1. Highly birefringent optical microfibers
- Author
-
Jian Ju, Haifeng Xuan, and Wei Jin
- Subjects
All-silica fiber ,Optical fiber ,Birefringence ,Materials science ,Miniaturization ,Light ,business.industry ,Plastic-clad silica fiber ,Single-mode optical fiber ,Polarization-maintaining optical fiber ,Models, Theoretical ,Polarization (waves) ,Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics ,law.invention ,Refractometry ,Optics ,law ,Computer-Aided Design ,Scattering, Radiation ,Computer Simulation ,business ,Hard-clad silica optical fiber ,Optical Fibers - Abstract
Highly birefringent (Hi-Bi) air-clad silica microfibers (MFs) with wavelength and sub-wavelength scale transverse dimensions are studied theoretically and experimentally. Hi-Bi MFs are taper-drawn from the standard SMF-28 single mode fibers that are "pre-processed" by "cutting away" parts of the silica cladding on opposite sides of the fiber with a femtosecond infrared laser. Such Hi-Bi MFs have approximately elliptical cross-sections and are approximated by a three-layer model comprising a small central Ge-doped region surrounded by an elliptical silica region and an air-cladding. Theoretical modeling shows that phase and group birefringence of the order 10(-2) can be achieved with such air-clad Hi-Bi MFs. Experiments with an air-clad elliptical fiber with a major diameter of 0.9 microm and a minor/major diameter ratio of 0.9 demonstrated a group birefringence of approximately 0.015, agreeing well with the theoretical predictions. The Hi-Bi MFs are useful for micron/nanoscale polarization maintaining transmission and phase-sensitive interferometric sensors.
- Published
- 2010