Dispersion-shifted all-solid high index-contrast microstructured optical fiber for nonlinear applications at 1.55μm

We report the fabrication of an all-solid highly nonlinear microstructured optical fiber. The structured preform was made by glass extrusion using two types of commercial lead silicate glasses that provide high index-contrast. Effectively single-moded guidance was observed in the fiber at 1.55 mu m. The effective nonlinearity and the propagation loss at this wavelength were measured to be 120W(-1)km(-1) and 0.8dB/m, respectively. Numerical simulations indicate that the fiber is dispersion-shifted with a zero-dispersion-wavelength of 1475nm and a dispersion slope of 0.16ps/nm(2)/km respectively at 1.55 mu m. These predictions are consistent with the experimentally determined dispersion of + 12.5ps/nm/km at 1.55 mu m. Tunable and efficient four-wave-mixing based wavelength conversion was demonstrated at wavelengths around 1.55 mu m using a 1.5m-length of the fiber. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America