Abstract:We demonstrated a simple and cost-effective method to fabricate all fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) based on cascading a short section of liquid crystal (LC)-filled hollow-optic fiber (HOF) between two single mode fibers by using automatically splicing technique. The transmission spectra of the proposed MZI with different LC-infiltrated length were measured and the temperature-induced wavelength shifts of the interference fringes were recorded. Both blue shift and red shift were observed, depending the temperature range. Based on our experimental results, interference fringe was observed with a maximum interferometric contrast over 35dB. The temperature-induced resonant wavelength blueshifts 70.4 nm for the MZI with an LC length of 9.79 mm and the wavelength temperature sensitivity of −1.55 nm/°C is easily achieved as the temperature increases from 25°C to 77°C. 3253-3256 (2013). 20. K. R. Khan, S. Bidnyk, and T. J. Hall, "Tunable all optical switch implemented in a liquid crystal filled dual-core photonic crystal fiber," Prog. Electromag. Res. M 22, 179-189 (2012). 21. T. Alkeskjold, J. Laegsgaard, A. Bjarklev, D. Hermann, A. Anawati, J. Broeng, J. Li, and S. T. Wu, "All-optical modulation in dye-doped nematic liquid crystal photonic bandgap fibers," Opt.
We demonstrate a high sensitivity allfiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) based on radialaligned liquid crystal (LC) in a hollow optical fiber (HOF). The transmission spectrum of the liquid crystalfilled fiber MZI (LCFMZI) was measured at different temperatures, and the thermalinduced wavelength shift of the interference spectrum probed. The experimental results indicate that the LC alignment and refractive indices inside the hollow capillary are significantly influenced by the temperature, which in turn changes the optical properties of LCFMZI. Our experimental data on notch wavelength shift agree well with the measured refractive index temperature gradient.
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