www.jpojournal.

orgPhotonicsandOptoelectronics(P&O)Volume3,2014
doi:10.14355/jpo.2014.0302.01

TunableSelectiveLiquidInfiltration:
ApplicationstoLowLossBirefringent
PhotonicCrystalFibers(PCF)andItsSingle
ModeRealization
ParthaSonaMaji1,ParthaRoyChaudhuri*2
DepartmentofPhysics&Meteorology,IndianInstituteofTechnologyKharagpur721302
Kharagpur721302,INDIA
parthamaji@phy.iitkgp.ernet.in;*2roycp@phy.iitkgp.ernet.in

Received14February2014;Accepted25February2014;PublishedApril2014
2014ScienceandEngineeringPublishingCompany

Abstract
In this article, weve theoretically investigated the
application of selective liquid infiltration towards realizing
birefringent Photonic Crystal Fiber (PCF) and its operation
inthesinglemoderegion.Birefringencehasbeencreatedin
asymmetricalstructurePCFbyinfiltratingliquidofcertain
refractive indices in diagonally opposite airholes. Different
airhole fraction along with different infiltrating refractive
indices has been considered towards studying the effect of
the parameters towards birefringence and loss. Cutoff
properties for different infiltrating liquid has been
performed and it has been found that PCF infiltrated with
higher Refractive Indices (RI) liquid is suitable for broader
range of single mode operation. The present structure
providesverylowlossandthatcanalsobeminimizedwith
higher number of airhole rings without affecting the
birefringentproperty.Tunabilitypropertyoftheinfiltrating
liquidforvarioustemperatureshasbeenstudied.Byvarying
the refractive indices of the infiltrating liquid the
birefringencecanbewelltuned.Ourresearchwillbeuseful
in designing a birefringent PCF from conventional
symmetrical PCF by infiltrating liquids in two diagonally
opposite airholes and proper choice of PCF parameter for
singlemodeoperationatadesiredwavelengthofinterest.
Keywords
Photonic Crystal Fiber; Birefringent Fiber; Polarization
MaintainingFiber;LiquidInfiltration

Introduction
Polarizationmaintainingfibers(PMFs)orbirefringent
fibers is extensively used in many communication
systems and optical devices. Birefringence can be

26

achieved in two major customs. The first one is to

apply asymmetrical stress to the core region of the
fiber by introducing some material with higher
thermal coefficient. Second method of creating
asymmetryinthecoreisbycreatinganasymmetryby
differentindexprofileorspatialasymmetryinthecore
of the fiber. High birefringence can be achieved in
thosePMFssuchasPANDAfibers[Tajimaetal,1989;],
ellipticalclad fibers [Namihira et al, 1982;], and bow
tiefibers[Liuetal,1994;]withthebirefringenceinthe
rangeof5*104.
Photoniccrystalfibers(PCFs)[Broengetal,1999;Birks
et al, 2001; Knight et al, 2003], also called micro
structured optical fibers (MOFs), are special type of
fibers with airholes of certain pattern (generally
triangular or hexagonal and square) running across
thelengthofthefiber.PCFarecharacterizedwithair
hole diameter (d) and hole to hole distance () in a
dielectric background like silica. By changing the
geometrical parameters, several unique properties,
whichcouldnotbeachievedwithnormalopticalfiber,
could be achieved with PCFs. Out of numerous
attractive properties exhibited by PCFs, a particularly
exciting feature is that PCF can be made highly
birefringent [OrtigossBlanch et al, 2000; Suzuki et al,
2001; Simpson et al, 1983; Kubota et al, 2004;
Roychoudhurietal,2004;Steeletal,2001;Hansenetal,
2001;] as the PCF core and cladding offers a large
refractive index contrast. The anisotropy and thereby
the birefringence in a PCF can be implemented using
elliptical airholes [Steel et al, 2001;] and with

PhotonicsandOptoelectronics(P&O)Volume3,2014www.jpojournal.org

asymmetric core [Hansen et al, 2001;] or asymmetric

distribution of air holes in cladding [OrtigossBlanch
et al, 2000;]. Out of various ways of obtaining higher
birefringentvaluefromthePCF,asymmetriccorePCF
isoneofthemoststudiedstructures.

(wavelength independent) liquid is that we neednt

choose a liquid apriori from the great number of
available indexmatching liquids. Refractive indices
differby5*103orevensmallerareavailablewithM/s
CargilleSacher Laboratories Inc, USA. Customized
liquids with certain RIs can also be available upon
requirement from the manufacturer. Infiltrating
different liquids will give us the opportunity to
achieverequiredresultsandaccordinglythetunability
of the structure can be studied for different
applications. The results obtained with artificial
liquids lead us to certain optimization of the
parameters. These values give us approximate values
oftheparametersthatwearegoingtouseforpractical
realization. Now with those values we can select the
available liquids with refractive indices nearer to the
previously optimized liquid and from there we re
adjusttheotherparameterstohavedesiredresult.

Inadditiontoalteringthegeometry,asymmetryinthe
coreofaPCFcanalsobeformedbyinfiltratingtheair
holes, either completely or selectively, by various
liquids such as water [Martelli et al, 2005;], ethanol
[Yiou et al, 2005;], polymers [Eggleton et al, 2001;
Kerbage et al, 2002; Cox et al, 2006;], and liquid
crystals[Zhangetal,2005;Alkeskjoldetal,2006;].In
this research of the application of selective liquid
infiltration, we report our study of the transmission
and polarization properties of the PCFs where the
diagonal airholes of the PCFs are infiltrated with
selective liquid. As the symmetry of the PCF breaks,
thefiberdoesnotretainthepropertyofendlesslysingle
modeforawidewavelengthrange.Subsequently,we
have studied the single mode properties of the PCF
by considering different values of infiltrating indices
in the airholes. We have also discussed the tunable
properties of the liquid infiltrated PCF for tuning of
birefringenceandpropagationloss.

The effect of selective infiltration to the airholes can

be visualized as follows; due to the infiltration of the
liquid into the selective airholes, the local effective
indices of the airholes are raised and thereby an
asymmetry is created at the core. The manufacturing
of these PCFs can be performed in a couple of steps.
Onemustfirstselectivelyblockspecifiedairholesand
then infuse the liquid into the unblocked holes using
an applied pressure through vacuum pump. One
possiblewaycanbethefusionsplicingtechniquewith
tailored electric arc energies and fusion times to
selectively fuse [Martelli et al, 2005; Yiou et al, 2005;
and 20 Alkeskjold et al, 2006;] the outer rings of the
PCF. The inner ring of the airholes can be infiltrated
withliquid,firstbyfusingtheouterringsofairholes
with tailored electric arc energies and fusion times
[Xiao et al, 2005;] and then by immersing one end of
thefiberinaliquidreservoirandapplyingvacuumto
the other end of the fiber[Yiou et al, 2005;]. A better
control can be achieved by selectively blocking the
unwanted air holes with photolithographic masking
technique[Sasakietal,2002;]orwithepoxy[Coxetal,
2006;].Withtheadvanceoftechnologythesetechniques
are expected to be improved enormously in future,
therebyopeningnewpossibilitiesfordifferentspecialty
opticalfiberdesigninPCF.Inourdesignedstructure,
exposing the airholes in the x axis and blocking
the remaining airholes by the above mentioned
techniqueswillgeneratethebirefringentstructure.

(a)(b)
FIG.1SCHEMATICDIAGRAMOFTHETWOSTUDIED
STRUCTURE(A)STRUCTUREA(B)STRUCTUREB

Geometry of the Studied Structure:

Fig. 1 shows the geometrical cross section of the
proposed fibers where we have considered three air
hole layers in the cladding. The sixfold symmetry of
the structure is broken by filling the airholes along
oneoftheaxisinthefirstcase(wecallthisstructure
A);andwehaveconsideredtheaxestobethexaxis,
whereasforthesecondcase(wecallthisstructureB)
we infiltrate the remaining airholes of the first air
hole ring. Throughout our study, the wavelength
dependence of the background silica has been
considered with Sellmiers equation, whereas the
liquid has fixed value of refractive indices (RI). The
benefit of working initially with an artificial

The guided modes along with the transmission

properties of the present fiber are investigated with
CUDOS MOF Utilities that simulate PCFs using the
multipole method [White et al, 2002; Kuhlmey et al,

27

www.jpojournal.orgPhotonicsandOptoelectronics(P&O)Volume3,2014

2002;]. The efficiencyandvalidity of the methods has

beencoveredindetailintheabovearticles[Whiteetal,
2002;Kuhlmeyetal,2002;].
Numerical Results:
A particularly exciting feature, out of numerous
interestingapplicationsexhibitedbyPCFs,isthatPCF
can be made highly birefringent [Steel et al, 2001;
Hansenetal,2001;Martellietal,2005;Yiouetal,2005;
Eggleton et al, 2001; Kerbage et al, 2002; Cox et al,
2006;] due to the availability of large refractive index
contrast available between core and cladding
compared to the conventional fibers and the
fabrication process allows us the formation of the
required asymmetric structure near the fiber core.
Highly birefringent PCFs can be used as polarization
maintainingfibers,whichcanstabilizethepolarization
sates of the launching light. Besides changing the
geometry to create asymmetry in the core, another
way to create asymmetry will be by means of liquid
infiltrationtotheairholesalongoneoftheaxes.

Dispersion and Confinement Loss Properties

of the Structure:
In our work, the birefringence has been created by
filling the airholes as demonstrated by Fig. 1(a) and
Fig. 1(b) respectively. For our study, we have
considered the value to be 2.3 m for different
values of d/. Firstly, we have considered a liquid
with nL=1.43 and the corresponding birefringence of
thestructureswithd/=0.95hasbeenshowninFig.2.
Figure 2 reveals that for both the structures the
birefringence increases with increasing wavelength.
Birefringence of the order of 5*103 can be achieved
with structureA while a value around 1.5*103 can
beobtainedwithstructureBaroundthewavelength
of 1550 nm. A comparison study shown in Fig. 2 (A)
and Fig. 2(B) clearly shows that better birefringence
can be obtained from structureA structure i.e. if the
liquidcanbeinfiltratedalongthexaxisonly.
5.0x10

-3

6.0x10

Birefringence

(A)

-3

5.5x10

-3

5.0x10

-3

4.0x10

-3

3.0x10

-3

2.0x10

-3

1.0x10

-3

(A)

d/=0.5
d/=0.6
d/=0.7
d/=0.8
d/=0.9

Birefringence

-3

4.5x10

-3

4.0x10

1.3

-3

3.5x10

1.4

1.5

1.6

1.7

Wavelength (m)

-3

3.0x10

-3

1.2x10

-3

2.5x10

1.3

1.4

1.5

Wavelength (m)

1.6

1.7

-3

1.0x10

1.4x10

-3

(B)

-4

6.0x10

-4

-3

4.0x10

1.2x10

-3

2.0x10

1.1x10

-3

1.0x10

-3

Birefringence

1.3x10

1.3

-4

1.3

1.4

1.5

1.6

Wavelength ( m )
FIG.2BIREFRINGENCEFOR(A)STRUCTUREAAND
(B)STRUCTUREBFOR=2.3mandd/=0.95.

28

-4

8.0x10

Birefringence

1.5x10

-3

(B)

d/=0.5
d/=0.6
d/=0.7
d/=0.8
d/=0.9

1.7

1.4

1.5

Wavelength (m)

1.6

1.7

FIG.3BIREFRINGENCEFORDIFFERENTVALUESOFD/FOR
BOTHTYPESOFSTRUCTURES(A)STRUCTUREA
(B)STRUCTUREB.

BirefringenceoftheliquidinfiltratedPCFsareshown
inFig.3(A)andFig.3(B)forstructureAandstructure

PhotonicsandOptoelectronics(P&O)Volume3,2014www.jpojournal.org

(shown by structureB) is not that great compared to

the birefringence advantage shown by structureA
because of the fact that loss can be reduced
significantlybyincreasingthenumberofairholerings.
So, from now onwards well confine our discussion
only on the first type of structures (StructureA)
only.

Brespectivelyfordifferentairfillingfraction(d/).As
the airhole diameter increase, the birefringence
increases for both types of structures. This can be
attributed to the fact that as the airhole diameter
increases,theamountofliquidinfiltratealsoincreases,
whichinturnincreasestheasymmetryofthestructure
giving higher values of birefringence. Again it has
been observed that for all the cases structureA has
alwayshighervaluesofbirefringencethanstructureB.
The corresponding confinement losses for the
structures are presented in Fig. 4(a) and Fig 4(b)
respectively.

Tunability of the birefringent PCF is established in

Fig.5(a)fordifferentvaluesofrefractiveindicesofthe
infiltrating liquids. A detailed study of the tunability
has been performed in a different section (section4).
Therefractiveindicesoftheliquidcanbechangedby
changing the temperature of the liquid with the
temperaturecoefficientoftheliquidisoftheorderof
4*104/0C or infiltrating the airholes with different
liquidsavailablewithM/sCargileSacherLaboratories
Inc.Todemonstratethetunability,weinfiltrateliquid
of different indices varying from 1.32 to 1.42 for the
PCF with d/=0.75 along the x axis; then our studies
arecomparedattwowavelengthsof1.31mand1.55
m, which are two most important wavelengths for
opticalcommunication.Sobirefringencecanberaised
byinfiltratingliquidwithhigherindexashighervalue
ofrefractiveindicesincreasestheasymmetry.

10
(A)

Loss (dB/m)

0.1
0.01
1E-3
1E-4

d/=0.5
d/=0.6
d/=0.7
d/=0.8
d/=0.9

1E-5
1E-6
1E-7
1.3

1.4

1.5

Wavelength (m)

1.6

1.7

-3

2.0x10

(B)

(A)

=1.31m
=1.55m

0.1

Birefringence

Confinement loss (dB/m)

-3

1.6x10

0.01
1E-3

d/=0.5
d/=0.6
d/=0.7
d/=0.8
d/=0.9

1E-5
1E-6
1E-7
1.3

-3

1.2x10

1E-4

1.4

1.5

Wavelength (m)

1.6

-4

8.0x10

1.30

1.34

1.36

1.38

1.40

1.42

RI of the liquid
1E-3

FIG.4CONFINEMENTLOSSESFORDIFFERENTVALUESOFD/
FORBOTHTYPESOFSTRUCTURES(A)STRUCTUREA(B)
STRUCTUREB.

(B)

Confinement loss (dB/m)

=1.31m
=1.55m

For smaller values of airhole diameter, we have

highervaluesofeffectiveindices,whichinturngives
lower values of step potential and there by higher
amount of confinement losses. For all values of d/,
structureB is always having lower values of losses
thanstructureA.So,wecanseethatforhighervalues
of d/, the birefringence increases and confinement
lossesalsoreducesandforcustomizedapplicationwe
can have two different possible structures; in one the
birefringenceisbetter(structureA)andinanotherone
loss is lower(structureB). But, the loss advantage

1.32

1.7

1E-4

1E-5

1E-6
1.30

1.32

1.34

1.36

1.38

1.40

1.42

RI of the liquid
FIG.5BIREFRINGENCEANDCONFINEMENTLOSSFOR
DIFFERENTVALUEOFRIFOR=1.31mAND=1.55m.

29

www.jpojournal.orgPhotonicsandOptoelectronics(P&O)Volume3,2014

FromFig.5itcanbeseenthattheconfinementlosses
increase with higher value of indices. The
improvement of the losses can be addressed by
reducing the number of airholes infiltrated by liquid
along the x axis as shown in Fig. 7 without much
changeinbirefringentvaluesasshowninFig.6.
-3

2.8x10

Birefringence

-3

2.4x10

-3

-3

1.6x10

-3

1.3

1.4

1.5

1.6

1.7

Wavelength (m)

Confinement loss (dB/m)

FIG.6CHANGEOFBIREFRINGENCEWHENTHERIIS
INFILTRATEDINTHEFIRST(BLACK),FIRSTTWO(RED)AND
FIRSTTHREE(BLUE)RINGS.
10

10

10

10

10

-1

10

-2

10

-3

10

-4

10

-5

1.3

1 ring filled holes

2 ring filled holes
3 ring filled holes

1.4

1.5

1.6

1.7

Wavelength ( m)

FIG.7CONFINEMENTLOSSVARIATIONWHENTHERIVARIES
INTHEFIRST,FIRSTTWOANDFIRSTTHREERINGS.

Single Mode Region of the Selectively Liquid

Filled Birefringent PCFs:
Triangular lattice PCFs with a symmetric core
consisting are endlessly single mode for normalized
holesizesuptoavalueaslargeasd/=0.406[Kuhlmey
et al, 2002 (2); Kuhlmey et al, 2002(3);], where as the
symmetric core PCF with squarelattice is endlessly
singlemodefornormalizedholesizesuptoavalueas
largeasd/=0.442[Polietal,2005;].Thiscannotbethe
case for the present fibers as the core region for the
concernedstructureisdifferentfromanormalone.We
performed the cutoff analysis according to Kuhlmey
etal [Kuhlmey et al, 2002 (1);]. The multipole method
[Whiteetal,2002;Kuhlmeyetal,2002;]thathasbeen
usedforthedevelopmentofCUDOSMOFutilitieshas
the unique ability to calculate both the modes and

30

20

ln(10)

109 Im(neff ) (1)

We have plotted the Im(neff) value with normalized

frequency as shown in Fig. 8 for d/=0.1. The figure
gives a transition corresponding to the transition of
singlemode to multimode transition. The transition
can be better viewed if we plot the second derivative
ofthelogarithmoftheimaginarypartoftheeffective
indexwithrespecttothewavelength,theQparameter
(Eqn. (2)) as shown in Fig. 9 [27 Kuhlmey et al, 2002
(2);].

1 ring filled holes

2 ring filled holes
3 ring filled holes

2.0x10

1.2x10

their losses accurately. Cutoff can be visualized by

plottingIm(neff)asafunctionofnormalizedfrequency
[Kuhlmey et al, 2002 (2);]as loss (dB/km) is directly
relatedtoIm(neff)throughEqn.(1)

l o g [ I m ( n e ff ) ]
d

(2)

This is a little different from the approach that has

been followed in their work. Here we have changed
the wavelength in place of for our study. The Q
parameter shows a distinct negative minimum. The
dip in the graph indicates the transition region from
singlemodetothemultimoderegion.Figure9clearly
shows a dip for d/ values of 0.10 for infiltrating RI
=1.43 with normalized cutoff frequency (/) to be
2.439. Above this value, the fiber will not remain
singlemode. So we need to choose the available
values of the parameters wisely, such that operation
remainsinsinglemoderegion.
The transition of the Im(neff) variation can be better
visualizedforhighervaluesofd/asdemonstratedin
Fig.10(a),Fig10(b)andFig.10(c)ford/=0.2,0.3and
0.4 respectively. The corresponding Q parameter
variations are demonstrated in Fig. 11 (a), Fig. 11(b)
and Fig. 11(c) respectively. Figure 11 clearly demon
stratedthetransitionregionsfordifferentvalues.The
corresponding cutoff normalized frequency for
different values of d/ for the infiltrating liquid RI of
1.43isdemonstratedinFig.12.Similarcalculationsare
performed with infiltrating RI with nL=1.40 and nL
=1.35 and the corresponding cutoff nature/variations
for different normalized frequency are presented in
Fig. 13(a) and Fig. 13(b) respectively. Considering a
constantairfillingfraction(d/)=0.40,cutofffrequency
for different values of infiltrating liquid has been
presentedinFig.14.Thenormalizedcutofffrequency
increases for higher values of nL as can be observed
from the figures; which in turn restricts the single
mode operation for higher wavelength only for a
particular holetohole distance (). To achieve a
requiredbirefringence,weneedtocleverlychoosethe

PhotonicsandOptoelectronics(P&O)Volume3,2014www.jpojournal.org

PCF parameters such that we could achieve high

birefringence and at the same time restricting the
10

-1

10

-2

operationwithinsinglemoderegion.

Im (n e ff)

Q param eter

-5

10

-3

10

-4

-10

-15

-20
10

(/)

FIG.8IM(NEFF)ASAFUNCTIONOF/FORTHEPCF
STRUCTUREWITHTRIANGULARLATTICEFORd/=0.1

Im(neff)

10

10

10

10

1.5
2
2.5
Normalized Frequency (/)

-1

-1

10

-2

10

-2

10

-3

10

-4

-3

-4

-5

-5

(/)

10

10 0.3
10

FIG.10(a)IM(NEFF)ASAFUNCTIONOF/FORTHEPCF
STRUCTUREWITHTRIANGULARLATTICEFORd/=0.20.

10

10

0.1

(/)

10

-0.1

10

-0.3

FIG.10(b)IM(NEFF)ASAFUNCTIONOF/FORTHEPCF
STRUCTUREWITHTRIANGULARLATTICEford/=0.30.

30

20

-2

Im (n eff)

10

Q parameter

10

FIG.9QPARAMETERVARIATIONWITH/FORnL=1.43FOR
d/=0.1

Im (neff)

10

-4

10

0
-6

10 0.3
10

10

0.1

(/)

10

-0.1

10

-10
0.5

-0.3

FIG.10(c)IM(NEFF)ASAFUNCTIONOF/FORTHEPCF
STRUCTUREWITHTRIANGULARLATTICEFORd/=0.40.

1.5
2
2.5
Normalized Frequency (/)

FIG.11(a)QPARAMETERVARIATIONWITH/FOR
nL=1.43FORd/=0.20.

31

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40

60
50

30
Q param eter

Q param eter

40
20
10

30
20
10

-10
0.5

1
1.5
2
Normalized Frequency (/)

-10
0.5

2.5

FIG.11(B)QPARAMETERVARIATIONWITH/FORnL=1.43
FORd/=0.30.

1.5
2
Normalized Frequency (/)

2.5

FIG.11(c)QPARAMETERVARIATIONWITH/FORnL=1.43
FORd/=0.40.
C

nL=1.35

2.4

2.4

Normalized cut-off frequency

Normalized cut-off frequency

2.8

2.0
1.6
1.2
0.8

0.10

0.15

0.20

0.25
d/

0.30

0.35

1.6
1.2

0.8

0.40

nL=1.40

2.0

0.10

0.15

0.20

0.25 0.30
d/

0.35

0.40

FIG.13CUTOFF/VALUESFORDIFFERENTd/vALUESFORNLVALUESOF(A)1.35AND(B)1.40

2.4
2.2

0.99

1.8

0.98

1.6
1.4

0.97

1.2

0.96

1.0
0.8

0.1

0.2 d/0.3

0.4

0.5

FIG.12CUTOFF/VALUESFORDIFFERENTd/VALUES
FORnL=1.43.

32

d/=0.40

1.00

nL=1.43

2.0

1.01
Normalized cut-off frequency

Normalized cut-off frequency

2.6

0.95
1.34

1.36
1.38
1.40
Infiltrating liquid RI

1.42

1.44

FIG.14CUTOFF/VALUESFORDIFFERENTNLVALUES
FORd/=0.40.

PhotonicsandOptoelectronics(P&O)Volume3,2014www.jpojournal.org

0.00127

Calculated Values
Linear Fit

Confinement loss (dB/m)

0.00126

Birefringence

0.00125
0.00124
0.00123
0.00122
0.00121

1.8E-4
1.6E-4
1.4E-4
1.2E-4
1E-4
8E-5
6E-5
4E-5

0.00120
2E-5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

10

15

20

Temperature (Deg C)
FIG.15VARIATIONOFBIREFRINGENCEASFUNCTIONOF
OPERATINGTEMPERATUREFOROIL#1
1.3x10

30

35

40

FIG.16LOSSVARIATIONCORRESPONDING
TOFIG.15.

-3

(B )

(A)
1.2x10

-3

1.1x10

-3

1.0x10

-3

9.0x10

-4

8.0x10

-4

7.0x10

-4

1E -4

Confinement loss (dB/m)

Birefringence

25

Temperature (Deg C)

@1550nm
@1310nm

10

15

20

25

30

35

1E -5

1550nm
1310nm

1E -6

40

10

Temperature (Deg C)

15

20
25
30
T em perature (D eg C )

35

40

FIG.17(A)BIREFRINGENCEAND(B)CORRESPONDINGCONFINEMENTLOSSESVARIATIONATTWODIFFERENTWAVELENGTHS
OF1310NMAND1550NMWITHLIQUID#1
1 E -3

-3

1.4x10

-3

1.4x10

-3

1.3x10

-3

1.3x10

-3

1.2x10

-3

1.2x10

-3

@ 1550nm

(A )

liquid#1
liquid#2

10

15

20

25

30

35

(B )
@ 1550nm

Confinement loss (dB/m)

Birefringence

1.5x10

40

liq u id # 1
liq u id # 2

1 E -4

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

T e m p e ra tu r e (D e g C )

T em perature (D eg C )

FIG.18(A)BIREFRINGENCEAND(B)LOSSESFORLIQUID#1ANDLIQUID#2FORDIFFERENTOPERATINGTEMPERATURESATTHE
OPERATINGWAVELENGTHOF1550NM

design, we need another fiber to be fabricated. Now

herecomestheadvantageofliquidfilledPCF.Herein
this type of selective liquid infiltrated PCF, we can
changetheRIoftheinfiltratingliquidbychangingthe
temperature of the infiltrating liquid or reinfiltrate
anotherliquidinthesamedesignandtherebytuning

Tunability of the Liquid-infiltrated Birefringent PCF

It is well known that once a design is fixed and
fabricated the corresponding property cant be
changed further. So to have a different or optimized

33

www.jpojournal.orgPhotonicsandOptoelectronics(P&O)Volume3,2014

the required properties according to the requirement.

Herewediscussthebirefringentpropertythatcanbe
achievedbyinfiltratingtheliquidwithaparticularRI.
Here we discuss the infiltration with two different
liquids (as liquid#1 and liquid#2 respectively) having
RIof1.344and1.383atawavelengthof1550nmat25
0C as given by Eqn.(3) and Eqn. (4) respectively. The
temperature coefficient of the liquids (available with
M/s Cargile lab) are 3.39 *104/0C and 3.44*104/0C
respectively. These temperature coefficients are much
largerthanthatoffusedsilica,soachangeoftempera
ture will affect the RI of the liquid only. Figure 15
demonstrates birefringence of the structure (with
=2.3m and d/=0.7). With the increase of the
temperature the birefringence is getting reduced
which is a direct consequence of Fig. 5. With the
increase of temperature, the RI of the liquid gets
reduced and the structure become less asymmetric
andconsequentlylowbirefringence.Thenatureshows
a linear relation with a slope of 1.95*106 /0C. The
correspondinglossofthestructurehasbeenpresented
in Fig. 16. With the increase of the temperature, the
loss of the structure improves. A comparison of the
birefringence and loss of the structures for two
different wavelengths of 1310nm and 1550nm are
shown in Fig. 17. The figure shows that with the
increase of wavelength birefringence increases (Fig.
17(a)) at the cost extra losses (Fig. 17 (b)). We have
compared the birefringence and propagation loss
property for two different liquids as demonstrated in
Fig. 18. The figure clearly presents that with a liquid
with high RI, high birefringence can be obtained as
can be seen from Fig. 18(a). The corresponding loss
can be observed from Fig. 18(b) which illustrates that
the loss is higher with higher RI liquid as expected
fromFig.5(b).
CauchyequationforOil#1isknowntobe[M/scargile
Ltd.]:
Liquid1#n1()=1.3432154+237036/2-4.9436921010/4
Liquid2#n2()=1.3813595+307592/2-2.6143321011/4

(3)
(4)

whereareinAngstrom.
Conclusion and Discussion:
We have studied the application of selective liquid
infiltration where birefringence has been created in a
symmetrical PCF by infiltrating liquid in the
diagonally opposite sirholes. Different airhole
fraction along with different infiltrating liquid has
been considered towards studying the influences of
differentparameterstowardsbirefringenceandlosses.

34

Ithasbeenobservedthatwiththeincreasesofairhole
fraction, both the birefringence and losses are
improved. With increase of infiltrating liquid, the
birefringence improves while the structure becomes
lossy. Our numerical analysis establishes that better
birefringence can be attainable if we infiltrate liquid
along x axis of the normal triangular PCF. We have
obtained a high birefringence value of the order of
5*103, which is quite higher than the available
polarization maintaining fiber. We have also
investigated the single mode property of regular PCF
whenthestructureisinfiltratedwithliquidofcertain
refractive indices along the x axis to achieve
asymmetry in the core. A wise adjustment of the
available parameters is required so that single mode
operation is possible for present day metro inline
applications especially from the visible range to the
near IR wavelength covering Cband. Tunable
property of the liquid infiltrated PCF has been
investigated for different temperature in detail. Our
studywillunleashanewdimensiontowardsrealizing
birefringence fiber based devices from a conventional
nonbirefringentPCF.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

The authors would like to thank Dr. Boris Kuhlmey,

UniversityofSydney,Australiaforprovidingvaluable
suggestions during the designing and studying the
properties of the structure. The authors acknowledge
sincerely the Defence Research and Development
Organisation (DRDO), Govt. of India and The
DepartmentofScienceandTechnology(DST),Govt.of
India for the financial support to carry out this
research. Some salient features of these results were
recently reported by us at the Photonics Global
Conference (PGC2012) [Maji et al, 2012] held at
Singaporein20012.
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36

Partha Sona Maji was born in Purba

Mediniour District, West Bengal. He
received the B.Sc from Ramakrishna
Mission Vidyamandira, Belur Math,
CalcuttaUniversityandM.Scdegreesin
physics from Indian Institute of
Technology Delhi, India in 2005 and 2007,respectively. He
is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree at the Indian
InstituteofTechnology,Kharagpur,India.
HeiscurrentlyaSeniorResearchFellowoftheDepartment
of Physics, IIT Kharagpur His current research interests are
intheareaofSpecialtyOpticalFibersforvariouslinearand
nonlinearapplications.
Partha Roy Chaudhuri received the
Ph.D.degreefromtheIndianInstituteof
Technology(IIT),Delhi,in2001.
He then pursued postdoctoral research
at the Kyoto Institute of Technology,
Kyoto,Japan,asaJapaneseGovernment
Fellow. Later, in 2002, he joined the
InstituteforCommunicationsResearch,NationalUniversity
of Singapore, as an Associate Member, where he was
involvedintheexperimentalresearchwithphotoniccrystal
fibers and components. In 2004, he joined the faculty ofthe
Physics Department, IIT Kharagpur, where he is currently
anAssociateProfessorofPhysicsworkingintheareaoffiber
and integrated optics and photonics. He is the
author/coauthorofover40researchpapersandcontributed
chapters in two books. His current research interests are in
theareaofopticalwaveguidesandphotonicdevices.