Broadband Thermo-Optic Switching Effect Based on Liquid Crystal Infiltrated Photonic Crystal Fibers

Author

Bing Sun ; Yijian Huang ; Dan Luo ; Chao Wang ; Jun He ; Changrui Liao ; Guolu Yin ; Jiangtao Zhou ; Shen Liu ; Jing Zhao ; Yiping Wang

Author_Institution

Key Lab. of Optoelectron. Devices & Syst. of Minist. of Educ., Shenzhen Univ., Shenzhen, China

Volume

7

Issue

4

fYear

2015

fDate

Aug. 2015

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

7

Abstract

We demonstrate a liquid-crystal-filled photonic crystal fiber (PCF) and investigate its temperature response with a unique liquid crystal (LC) clearing point of 58 °C. Opposite temperature responses are observed at the temperature that is lower and higher than the LC´s clearing point, respectively. Such a LC-filled PCF could be used to develop a promising optical switch with a broadband operation range of 102.5 nm via a small temperature change of less than 1.5 °C. Moreover, the LC-filled PCF exhibited an ultrahigh temperature sensitivity of 105 nm/°C and could find potential applications in the field of temperature sensors.

Keywords

holey fibres; liquid crystals; optical switches; photonic crystals; temperature sensors; thermo-optical devices; broadband thermo-optic switching effect; liquid crystal infiltrated photonic crystal fibers; optical switch; temperature response; temperature sensitivity; temperature sensors; Extinction ratio; Optical switches; Photonic crystal fibers; Refractive index; Temperature; Temperature measurement; Optical switching; liquid crystal; photonic crystal fiber; temperature;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Journal, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1943-0655

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JPHOT.2015.2449732

Filename

7151771