Towards spectral tuning of long-period fiber gratings using liquid crystals

Author

Czapla, Aleksandra ; Bock, Wojtek J. ; Wolinski, Tomasz R. ; Mikulic, Predrag

Author_Institution

Dept. Inf. et d´´Ing., Univ. du Quebec en Outaouais, Gatineau, QC

fYear

2008

fDate

4-7 May 2008

Abstract

This paper presents some preliminary research focused on achieving external tuning through the spectral properties of long-period gratings (LPGs) using liquid crystal (LC) for potential applications in photonic sensing and in communications. We propose an LPG structure based on a standard optical fiber and on a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) surrounded with LC claddings. Experimentally, it was proved that the PCF-based LPGs have a spectral sensitivity to the external index changes about 6 times higher than in the LPGs based on the standard fiber.

Keywords

diffraction gratings; liquid crystals; optical fibre cladding; photonic crystals; LC claddings; communication application; liquid crystals; long-period fiber gratings; optical fiber; photonic crystal fiber; photonic sensing application; spectral properties; spectral tuning; Fiber gratings; Liquid crystal devices; Liquid crystals; Magnetic materials; Optical attenuators; Optical fibers; Optical propagation; Refractive index; Silicon compounds; Tuning; liquid crystal; liquid crystal devices; optical fiber cladding; optical fiber measurements; sensors;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electrical and Computer Engineering, 2008. CCECE 2008. Canadian Conference on

Conference_Location

Niagara Falls, ON

ISSN

0840-7789

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-1642-4

Electronic_ISBN

0840-7789

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CCECE.2008.4564690

Filename

4564690