HIGHLY NONLINEAR-OPTICAL FIBER FOR ALL-OPTICAL PROCESSING APPLICATIONS

We have designed and fabricated highly nonlinear dispersion-shifted germania-doped silica fibers for use in the EDFA gain window, and measured a 9-fold increase in the fiber nonlinearity, compared to conventional dispersion-shifted fiber, We have also measured the contribution of the germania index-raising dopant to the effective fiber nonlinearity. We believe that our new fiber design will afford a significant reduction in the required fiber length for nonlinear switching, leading to a broader wavelength switching window, and allowing compact device packaging.