Infiltration of photonic crystal fiber with liquid crystals

Abstract

Photonic crystal fiber is glass or polymer fiber with array of microscopic air holes running along length of the fiber. Waveguide properties of such fiber can be controlled by introducing additional materials into the air holes. Liquid crystals (LC) are very suitable for that purpose because its refractive index can be easily tuned by electric field or temperature. Alignment of LC in photonic holes determines mostly the optical properties of the fiber. In this paper, we have developed the technique of photo-configurable alignment of LC in glass micro-tubes and in photonic crystal fiber. The order parameter of LC has been obtained from FTIR spectroscopy data and has demonstrated good alignment quality. Presented technique can be used as non-contact method of LC alignment in complex photonic crystal structure.

Nonlinear effects in photonic crystal fibers filled with nematic liquid crystals

“…These structures have several parameters one can manipulate, thus providing general design flexibility and exhibiting different physical properties compared to conventional optical fibers. The air-filled capillaries running parallel through the entire length of the fiber have also given the possibility of infusing liquid materials into PCFs, which has opened a new opportunity to investigate this kind of structure [4][5][6][7][8]. A very interesting idea is the use of nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) to obtain a highly tunable structure.…”

Photoaligning and Photopatterning — A New Challenge in Liquid Crystal Photonics

“…The waveguide properties of such a fiber can be controlled by introducing an additional material into the air holes [18,19]. LC is suitable for that purpose, because its refractive index can be easily tuned by an electric field or temperature.…”

“…LC is suitable for that purpose, because its refractive index can be easily tuned by an electric field or temperature. The technique of photo-configurable alignment of LC in glass microtubes and in photonic crystal fiber was developed (Figure 1) [18,19]. Good homogeneous alignment was detected with polarized microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) methods.…”

Liquid crystal alignment in cylindrical microcapillaries

“…The pho− toalignment is seemed to be the unique method for this case, since the light is capable to reach the tubes passing through the glassy body of the PCF [14][15][16][17][18][19]. First attempts in this direction have been recently made [20][21][22][23][24].…”