Study On Microstructured Optical Fiber Modulator Based On Magnetic Materials

The global communication industry has been developing rapidly since the 21st century,and the traditional communication technology has become mature. At the common request of the scientific and technological progress and the demand of the market, optical fiber communication is sure to be a new generation of communication technology. However, to realize all optical communication technology, continuously developing and updating of optoelectronic devices and communication system technology is a must. Thus this requires related scientific researchers to constantly explore optoelectronic devices (such as optical switch, modulator, attenuator, filter and WDM device) from new perspectives: new mechanism, novel structure, updated material and fresh ideas, obtaining performance and function significantly increased and improved.This paper design and fabricate two kinds of microstructure optical fiber devices based on magnetic materials: the suspended core optical fiber modulator and the capillary optical fiber modulator. Magnetic fluid is filled into the air hole structure of these microstructure optical fibers, and then sealed by coupling with multimode fiber. The intensity of the output light can be modulated due to the interaction between the magnetic fluid and the evanescent field of the microstructure optical fiber, and the magnetic-modulated refraction index property of the magnetic fluid. The experimental results show that the modulation depth of the microstructure optical fiber modulators can be increased by increasing the external magnetic field intensity, raising the temperature and boosting the concentration of the magnetic fluid: (1)The modulation depth the suspended core optical fiber modulator can reach 42% when the intensity of the magnetic field is 489 Oe. The corresponding response time is about 200 ms and the recovery time is about 300 ms. When the temperature is raised to 60?,the modulation depth is about 61%; (2) The modulation depth of the capillary optical fiber modulator can reach 70% from 43% when the intensity of the magnetic field is boosted to 440 Oe from 40 Oe. And the response time basically remains at 500 ms. When the temperature is raised to 80? from 25?, the corresponding the modulation depth is improved to 67% from 43%. And when the magnetic fluid concentration ranges from 4.2% to 12%, the modulation depth is increased from 43% to 75%.In this study, microstructure optical fibers are used as the body structure of the optical fiber modulators. This microstructure functions not only as the carrier of magnetic liquid, but also as the medium of light transmission, thus contributing to smaller device size. In addition,the suspended core optical fiber and the capillary optical fiber are both designed and drawn by the laboratory of our own college, and have been rarely studied on optical devices. This study reveals the potential application of the combination of magnetic liquid and microstructure optical fiber, such as tunable integrated all-fiber modulators, magnetic sensors, optical switches, optical filters and other integrated devices, providing important research data for optical device integration and miniaturization.