Tunable microfluidic optical fiber
01 January 2002
A new class of active, tunable optical fiber that incorporates microfluidic plugs into interior fiber microchannels has been developed. The propagation characteristics of certain optical modes of the fiber waveguides can be manipulated in useful ways by controlling the positions and optical properties of these plugs, using actuators and pumps formed on the fiber surface. These hybrid microfluidic/silica structures offer versatile tuning capabilities in a format that has all of the advantages of conventional, passive optical fiber. Examples of adjustable narrow and broadband fiber filters are described here. Devices such as these have the potential to be important technologies for next generation optical networks.