Abstract

This paper experimentally demonstrates a new method to determine the optical nonlinearity of single-mode optical fiber. The technique takes advantage of the well-known nonlinear response of optical fibers and well-developed models for soliton pulse propagation to extract information about the fiber characteristics. Fiber nonlinearity can degrade the performance of communication systems by, for example, causing crosstalk and signal distortions. Measuring the fiber nonlinearity would greatly aid system designers in building and upgrading communication systems. The method is utilized to determine values for n_2/A_{{eff}}, where n_2 is the nonlinearity of the glass and A_{{eff}} is effective area of the core, on various lengths of Corning SMF-28 fiber and Corning SMF-DS fiber. Experimentally measured propagation results for short (\approx2 ps) optical pulses are compared to computer simulated models to determine the fiber nonlinearity. The method finds n_2/A_{{eff}} = 3.0\;\times\;10^{-10} \;{{W}}^{-1} values for short lengths (\approx 400 m) of Corning SMF-28 fiber and values of 2.7\;\times\;1010 W1 for longer lengths (\approx 6.5 km and \approx 20 km). The difference is expected due to the 8/9 polarization scrambling factor, and the values are in agreement with reported literature [1]. The method also determines n_2/A_{{eff}} = 5.6\;\times\;10^{-10} \;{{W}}^{-1} for a \approx 12 km Corning dispersion shifted fiber. The method has two major regimes of operation based on the soliton period, a characteristic length for solitons. For few soliton periods (Z/Z_o < {\sim}4) the output phase is measured as a function of launched power; for many soliton periods (Z/Z_o > {\sim}4) the output pulsewidth is measured as a function of launched power. The method's major advantage is its capability to measure long lengths of standard fiber, where it uses only standard diagnostic tools such as autocorrelation and optical power measurements. However, the method is only applicable in the soliton regime of fibers.

[IEEE ]

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