Numerical simulation of a DFB - fiber laser sensor (part 1)

Abstract

This paper presents the preliminary results obtained in developing a numerical simulationanalysis of fiber optic bending sensitivity aiming to improve the design of fiber lasers. The developednumerical simulation method relies on an analysis of both the fundamental mode propagation alongan optical fiber and of how bending of this fiber influence the optical radiation losses. The cases ofsimple, undoped and of doped with Er3+ ions optical fibers are considered. The presented results arebased on numerical simulation of eigen-modes of a laser intensity distribution by the use of finiteelement method (FEM) developed in the frame of COMSOL software package. The numericalsimulations are performed by considering the cases of both normal, non-deformed optic fiber and ofsymmetrically deformed optic fiber resembling micro-bending of it. Both types of fiber optic bendinglosses are analyzed, namely: the transition loss, associated with the abrupt or rapid change incurvature at the beginning and the end of a bend, and pure bend loss is associated with the loss fromthe bend of constant curvature in between.

Keywords

• fiber laser
• sensor
• distributed feedback
• Bragg grating
• eigen-modes
• laser field
• numerical method
• COMSOL