title: Highly birefringent silica microfiber.
abstract: A highly birefringent silica microfiber was successfully developed by adiabatically tapering a low-birefringence flat fiber at a low temperature. Owing to the high fiber cross-sectional ellipticity and the large refractive index contrast between silica and the surrounding air (deltan=0.45) the flat microfiber provides an extremely high group birefringence (B=5.3x10(-3) at 1550 nm). The ability to obtain high birefringence in optical microfibers offers new possibilities for polarization discrimination and control within microfiber devices, such as high-resolution optical sensors, resonators, and fiber lasers.
authors.affiliation: Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK. mj@orc.soton.ac.uk
authors.forename: Yongmin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.forename: Gilberto
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Brambilla
authors.forename: Kyunghwan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Richardson