3/26/2018 Janet McGreevy, MNTL
Written by Janet McGreevy, MNTL
A paper by ECE ILLINOIS Assistant Professor Peter D Dragic and his research team was selected as an Optics Letters editor’s pick, based on “its excellent scientific quality.” The paper is entitled “Highly nonlinear yttrium-aluminosilicate optical fiber with high intrinsic stimulated Brillouin scattering threshold.”
Vital to the Information Age and just a bit thicker than a human hair, optical fibers carry enormous amounts of information around the world, and are used in countless applications including the Internet, weapons systems, and medicine. Typically developed from silica, today’s optical fibers are reaching the limits of their information-and-power-carrying capacity, due to a phenomena known as nonlinear optical effects.
Dragic and his team are working on ways to reduce or eliminate such nonlinear effects, particularly by addressing stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS), an adverse interaction between optical and acoustic waves. Key to their research is further investigation and development of different materials that can be used to produce optical fibers, such as yttrium-aluminum-garnet.
As demonstrated in this paper, Dragic says that the team has “…figured out a way to significantly suppress SBS to record level in these fibers by their design, via materials and waveguide, thus without the need to stretch or heat the fiber.” Dragic is also affiliated with the MNTL.
The team’s research funding comes from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), High Energy Laser Joint Technology Office (N00014-17-1-2546).
For the original article, visit the MNTL site. This research has also been highlighted by the American Ceramic Society.