Continuously tunable all-in-fiber devices based on thermal and electrical control of negative dielectric anisotropy liquid crystal photonic bandgap fibers

Abstract

We infiltrate photonic crystal fibers with a negative dielectric anisotropy liquid crystal. A 396 nm bandgap shift is obtained in the temperature range of 22-80 degrees C, and a 67 nm shift of long-wavelength bandgap edge is achieved by applying a voltage of 200 Vrms. The polarization sensitivity and corresponding activation loss are measured using polarized light and a full broadband polarization control setup. The electrically induced phase shift on the Poincaré sphere and corresponding birefringence change are also measured. According to the results, tunable wave plates working in the wavelength range of 1520-1580 nm and a potential for realizing a polarimeter working at the 1310 nm region are experimentally demonstrated.

Thermally tunable bandgaps in a hybrid As2S3/silica photonic crystal fiber

“…This is because the refractive index contrast between silica and chalcogenide is decreasing due to the negative thermo-optic coefficient of the high-index chalcogenide films 20 . Similar behavior has also been reported in a polymer fiber filled with chalcogenide 18 and liquid crystals 15,22 . Figure 3 (c) shows how the bandgap edge at 1300 nm shifts over a full cycle of temperature variation indicating the thermal tunability of the bandgaps.…”

“…The sensitivity was found to be about 3.5 nm/˚C. Liquid crystal filled-PCFs have shown sensitivity up to 6.6 nm/˚C 22 . However it should be emphasized that our proposed technique provides the possibility for further functionalization of the fiber because the air holes are still available to host other materials or analytes.…”

Light propagation mechanism switching in a liquid crystal infiltrated microstructured polymer optical fibre

“…A similar effect has been previously demon− strated in silica−based photonic crystal fibres infiltrated with a liquid crystalline material [23][24][25][26][27]. The photonic bandgap effect and tuning of the photonic bandgaps in polymer mi− crostructured optical fibres infiltrated with liquid crystals have been also demonstrated [14,28].…”

Tunable and rotatable birefringence controller based on electrical control of Liquid Crystal filled Photonic Bandgap fibers

“…Continuously tunable birefringence controllers by using Liquid Crystal Photonic BandGap (LCPBG) fibers have been proposed [1,2]. Here, we demonstrate the first compact electrically tunable and rotatable birefringence controller based on LCPBG fibers.…”