Design and characterization of a plastic optical fiber active coupler

Author

Zubia, J. ; Irusta, U. ; Arrue, J. ; Aguirre, A.

Author_Institution

Dept. de Electron. y Telecommun., ETSII y IT, Bilbao, Spain

Volume

10

Issue

11

fYear

1998

Firstpage

1578

Lastpage

1580

Abstract

In this letter, we report on the first active coupler developed with the plastic optical fiber technology. The device constructed combines the characteristics of the most important devices arising from this technology, which are switches and couplers. The solution adopted is based on the structure of a passive contact coupler and on the switching properties of a nonquiral nematic liquid crystal. The device designed yields an experimental coupling of 4.5 dB with excess losses under 2.5 dB if the device acts as a coupler; and a dynamic range of 3 dB and switching times of 2 ms if the device acts as a switch.

Keywords

liquid crystal devices; optical communication equipment; optical design techniques; optical fibre couplers; optical losses; optical switches; 2 ms; 2.5 dB; dynamic range; excess losses; first active coupler; nonquiral nematic liquid crystal; passive contact coupler; plastic optical fiber active coupler design; plastic optical fiber technology; switches; switching properties; Liquid crystals; Optical attenuators; Optical coupling; Optical design; Optical fiber couplers; Optical fiber devices; Optical fiber polarization; Optical fibers; Optical switches; Plastics;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/68.726755

Filename

726755