Electrostatic actuation of nanomechanical optical fibers with integrated electrodes

Podoliak, Nina; Segura, Martha; Loh, W.H.; Horák, Péter

doi:10.1117/12.2051215

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…The fiber consists of two elongated glass cores, which we model by elliptical shapes of 1.5 × 3 μm size, that are independently supported by two 0.5 μm thick and 15 μm long glass membranes. These dimensions are similar to those of a previously fabricated fiber [20], which was shown to be stiff enough to eliminate any core displacement or vibrations [23]. The cores are separated by a small gap, uniform along the fiber length.…”

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confidence: 65%

Dual-Core Optical Fiber as Beam Splitter With Arbitrary, Tunable Polarization-Dependent Transfer Function

Podoliak

Horák

2017

J. Lightwave Technol.

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Abstract-We present the design of a microstructured dualcore optical fiber with integrated electrodes and filled with liquid crystals. The dual-core structure acts as a directional coupler whose properties depend on the liquid crystal alignment. We show that with four electrodes and two separate driving voltages below 30 V on the electrodes, the beam-splitting properties of the fiber can be controlled independently and continuously for the two polarization components, thus allowing for the realization of any arbitrary 2x2 transfer function, such as tunable polarizers, polarization-dependent attenuators, or polarization-independent beam splitting. Index Terms-Directional couplers, Liquid crystals, Optical fiber devices I. INTRODUCTIONOLARIZATION beam splitters, filters and attenuators are essential optical components for various applications such as polarization-division multiplexing in optical telecommunication networks [1], or polarization encoding in quantum information systems [2], [3]. Splitting between the TE-and TM-polarized modes of optical waveguides has been demonstrated by utilizing different photonic elements, including Mach-Zehnder interferometers [4], multi-mode interference devices [5], [6], directional couplers [3], [7] or waveguide grating structures [8]. Among them, the directional coupler is one of the most widely used structures to achieve a high polarization extinction ratio. It consists of two distinct waveguides placed close together and coupled through overlapping evanescent fields of propagating modes. The coupling strength can be precisely engineered by controlling the waveguide geometry and the length of the interaction region. To some limited degree, post-fabrication tuning can also be achieved by changing either the propagation constants of optical modes or the separation between waveguides.This work was supported through the U.K. National Quantum Technology Programme (EPSRC grants EP/M013243/1 and EP/M013294/1).N. Podoliak is with Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, U.K. (e-mail: n.podoliak@soton.ac.uk).P. Horak is with the Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, U.K. (e-mail: peh@orc.soton.ac.uk).Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/JLT.2017.2729939Polarization beam splitters based on directional couplers can in principle be realized using different waveguide geometries and fabrication platforms. However, most of them so far were fabricated using planar waveguide structures on integrated photonic chips [3], [7], [9]. On the other hand, the realization of directional couplers with polarizing, and ideally continuously tunable, functionality in a fiber platform [10]- [13] would allow for a new generation of all-fiber photonic devices in particular for telecommunication, quantum information, and sensing applications.The possibility of selective filling of air holes in microstructured fibers with differen...

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confidence: 65%

Dual-Core Optical Fiber as Beam Splitter With Arbitrary, Tunable Polarization-Dependent Transfer Function

Podoliak

Horák

2017

J. Lightwave Technol.

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“…The fibers presented in this paper exhibit the required metal electrodes close to the cores for this actuation mechanism, but the supporting membranes are too stiff given the dimensions of Table 1 . Our simulations suggest that voltages higher than ±200 V would have to be applied to the electrodes to observe optical switching in a 50-cm long fiber, generating an electric field sufficiently strong to lead to dielectric breakdown of air in the fiber holes [ 27 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nanomechanical Optical Fiber with Embedded Electrodes Actuated by Joule Heating

et al. 2014

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Nanomechanical optical fibers with metal electrodes embedded in the jacket were fabricated by a multi-material co-draw technique. At the center of the fibers, two glass cores suspended by thin membranes and surrounded by air form a directional coupler that is highly temperature-dependent. We demonstrate optical switching between the two fiber cores by Joule heating of the electrodes with as little as 0.4 W electrical power, thereby demonstrating an electrically actuated all-fiber microelectromechanical system (MEMS). Simulations show that the main mechanism for optical switching is the transverse thermal expansion of the fiber structure.

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“…We expect that similar relations between the forces can be realized in the case of nanofibers with an appropriate and reasonable power of light. We also note that, for the power of 1 mW, the optical force between the nanofibers is about the same as the electrostatic force between nanomechanical optical fibers with integrated electrodes [40].…”

Section: B Optical Force Between the Nanofibersmentioning

confidence: 70%

Optical force between two coupled identical parallel optical nanofibers

Kien,

Chormaic,

Busch

2022

Preprint

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We study the optical force between two coupled parallel identical nanofibers using the rigorous array mode theory. We show that the forces of the even array modes are attractive, while the forces of the odd array modes are repulsive. We examine the dependencies of the optical forces on the array mode type, the fiber radius, the light wavelength, and the fiber separation distance. We show that, for a given power and a given separation distance, the absolute value of the force achieves a peak when the fiber radius and the light wavelength are appropriate.

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Electrostatic actuation of nanomechanical optical fibers with integrated electrodes

Cited by 3 publications

References 20 publications

Dual-Core Optical Fiber as Beam Splitter With Arbitrary, Tunable Polarization-Dependent Transfer Function

Dual-Core Optical Fiber as Beam Splitter With Arbitrary, Tunable Polarization-Dependent Transfer Function

Nanomechanical Optical Fiber with Embedded Electrodes Actuated by Joule Heating

Optical force between two coupled identical parallel optical nanofibers

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