Observation of optical nonlinearities in an all-solid transverse Anderson localizing optical fiber

Abstract

An all-solid transverse Anderson localizing optical fiber (TALOF) was fabricated using a novel combination of the stack-and-draw and molten core methods. Strong Anderson localization is observed in multiple regions of the fiber cross section associated with the higher index strontium aluminosilicate phases randomly arranged within a pure silica matrix. Further, to the best of our knowledge, nonlinear four-wave mixing is reported for the first time in a TALOF.

Learning-Based Image Transport Through Disordered Optical Fibers With Transverse Anderson Localization

“…Among various classical wave realizations, Anderson localization of light has attracted tremendous attention due to mature experimental tools to probe the localization phenomena and diverse possibilities to construct disordered "optical potentials" using disordered refractive index distributions [69][70][71][72]. Many efforts have been made to observe and apply Anderson localization of light in various systems [44][45][46][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82]. For Anderson localization of light to occur, the wave scattering must be strong enough so that the wavelength in the medium is comparable to the scattering mean free path, the so-called Ioffe-Regel criterion [83].…”

“…Instead of relying on conventional optical fibers and algorithms, another avenue to go beyond the barrier would be exploring new waveguiding physics as well as resort to a learningbased approach to tackle the inverse imaging problem. Recently, the emerging transverse Anderson localizing optical fiber (ALOF) provided a lot of evidence that transversely random fiber structures can be utilized as astonishing robust and highquality imaging carriers [42][43][44][45]. ALOFs can potentially supersede conventional optical fibers based on their counterintuitive but intriguing properties: highly multimode systems with single-mode-like behaviors and wavelengthindependent point spread functions [46][47][48][49].…”

Glass: The carrier of light—Part II—A brief look into the future of optical fiber

“…[137][138][139][140] More recently, the unique properties of TALOFs have been employed in a range of new applications including random fiber lasers 141 and novel nonlinear fibers based on four-wave mixing. 142…”

“…The coreless nature of TALOFs that removes this pixilation issue has been shown to transport higher fidelity images than traditional endoscopy fiber structures 137‐140 . More recently, the unique properties of TALOFs have been employed in a range of new applications including random fiber lasers 141 and novel nonlinear fibers based on four‐wave mixing 142 …”

Characterization of the Yb-doped glass Anderson localizing optical fiber (Conference Presentation)

“…The Yb:TALOF we use in these experiments was drawn using a stack-and-draw method [23]. This method consists of first drawing out precursor fibers, derived from a mixed powder composition comprising of 58.46% Al 2 O 3 -36.54% SrO -5.00% Yb 2 O 3 in mol%.…”