title: Tapered fibers embedded in silica aerogel.
abstract: We have embedded thin tapered fibers (with diameters down to 1 microm) in silica aerogel with low loss. The aerogel is rigid but behaves refractively like air, protecting the taper without disturbing light propagation along it. This enables a new class of fiber devices exploiting volume evanescent interactions with the aerogel itself or with dopants or gases in the pores.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Photonics and Photonics Materials, Department of Physics, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK. L.Xiao@bath.ac.uk
authors.forename: Limin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.forename: Michael D W
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Grogan
authors.forename: Sergio G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Leon-Saval
authors.forename: Rhys
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: England
authors.forename: Willam J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Wadsworth
authors.forename: Tim A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Birks