Optical Fiber for High-Power Optical Communication

• Main Author: Kenji Kurokawa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2012-09-01
• Series: Crystals
• Subjects: photonic crystal fiber; hole-assisted fiber; fiber fuse; high-power
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4352/2/4/1382

We examined optical fibers suitable for avoiding such problems as the fiber fuse phenomenon and failures at bends with a high power input. We found that the threshold power for fiber fuse propagation in photonic crystal fiber (PCF) and hole-assisted fiber (HAF) can exceed 18 W, which is more than 10 times that in conventional single-mode fiber (SMF). We considered this high threshold power in PCF and HAF to be caused by a jet of high temperature fluid penetrating the air holes. We showed examples of two kinds of failures at bends in conventional SMF when the input power was 9 W. We also observed the generation of a fiber fuse under a condition that caused a bend-loss induced failure. We showed that one solution for the failures at bends is to use optical fibers with a low bending loss such as PCF and HAF. Therefore, we consider PCF and HAF to be attractive solutions to the problems of the fiber fuse phenomenon and failures at bends with a high power input.