Bending loss and thermo-optic effect of a hybrid PDMS/silica photonic crystal fiber

In this paper, we demonstrate and report a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) infiltrated with PDMS elastomer which is sensitive to external bending and temperature perturbations. Numerical simulations and experimental measurements were carried out to investigate the fundamental TIR-based guiding mechanism of the hybrid PDMS/silica PCF in terms of effective index, effective modal area and loss. Wavelength dependence of bending losses was also measured for different bend diameters as well as the temperature dependence of the fundamental guiding mode for a range of temperatures from 20 degrees C to 75 degrees C. Experimental measurements have shown a similar to 6% power recovery of the bend-induced loss for a 6-cm long PDMS-filled PCF at 4 cm bend diameter. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America