Quasi-solitonic behavior of self-written waveguides created by photopolymerization

Abstract

We investigated the condition of unique self-written channel and multichannel propagation inside bulk photopolymerizable materials. Light was introduced in the medium by a single-mode optical fiber. At a very low beam power of 5 muW , a unique uniform-channel waveguide without any broadening was obtained by polymerization. When the input power is increased to 100 muW , the guide becomes chaotic and multichannel. We connected two fibers separated by a 1-cm distance. The results open the door to studies of the optical and electro-optical properties of photopolymerized guides doped by nonlinear optical chromophores and to possible applications in integrated optical devices.

Modeling the growth of a polymer microtip on an optical fiber end

“…As recent works show [12,13,14], light propagating in a photosensitive solution in which the refractive index of the polymer is higher than that of the initial formulation can experience self-focusing and propagate in a spatial soliton manner as it is the case in other materials such as Kerr [15] or photorefractive media [16,17]. Therefore, since the polymer component remains firmly attached to the optical fiber thanks to hydrogen bonds, it can be inferred that the component grown following this procedure will be an extension of the fiber core and that its optical function will be governed by its index and shape.…”

The polymer converter for effectively connecting polymer with silica optical fibres

“…RI of the final microbridge structure is the highest where intensity of the incident light beam is the largest. In this way a micro− bridge works as a waveguide with the core and the cladding [20]. By changing the first of the parameters mentioned above, the microbridge demonstrates different characteris− tics including proper optical losses or good mechanical strength.…”

“…Process of photo− polymerization progresses due to exposition of the mixture to the light and a polymer bridge appears as the junction between two fibres. The final structure of microbridges, their shape and width depend on the shape of guiding modes in structure, used light power, as well as exposure time [19,20,25]. Required length of the polymer junction can be obtained by moving apart fibres to a suitable distance.…”

“…The permanent junction between different types of optical fibres can be obtained after some modification of the above method [19]. The self−written waveguide structure in a photopolymerization phenomenon results from the com− petition of the incident Gaussian beam diffraction and photo− polymerization which tends to increase the refractive index (RI) where the light intensity is the highest [20][21][22]. For such approach, the polymer structure grows with the higher RI inside the material as the core region and lower RI outside as the cladding region.…”

Molding Optical Waveguides with Nematicons

“…[24][25][26] Herein, in order to render permanent the nematicon structures in the medium while preserving the full versatility of the technique we decouple soliton generation from the material polymerization for the first time,…”