Optical and mechanical multistability in a dye-doped polymer fiber Fabry-Perot waveguide

Abstract

We report on the demonstration of both mechanical and optical multistability in a 110 μm diameter and 2.5 cm long Fabry-Perot cavity defined in a dye-doped polymer optical fiber waveguide. Such a device is a basic building block of optical and mechanical logic.

Waveguiding Microactuators Based on a Photothermally Responsive Nanocomposite Hydrogel

“…In contrast, only a limited amount of work has focused on actuation using guided light. Welker and co‐workers developed a polymer fiber actuator using dye‐doped poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) as the active material to make stabilizing elements in a Mach–Zehnder interferometer and a mesoscale Fabry–Perot interferometer, where only deformations along the fiber axes are required. Zinoviev et al developed a gold‐coated SiO 2 optical waveguide cantilever actuator, while Otani and co‐workers employed a plastic optical fiber (POF) with a beveled end painted black to drive photothermally actuated bending .…”

Optically activated cantilever using photomechanical effects in dye-doped polymer fibers

“…Details of the fabrication process for making an MPU can be found in the literature. [9,11,13] The MPU cantilever is polished on both ends, and one end is attached to a glass substrate with transparent cyanoacrylate adhesive. A small piece of a metalized glass cover slip is bonded to the other end and functions as a lightweight mirror.…”

“…[7,8] Using the photothermal mechanism, [9] several devices have been demonstrated including a tunable optical filter, [10] an all-optical vibration suppressor [11,12] and a mesoscale version of such a device that exhibits both mechanical and optical multistability. [13] In this paper, we show that differential expansion can be used to make an all-optical cantilever in a dye-doped polymer optical fiber, and we study its mechanisms through modelling and experiment. * Electronic address: kuz@wsu.edu…”

An apparatus for measuring a material's photomechanical response

“…The photomechanical effect of a polymer optical fiber [5] was put to use by Welker et al to make an intelligent optical/ mechanical transistor [6,7] that was miniaturized into a waveguide device. [8] Later, Camacho-Lopez et al showed that a curved buoyant elastomer sheet swims on the surface of water to avoid the illumination of a pulsed light source. [9] More such demonstrations can be found in the literature.…”