SINGLE-MODE SINGLE-POLARIZATION OPTICAL FIBER

Abstract: The present invention relates to a single-mode single-­ polarization optical fiber which is capable of functioning as an in-line fiber polarizer which allows only one polarization of the fundamental mode to propagate along the fiber. In structure, the fiber comprises a central core region (10) a cladding region (12) which is substantially in contact with the central core region and a surrounding region (12, 14). The various regions are formed such that the refractive index of an outer cladding region is greater than the refractive index of an inner cladding region but less than that of the core region. The arrangement of the present invention produces stress-birefringence between the cladding and surrounding regions and the central core region sufficient to split the two orthogonal polarizations (n II and n┴) of the fundamental mode such that the desired polarization propagates freely and the undesired polarization is attenuated by tunneling through the cladding and surrounding regions.

Description: The present invention relates to a single-mode single-polarization (SMSP) optical fiber. Optical waveguides capable of transmitting power with only one direction of polarization are desirable in many different applications, such as fiber sensors, in-line fiber devices, Raman lasers, and the like. However, an ordinary axially symmetrical single-mode fiber is a "two-mode" fiber because two orthogonally polarized modes can be propagated in it. This fact results in the instability of the polarization state of the propagated mode when geometrical or dielectric perturbations exist in the fiber. To minimize these adverse effects, polarization-preserving fibers, as distinguished from single polarization fibers, have been developed, where these fibers may be categorized into three basic types; (1) elliptical-core fibers, (2) stress-induced birefringent fibers, and (3) side-pit fibers. U. S. Patent 4,274,854 issued to W. Pleibel et al on June 23, 1981 discloses a prior art method of fabricating a polarization-preserving optical fiber which produces a stress-induced birefringence therein. The method includes depositing the cladding layers and the core layer within a specially-shaped substrate tube, collapsing the resultant product into a preform and drawing a fiber therefrom. The difference in thermal expansion among the various layers, combined with their inherent non-circularity, provide the stress-induced birefringence and hence the polarization-preserving properties of the resultant optical fiber. All of the above-cited prior art arrangements, however, relate to polarization-preserving fibers, where such fibers are not capable of suppressing, or eliminating, an undesired polarization of the transmitted mode. A scheme which was intended to suppress the undesired polarization is the side-pit fiber arrangement described in the article "Single-Polarization Single-Mode Optical Fibre With Refractive-Index Pits on Both Sides of the Core" by T. Okoshi et al appearing in Electronics Letters , Vol. 16, No. 18, August 28, 1980 at pp. 712-713. An axially nonsymmetrical index distribution featuring two pits is proposed, one pit on either side of the core. In this structure, the two orthogonally polarized modes have cutoff wavelengths which differ so that in a certain narrow frequency range one mode is attenuated while the other is transmitted. At higher frequencies, both polarizations propagate and the fiber will preserve linear polarization along both principal axes. The effective birefringence is geometrical in nature and is controlled by the index difference between the core, the cladding, and the side pits. For a relative index difference (Δn/n) of 1% the predicted single-polarization bandwidth is about 2.5%. It was suggested by Okoshi et al that for a practical single-polarization fiber a relative index difference of approximately 2% would be required. The side pit structure was investigated experimentally in an article entitled "Single Mode Fibres with Asymmetrical Refractive Index Pits on Both Sides of Core". by T. Hosaka et al appearing in Electronics Letters , Vol. 17, No. 5, March 1981, at pp. 191-193. Here it is verified that side pit fibers preserve linear polarization along the fiber's two principal axes. No single-polarization (in the sense of action as a fiber polarizer) was reported. It was later learned that much of the birefringence of the fiber is stress-induced and modifications were introduced to produce high-birefringence, low-loss polarization preserving fibers as described in the article "Low-loss Single Polarization Fibres with Asymmetrical Strain Birefringence" by T. Hosaka et al appearing in Electronics Letters , Vol. 17, No. 15, July 23, 1981 at pp 530-531. An alternative form of side-pit fiber is described in the article "Side-Tunnel Fibre: An Approach to Polarization-Maintaining Optical Waveguiding Scheme" by T. Okoshi et al appearing in Electronics Letters , Vol. 18, No. 19, September 26, 1982 at pp. 824-826, where the side pits are replaced by hollow tunnels. Such fibers are predicted to have bandwidths of 7% for a 1% relative index difference. In practice, however, true single polarization behaviour has not been observed. A fibre as set out in the preamble of claim 1 is disclosed in DE-A-2 735 312. In this fibre the core is of elliptical cross-section. According to the invention there is provided an optical fiber for propagating a single one of the two orthogonal polarizations of the fundamental mode within a given wavelength range as set out in claim 1. An in-line fiber polarizer can be formed in accordance with the present invention which has significantly low insertion loss, low coupling loss and high extinction ratio. Such a polariser may be employed, for example, in a fiber isolator, multiplexer, filter, tunable optical fiber, or fiber attenuator. Some embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the drawings, where like numerals represent like parts in several views and in which: FIG. 1 illustrates a cross-sectional view of a fiber polarizer formed in accordance with the present invention; FIG. 2 illustrates a refractive index profile illustrating the principle of operation of the present invention; FIG. 3 illustrates a cross-sectional view of an alternative fiber polarizer formed in accordance with the present invention; FIG. 4 illustrates both the major axis and minor axis refractive index profiles of a fiber polarizer formed as illustrated in FIG. 3; FIG. 5 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the present invention capable of decreasing signal loss at longer wavelengths; and FIG. 6 contains a graph illustrating fiber output power as a function of wavelength for a predetermined fiber bending radius. Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 illustrates a cross-sectional view of a fiber polariser formed in accordance with the present invention. A core region 10 is surrounded by a cladding layer 12, and a pair of stress lobes 14 and 16 are disposed, one on each side of cladding layer 12 in a silica substrate 18. In one embodiment of the present invention, core region 10 may comprise germanium-doped SiO₂, cladding layer 12 may comprise fluorine-doped SiO₂, and stress lobes 14 and 16 may comprise boron/germanium-doped SiO₂. In order to provide wave guidance primarily within core region 10, the refractive index of cladding layer 12, denoted n₂, and the refractive index of silica substrate 18, denoted n₃, must be less than the refractive index, n₁, of core 10, and, in particular, n₂<n₃<n₁. It is to be noted that in operation of the present invention the refractive index of stress lobes 14 and 16 may be the same as or less than that of substrate 18. If the refractive index of stress lobes 14 and 16 is greater than that of substrate 18, tunneling will take place into the stress lobes. The presence of stress lobes 14 and 16 creates a sufficient birefringence for the wave traveling down core region 10 so as to split the two orthogonal polarizations, and of the fundamental mode, (δn is denoted as the birefringence and is defined as ) where the undesired polarization of propagation is attenuated by tunneling through cladding layer 12. The refractive index profile illustrated in FIG. 2 is helpful in explaining the basic principle of operation of a fiber polarizer formed in accordance with the present invention. As shown, the profile illustrates three separate refractive indices where n₁>n₃>n₂, and the guided polarization of the fundamental mode is denoted and the unguided polarization is denoted As shown, the guided polarization is split from the unguided polarization by the above-defined amount δn, the stress-induced birefringence. In such a fiber polarizer δn can be approximately equal to 10% of n₃-n₁, or approximately 5x10-⁴. It is to be understood that birefringence is directly related to bandwidth, where a larger δn results in a wider bandwidth, which in this specification means the operational bandwidth for the fiber polarizer. The stress induced by stress lobes 14 and 16 sufficiently splits the two polarizations so as to raise guided polarization above the refractive index n₃ of substrate 18, while forcing unguided polarization to drop below the refractive index n₃ and attenuate through tunneling. Ideally, there will be stress-induced birefringence present at core region 10, but not at substrate 18. In fact, for the configuration illustrated in FIG. 1, some birefringence will exist outside core region 10 which acts to reduce the operable bandwidth of the polarizer. The birefringence decreases with distance from core 10 so that maximum bandwidth requires a large inner cladding 12. However, this inner cladding region 12 should be narrow for rapid tunneling loss of the undesired polarization. Therefore, a trade-off exists between providing rapid tunneling loss and providing a large bandwidth. A cross-sectional view of an alternative fiber polarizer which provides both large bandwidth and rapid tunneling loss is illustrated in FIG. 3. A core region 30 is surrounded by a highly elliptical inner cladding layer 32 which is in turn surrounded by an outer cladding layer 34. In FIG. 3, outer cladding layer 34 has an elliptical cross-section. However, it is to be understood that outer layer 34 may have any suitable cross-section form. In order to provide wave guidance primarily within core region 30, the refractive indices of inner cladding layer 32 and outer cladding layer 34, denoted n₂ and n₃, respectively, must be less than the refractive index, n₁, of core region 30, and in particular n₂<n₃<n₁. Inner cladding layer 32 has a sufficiently high ellipticity such that the minor axis of inner cladding layer 32, is essentially equal to the radius of core region 30. This large ellipticity of inner cladding layer 32 thereby induces a large stress on the fiber, sufficient to significantly separate the two polarizations of the fundamental mode, denoted and In the exemplary embodiment of the present invention illustrated in FIG. 3, inner cladding 32 in association with its highly elliptical cross-section, provides both the necessary low refractive index cladding and stress-induced birefringence to form a fiber polarizer in accordance with the present invention. The embodiment as illustrated has the advantage that the birefringence falls off very quickly outside core region 30 along the minor axis of inner cladding 32 and, therefore, the operable bandwidth is little affected by the presence of birefringence outside core region 30. In one particular exemplary arrangement of a fiber polarizer formed as illustrated in FIG. 3, core region 30 may comprise SiO₂, inner cladding layer 32 may comprise boron-doped SiO₂, and outer cladding layer 34 may comprise flourine-doped SiO₂. Formed as such, a fiber polarizer may have a δn approximately equal to 4.7x10⁻⁴, as measured from a beat length L=1.1mm at λ=514.5nm. The extinction ratio of a 1.2m section of fiber polarizer formed in accordance with the present invention is approximately 30dB at 633nm, where insertion loss is approximately 2.3dB, including end reflections and coupling loss. The refractive index profile for a fiber polarizer formed in accordance with the embodiment of the present invention illustrated in FIG. 3 is shown in FIG. 4, where both the profile related to the major axis of the fiber and the profile related to the minor axis of the fiber are illustrated. An alternative embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in FIG. 5. As shown, the fiber comprises a doped (for example, germanium) silica core region 40, a low index inner cladding layer 42, and a non-circular outer cladding region 44, where outer region 44 may comprise boron-doped SiO₂ and cladding layer 42 may comprise fluorine-doped SiO₂. In this particular embodiment, tunneling occurs between core region 40 and outer region 44. Cladding layer 42 functions to decrease the loss at longer wavelengths due to the presence of boron in the outer region 44. A graph illustrating fiber output power versus wavelength for unpolarized white light excitation of a single-mode single-polarization fiber formed in accordance with the present invention is illustrated in FIG. 6. Curve A is associated with the transmitted polarization of propagation and curve B is associated with the suppressed polarization of propagation As can be seen by reference to FIG. 6, when the wavelength of the transmitted light reaches approximately 0.54 micrometers, the two polarizations of the fundamental mode begin to split significantly, and when the input light has a wavelength of approximately 0.56 micrometers, the undesired polarization of propagation is suppressed, that is, has negligible output power. This split between the two polarizations of the fundamental mode exists over the bandwidth, C, illustrated in FIG. 6, thereby yielding a fiber polarizer comprising a significantly larger bandwidth than available with prior art devices. In one arrangement of the present invention, the fiber polarizer may be bent to include a predetermined bending radius or wrapped around a rod of predetermined diameter, where the operating wavelength of the polarizer shifts as a function of the bending radius. Therefore, a fiber polarizer may be tuned to a desired wavelength of operation merely by bending, or wrapping, the fiber polarizer. The transmission data of FIG. 6 were obtained with four turns of a polarizer fiber, formed in accordance with the present invention, wound with a 1.5 cm bending radius. The same fiber may be wound on a 14 cm diameter rod, and will function as a polarizer between 0.6 and 0.64 µm.

Claims: An optical fiber for propagating a single one of the two orthogonal polarizations of the fundamental mode within a given wavelength range, comprising a central core region (10,30,40) having a first refractive index (n₁), an outer region (18,34,44) having a refractive index (n₃) less than the first refractive index and a cladding region (12,32,42) having a refractive index (n₂) less than that of the outer region, in intimate contact with the core region and the outer region, surrounding the core region and separating the core region from the outer region, the structure of the fiber being axially asymmetric so as to induce a birefringence capable of sufficiently splitting said two polarizations of the fundamental mode, and the refractive index (n₃) of the outer region being sufficiently low that the said one of said split polarizations is guided by the core region but not low enough to prevent the said other orthogonal polarization from tunneling through the cladding region into the outer region and thus being attenuated, CHARACTERISED IN THAT the core region is of circular cross-section, the said birefringence being stress birefringence induced by axial asymmetry in portions (14,16,32,34,44) of the fibre outside the core. An optical fiber according to claim 1 wherein the outer region (18) includes a first stress lobe (14) and a second stress lobe (16) disposed on opposite sides of the cladding region (12). An optical fiber according to claim 1 wherein the cladding region (32) comprises a layer of non-circular cross-section, having a wide and a narrow dimension, surrounding the central core region (30) so that said outer region (34) is in close proximity to said central core region in the direction of the narrow dimension of said cladding region, and the outer region (34) comprises a layer completely surrounding said first cladding region. An optical fiber according to claim 1 wherein the central core region comprises SiO₂, the cladding region comprises boron-doped SiO₂, and the outer region comprises fluorine-doped SiO₂. An optical fiber according to claim 1 wherein the central core region comprises germanium-doped SiO₂, the cladding region comprises boron-doped and germanium-doped SiO₂, and the outer region comprises SiO₂. An optical fiber according to claim 1 wherein the central core region comprises SiO₂, the cladding region comprises fluorine-doped SiO₂, and the surrounding region comprises SiO₂. An optical fiber according to claim 1 wherein the central core region comprises germanium-doped SiO₂, the cladding region comprises fluorine-doped SiO₂; and a non-circular outer region comprises a combination of boron and an additional dopant in SiO₂. An optical fiber according to claim 7 wherein the additional dopant is at least one of germanium and phoshorus. An optical fiber according to claim 1 wherein a section of said fibre is disposed with a predetermined bending radius, wherein said predetermined bending radius is related to the operable wavelength of said optical fiber. An optical fiber according to claim 9 wherein said section of said optical fiber is wrapped to form a coil-like structure.

Inventors: HOWARD, RICHARD EDWIN, PLEIBEL, WILLIAM, SIMPSON, JAY RICHARD, STOLEN, ROGERS HALL
Applicants: WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY, INCORPORATED
Application year: 1984
Main classification: G02B6
IPC codes: G02B6, C03C13, C03C3