Disclosure of Invention
The invention aims to provide a rare earth doped optical fiber darkening testing device which is short in testing time, high in detection precision and simple in structure.
The following presents a simplified summary of one or more aspects in order to provide a basic understanding of such aspects. This summary is not an extensive overview of all contemplated aspects, and is intended to neither identify key or critical elements of all aspects nor delineate the scope of any or all aspects. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of one or more aspects in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.
According to one aspect of the invention, the rare earth doped fiber photodarkening test device comprises a visible light signal source, a passive matching fiber, a cladding light filter, a beam combiner, a tested rare earth doped fiber and a pump light filter which are sequentially connected, wherein a semiconductor laser is further connected to the input end of the beam combiner, during testing, a visible light beam emitted by the visible light signal source enters a first power detector after passing through the cladding light filter, the beam combiner, the tested fiber, the pump light filter and a filter, and laser emitted by the semiconductor laser is cut off at the filter after passing through the beam combiner, the tested fiber and the pump light filter.
In one embodiment, the cladding light filter of the apparatus is used for filtering the cladding light output by the visible light signal source.
In one embodiment, the pump light filter of the apparatus is used to filter out pump light that has not been absorbed and converted after passing through the rare-earth doped fiber to be tested.
In an embodiment, a light wavelength division multiplexer is further disposed between the passive matching fiber and the cladding light filter, and an output end of the light wavelength division multiplexer is connected with a pumping fiber for guiding out the returning light.
In an embodiment, said wavelength division multiplexer of the apparatus is a grating type wavelength division multiplexer.
In one embodiment, the pump fibers of the device are connected to a second power detector.
In one embodiment, the length of the measured rare earth doped fiber of the device is 5cm to 50 cm.
In an embodiment, the visible light signal source of the device is a red laser, the red light wavelength output by the red laser is 630nm to 635nm, and the output power is 20mW to 40 mW.
In one embodiment, the visible light signal source of the device is provided with a tail fiber, and the passive matching fiber is an optical fiber with the same type as the tail fiber of the visible light signal source.
In one embodiment, the semiconductor laser of the device is provided with a tail fiber, and the output power of the semiconductor laser is 150 mW-250 mW.
The embodiment of the invention has the beneficial effects that: the existing optical fiber laser is replaced by a visible light signal source, the optical darkening loss at the visible light position is calculated by utilizing the power change of the visible light after the visible light passes through the optical fiber to be tested, and the optical darkening loss of the optical fiber to be tested at the laser working wavelength is indirectly calculated, so that the test can be completed in a short time. By arranging the cladding light filter and the pump light filter, the cladding light from a signal source and the pump light which is not absorbed and converted by the tested optical fiber can be filtered, so that the test accuracy is improved, and the rare earth doped optical fiber can be suitable for rare earth doped optical fibers with different cladding diameters.
Detailed Description
The invention is described in detail below with reference to the figures and specific embodiments. It is noted that the aspects described below in connection with the figures and the specific embodiments are only exemplary and should not be construed as imposing any limitation on the scope of the present invention.
As shown in fig. 1, an embodiment of the present invention discloses a rare earth doped fiber optical darkening test apparatus, which includes a visible light signal source 1, a passive matching fiber 2, a cladding optical filter 4, a beam combiner 6, a rare earth doped fiber 7 to be tested (such as an ytterbium doped fiber, a thulium doped fiber, a praseodymium doped fiber, etc.), and a pump optical filter 8, which are connected in sequence. Specifically, one end of a passive matching fiber 2 is welded with a visible light signal source 1, the other end of the passive matching fiber 2 is welded with the input end of a cladding light filter 4, and the output end of the cladding light filter 4 is welded with the input end of a signal fiber of a beam combiner 6; the output end of the semiconductor laser 5 is welded with the input end of the pump fiber of the beam combiner 6, the output signal fiber of the beam combiner 6 is welded with one end of the tested rare earth-doped fiber 7, and the other end of the tested rare earth-doped fiber 7 is welded with the input end of the pump light filter 8. The input end of the beam combiner 6 is also connected with a semiconductor laser 5.
During detection, light beams emitted by the visible light signal source 1 sequentially pass through the cladding light filter 4, the beam combiner 6 and the detected rare earth-doped optical fiber 7, then are emitted from the pump light filter 8, pass through the filter 9 and then enter the first power detector 10. Laser light emitted by the semiconductor laser 5 is excited through the measured rare earth doped fiber 7, pump light which is not absorbed and converted by the measured rare earth doped fiber 7 is filtered by the pump light filter 8, and laser light generated by excitation is cut off at the filter 9.
The detection principle of the device is as follows: the optical darkening loss at the visible light position and the optical darkening loss at the laser working wavelength are in a direct proportion relation, the visible light is introduced into the measured optical fiber, the power change of the visible light after passing through the measured optical fiber is tested, and the optical darkening loss of the visible light is calculated, so that the optical darkening loss of the optical fiber to be measured at the laser working wavelength is indirectly calculated. The faster the optical power can be dropped over time, the greater the photon darkening effect of the measured optical fiber.
The cladding light filter 4 is configured to filter cladding light output by the visible light signal source 1, and ensure that light entering the signal fiber of the beam combiner is signal light. The pump light filter 8 is used for filtering out pump light which is not absorbed and converted after passing through the measured rare earth doped fiber 7. The filter 9 is used for cutting off laser generated by exciting the tested rare earth doped fiber 7 and only retaining visible light. In the existing visible light loss test system, there is usually no device for filtering out the cladding light of the signal source and the pump light of the tested optical fiber, so the test precision is low.
In addition, because the tail fiber length of the visible light source is limited, the test at every time needs to be welded once, so that the consumption of the tail fiber of the visible light source is too fast, and the device can reduce the consumption speed of the tail fiber of the optical fiber by welding the passive matching optical fiber 2.
Since the output end face of the optical fiber generates a mirror effect, a small portion of light returns from the output end face, thereby generating return light. In order to reduce the damage of the return light to the visible light signal source 1, in a possible embodiment, a light wavelength division multiplexer 3 is further disposed between the passive matching fiber 2 and the cladding light filter 4, a pump fiber 12 is connected to an output end of the light wavelength division multiplexer 3, and the light wavelength division multiplexer 3 separates the return light from the output light and guides the return light out through the pump fiber 12. Preferably, the wavelength division multiplexer 3 is a grating type wavelength division multiplexer, and it should be noted that the power tolerance range of the wavelength division multiplexer 3 needs to match the power range of the test system.
Furthermore, the pump fiber 12 can be connected with the second power detector 11, and the intensity of the photon darkening effect can be judged by monitoring the attenuation speed of the return light power, so that the detection reliability is improved.
The existing testing device using the fiber laser has different lengths of the used optical fibers according to different types of the optical fibers to be tested, and the high-power laser needs to use the optical fibers with the length of more than 40 m. Because the length of the used optical fiber is long, the laser is turned on to continuously emit light, and the maximum time is about thousands of hours, so that the population inversion of more than 50% can be realized. The long-time on-state testing has large consumption on the optical devices of the laser set. The length of the tested rare earth-doped optical fiber 7 used by the device is 5 cm-50 cm, and the tested optical fiber can complete over 50 percent of particle number reversal in a short time in the testing process, so that the testing time is shortened, and the consumption of optical devices is reduced.
In a possible embodiment, the visible light signal source 1 is a red laser, the red laser outputs a red light with a wavelength of 630nm to 635nm, and the output power is 20mW to 40 mW.
Preferably, the visible light signal source 1 is provided with a tail fiber, and the passive matching fiber 2 is an optical fiber with the same type as the tail fiber of the visible light signal source 1. The semiconductor laser 5 is provided with a tail fiber, and the output power of the semiconductor laser 5 is 150-250 mW.
The testing process of the rare earth-doped optical fiber photodarkening testing device in the embodiment comprises the following steps:
1) turning on the first power detector 10 and the second power detector 11;
2) turning on the visible light signal source 1, and adjusting the optical power of the output light of the optical signal source 1 to reach a target value;
3) turning on the semiconductor laser 5;
4) after the optical power of the signal light output by the visible light signal source 1 is stabilized, the power meters of the first power detector 10 and the second power detector 11 are turned on;
5) and monitoring and recording the power value in a period of time in real time, stopping the detection of the power meter after the test of the period of time, storing test data, and turning off the optical signal source 1, the semiconductor laser 5, the first power detector 10 and the second power detector 11.
In conclusion, the invention has the advantages of short test time, high safety and low cost. The existing common method is to connect the optical fiber to be measured into the optical fiber laser and observe the change of the laser power after long-time starting. The method has long test time consumption and higher risk of burning out the optical fiber and the optical device in the test process. The device utilizes the signal source to output visible light, and utilizes the power change of the visible light after the visible light passes through the optical fiber to be tested to calculate the light darkening loss of the optical fiber to be tested at the laser working wavelength, thereby completing the test in a short time. In addition, the optical structure part of the invention is simpler, has strong reliability and stability, and can be suitable for testing various cladding diameter rare earth-doped optical fibers.
The embodiments in the present description are described in a progressive manner, each embodiment focuses on differences from other embodiments, and the same and similar parts among the embodiments are referred to each other.
The previous description of the disclosure is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the disclosure. Various modifications to the disclosure will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other variations without departing from the spirit or scope of the disclosure. Thus, the disclosure is not intended to be limited to the examples and designs described herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.
The above description is only a preferred example of the present application and should not be taken as limiting the present application, and any modifications, equivalents, improvements and the like made within the spirit and principle of the present application should be included in the scope of the present application.