core material has an OD absorption peak around 1870 nm and said pulsed pump light source is arranged to feed said pulses to a feeding end of said deuterium loaded microstructured optical fiber, said OD absorption peak is at least about 0.5 dB/m determined in a first meter of the feeding end of said deuterium loaded microstructured optical fiber.

24. The optical supercontinuum system of claim 1 , wherein said microstructured optical fiber being a nonlinear fiber in that said microstructured fiber can guide light for at least a range of wavelengths λ min to λ max and for a mode field diameter (MFD) of the fundamental mode over at least a part of said range the fraction (MFD)/λ is less than or equal to 5.

25. The optical supercontinuum system of claim 1 , wherein the pulsed pump light source is adapted to feed said optical fiber with pulses with a peak power density within said fiber equal to or higher than 10 W/μm 2 .

Assignees

• Nkt Photonics As

Inventors

• Thomsen Carsten L

Classifications

• A61B1/06

  with illuminating arrangements · CPC title

• G02B6/44382

  the means comprising hydrogen absorbing materials (G02B6/4439, G02B6/4479 take precedence) · CPC title

• G02B6/02319

  characterised by core or core-cladding interface features · CPC title

• G02B6/02342

  characterised by cladding features, i.e. light confining region · CPC title

• G02B6/0006

  Coupling light into the fibre (in general G02B6/4298) · CPC title