High-Speed Switching in Fibres with Electrodes

Fibres with holes are provided with metal electrodes that fill the entire cross-section of the holes. Refractive index change and birefringence result from applying high current pulses for time intervals in the nanosecond range. High-speed polarization rotation and fibre Bragg grating wavelength tuning can be accomplished. Such electrically driven components are totally spliced with low insertion loss. They have no moving parts, are < 10 cm long and can be used in fibre laser cavities for Q-switching.