Ecoc 2015 - ID: 0264

Multi-peak-spectra Generation with Multiple Dispersive Waves and

Solitons in a Birefringence Tellurite Microstructured Optical Fiber
Tonglei Cheng *, Tong Hoang Tuan, Xiaojie Xue, Dinghuan Deng, Takenobu Suzuki, Yasutake Ohishi,
Research Center for Advanced Photon Technology, Toyota Technological Institute, 2-12-1 Hisakata, Tempaku,
Nagoya 468-8511, Japan
Corresponding author: chengtonglei@gmail.com
Abstract We demonstrate multiple dispersive waves emitted by multiple solitons in a birefringence tellurite
microstuctured optical fiber. Obvious multiple soliton self-frequency shifts are observed in the mid-infrared region.
Introduction
Dispersive wave (DW) generation in the optical fibers, also
known as the nonsolitonic radiation or the Cherenkov
radiation(CR), is due to the energy transfer from a stable
soliton in the anomalous dispersion regime to the narrowband resonances in the normal dispersion regime [1]. DW is
an important physical mechanism for supercontinuum
(SC) generation, and its frequency is determined by the
nonlinear phase-matching (PM) condition with the soliton.
Since the initial discovery by Akhmediev et al. [2], many
researches on DW have been conducted involving various
optical fibers, such as photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) and
chalcogenide microstructured optical fibers (MOFs) [3].
Recently, great attention has been devoted to the highly
efficient DW and multiple DWs in silica optical fibers [4].
However, multiple DWs emitted by stable multiple solitons
are barely touched, especially for the non-silica fibers.
To generate highly efficient DWs and solitons,
tellurite MOFs, which have high nonlinear refractive
indices and broad transparency ranges, are promising
candidates [5], and they have already been applied
into SC generation, soliton self-frequency shift (SSFS),
and third-harmonic generation (THG), etc.
In the paper, we designed a four-hole birefringence
tellurite MOF (BTMOF), and fabricated it by the rod-intube drawing technique. A pulse of 80 MHz and 200
fs from an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) was used
as the pump source. DWs and solitons were
investigated on the fast and slow axes of the BTMOF at
the pump wavelength of 1800 nm with an average
pump power of 200 mW. When the average pump
power increased to 350 and 450 mW, multiple DWs
were emitted by multiple solitons. Moreover, DWs and
solitons at the pump wavelengths of 1400 and 2000
nm were investigated at an average pump power of
350 mW.
Characterization of a BTMOF
The BTMOF (76.5TeO2-6Bi2O3-11.5Li2O-6ZnO, TZLB,
mol%) fabricated by the rod-in-tube drawing technique has
a square core surrounded by four air holes, as shown in the
inset of Fig. 1(a). The lengths of the long and short axes
of the fiber core were measured to be approximately
2.7 and 2.0 m, respectively. At the wavelength of

1800 nm, the loss was 1.1 dB/m, measured by the

cutback technique. The fundamental modes and the
chromatic dispersions of the fast and slow axes were
calculated by a commercial software (Lumerical MODE
Solution) using the full-vectorial mode solver
technology. The results are shown in Fig. 1(b), which
exhibits two zero-dispersive waves (ZDWs): 1345 nm
for the fast axis and 1395 nm for the slow axis. Fig.
1(c) shows the effective mode areas and the nonlinear
coefficients of two orthogonally polarized modes from
1000 to 2600 nm. We can see that the former
increases while the latter decreases with a change in
wavelength.
The strength of modal birefringence is defined by a
dimensionless parameter [1]

Bm

x y
nx ny
k0

(1)

where nx and ny are the modal refractive indices, and

x and y are the propagation constants for two
orthogonally polarized modes. For a given value of Bm,
the two modes exchange their power in a periodic
fashion as they propagate in the fiber with the period,
which is defined as polarization beat length
2

(2)
LB

x y
nx ny
Figure 1(a) shows the calculated modal refractive
indices of two modes and the corresponding beat
length. At the wavelength of 1800 nm, the beat length
of the BTMOF was 0.44 mm.

Ecoc 2015 - ID: 0264

Fig. 2: Experimental configuration for DW and soliton generation in

the BTMOF.

Fig. 1: (a) Beat length and two orthogonally polarized modal

refractive indices of the BTMOF. Inset is the cross-section of the
BTMOF. (b) Calculated chromatic dispersion curves for the fast and
slow axes. Insets are the fundamental mode-field profiles at 1800
nm. (c) Effective mode areas and nonlinear coefficients of the
BTMOF.

Experimental results and discussion

The experimental setup for the DW and soliton
generation in a 0.8 m-long BTMOF is shown in Fig. 2.
The pump source was an OPO (Coherent Inc.) with a
pulse width of 200 fs and a repetition rate of 80 MHz.
The idler wavelength of the OPO could be tuned from
1800 to 3200 nm and the signal wavelength could be
tuned from 1060 to 1440 nm. The output beam was
linearly polarized. After a neutral density (ND) filter, a
half-wave plate (HWP) was inserted to adjust the
polarization state of the input laser beam to the axis of
the BTMOF. The pulse was coupled into the core of
the fiber by lenses: the one for the signal wave had a
focal length of 3.1 mm and a numerical aperture (NA)
of 0.68 (THORLABS, C330TME-C, 1050 1800 nm),
while the other for the idle wave had a focal length of
4.0 mm and an NA of 0.56 (THORLABS, C036TMED, 18003000 nm). The output signal was then buttcoupled into a 0.3 m-long large-mode-area (LMA)
fluoride (ZBLAN) fiber with a core diameter of 105 m
and the transmission window from 0.4 to 5 m. The
nonlinear effect in ZBLAN fiber could be ignored due
to the large core size. Finally, the LMA ZBLAN fiber
was connected to optical spectrum analyzers (OSAs;
Yokogawa AQ6373, 3501200 nm, and Yokogawa
AQ6375, 12002400 nm) and an FT-IR spectroscopy
to record the spectra. At wavelengths from 350 to
2400 nm, the spectra were measured by the OSAs,
and at wavelengths over 2400 nm, the spectra were
measured by FT-IR spectroscopy.

First, we adjusted the idler wave of the OPO to 1800 nm

as the pump wavelength, which was in the anomalous
dispersion regime and far away from the two ZDWs of the
BTMOF. At the average pump power of 200 mW, the
measured spectra with the polarization direction of the
pump pulse parallel to the fast and slow axes are shown in
Fig. 3. The coupling efficiency was 3%, which was
defined as the ratio between the power transmitting in
the core and the power before the lens. Because only
a little power leaked into the cladding, which can be
neglected, the power transmitting in the core can be
measured by OSAs from the output end of the BTMOF.
Considering the coupling efficiency, the peak power
launched into the core was calculated to be 375 W. From
Fig. 3, we can see that when the polarization direction
of the laser pulse was parallel to the fast axis, the
center wavelengths of the 1st DW and the soliton were
950 and 2320 nm, respectively. When parallel to the
slow axis, the center wavelengths of the 1st DW and
the soliton were 1020 and 2130 nm, respectively. It
was clear that the fast axis was more advantageous
for generating a wider SC spectrum. As a result, in the
following experiments, the polarization state of the
pump pulse was always parallel to the fast axis.

Fig. 3: DW and soliton spectra of the fast axis and slow axis at 1800
nm, 200 mW.

Figure 4 shows multiple DWs emitted by multiple solitons

at the average pump power of 200, 350, and 450 mW.
The coupling efficiency was the same (3%), and the
peak powers launched into the core of the BTMOF were
calculated to be 375, 656, and 844 W. With an increase in
the average pump power, multiple soliton pulses changed
their central frequencies and obvious multiple SSFSs were
observed in the mid-infrared region. The center wavelength
of the 1st soliton increased from 2320 to 2550 nm, the 2nd
soliton from 1970 to 2350 nm, the 3rd soliton from 2005
to 2015 nm, and the 4th soliton from 1840 to 1900 nm.
Multiple soliton behavior observed in this experiment

Ecoc 2015 - ID: 0264

was due to the breakup of high-order solitons in the

presence of Raman scattering and self-steepening.
Meanwhile, multiple DWs were trapped by multiple
solitons under the nonlinear phase-matching condition,
which was the main reason for the blueshift of the
spectral evolution. With an increase in the average pump
power, the center wavelength of the 1st DW decreased
from 956 to 890 nm, the 2nd DW from 1039 to 997 nm,
the 3rd DW from 1101 to 1080 nm, and the 4th DW from
1160 to 1150 nm. Apart from this, we also noticed that at a
low average pump power of 200 mW, only the 1st DW
was obtained. This is because it was difficult for the 2nd,
3rd, and 4th DW to satisfy the nonlinear phase-matching
condition at the low power.

Fig. 4: Multiple DWs emitted by multiple solitons with the average

pump power of 200, 350, and 450 mW at 1800 nm.

To show the generated multiple DWs and solitons as a

function of the pump wavelength, DWs and solitons at the
pump wavelengths of 1400 and 2000 nm were further
investigated at an average pump power of 350 mW, as
shown in Fig. 5. When the pump wavelength increased to
2000 nm, only the 1st soliton, the 2nd soliton, and the 1st
DW were observed, whose center wavelengths were 2630,
2220, and 844 nm, respectively. When compared with
the pump wavelength of 1800 nm, the number of solitons
and DWs becomes less. This is because the pump
wavelength moves far away from the ZDW, making it more
difficult for multiple solitons to form. Furthermore, due to the
phase mismatch of the 2nd soliton, the 2nd DW was not
observed. When the pump wavelength decreased to 1400
nm (the signal wavelength from OPO), which was close to
the ZDW, the lens was changed to C330TME-C. Under this
condition, SC spectrum from 870 to 2680 nm was
obtained. The spectral evolution for the redshift was mainly
due to the Raman soliton dynamics, and the blueshift was
mainly due to the self-phase modulation (SPM) and the
DWs emitted by the solitons. Near the ZDW, the
prominence of other nonlinear effects covered the DWs and
solitons, and rendered them unobserved. Furthermore,
because the OH impurities in the tellurite glass are difficult to
be removed thoroughly during the fabrication process, the
output pump power becomes low at 2.8 m.

Fig. 5: Measured spectra with the average pump power of 350 mW

at the pump wavelength of 1400, 1800 and 2000 nm.

Conclusions
We designed and fabricated a four-hole BTMOF in
which multiple DWs were emitted by stable multiple
solitons. At the pump wavelength of 1800 nm, obvious
multiple SSFSs were obtained in the mid-infrared
region with the average pump power increasing from
200 to 450 mW. Meanwhile, the center wavelength of
the 1st DW decreased from 956 to 890 nm, the 2nd
DW from 1039 to 997 nm, the 3rd DW from 1101 to
1080 nm, and the 4th DW from 1160 to 1150 nm. By
increasing the pump wavelength to 2000 nm, only the
1st soliton, the 2nd soliton, and the 1st DW were
observed. Decreasing the pump wavelength to 1400
nm, which was close to the ZDW, SC spectrum from
870 to 2680 nm was obtained.
Acknowledgements
Tonglei Cheng acknowledges the support of the
JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship. This work is supported
by MEXT, Support Program for Forming Strategic
Research Infrastructure (2011-2015) and Daiko
Foundation.
References
[1] G. P. Agrawal, Nonlinear Fiber Optics, 4th ed.
(Academic, 2007).

[2] N. Akhmediev and M. Karlsson, Cherenkov radiation

emitted by solitons in optical fibers, Phys. Rev. A 51,

26022607 (1995).
[3] A. Efimov, A.V. Yulin, D.V. Skryabin, J. C. Knight, N.
Joly, F. G. Omenetto, A. J. Taylor, and P. S. J. Russell,
Interaction of an Optical Soliton with a Dispersive
Wave, Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 21390214 (2005).
[4] G. Manili, A. Tonello, D. Modotto, M. Andreana, V.
Couderc, U. Minoni, and S. Wabnitz, Gigantic
dispersive wave emission from dual concentric core
microstructured fiber, Opt. Lett. 37, 41014103 (2012).
[5] T. L. Cheng, W. Q. Gao, M. S. Liao, Z. C. Duan, D. H.
Deng, M. Matsumoto, T. Misumi, T. Suzuki, and Y.
Ohishi, Tunable third-harmonic generation in a
chalcogenide-tellurite hybrid optical fiber with high
refractive index difference, Opt. Lett. 39, 10051007
(2014).