Micro-/Nano-optical Fiber Devices

Abstract

Recently, there has been an increasing interest in the study of micro-/nanooptical fibers (MNOFs) with submicron transverse dimensions. The MNOFs are usually fabricated from standard optical fibers and have interesting optical properties like large evanescent fields, strong confinement of electromagnetic fields, as well as low interconnection loss when coupled to other optical fiber components and systems. In addition to the excellent optical properties, they are also extremely flexible and lightweight and offer a high degree of configurability. Several applications have been developed to take advantage of MNOF’s unique optical and mechanical properties, including the miniaturization of conventional fiber devices (gratings, couplers, interferometers, etc.) and special stereo devices based on the wrap-on-a-rod technique. With the incorporation of new materials like graphene, MNOFs are ideally placed for the fabrication of several linear and nonlinear optical devices with immense potential for applications in optical telecommunications, lasers, and sensors. In this chapter, we present an overview of the latest results from the theoretical and experimental studies of MNOFs. The waveguide model, fabrication techniques, device fabrication, and applications are discussed.