Photopolymerization process is present in the optical fiber technology since its beginning. Organic coatings preventing degradation of an optical fiber was the most important implementation of this process which ensured its practical industry application in telecommunication. However, this process can be implemented to design specialty transducers related to both optical and chemical sensors, as well. Simple optical transducer can be a microtip being an extinction of the optical fiber core as a polymer microelement. A chemical transducer can be a thin polymer layer manufactured on the tapered part of optical fiber. The second type of transducer can be applied to chromatography measurements as a solid phase microextraction fiber. In the paper, technology of the tapered optical fiber and photopolymer sensing layer formations were described. In the first step a standard heat and pull technique was used to taper an optical fiber which, then, was cleaved in two symmetric pieces. Light was launched to such a single element and output optical power from tapered part of the fiber was measured to optimize the photopolymerization process. Placing this element in a photopolymerizable monomer mixture and using a specially selected holder allow for manufacturing a polymer sorption layer applicable as a solid phase microextraction fiber. Extended description of technology of this chemical transducer type and preliminary experimental results displaying its feasibility were presented.
The research is based on properties of a tapered optical fiber, ability to influence external factors on the propagating light beam in the fiber and anisotropic properties of the liquid crystal (LC) mixture that surrounds a tapered region. The combination of these elements is possible by creating a liquid crystal cell consisting of a layer orientating a liquid crystal (LC) between conductive layers. In that type of a sandwich construction, we can change the orientation of LC molecules under influence of the applied electrical voltage. The second interesting feature of LC is change in a structure that results from the degree of molecules’ alignment. When temperature rises, structure of LC changes from smectic through nematic to an isotropic liquid. Both the molecules orientation as well as the LC structure changes modified a refractive index of structure, which directly affects the propagating light beam in a tapered optical fiber. The spectral characteristics in the 500 -1100 nm range for a LC cell filled with a mixture of 1550* oriented orthogonally to the cross section of the tapered optical fiber are presented. Changes on spectral characteristics depended on manipulation of such parameters as: electrical voltage (0-200 V), frequency (1-10 Hz), shape of electrical signal, and time course for different voltage in the range 20-180 V.
Presented article shows the effect of using ZnS:Mn nanoparticles in the solution of higher alkanes on the light wave propagation in a biconical, adiabatic optical fiber taper. The used mixture of alkanes with nanoparticles forms a special cladding surrounding a fiber taper. Described studies show change of beam intensity depending on mixture temperature and its state of aggregation. Tests were carried out in a wide spectral range from the visible up to infrared wavelengths. The taper was made of a standard single-mode telecom fiber, pulled out to a length of 20.0 ± 0.5 mm and the diameter of the taper waist is 14.0 ± 0.2 μm. Such taper causes the beam to leak out of a waist structure and allows to add an external beam-controlling cladding material. The built-in sensor containing nanoparticles operates on the on-off principle. Nanoparticles added to the alkanes cause increase of hysteresis in a heating and cooling process. Such mixture makes also a significant shift of temperature characteristic in a heating process in which mixture change their physical state with a simultaneous slight shifting of the characteristics during cooling. Depending on the source used, weakening or amplification of the signal was obtained after switching to the liquid state.
Tapering technique is one of the most useful in the telecommunications as well as in sensing which offers up to now the best quality fused optical fiber elements such as couplers, splitters and combiners. It allows to fabricate various types of the tapers used as platforms of optical fiber transducers for chemical or biological sensors, as well. In the paper polarization properties of an optical biconical taper with liquid crystal cladding are presented. The optical fiber taper manufactured by mentioned above technique was sandwiched between parallel glass plates with ITO and alignment layers to form a tested optical element. Standard nematic liquid crystals E7 and 6CHBT were applied as claddings of the tapered fiber. Sufficient transmission losses of infrared radiation were observed when orientation layers of glass plates were perpendicular to the tapered fiber. The main contribution of this paper is calculation the polarization properties of the tested samples by the Lu-Chipman decomposition method based on measured Mueller matrices. Analysis of measurements show that the applied voltages have the strongest influence on transmission losses and dichroism. These effects will be carefully investigated towards the voltage sensor and emulators of polarization depended loss.
This study presents the influence of temperature and electric field on optical power spectrum of an optical fiber taper device coated with nematic liquid crystal. The fiber-optic device consists tapered fiber placed between two glass electrodes covered with alignment layer and ITO. The tapering process caused the elongation of the optical fiber equal to 20.20 ± 0.16 mm and the taper waist diameter equal to 12 ± 0.5 μm. The applied tapered fiber is characterized by losses lower than 0.5 dB in the whole investigated spectrum range. The device was filled with nematic liquid crystal mixture E7 which is designed for an electric as well as temperature control of electromagnetic wave propagation. The measurements were performed for three kinds of initial liquid crystal molecules’ orientation (parallel, orthogonal and twist) in relation to the light beam propagating in the taper as well as axis of fiber. The induced reorientation of liquid crystal molecules was measured for visible and near infrared wavelength range [500-900 nm] at electric field range of 0–160 V and the temperature range of 20-60 °C. The relation between temperature and optical power spectrum of investigated fibers has been established.
The paper presents the results of manufacturing and characterization of a broad band in-line hybrid device using a nematic liquid crystal as an active cladding for biconical tapered optical fiber. Two different liquid crystal mixtures denoted as 1550* and E7 were used for electric and temperature control in a broad wavelength range. An optical fiber tapers with a waist of 10±0.5 μm and losses lower than 0.5 dB in a whole broad band spectrum range were applied. Such taper waist diameter makes the whole waist as core for light propagation, where the surrounding air becomes the cladding. Additionally, such diameter enables an effective control of molecules orientation. Performance of a tuned cladding was studied in an electric field in the range between 0 V and 160 V in the room temperature equal to 20 °C. Influence of induced liquid crystal molecules reorientation was measured at a broad wavelength range (500-1700 nm).
The paper presents the results of design, manufacturing and characterization of an hybrid broad band in-line device using a nematic liquid crystal as an active medium which influences light propagating in a biconical optical fibre taper. A liquid crystal mixture denoted 6CHBT*and E7 is designed for electric, as well as temperature control of electromagnetic wave propagation in a broad wavelength range. The main reason of using the taper structure with a waist of 10± 0.5 μm and losses lower than 0.5 dB is possibility of using a liquid crystalline medium as cladding. Such approach enables effective control of its refractive index. Two kinds of initial liquid crustal molecules’ orientation (parallel and orthogonal) in relation to the light beam propagating in a taper were applied. Performance of a tuned cladding was studied at electric field of the range of 0V – 160V in the room temperature equal to 20°C. Influence of induced reorientation of liquid crystal molecules was measured at a broad wavelength range [500-1700 nm].
Optical fiber vibration sensors are an appropriate alternative for piezoelectric devices, which are electromagnetic sensitive to the external conditions. Most of the vibration sensors demonstrated in previous publications resist to different interferometers or Bragg’s gratings. Such sensors require a long time of stabilization of an optical signal, because they are vulnerable to undesirable disturbance. In majority, time response of an optical sensor should be instantaneous, therefore we have proposed an in- line vibration sensing passive element based on a tapered fiber. Micrometer sized optical fiber tapers are attractive for many optical areas due to changes process of boundary conditions. Such phenomena allow for a sensitive detection of the modulation phase. Our experiment shows that a singlemode, adiabatic tapered fiber enables detecting an acoustic vibration. In this study, we report on Mach- Zehnder (MZ) interferometer as a vibration sensor which was composed of two 50/50 couplers at 1550 nm. In the reference arm we used a 4 meter singlemode optical fiber (SMF28), while in the arm under test we placed tapered optical fibers attached to a metal plate, put directly on speaker. Researches carried out on different tapered fibers which diameter of a taper waist was in the range from 5 μm to 25 μm, and each taper was characterized by optical losses less than 0,5 dB. The measured phase changes were over a frequency from 100 Hz to 1 kHz and an amplitude in the range from 100 mVpp to 1 Vpp. Although on account of a limited space we have showed only the results for 100 Hz. Nevertheless, experimental results show that this sensing system has a wide frequency response range from a few hertz to one of kilohertz, however for some conditions, a standard optical fiber showed better result.
The present work has been centered in the design, fabrication and characterization of a new in-line tunable nematic liquid crystal (TNLC) optical fiber device. The main reason of using a biconical optical fibre taper as a core surrounded by liquid crystals molecules is the possibility to change the losses by the electrically induced reorientation of liquid crystal molecules. A taper is made from a standard fiber SMF28®, whereas the clad uses the nematic mixture 1550C1 type. A supercontinuum source with a bandwidth of [500-700 nm] and laser with wavelength 532 nm were used as light sources.
In the paper we have presented a multilevel temperature threshold sensor. The sensor’s transducers were made by filling a commercially available Photonic Crystal Fiber - LMA-10. As a filling material we used a selected group of n-alkanes with different melting points. We have prepared a set of transducers and they were tested in an intensity based sensor configuration. The experimental results of the four transducers’ sensors showed that it is possible to distinguish five threshold levels from the sensor output signal which were correlated with measured temperatures of ON and OFF states for particular transducers.
Propagation of a light beam in optical fiber tapers depends on few parameters like diameter of a taper waist region, adiabatic or non-adiabatic shape of a whole, as well as boundary condition connected with refractive index surrounding the taper. As external materials many mixtures can be used allowing to manufacture different applications [1-3]. In this work we applied liquid crystals’ medium due to its optical properties - anisotropic as a cladding for the manufactured taper. Properties of liquid crystals can be modified by electric or magnetic fields, as well as by temperature change. These features make liquid crystal fibers very important for optical applications. In this work we have built an optical cell which consists of a liquid crystals’ mixture of 1550C1 [4]. The applied taper can be described by the following parameters: diameters of 10+/- 0.5 μm, losses lower than 0.5 dB in visible range, manufactured on FOTET. The tapered fiber was put in a liquid-crystal cell made of two tin oxide coated glass plates separated by spacers. The value of the used electric field was contained in the range of 0V - 160V. This experiment demonstrates ability of changing optical transmission in a tapered fiber immersed in a liquid-crystal medium. The range of optical transmission observation was between 500-700 nm which was connected with an LC transmission. Also, were performed measurements of influence of temperature in the range of 20-80°C on the proposed device. For temperature higher than 50°C, increased optical power propagating in the tapered fiber was observed.
In this paper we propose alkanes-filled PCFs as the new class of transducers for optical fiber sensors. We investigated experimentally thermo-optic properties of a commercially available LMA8 partially filled with different alkanes with a higher number of carbon atoms. A partially filled PCF spliced with standard SMFs constitutes one of the newest type transducer. We have selected a group of eight alkanes which have melting points in different temperatures. An analysis of temperature spectral characteristics of these samples will allow to design an optical fiber sensor with different temperature thresholds at specific wavelengths.
At the moment technology allows to miniaturize measurement system to several micrometers. Application of an optical fiber taper in such system needs to manufacture a new one with diameters below single micrometers which is very difficult and expensive. Another way to obtain this level of diameters is the process of tapering from the existing fibers. In the paper, experimental results of propagation light from a supercontinnum sources of the wavelength generates the wavelength of 350-2000 nm, in different optical fiber submicron wires made from tapers manufactured from single mode fibers are presented. Biconical optical fibers’ tapers were manufactured in low pressure gas burner technique. There are presented spectral characteristics of a propagated beam. For the test, there was manufactured an optical fiber submicron wires with a different length of waist region with a diameter near one micrometer. We put to the test a taper made from a standard telecommunication fiber SMF-28 with a cutoff wavelength equal to 1260.
Designing of all in-line fiber optic systems with a supercontinuum light source gives some issues. The use of a standard
single mode fiber (SMF) as an input do not secure single mode transmission in full wavelength range. In the paper, the
experimental results of the tested hybrid fiber optic coupler were presented. It was manufactured by fusing a standard
single mode fiber (SMF28) and a photonic crystal fiber (PCF). The fabrication process is based on the standard fused
biconical taper technique. Two types of large mode area fibers (LMA8 and LAM10 NKT Photonics) with different air
holes arrangements were used as the photonic crystal fiber. Spectral characteristics within the range of 800 nm - 1700
nm were presented. All process was optimized to obtain a mode conversion between SMF and PCF and to reach a single
mode transmission in the PCF output of the coupler.
The paper presents the last data regarding new elements based on photonic crystal fibers such as the low-loss patch
cord with a single mode fiber, the fused coupler, the asymmetric coupler for an active fiber power pump. Their
fundamental optical characteristics including wavelength depending loss as a coupling ratio are presented in this paper
as well as their inner structure (cross section) obtained by SEM. However, the use of SEM for the investigation of the
inner element structure is destructive, thus in the last part of the paper we present the tomographic in-line
determination of geometry and refractive index distribution changes along the investigated photonic structure.
The analysis of different approaches to the photonic crystal fiber data capture with a sufficient optical resolution is
given. The data obtained from the Mach-Zehnder interferometer with different laser sources as well as from the in-line
digital holographic setup are presented and compared. The further enhancement required for the digital in-line
holography is discussed.
The comparison of two types of photonic crystal fiber coupler (PCFC) based on LMA8 and LMA10 fibers are presented
in this paper. The couplers preparation process based on biconical fiber technique without air-holes collapsing. The same
parameters of elongation process have given slightly different results. The LMA10-PCFC has stronger polarization
dependence and many points with 50x50 coupling ratio in range 800 - 1600nm. The LMA8-PCFC has less polarization
sensitivity and better spectral characteristic in range 1500 - 1600nm as well as lower losses. It is observed that 50x50
coupling regions appear in second and third telecommunication windows.
The paper presents the analysis and enhancements of interferometric methods which may provide better quality
projections for tomographic, in-line determination of geometry and refractive index distribution changes along
classical as well as photonic crystal fiber tapering structure. The method and system provides high optical resolution
and sensitivity for determination of refractive index changes. It also provides the possibility of investigation of
structures with and without circular symmetry of refractive index distribution. In the paper the interferometric
tomography method in Mach-Zehnder interferometer configuration is applied and the measurements of classical and
photonics crystal fibers are presented. The analysis of future use of in-line digital holographic method coupled with a
variety of techniques for enhanced phase reconstruction is performed.
In the paper a new broadband photonic crystal fiber coupler is presented. The proper application of the biconical taper
technology has been used for manufacturing the coupler without air holes collapse in LMA10 fiber (NKT Photonics
Crystal). This coupler, operates in the weakly coupling condition, protects coupling operation in range from 900 nm to
1700 nm. The coupling ratio between output arms is depending on wavelength and can be tuning by selection the proper
input state of polarization. It gives opportunity to use the broadband crystal fiber coupler in many applications in which it
is necessary to tune a coupling between output arms during the measurement.
The optimization of the fused splice between two identical PCFs as well as SMF•28 with different MFD PCFs made
using the filament fusion with continuum laser illumination is reported. For identical PCFs splice loss of 0.15±0.04 dB
@ 1.55 μm has been obtained. The SMF with PCF (MFD = 6.0 μm) splice losses are lower than 0.40 dB in comparison
with the reported dependences in spectral range 1.51-1.63μm. Moreover, the splice SMF with extremely small core PCF
is also presented. The discussed data has shown that such SMF-PCF splice is suitable for construction of a patch cord for
measurement devices.
A novel in-line photonic crystal fiber interferometer, in the Sagnac configuration consisted of a fused photonic coupler
and a liquid crystal transducer is proposed and demonstrated for the first time to our best knowledge. System
optimization for 532 nm wavelength is based on properties of the liquid crystal mixture, infiltrating air-holes of the
photonic crystal fiber protecting its endlessly single mode operation. The fundamental device properties for the different
applied temperature is demonstrated and discussed.
Since many years one of the topic our research team are multi-parametric fiber optic polarization sensors. In the paper is
presented a new version of the Fiber-Optic Interferometric Polarization Analyzer (FOIPA). This system is based on
modified Sagnac interferometer and it was equipped with automatic current driven polarization controllers driven by
special analog output card and detection system based on data acquisition card and LabVIEW software. This system was
called full automatic fiber optic interferometric polarization analyzer. Used in the system automatic, temperature driven
polarization controllers allow working in feedback electronic loop with data acquisition system and they function as
calibration and stabilization subsystem. Specially developed detection system allow measuring amplitudes of first three
tones of the AC parts of two electric signals as well as they DC voltages. That advantages have given possibility replaced
an expensive lock-in amplifier and make data performance and polarization parameters calculation more faster and
easier. It was necessary to implement special procedure to proper SOP identification In the paper are presented
theoretical and experimental analyzes of the uncertainties, also. Finally a comparison with commercially available
polarization analyzer is shown.
Industrial inspection requires very fast and reliable measurements. One of the techniques, recently widely used for
monitoring of engineering objects, is digital holographic interferometry (DHI). In the paper we present novel digital
holographic cameras (DHC). Their configuration allows to provide high accuracy information about shape, out-of-plane
and in-plane displacement distributions, through capture of digital hologram by CCD, numerical reconstruction of
phases and their proper manipulation. Digital holographic systems presented have compact design, fibre optics light
delivery system and automatic data acquisition and processing. The cameras capture data in real-time and have low
sensitivity to environmental changes. In the paper several examples of engineering application of these cameras are
presented.
The possibilities of controlling and changing the state of polarization (SOP) as well as the degree of polarization (DOP)
in an optical fiber taper are described in this paper. The in-line polarization analyzer POD-101A and Pola ViewTM
software have been used for above polarization parameters investigation. In ours analyze we used a few kinds of optical
fiber like: singlemode, multimode and photonic crystal ones. All of them were tapered in two different method to obtain
different diameter and length of a waist. Diameter of taper waist was changing from 125 um to about 50 um for total
taper length up to 100 mm. Polarization parameters was measured for wavelength 1310 nm. Set-up for manufacturing
taper and software for measuring polarization also allows to produce optical fiber couplers and measured changes on their outputs.
The obtained result of broadening spectral bandwidth known as "supercontinuum generation" are described in this paper. This effect is usually obtained by transmission a very short laser impulse through a strongly nonlinear element like optical fiber (especially photonic crystal fiber). Supercontinuum generation can be also obtained by propagation short impulse form (nanosecond pulses from Nd:YAG laser at 532nm wavelength with average power 300mW) through tapered conventional optical fiber (COF) or tapered endlessly single mode photonic crystal fiber (PCF). In these paper we are showing our first result of obtaining this effect.
This paper describes a special set-up which principle of operation bases on elongation procedure of fiber-optics in a low-pressure gas burner. The universal construction of set-up makes it possible to prepare different elements from any kind of optical fibers, including single-mode, multi-mode and polarization maintaining as well as optical fiber with different indices distribution and operation wavelengths. The basic element is fiber-optic biconical taper (diameter about several um on length up to 10 -15 mm), which due to a small cross-section enables achievement of optical beam propagation outside the fiber in direct way. The paper presents the overview of different elements, which structure is based on above taper, such as: X-type in-line fiber-optic couplers operating in a wide range of wavelengths, in-line optical polarizers as well as polarization switchers. An important thing about these elements is a possibility to operate in the wavelength different from the classical telecommunication range.
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