Geetha, K; Radhakrishnan, P(International School of Photonics, June , 2006)
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Abstract:
The rapid developments in fields such as fibre optic communication
engineering and integrated optical electronics have expanded the interest and
have increased the expectations about guided wave optics, in which optical
waveguides and optical fibres play a central role. The technology of guided
wave photonics now plays a role in generating information (guided-wave
sensors) and processing information (spectral analysis, analog-to-digital
conversion and other optical communication schemes) in addition to its
original application of transmitting information (fibre optic communication).
Passive and active polymer devices have generated much research
interest recently because of the versatility of the fabrication techniques and
the potential applications in two important areas – short distant
communication network and special functionality optical devices such as
amplifiers, switches and sensors. Polymer optical waveguides and fibres are
often designed to have large cores with 10-1000 micrometer diameter to
facilitate easy connection and splicing.
Large diameter polymer optical fibres being less fragile and vastly
easier to work with than glass fibres, are attractive in sensing applications.
Sensors using commercial plastic optical fibres are based on ideas already
used in silica glass sensors, but exploiting the flexible and cost effective
nature of the plastic optical fibre for harsh environments and throw-away
sensors.
In the field of Photonics, considerable attention is centering on the
use of polymer waveguides and fibres, as they have a great potential to create
all-optical devices. By attaching organic dyes to the polymer system we can
incorporate a variety of optical functions. Organic dye doped polymer
waveguides and fibres are potential candidates for solid state gain media.
High power and high gain optical amplification in organic dye-doped
polymer waveguide amplifier is possible due to extremely large emission
cross sections of dyes. Also, an extensive choice of organic dye dopants is
possible resulting in amplification covering a wide range in the visible region.