Silica aerogel in optical fibre devices

Author

Birks, T.A. ; Grogan, M.D.W. ; Xiao, L.M. ; Rollings, M.D. ; England, R. ; Wadsworth, W.J.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys., Univ. of Bath, Bath, UK

fYear

2010

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

Silica aerogel is a very light and highly porous form of silica glass, with densities and refractive indices much lower than those of ordinary solids. We describe optical interactions with aerogel surrounding tapered fibres or inside the holes of photonic crystal fibres. This enables a new class of fibre devices exploiting the properties of the aerogel as a rigid yet porous replacement for air, as a nonlinear medium and as a host for dopants. Examples include a stable package for fused couplers, a gas sensor and a nonlinear light source.

Keywords

aerogels; holey fibres; photonic crystals; refractive index; fused couplers; gas sensor; nonlinear light source; nonlinear medium; optical fibre devices; optical interactions; photonic crystal fibres; refractive indices; silica aerogel; tapered fibres; Fiber nonlinear optics; Glass; Nonlinear optical devices; Optical fiber couplers; Optical fiber devices; Optical refraction; Optical sensors; Optical variables control; Silicon compounds; Solids; aerogel; optical fibre; photonic crystal fibre; tapered fibre;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Transparent Optical Networks (ICTON), 2010 12th International Conference on

Conference_Location

Munich

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-7799-9

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-7797-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICTON.2010.5549052

Filename

5549052