Miniaturized Bloch Surface Wave Platform on a Multicore Fiber

Abstract

We propose a novel implementation of a miniaturized photonic platform fabricated on a multicore fiber tip, capable of tunable optical functions via coupling to Bloch surface waves (BSWs). A one-dimensional photonic crystal is deposited on the cleaved surface of a fiber tip, allowing the propagation of BSWs in the near-infrared. On top of each core, subwavelength gratings are fabricated to operate as optical couplers between BSWs and the corresponding fiber modes. The ability to control the optical interconnection among different pairs of cores of the multicore fiber via polarization-selective BSW coupling is demonstrated. The resulting compact, tunable, and portable platforms can be fruitfully employed in the vast application domain covered by optical fiber technology including sensing, optical trapping, manipulation, and information processing.