High-performance side-polished fibers and applications as liquid crystal clad fiber polarizers

• Published in: Journal of lightwave technology Vol. 15; no. 8; pp. 1554 - 1558
• Main Authors: MA, S.-P, TSENG, S.-M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.08.1997; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Calibration; Circuit properties; Electric, optical and optoelectronic circuits; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Extinction ratio; Insertion loss; Integrated optics. Optical fibers and wave guides; Liquid crystals; Optical and optoelectronic circuits; Optical fiber communication; Optical fiber devices; Optical fiber polarization; Optical fiber testing; Optical fiber theory; Silicon; Measurement; Experimental result; Insertion loss; Polarizer; Polishing; Manufacturing; Optical fiber
• ISSN: 0733-8724; 1558-2213
• DOI: 10.1109/50.618389

A plurality of single-mode fibers glued in the curved, V-shaped grooves of a silicon wafer were polished. Using a homemade polisher, we successfully gained access to fiber cores. The insertion losses of the polished samples were negligibly small even for fibers with a curvature radius of 250 cm long and a proximity to the core smaller than 0.1 /spl mu/m. Experimental calibrations of the samples agreed well with theoretical results. We made liquid crystal clad fiber polarizers by using these side-polished fibers and successfully showed the extinction ratios of the polarizers in good agreement with their liquid-drop results. The extinction ratios of our polarizers were predicated higher than 60 dB. Details of measuring system and processing were considered.