Electrically tunable optical fiber device based on hollow-core fiber infiltrated with liquid crystal

Abstract

An electrically tunable optical fiber device based on Mach-Zehnder interferometer and electro-optic effect of the liquid crystal is proposed. The Mach-Zehnder interferometer is constructed by splicing a section of hollow-core fiber infiltrated with the E7 liquid crystal between an input single-mode fiber and an output single-mode fiber. The resonance wavelength of the spectrum transmitted from the proposed sensing probe is modulated by the applied alternating current electric field. Experimental results show that the maximum sensitivity of this device is 1.2248 nm/V in the range of 130 V–152 V, and the limit of detection is 0.01633 V. Besides, the proposed device shows the advantages of excellent repeatability, low cost, easy fabrication, compact size, and high sensitivity, which has potential applications in wavelength-tunable electro-optical devices, photoelectric switches, and electric field sensors.