Polymer Thin Film Overlays for Passive Side Polished Fiber Devices

Abstract

Side polished fibers (SPF) are interesting devices because they represent a method of altering a light wave's amplitude or phase as it travels in an optical fiber. This eliminates many of the practical problems associated with fiber-optic devices made up of components, such as the optical mode-mismatches and losses resulting from "pigtailing" an optical fiber to a non-fiber device component. In SPFs a portion (~1 mm in length) of the fiber clad is polished away permitting the light wave to interact with an overlay material placed on the polished area. A variety of overlays have been used with SPFs to make both passive and active SPF devices.1