New CHINESE OPTICS LETTERS COL06020093-3

February 10, 2008 / Vol. 6, No.
2 / CHINESE OPTICS LETTERS 93
Enhanced nonlinearity in photonic crystal f iber by

germanium doping in the core region
Tingting Sun ( xx
), Guiyun Kai ( m?
), Zhi Wang ( ),
Shuzhong Yuan ( ä§
), and Xiaoyi Dong ( ) ÂÂ
Institute of Modern Optics, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071
Received September 28, 2007
Germanium doping in silica can be used as a method for nonlinearity enhancement. Properties of the en-
hanced nonlinearity in photonic crystal fiber (PCF) with a GeO2 -doped core are investigated theoretically
by using all-vector finite element method. Numerical result shows that the nonlinear coefficient of PCF
is greatly enhanced with increasing doping concentration, furthermore, optimal radius of the doped region
should be considered for the desired operating wavelength.
OCIS codes: 060.2270, 060.2400, 060.4370.
Recent years, a novel waveguide in the form of photonic formed by periodic hexagonal air holes. The fuscous cir-
crystal fiber (PCF) has attracted considerable interests cle concentric with the fiber’s axis represents the GeO2
and offered widespread applications due to its unique doping region, and the radius of the doped area is marked
properties[1,2] . One of the promising practical fields is as rD . In Fig. 1(b), a denotes the radius of air holes, and
fiber nonlinearity. With the high index contrast be- d is the width of silica wall (struts holding the core).
tween silica and air, the microstructure fiber can be de- For conventional fiber, the nonlinear coefficient is
signed with a smaller core area allowing stronger mode usually defined as γ = 2πn2 /(λ · Aeff ), where Aeff is
confinement, thus having higher nonlinearity[3−5] . More- the effective modal area and n2 is the nonlinear in-
over, by properly designing, it can provide low disper- dex coefficient of pure silica. However, considering the
sion and dispersion slope characteristics at desired wave- overlapped field with materials which are of different
length range[6]. Abundant nonlinear phenomena can be nonlinear index of refraction, the modified definition of
observed in such kind of fiber with relative short length effective nonlinear mode area of PCF should be adopted
compared with conventional fiber[7] . However, as the di- for the doped situation
mension of the fiber core is decreased to or less than the
n2 ( E(x, y)E ∗ (x, y)dxdy)2
RR
operating wavelength, a so-called “evanescent” situation
occurs. In other words, the distribution of the modal field Aeff = RR ,
ñ2 (x, y)[E(x, y)E ∗ (x, y)]2 dxdy
leaks into the air cladding region, and is no longer well
confined in the silica core. So fiber nonlinearity cannot
be enhanced illimitably by simply reducing the area of
the core. Study shows that germanium doping in silica
can enhance the material nonlinear index of refraction
and has been applied as a mature technique for fabri-
cating conventional high nonlinear (HN) fiber[8] . Thus
such a method may also be employed in pure silica HN-
PCF for further nonlinearity enhancement. In this let-
ter, properties of nonlinearity of HN-PCF with pure silica
core and GeO2 -doped core are theoretically studied using
a finite element method. Result shows that with the co-
operation of the enhanced nonlinear refraction index and
the more confined modal field distribution, the nonlin-
ear coefficient of the PCF is greatly enhanced compared
with pure silica situation. Furthermore, the concentra-
tion and the area of the doped region also have influence
on the fiber’s nonlinearity.
We take all-vector finite element method as our sim-
ulative tool. It is a powerful numerical method and
meets the requisition for modeling microstructure fibers
with complex configuration. In the simulation, a kind
of nonlinear PCF with hexagon air holes in cladding re-
gion is considered, and it has been successfully fabricated
by crystal-fiber A/S[9] . The sketch map of the nonlin-
ear PCF is illustrated in Fig. 1, which contains a small Fig. 1. Sketch map of nonlinear PCF with Germanium doping
solid silica core, surrounded by a microstructure cladding in the core region.
1671-7694/2008/020093-03 c 2008 Chinese Optics Letters

94 CHINESE OPTICS LETTERS / Vol. 6, No. 2 / February 10, 2008
where E(x, y) is the transverse electric field, and ñ2 (x, y)

is the nonlinear index coefficient of the material at po-
sition (x, y)[4] . The refractive index and nonlinear index
coefficient for pure silica are 1.446 and 2.507 × 10−20
m2 /W, respectively. From Ref. [10], the relationship
between relative index difference and the nonlinear re-
fractive index in GeO2 -doped bulk glass can be experi-
mentally expressed as ñ2 = 2.507+0.505δ. We define the
relative index difference as δ = (n21 − n20 )/2n21 , where n0
and n1 denote the refractive indexes of pure SiO2 and the
doped glass, respectively. Note that the above-mentioned
relationship is obtained for operating wavelength of 1550
nm. As the wavelength changes, ñ2 has a slight vari-
ation. However, the variation is smaller by two orders Fig. 3. Nonlinear coefficients of the doped HN-PCF relative
of magnitude and need not be taken into account for to refractive index difference δ.
simplicity[11] .
From Fig. 1, the diameter of the√silica core longer wavelength region. It can be contributed to the
for pure
silica PCF can be evaluated as 3a + 2d . For the more confined mode field distribution in short wave-
fixed operating wavelength, either decrease of the two length resulted from the effect of the rising difference of
parameters will confine the mode distribution within a linear index, where the mode field overlapped more with
smaller area in the silica core until the diameter of the higher ñ2 value, thus having higher level of fiber non-
core is less than the wavelength scale, where the distri- linearity. For the fixed doping region and well confined
bution of the fundamental mode is not confined within mode field distribution, the higher the doping concen-
the silica core and expands beyond into the air region. tration, the larger the fiber’s nonlinear coefficient. Fig-
Thus appropriate parameters should be chosen to ensure ure 3 shows that for fixed operating wavelength, fiber
the smaller silica core whilst well confining the mode dis- nonlinear coefficient increases almost linearly with the
tribution. For comparison, a = 1.2 µm and d = 0.12 µm enhanced relative index difference. At present, PCF con-
are adopted throughout the studies. The lowest curve taining highly GeO2 -doped core with an index difference
in Fig. 2 gives the nonlinear coefficient γ as a function of ∼ 1.06% has been reported[12] . With the gradually
of operating wavelength for pure silica PCF. From the improved technique of fiber doping and fabrication, fiber
curve, γ is 77 km−1 ·W−1 at wavelength of 800 nm, which nonlinearity can be further enhanced in HN-PCF by dop-
is in accordance with that of the actual fiber[9] . Inset is ing GeO2 in the small core region.
the tightly confined mode distribution of the fundamen- The above discussion is carried out under the condition
tal mode. of invariable value of rD . From the modified definition
As for the doped situation, the fiber’s nonlinear of the doped fiber’s nonlinear coefficient, γ relates to the
coefficient γ relative to the wavelength for different in- overlapped integration between the mode field and the
dex contrast according to varying doping concentration nonlinear index coefficient of material ñ2 (x, y). On the
is shown in Fig. 2 (rD is fixed at 0.8 µm). Compared one hand, the change of rD impacts on the distribution of
with the pure silica fiber (δ = 0), great enhancement of ñ2 (x, y). On the other hand, it can also act on the distri-
fiber nonlinearity can be seen due to the cooperation of bution of the mode field by changing the linear refractive
enhanced material nonlinear index ñ2 and more confined index contrast of the waveguide. With such cooperation,
modal field because of the enhanced refractive index con- the behavior of γ relative to rD is complicated, and is
trast. For the fixed operating wavelength, the nonlinear necessary to be investigated. Under the condition of the
coefficient of the fiber presents monotonic increase with well confined mode area, the reducing rD leads to more
the enhancement of the doping concentration in the cal- confined distribution of mode field for the fixed operat-
culated wavelength region. Furthermore, the increase ing wavelength. Although the area of doped region with
is more obvious in short wavelength region than that in relatively high ñ2 is shrinking, the overlap between the
mode field and the nonlinear index coefficient of material
Fig. 2. Nonlinear coefficient as a function of wavelength for

different index contrast between silica bulk and doped core, Fig. 4. Influence of rD on nonlinear coefficients for special
a, d, and rD are 1.2, 0.12, and 0.8 µm, respectively. operating wavelengths.
February 10, 2008 / Vol. 6, No. 2 / CHINESE OPTICS LETTERS 95
is enhanced. However, as rD reduces to a value where 2. T. A. Birks, J. C. Knight, and P. St. J. Russell, Opt.
the distribution of the mode field severely lies out of the Lett. 22, 961 (1997).
doped region, the overlapped field with relatively high 3. T. M. Monro, P. J. Bennett, N. G. R. Broderick, and D.
ñ2 of the doped region is weakened. Fiber’s nonlinear J. Richardson, in Proceedings of OFC’2000 3, 106 (2000).
coefficient as a function of radius of GeO2 -doped region 4. V. Finazzi, T. M. Monro, and D. J. Richardson, IEEE
is shown in Fig. 4. The index difference δ is fixed and Photon. Technol. Lett. 15, 1246 (2003).
the calculated wavelengths are 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 µm, re- 5. V. Finazzi, T. M. Monro, and D. J. Richardson, J. Opt.
spectively. The phenomenon is not so obvious for long Soc. Am. B 20, 1427 (2003).
wavelength compared with short wavelength. However, 6. Y. Li, B. Liu, Z. Wang, M. Hu, and Q. Wang, Chin. Opt.
it is true that optimal rD should be chosen to realize Lett. 2, 75 (2004).
maximal fiber nonlinear coefficient. 7. Q. Wang, M. Hu, and L. Chai, Chin. J. Lasers (in Chi-
In conclusion, nonlinear coefficient of PCF can be nese) 33, 57 (2006).
greatly enhanced by introducing GeO2 -doped region in 8. M. Ohishi, T. Okuno, T. Kashiwada, S. Ishikawa, N.
the center of the silica core. With a finite element Akaska, and M. Nishimura, in Proceedings of IOOC’97 &
method, properties of nonlinearity of HN-PCF before ECOC’97 2, 115 (1997).
and after doping are studied theoretically. The results 9. http://www.crystal-fibre.com/.
show that raising the concentration of the adulterant is 10. K. Nakajima and M. Ohashi, IEEE Photon. Technol.
beneficial for enhancing the fiber nonlinearity. Further- Lett. 14, 492 (2002).
more, optimal radius of the doped region should be con- 11. G. P. Agrawal, Nonlinear Fiber Optics and Applications
sidered for the desired operating wavelength. of Nonlinear Fiber Optics(3rd edn) (in Chinese) D. F.
Jia (trans.), (Publishing House of Electronics Industry,
This work was supported by the “973” Program Beijing, 2002) p.547.
of China and the Tianjin Natural Science Foundation 12. L. Jin, G. Kai, J. Li, W. Chen, J. Liu, Y. Liu, Z. Wang,
(No. 2003CB314906, 06YFJZJC00300). T. Sun’s e-mail J. Zhang, B. Liu, S. Yuan, and X. Dong, Chin. Phys.
address is [email protected]. Lett. 24, 1603 (2007).
References
1. J. C. Knight, T. A. Birks, P. St. J. Russell, and D. M.
Atkin, Opt. Lett. 21, 1547 (1996).

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February 10, 2008 / Vol. 6, No.

2 / CHINESE OPTICS LETTERS 93

Enhanced nonlinearity in photonic crystal f iber by

Received September 28, 2007

1671-7694/2008/020093-03 c 2008 Chinese Optics Letters

where E(x, y) is the transverse electric field, and ñ2 (x, y)

Fig. 2. Nonlinear coefficient as a function of wavelength for

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