Side Polished Fiber:A Versatile Platform for Compact Fiber Devices and Sensors

Side polished fiber(SPF)has a controllable average roughness and length of the side-polishing region,which becomes a versatile platform for integrating multiple materials to interact with the evanescent field to fabricate all-fiber devices and sensors.It has been widely used in couplers,filters,polarizers,optical attenuators,photodetectors,modulators,and sensors for temperature,humidity,strain,biological molecules,chemical gas,and vector magnetic monitoring.In this article,an overview of the development history,fabrication techniques,fiber types,transmission characteristics,and varied recent applications of SPFs are reviewed.Firstly,the fabrication techniques of SPFs are reviewed,including the V-groove assisted polishing technique and wheel polishing technique.Then,the different types of SPFs and their characteristics are discussed.Finally,various applications of SPFs are discussed and concluded theoretically and experimentally,including their principles and structures.When designing the device,the residual thickness and polishing lengths of the SPF need to be appropriately selected in order to obtain the best performance.Developing all-fiber devices and sensors is aimed at practical usability under harsh environments and allows to avoid the high coupling loss between optical fibers and on-chip integrated devices.

Photonic cavity enhanced high-performance surface plasmon resonance biosensor

Herein we propose a novel strategy to enhance surface plasmon resonance(SPR)by introducing a photonic cavity into a total-internal-reflection architecture.The photonic cavity,which is comprised of a highly reflective photonic crystal(PC),defect layers,and a gold(Au)film,enables Fabry–Perot(FP)resonances in the defect layers and therefore narrows the SPR resonance width in the metallic surface as well as increases the electric field intensity and penetration depth in the evanescent region.The fabricated sensor exhibits a 5.7-fold increase in the figure of merit and a higher linear coefficient as compared with the conventional Au-SPR sensor.The demonstrated PC/FP cavity/metal structure presents a new design philosophy for SPR performance enhancement.

Fiber loop ring-down cavity integrated U-bent single-mode-fiber for magnetic field sensing

A novel magnetic field sensing system based on the fiber loop ring-down technique is proposed in this paper. In the fiber loop, a U-bent single-mode-fiber structure coated with magnetic fluid(MF) serves as the sensing head, and an erbium-doped fiber amplifier(EDFA) is introduced to compensate for the intrinsic loss of the cavity. The ring-down time of the system varies with the change of applied magnetic field due to the tunable absorption coefficient and refractive index of the MF. Therefore, measurement of the magnetic field can be realized by monitoring the ringdown time. The experimental results show that the performance of the system is extremely dependent on the interrogation wavelength, because both the gain of the EDFA and the loss of the sensing head are wavelength dependent.We found that at the optimal wavelength, the ratio of the gain to loss attained its maximum. The sensing system was experimentally demonstrated and a sensitivity of-0.5951 μs∕Oe was achieved.

Optimal design of Er/Yb co-doped fiber amplifiers with an Yb-band fiber Bragg grating

In this paper, Er/Yb co-doped fiber amplifiers(EYDFAs) with an Yb-band fiber Bragg grating(FBG) at the pump end to improve the performance of the amplifier is systematically studied. The influence of the reflectivity and center wavelength of the FBG along with the gain-fiber length on the performance of an EYDFA are numerically analyzed. The results show that the wavelength of the FBG has critical influence on the efficiency of the EYDFA,whereas the requirement to its reflectivity is relaxed. It is an effective and promising way to improve the efficiency of a high-power pumped EYDFA by introducing a suitable Yb-band FBG at the pump end. Based on the analysis of the underlying principles, suggestions for the practical design and possible further improvement strategies are also proposed.

One-step plasmonic welding and photolithographic patterning of silver nanowire network by UV-programable surface atom diffusion

Silver nanowire(AgNW)based transparent electrode(TE)plays a pivotal role in optoelectronics where TE is generally required to have fine pattern and high performance.Despite the rapid technological advances in either welding or patterning of AgNWs,there are few studies that combine the two processes in a simple and practical manner.Here,aiming to fabricate high-performance patterned AgNW TE,we develop a simplified photolithography that enables both plasmonic nanowelding with low-level UV exposure(20 mW/cm^(2))and high-resolution micropatterning without photoresist and etching process by conjugating AgNW with diphenyliodonium nitrate(DPIN)and UV-curable cellulose.The cellulose as a binder can effectively enhance plasmonic heating,adhesion,and stability,while the photosensitive DPIN,capable of modulating surface atom diffusion,can boost the plasmonic welding at AgNW junction and induce patterning in AgNW network with Plateau-Rayleigh instability.The fabricated AgNW TE has high figure of merit of up to 1,000(3.7Ω/sq at 90%transmittance)and minimal pattern size down to 3µm,along with superior robustness.Finally,a flexible smart window with high performance is demonstrated using the patterned and welded AgNW TEs,verifying the applicability of the simplified photolithography technique to optoelectronic devices.

Highly sensitive vector magnetic fiber sensor based on hyperbolic metamaterials

Hyperbolic metamaterials(HMMs) are novel artificial materials that excite the surface plasmon resonance(SPR) because of their unique hyperbolic dispersion properties. Herein, to the best of our knowledge, we propose the first HMM-based fiber SPR(HMM-SPR) sensor for vector magnetic detection. By selecting the composite materials and structural parameters of the HMM dispersion management, HMM-SPR sensors can achieve a high refractive index sensitivity of 14.43 μm/RIU. Vector magnetic field detection was performed with the HMM-SPR sensor encapsulated with a magnetic fluid. Compared with other ferrofluidbased magnetic field fiber sensors, the proposed sensor shows pronounced advantages in intensity and direction sensitivity of 1.307 nm/Oe and 7.116 nm/°, respectively. The sensor design approach presented in this paper provides an excellent demonstration of HMM-SPR sensors in various applications.

Self-assembled monolayer modulated Plateau-Rayleigh instability and enhanced chemical stability of silver nanowire for invisibly patterned,stable transparent electrodes

Patterned silver nanowire(AgNW)networks have been widely used as transparent electrodes in many optoelectrical devices.However,obvious patterning visibility and poor thermostability of AgNW are still limiting its practical application.Herein,we report self-assembled monolayer(SAM)modulated Plateau-Rayleigh instability(PRI)of AgNW,which allows invisible patterning and superior stability of the AgNW network.Two opposite effects of different SAMs on the PRI are identified:the alkanethiol SAMs activate surface atom diffusion while the mercaptobenzoheterocyclic(MBH)SAMs suppress the diffusion.The degradation temperature of the AgNWs can be therefore,for the first time,tuned in the range of 193-381℃,so that the AgNW network can be patterned via PRI with a tiny optical difference between the insulative and conductive regions,i.e.,patterning invisible.Besides,the MBH SAMs provide AgNW with excellent durability under thermal annealing and oxidation,which enhances the maximum heating temperature of the AgNW transparent heater by over 120℃.Beyond the micro-patterning,we consider that the developed SAM strategy can be extended to other metal nanowires for stability improvement and has huge potential in nanoengineering of one-dimensional metal materials.