Tunable liquid crystal asymmetric dual-core photonic crystal fiber mode converter

Appl Opt. 2021 Sep 1;60(25):7671-7677. doi: 10.1364/AO.432430.

Abstract

In this study, a compact mode converter based on an asymmetric dual-core photonic crystal fiber (ADC-PCF) infiltrated with nematic liquid crystal (NLC) is reported. The full vectorial finite difference method is used to compute the modal characteristics of the studied transverse magnetic (TM) mode. In this investigation, the geometrical and material parameters of the proposed mode converter are studied to achieve high wavelength selectivity with a compact device length. The proposed mode converter has a compact device length of 403.6 µm at λ=1.3µm. In addition, the reported device is simulated under different temperature levels from 15°C to 45°C to show the thermal tunability. Therefore, the proposed design can be used efficiently in integrated photonic circuits.