Over the last few years, there has been a growing interest in the field of microstructured optofluidic waveguides and especially those created by filling photonic crystal fibers with fluids. This paper presents an overview of sensing properties of optofluidic photonic crystal fiber-based sensors of temperature, pressure, electric/magnetic field, and refractive index that utilize photonic crystal fibers infiltrated with both isotropic and anisotropic liquids.

Optofluidic Photonic Crystal Fiber-Based Sensors

Liquid crystals over the last two decades have been successfully used to infiltrate fiber-optic and photonic structures initially including hollow-core fibers and recently micro-structured photonic crystal fibers (PCFs). As a result photonic liquid crystal fibers (PLCFs) have been created as a new type of micro-structured fibers that benefit from a merge of “passive” PCF host structures with “active” LC guest materials and are responsible for diversity of new and uncommon spectral, propagation, and polarization properties. This combination has simultaneously boosted research activities in both fields of Liquid Crystals Photonics and Fiber Optics by demonstrating that optical fibers can be more “special” than previously thought. Simultaneously, photonic liquid crystal fibers create a new class of fiber-optic devices that utilize unique properties of the photonic crystal fibers and tunable properties of LCs. Compared to „classical” photonic crystal fibers, PLCFs can demonstrate greatly improved control over their optical properties. The paper discusses the latest advances in this field comprising PLCFs that are based on nanoparticles-doped LCs. Doping of LCs with nanoparticles has recently become a common method of improving their optical, magnetic, electrical, and physical properties. Such a combination of nanoparticles-based liquid crystals and photonic crystal fibers can be considered as a next milestone in developing a new class of fiber-based optofluidic systems.

Recent advances in liquid-crystal fiber optics and photonics

The most popular method for permanent connecting of an optical fibers is a thermal bonding with a fusion or filament splicers. However this method in some cases is not suitable, for example if connected fibers are made of materials with different melting temperatures (i.e. silica and “soft glass fibers) or in the case of microstructured optical fibers filled with materials, which are highly sensitive for high temperature (i.e. organic materials such a liquid crystals). In this work we will present some practical issues of an alternative method of permanent connecting of various types of optical fibers by gluing with use of photo-curable adhesives. Full Text: PDF References J. Ballato and A. F. Abouraddy, "Feature issue introduction: specialty optical fibers", Opt. Mater. Express 2, 1680-1682 (2012) CrossRef I. Hatakeyama and H. Tsuchiya, "Fusion splices for single-mode optical fibers", IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics 14, 614-619 (1978) CrossRef K. Inada, O. Watanabe and H. Taya, Splicing of Fibers by the Fusion Method, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications 4, 706 – 713 (1986) CrossRef L. Xiao, M.S. Demokan, W. Jin, Y. Wang and C. Zhao, Fusion Splicing Photonic Crystal Fibers and Conventional Single-Mode Fibers: Microhole Collapse Effect, J. Lightwave Technol. 25, 3563 – 3574 (2007) CrossRef R.Al-Mahrous, R.Caspary and W.Kowalsky, A thermal splicing method to join silica and fluoride fibers, J. Lightwave Technol. 32 302–308 (2014) CrossRef S. Ertman, A. H. Rodriguez, M. M. Tefelska, M. S. Chychlowski, D. Pysz, R. Buczynski, E. Nowinowski-Kruszelnicki, R. Dąbrowski, and T. R. Wolinski, Index guiding photonic liquid crystal fibers for practical applications, J. Lightwave Technol. 30, 1208 - 1214 (2012) CrossRef M. M. Kozak, W. Kowalsky and R. Caspary, Low-loss glue splicing method to join silica and fluoride fibers, Electron. Lett. 41, 21–22, (2005) CrossRef R. Al-Mahrous, R. Caspary, and W. Kowalsky, A Glue Splicing Method to Join Silica and Fluoride Fibers With Low Attenuation, J. Lightwave Technol. 32, 1669-1673 (2014) CrossRef

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Monika Bielska

Papers

Photochemical bonding of special optical fibers