Background
A multi-channel fiber grating filter having uniform characteristics of channel spacing and channel gain is an important device in the fields of optical communication and optical sensing. Although the traditional scheme for realizing the multi-channel filter through the periodic modulation of the alternating current part with the change of the grating refractive index is simple and easy, the consistency of gains of different channels cannot be ensured. The manufacturing conditions of the amplitude and the phase (or the period) of the refractive index change required by the uniform multi-channel fiber grating filter can be calculated through a layered peeling algorithm or a multi-parameter optimization algorithm, but the manufacturing requirements have extremely high requirements on the control precision of the amplitude and the phase in the fiber grating manufacturing process, and the manufacturing conditions are difficult to realize in the actual fiber grating production process or have high realization cost, for example, expensive high-precision phase templates are required.
The patents related to the multi-channel fiber grating at home and abroad are as follows:
tunable multi-channel filter based on silicon-based graphene Bragg grating structure (Chinese patent CN 107390306A);
a high-speed high-precision multi-channel Bragg grating demodulator (Chinese patent CN 106404015A);
a synchronous multi-channel fiber grating sensing and adjusting system (Chinese patent CN 102589586A);
an optical fiber multi-channel perimeter sensing system (Chinese patent CN102519501A) adopting a wavelength division multiplexer;
a parallel distributed computing multi-channel fiber bragg grating vibration signal intelligent sensing system (Chinese patent CN 106404153A).
There are also methods for realizing multi-channel fiber grating filter by periodic modulation function of alternating part of refractive index change in domestic and foreign papers, some methods are simple but cannot realize multi-channel gain consistency; some of the devices can realize the multi-channel gain consistency, but need complex processes, particularly need expensive high-precision phase templates; there is no design and manufacturing method based on the common fiber grating which can realize the characteristics of the uniform multi-channel optical filter and simultaneously meet the requirements of good uniform characteristics and low processing technology, and there is no design and manufacturing method of the uniform fiber grating filter adopting periodic direct current modulation.
Disclosure of Invention
The purpose of the invention is as follows: aiming at the technical problems, the invention provides a multi-channel fiber grating filter based on direct current modulation and a manufacturing method thereof, so as to overcome the defects that the traditional periodic multi-channel optical filter is difficult to realize or high in realization cost.
The technical scheme is as follows: the invention adopts a structure of sampling and seed grating with coexistence periods different by more than 10 times on one optical fiber; the seed grating adopts a conventional fiber grating (a homodromous coupling grating or a reverse coupling grating), the refractive index change of the sampling grating adopts a periodic refractive index change function with specific optimization design, and the refractive index change of the sampling grating finally plays a role in slowly modulating a direct-current part of the refractive index change of the seed grating, so that a uniform channel interval and channel gain multi-channel optical filter is finally formed. The adopted sampling grating is a uniform period grating, so that accurate phase control is not needed, and an expensive phase template is not needed in the manufacturing process. The frequency interval of the realized filter is set arbitrarily by the period of the sampling grating; the central wavelength is determined by the period of the seed grating; the number of channels is more than 2 and is determined by different kinds of special optimized refractive index slow-changing functions; the spectral characteristics of the multi-channel filter remain consistent and are determined by the spectral characteristics of the seed grating. The obtained channel spacing or frequency spacing characteristics are respectively:
seed gratings corresponding to reverse mode coupling (typically bragg fiber gratings): the obtained channel wavelength interval is
The obtained frequency interval is
Wherein P is the period of the sampling grating, Λ is the period of the seed grating, λ is the set central wavelength, c is the speed of light in vacuum, n
effFor the average effective refractive index of the two modes of the back coupling, s is a waveguide dispersion correction factor related to the waveguide dispersion of the different modes of the back coupling, which can be approximated by different constants for different co-coupled modes in a certain wavelength range, and s is 1 for the same mode of the back coupling. The final frequency separation is independent of wavelength.
Seed gratings (typically long period fiber gratings) corresponding to homomode coupling: the obtained channel wavelength interval is
The obtained frequency interval is
Wherein Λ is the period of the seed grating, c is the speed of light in vacuum, and s is a waveguide dispersion correction factor related to the waveguide dispersion of different modes of the homodromous coupling, and can be approximated to different constants for different homodromous coupling modes within a certain wavelength range. The final frequency separation is independent of wavelength.
The fiber grating includes any same or different reverse mode coupling grating (typically a fiber bragg grating) and any same-mode coupling grating (typically a long-period fiber grating), but is not limited to a long-period fiber grating and a fiber bragg grating. The fiber grating comprises various optical fibers which can form the fiber grating, and can be single mode optical fibers, multimode optical fibers and other special optical fibers.
The process for preparing sampling grating and seed grating includes various optical fibre grating processes, such as ultraviolet and CO2Fiber gratings caused by irradiation, heating torsion and various physical phenomena, such as Brillouin gratings.
The manufacturing method provided by the invention only has the precision requirement of the common uniform grating on the control precision of the amplitude and the period of the refractive index change of the fiber grating preparation, and does not need a phase template. The characteristics of the realized multi-channel optical filter are as follows: the number of channels is more than 2; the channel spacing is equal in the frequency domain; channel gain disparity (disparity refers to the dB power difference between the maximum and minimum channel gains of different channels) of less than 1dB for a bandpass optical filter (referred to as the reflection spectrum) formed with a backward mode coupling grating (typically a bragg grating), and less than 3dB for a band-stop optical filter (referred to as the transmission spectrum) formed with a homomode coupling grating (typically a long period fiber grating) (disparity refers to the dB power difference between the maximum and minimum stop-band attenuations of different channels); the spectral characteristics of the multi-channel filter remain consistent and are determined by the spectral characteristics of the seed grating.
Wherein the single channel filter characteristic is determined by the spectrum of the seed grating. Then when the seed grating is a uniform grating, the characteristic of each channel filter in the multiple channels is a uniform grating filter characteristic. However, if the seed grating is a non-uniform grating having a specific filter spectrum characteristic, such as a flat-top filter, the multi-channel filter also has a corresponding filter characteristic.
When the seed grating is a homodromous mode coupling grating (typically a long period grating), the filter is a multi-channel band-stop filter (corresponding to a transmission spectrum); when the seed grating is a reverse mode coupled grating (typically a bragg grating), the filter is a multi-channel band-pass filter (corresponding to the reflection spectrum).
The design steps of the invention are as follows:
firstly, processing a sampling fiber grating with a longer period length according to a specially designed periodic slow-changing refractive index function, selecting the specially designed periodic slow-changing function according to the refractive index change, and determining the channel frequency interval of the finally formed multi-channel filter according to the period of the sampling grating. Different optimally designed periodic slow-varying functions are used for different channel numbers. If the second seed grating is a counter-coupled grating (typically a bragg grating), the optimally designed sampled grating index change function is expressed as follows:
d is a direct current constant part of the change of the refractive index of the sampling grating, J is a set factor of the number of channels, P is the period of the sampling grating, lambda is a set central wavelength determined by the period of the seed grating, and n
effaverage effective refractive index of two coupled modes in the backward coupled seed grating, z is the position of the fiber grating, α
n、θ
nAre optimized parameters for different channel number functions. The obtained channel wavelength interval is
The obtained frequency interval is
Wherein Λ is the period of the seed grating, c is the speed of light in vacuum, and s is a waveguide dispersion correction factor, which is related to the waveguide dispersion of different modes of the reverse coupling, and can be approximated to different constants for different homodromous coupling modes within a certain wavelength range, and s is 1 for the same mode of the reverse coupling. The final frequency separation is independent of wavelength.
If the second seed grating is a homodyne coupled grating (typically a long period grating), the refractive index variation function of the sampled grating is expressed as follows:
d is a direct current part of the sampling grating with refractive index change, the parameter is used for reducing the manufacturing difficulty of the sampling grating, J is a set factor of the number of channels, P is the period of the sampling grating, lambda is a set central wavelength, and delta n
effthe difference between the effective refractive indices of two mode fields coupled in the same direction, z is the position of the fiber grating, α
n、θ
nAre optimized parameters for different channel number functions. The obtained channel wavelength interval is
The obtained frequency interval is
Wherein Λ is the period of the seed grating, c is the speed of light in vacuum, and s is a waveguide dispersion correction factor related to the waveguide dispersion of the homodromous coupling mode, and can be approximated to different constants for different homodromous coupling modes within a certain wavelength range. The final frequency separation is independent of wavelength.
And secondly, processing a seed grating (a homodromous coupling or reverse coupling grating) with set spectral characteristics on the sampling fiber grating with the formed periodic slow refractive index change, wherein the period of the seed grating is less than 1/10 of that of the sampling grating. If the seed grating of the second step is a homodromous coupling grating, amplitude apodization can be further manufactured to reduce out-of-band radiation brought by reflection, and no special requirement is made on an apodization function.
The channel gain intensity of the finally formed multi-channel band-pass filter (corresponding to the reflection spectrum of the backward coupling grating) or multi-channel band-stop filter (corresponding to the transmission spectrum of the same-direction coupling grating) mainly depends on the refractive index change (alternating current coupling coefficient) of the seed grating, and the interval and gain consistency of the multi-channel optical filter mainly depends on the refractive index change control precision of the sampling fiber grating formed by first processing. The second-time formed seed grating needs to be overlapped with the first-time formed sampling fiber grating in space position, the forming area of the seed fiber grating can be smaller than that of the sampling fiber grating, and the starting position and the ending position of the seed grating and the sampling grating do not need to be completely aligned.
The above first and second steps may be interchanged in order.
Has the advantages that: the invention has simple structure and manufacturing method, can be realized on the traditional fiber grating processing equipment, and overcomes the defects that the traditional multichannel optical filter realized by periodic alternating current modulation cannot obtain equal channel gain characteristics, and the multichannel optical filter designed by a layered peeling or multi-parameter optimization method is difficult to realize or has high realization cost and needs an expensive high-precision phase template.
Drawings
FIG. 1 is a diagram of a DC modulated fiber grating structure, which includes two gratings with sampling and seed periods with large difference;
FIG. 2 is a periodic slow-varying function, i.e., a sampling grating refractive index variation function, required for implementing a 3-channel uniform fiber grating filter, using a homodromous coupling grating (taking a long-period fiber grating as an example) as a seed grating;
FIG. 3 is a 3-channel uniform fiber grating filter implemented by using a homodromous coupling grating (taking a long-period fiber grating as an example) as a seed grating;
fig. 4 is a periodic slow-varying function, i.e., a sampling grating refractive index variation function, required by a 3-channel uniform fiber grating filter implemented by using a reverse coupling grating (taking a bragg fiber grating as an example) as a seed grating;
FIG. 5 shows a 3-channel uniform fiber grating filter implemented with a reverse coupling grating (e.g., Bragg fiber grating) as a seed grating;
fig. 6 is a periodic slow-varying function, i.e., a sampling grating refractive index variation function, required by a 9-channel uniform fiber grating filter implemented by using a reverse coupling grating (taking a bragg fiber grating as an example) as a seed grating;
fig. 7 shows a 9-channel uniform fiber grating filter implemented by using a reverse coupling grating (taking a bragg fiber grating as an example) as a seed grating.
Example 2: 3-channel uniform optical filter realized on reverse coupling grating (taking Bragg fiber grating as example)
The structure of fig. 1 is adopted, wherein the seed grating adopts a reverse-coupled bragg fiber grating with the period of 0.5345um, the grating length is 1.07cm, and the resonance wavelength is 1550nm (the resonance is thereof)The wavelength position can be adjusted by the period of the seed grating), the apodization function is selected to be sin2(πz/L)。
The refractive index change formula of the sampling fiber grating is as follows:
ΔnDC-FBG(z)=5.85×10-4·sin(2πz/P)
where the period of the sampling grating is P ═ 1mm, the refraction change function of the sampling grating is shown in fig. 4.
The wavelength interval delta lambda of the finally formed multichannel filter is 0.8nm, the frequency spectrum is shown in figure 5, the channel inconsistency of the reflection spectrum of the band-pass filter is 0.02dB, and the transmission spectrum is used for comparison reference.
Example 3: 9-channel uniform optical filter realized on reverse coupling grating (taking Bragg fiber grating as example)
The structure of fig. 1 is adopted, wherein the seed grating adopts a reverse-coupled bragg fiber grating with the period of 0.5345um, the grating length is 1.07cm, the resonance wavelength is 1550nm (the resonance wavelength position can be adjusted by the period of the seed grating), and the apodization function is selected to be sin2(πz/L)。
The refractive index change formula of the sampling fiber grating is as follows:
ΔnDC(z)=3.8751×10-4[-2.935cos(W)-1.16sin(2W)-1.26cos(3W)+1.272sin(4W)+0.855cos(5W)]
the period of the sampled grating is P2 mm, and the refraction change function of the sampled grating is shown in fig. 6.
The resulting multichannel filter has a wavelength separation Δ λ of 0.4nm, a spectrum as shown in fig. 7, and a channel non-uniformity of about 0.02dB for the reflection spectrum (band pass filter), and a transmission spectrum for comparison reference.
The manufacturing conditions under various parameters are exemplified above, and the design effects of the multi-channel band-stop filter in the homodromous coupling grating (taking long period grating as an example) and the multi-channel band-pass filter in the counter coupling grating (taking bragg grating as an example) are respectively realized, but the patent is not limited to the above exemplified conditions.