Composite optical fiber polarizer with ternary copolymer overlay for large range modulation of phase difference

Abstract In this work, a ternary copolymer composed of (E)-2-(4-((4-isocyanophenyl) diazenyl) phenoxy) ethyl methacrylate (2-CN), methacrylisobutyl polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (MAPOSS) and 2,2,2-trifluoroethyl methacrylate (TFEMA) is synthesized and used as the overlay for composite optical fiber, in which cage-like POSS component and fluorine-containing component are used to reduce refractive index, and azobenzene component is used to finely manipulate the refractive indices in two orthogonal directions through photo-induced orientation under irradiation of polarized light. Before irradiation, the refractive index of terpolymer (1.4503) is slightly higher than that of the core material (1.4489) of commercial silica single-mode fiber, which is obtained by optimizing the amount of each monomer. After the irradiation of 435 nm polarized light, refractive indices of the overlay in two orthogonal directions decrease, and two values have been finely manipulated so that one is higher and another is lower than the refractive index of the fiber core by optimizing irradiation time. In this way, a radial loss type fiber polarization modulator is obtained. By changing the polarization direction of the irradiation at 435 nm, the polarization of propagating light at 1550 nm in the fiber can also be modulated continuously. The maximum change of phase difference is about 300°, making the device useful as a quarter-wave plate or a half-wave plate.