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Related Experiment Videos

How thin can a microfiber be and still guide light?

M Sumetsky1

  • 1OFS Laboratories, 19 Schoolhouse Road, Somerset, New Jersey 08873, USA. sumetski@ofsoptics.com

Optics Letters
|April 8, 2006
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

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Adiabatically deformed optical fibers offer low loss, but thinning microfibers below the radiation wavelength drastically increases loss. Light transmission vanishes at a microfiber diameter limit, even with high uniformity.

Area of Science:

  • Optics and Photonics
  • Materials Science

Background:

  • Adiabatic deformation in optical fibers allows for low-loss intermode transmission.
  • Microfiber thinning below the radiation wavelength leads to significant signal loss.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the minimum diameter of microfibers capable of transmitting evanescent radiation.
  • To analyze the impact of non-adiabatic intermode transitions on light propagation in thinned optical fibers.

Main Methods:

  • Theoretical analysis of non-adiabatic intermode transitions.
  • Modeling light transmission in microfibers with varying diameters.

Main Results:

  • Losses increase dramatically as microfiber diameter approaches the radiation wavelength.

Related Experiment Videos

  • A threshold diameter exists below which propagating modes vanish, limiting microfiber thinning.
  • Even highly uniform microfibers have a limited capacity for thinning while maintaining light transmission.

    • Conclusions:

    • Smoothly deformed optical fiber tapers can achieve minimal losses.
    • The minimum microfiber diameter for evanescent radiation transmission is constrained by the vanishing of the propagating mode.
    • Further thinning of microfibers beyond a specific threshold, relative to the radiation wavelength, is not feasible for light transmission.