D-microfibers

Abstract

A simple mechanical setup was used to polish a standard single mode optical fiber in order to make it asymmetric. The polished fiber was tapered down maintaining the D-shape transversal profile. Its broken symmetry along with the extended evanescent field, due to the dimensions of the microfiber, implies a potentially high birefringent waveguide as well as a high-sensitivity external refractive index device. An experimental maximum sensitivity of S≈(3.0±0.2)×104 nm/RIU was achieved, other experimental and numerical results supporting our initial assumptions are also presented. © 1983-2012 IEEE.311630563061Ortigosa-Blanch, A., Knight, J.C., Wadsworth, W.J., Arriaga, J., Mangan, B.J., Birks, T.A., Russell, P.S.J., Highly birefringent photonic crystal fibers (2000) Opt Lett, 25 (18), pp. 1325-1327. , http://ol.osa.org/ab-stract.cfm?URI=ol-25-18-1325, SeptBeltrán-Mejia, F., Chesini, G., Silvestre, E., George, A.K., Knight, J.C., Cordeiro, C.M., Ultrahigh-birefringent squeezed lattice photonic crystal fiber with rotated elliptical air holes (2010) Opt Lett, 35 (4), pp. 544-546. , http://ol.osa.org/abstract.cfm?URI=ol-35-4-544, FebJung, Y., Brambilla, G., Oh, K., Richardson, D.J., Highly birefringent silicamicrofiber (2010) Opt. Lett, 35 (3), pp. 378-380. , http://ol.osa.org/abstract.cfm?URI=ol-35-3-378, FebLi, J., Sun, L.-P., Gao, S., Quan, Z., Chang, Y.-L., Ran, Y., Jin, L., Guan, B.-O., Ultrasensitive refractive-index sensors based on rectangular silica microfibers (2011) Opt Lett, 36 (18), pp. 3593-3595. , http://ol.osa.org/ab-stract.cfm?URI=ol-36-18-3593, SepXuan, H., Ju, J., Jin, W., Highly birefringent optical microfibers (2010) Opt Exp, 18 (4), pp. 3828-3839. , http://www.opticsexpress.org/abstract.cfm?URI=oe-18-4-3828, FebKou, J.-L., Huang, Z.-D., Zhu, G., Xu, F., Lu, Y.-Q., Wave guiding properties and sensitivity of D-shaped optical fiber microwire devices (2011) Appl. Phys. B, 102, pp. 615-619. , http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00340-010-4244-yBirks, T., Li, Y., The shape of fiber tapers (1992) J. Lightw. Technol., 10 (4), pp. 432-438Silvestre, E., Pinheiro-Ortega, T., Andrés, P., Miret, J.J., Ortigosa-Blanch, A., Analytical evaluation of chromatic dispersion in photonic crystal fibers (2005) Opt Lett, 30 (5), pp. 453-455. , http://ol.osa.org/abstract.cfm?URI=ol-30-5-453, MarPress, W.H., Teukolsky, S.A., Vetterling, W.T., Flannery, B.P., (1992) Numerical Recipes in C (2nd Ed.): The Art of Scientific Computing, , New York, NY, USA: Cambridge Univ. PressRashleigh, S.C., Measurement of fiber birefringence by wavelength scanning: Effect of dispersion (1983) Opt. Lett., 8 (6), pp. 336-338. , http://ol.osa.org/ab-stract.cfm?URI=ol-8-6-336, JunHeller, W., Remarks on refractive index mixture rules (1965) J. Phys. Chem., 69 (4), pp. 1123-1129. , http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/j100888a006Astle, M., Weast, R., (1979) CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, , Boca Raton FL USA: CRC Pres