New kinds of microstructured fibers for change of birefringence caused by Kerr effect

Abstract

The one of the manners of change or introduce birefringence of manufactured optical fibers is placed it into electrical field. In accordance with description of Kerr effect the change of birefringence is proportional to the square of the electrical field. However the electrical field is proportional to the distance between electrodes. In standard optical fibers the change of birefringence through the Kerr effect required to use high voltage. In our laboratory the two new types of optical fibers were manufactured. One of them has structure similar to that of the side-hole optical fiber but the internal surface of the two open holes placed on the both sides of the core is covered with silver. The other has four open holes placed symmetrically around the core. It is named single mode quadruple (SMK) optical fiber. The open holes with silver layers are placed a long distance from the core so as to they haven't influence on the light goes through the core. In those fibers the change of direction of polarization was measured. For the fiber with two holes the change was equal to 8 degree for the change of voltage equal to 500V.Paper presents basics of the technology of those fibers, description of the silver layers deposition process from liquid phase and geometrical and optical characteristics of fibers.