Applications of Nematic Liquid Crystal‐Photonic Crystal Fiber Coupler

Summary

Due to their different uses in communication systems, the directional coupler and its application to polarization splitters and multiplexer‐demultiplexer (MUX‐DEMUX) have attracted the interest of many researchers in recent years. This chapter introduces and analyzes novel designs of a polarization splitter and MUX‐DEMUX based on the soft glass nematic liquid crystal‐photonic crystal fiber (NLC‐PCF) coupler. The simulation results are calculated by the full‐vectorial finite‐difference method (FVFDM) and FVFD beam propagation method (FVFD‐BPM). In addition, the chapter describes the fabrication aspects of the proposed designs. In order to confirm the polarization splitter based on the NLC‐PCF coupler, the FVFD‐BPM is used to study the propagation along its axial direction. The numerical results reveal that the suggested polarization splitter and MUX‐DEMUX can provide larger bandwidths with shorter lengths than those of the conventional silica PCF couplers with air holes.