Abstract:
An optical fiber (10) having a first section (10A) with little or no small-angle scattering (SAS) and a second section (10B) with an increased amount of SAS is disclosed. The optical fiber is formed by changing the draw temperature (TD) and/or the draw speed (VD) so as to induce index of refraction perturbations (P) at a core interface (40). The SAS optical fiber is useful in forming an evanescent optical fiber sensor (400), wherein the increased SAS enhances an evanescent wave portion (436) of a guided wave (434), which leads to increased sensitivity when measuring a property of a test medium (500).
Abstract:
The present invention provides devices and methods for dynamic dispersion compensation. According to one embodiment of the invention, a dispersion compensating device includes a negative dispersion fiber having an input configured to receive the optical signal, the negative dispersion fiber having a length and dispersion sufficient to remove any positive chirp from each wavelength channel of the optical signal, thereby outputting a negatively chirped optical signal; an amplifying device configured to amplify the negatively chirped optical signal; and a nonlinear positive dispersion fiber configured to receive the negatively chirped optical signal. The devices of the present invention provide broadband compensation for systems having a wide range of variable residual dispersions.