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Microstructured optical fibers present unique properties that enable a number of novel applications. This is due to their particular geometry, which includes an array of holes that runs along their axis, parallel to the core. The possibility of inserting nanoparticles in this type of fiber, especially in photonic crystal fibers, gives rise to novel applications in several areas. In particular, the insertion of luminescent semiconductor nanocrystals has been studied for temperature sensing applications. In this work, we present the development of an all-fiber optical circuit that is able to excite CdSe/ZnS nanocrystals, as well as to efficiently collect their emission, via a double-clad fiber. The nanocrystals were suspended in a polymer, which was inserted into the hollow core of a PCF. Two versions of this setup are discussed and have the advantage of being robust, simple, and of not requiring free-space optics. As a next step, the setup will be tested as a temperature sensor based on the monitoring of the luminescence spectrum.

We report the fabrication of novel SU8/SWCNT composite materials as saturable absorbes. The film can be easily inserted between two FC/APC connectors in order to have an inline saturable absorber. A passive mode-locked laser is created by placing this device in an Erbium doped fiber (L-band) ring cavity laser. The laser produces 871 fs pulses with a repetition rate of 21.26 MHz.

A stable optofluidically tunable fiber laser based on Multimode Interference (MMI) effect is experimentally demonstrated. The tuning mechanism relies on modifying the effective width of the multimode fiber (MMF) using a liquid with a specific refractive index, which in turns tunes the peak wavelength of the filter. We easily demonstrate a tunability of almost 40 nm with a side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) of 47 dBm, and a 3dB bandwidth of 0.4 nm. The laser was operated at room temperature without any thermal control and the wavelength peak was very stable.