Tapered fiber liquid crystal hybrid broad band device

Tapered fiber liquid crystal hybrid broad band device

Citation

Mos, J. E., Stasiewicz, K. A., Garbat, K., Morawiak, P., Piecek, W., & Jaroszewicz, L. R. (2018). Tapered fiber liquid crystal hybrid broad band device. Physica Scripta, 93(12), 125002.

Keywords

  • Tapered fiber technology
  • Liquid crystals (LCs)
  • Broadband filter
  • Refractive index modulation
  • Fiber optics sensors
  • Electro-optical properties
  • Transmission characteristics
  • Optical power

Brief

This article presents the design, fabrication, and testing of a broadband optical filter that leverages a tapered optical fiber surrounded by a liquid crystal medium whose refractive index can be controlled by an electric field.

Summary

This article, published in 2018 in the journal Physica Scripta, details the design and characterization of a broadband filter that uses both tapered fiber technology and liquid crystals. The authors of this article are J E Mos, K A Stasiewicz, K Garbat, P Morawiak, W Piecek, and L R Jaroszewicz. The filter uses a biconical optical fiber taper surrounded by liquid crystals, which allows for control of the effective refractive index of the fiber cladding.

Two types of liquid crystal orientation were used: orthogonal (ORT), where the rubbing direction is perpendicular to the taper axis, and parallel (PAR), where the rubbing direction is parallel to the taper axis. Researchers applied an electric field to the liquid crystals to control the orientation of the liquid crystal molecules, thus changing the refractive index and affecting light propagation. This allows for the creation of a tunable filter that can operate over a broad range of wavelengths.

The researchers found that the filter could be tuned by both the electric field and the temperature. They also found that the ORT structure had higher transmitted power than the PAR structure. The PAR structure, however, had shorter switching times. The researchers conclude that it is possible to create a tunable filter that operates in a chosen wavelength range by using specific liquid crystal mixtures and taper sizes.

Origin: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1402-4896/aae719/meta

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