We present a scanning near-field optical microscope operating in reflection suitable for simultaneous bright field and fluorescence imaging. A non-coated pulled optical fibre is used in true reflection mode, i.e. both as emitter and collector. Beam splitters, dichroic mirrors and polarisers are combined to discriminate the different wavelength and polarisation signals. The distance between fibr...

Introduction: Polarisation mode dispersion (PMD) is an important factor in the performance of long-distance high speed optical transmission systems. There is clearly a need for a practical approach that supports the network provider’s planning and route design process for possible capacity upgrading in existing fibre plants, such as to retrofit 10 Gbit/s dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM) ...

For the first time the modulation format dependence of nonlinear interference in long-haul optical fibre transmission is experimentally demonstrated for polarisation-division multiplexed 4, 16, 64

D J Ives, National Physical Laboratory UK. ([email protected]) Abstract Many of the sources used in optical fibre systems are highly polarised and thus for highly accurate power measurements the polarisation dependent response (PDR) of the power meter becomes an important parameter. The use of Optical Spectrum Analysers (OSA) to test components and measure the relative powers in WDM systems ...

Introduction: Recently we have proposed a multi-carrier format called coherent optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CO-OFDM) to combat fibre chromatic dispersion, and have shown that a CO-OFDM signal can traverse 3000 km of standard singlemode fibre without dispersion compensation [1]. In this Letter, we show another critical feature for the CO-OFDM system, namely, its extreme re...

Introduction: Polarisation division multiplexing (Pol-Mux) is an important method to improve spectral efficiency in lightwave communications. For Pol-Mux used in ultra-high-capacity fibre systems, polarisation mode dispersion (PMD) [1] not only distorts and broadens the signal, but also couples polarisation-multiplexed channels. In the case of large PMD, this coupling becomes strongly frequency...

We demonstrate a highly practical and robust soliton transmission system with partial dispersion compensation. Error free transmission was obtained for 10 Gb/s &ta over 1000 km of standard fibre with nominal dispersion of 17 ps/nrm km. Despite variations in the dispersion compensation ratio and the relatively high UV-induced birefiingence of the fibre gratings the system exhibits BERs below lo”...

A distributed feedback laser is fabricated in Er3+-doped photonic crystal fibre. Preferential single-mode lasing is obtained with no special consideration of polarisation issues. The results demonstrate practical implementation of a multi-photon writing process for complex structures in these optical fibres. No hydrogen loading and no germanium are involved.

Introduction: One of the key components in all-optical communication networks using the whole low-loss bandwidth of the silica fibre is an ultra-wideband wavelength converter [1]. Use of all-optical ultrawideband wavelength converters enhances network flexibility, allowing an all-optical wavelength conversion between different transmission windows, and therefore avoiding the bottleneck of optic...