Reconfigurable optical-force-drive chirp and delay line in micro- or nanofiber Bragg grating

Abstract

The emergence of optical micro/nano-fiber (MNF) with a subwavelength diameter, which has ultra-light mass and an intense light field, brings an opportunity for develop fiber based optomechanical systems. In this study, we theoretically show an optomechanical effect in silica MNF Bragg gratings (MNFBGs). The light-induced mechanical effect results in continuously distributed strain along the grating. It is shown that the power-related strain introduces an optically reconfigurable chirp in the grating period. We develop new optomechanical coupled-mode equations and theoretically analyze the influence of the optical-force-induced nonlinearity and chirp on the grating performance. Compared with weak Kerr effect, the optomechanics effect dominated in the properties evolution of MNFBGs and significant group velocity reduction and switching effect have been theoretically demonstrated at medium power level. This kind of optomechanical MNFBG with optically reconfigurable chirp may offer a path toward all-optical tunable bandwidth of Bragg resonance and may lead to useful applications such as all-optical switching and optically controlled dispersion and slow/fast light.