title: Reconfigurable liquid metal fiber-optic mirror for continuous, widely-tunable true-time-delay.
abstract: This paper reports the demonstration of a widely-translatable fiber-optic mirror based on the motion of liquid metal through the hollow core of a photonic bandgap fiber. By moving a liquid metal mirror within the hollow core of an optical fiber, large, continuous changes in optical path length are achieved in a comparatively small package. A fiber-optic device is demonstrated which provided a continuously-variable optical path length of over 3.6 meters, without the use of free-space optics or resonant optical techniques (i.e. slow light). This change in path length corresponds to a continuously-variable true-time delay of over 12 ns, or 120 periods at a modulation frequency of 10 GHz. Wavelength dependence was shown to be negligible across the C and L bands.
authors.affiliation: Optical Sciences Division, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, 4555 Overlook Ave. SW, Washington, DC, USA. ross.schermer@nrl.navy.mil
authors.forename: Ross T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Schermer
authors.forename: Carl A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Villarruel
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bucholtz
authors.forename: Colin V
authors.initials: CV
authors.lastname: McLaughlin
mesh_terms: D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005336:Fiber Optic Technology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D007909:Lenses; D008670:Metals / Q000737:chemistry*; D012996:Solutions
chemical_list: D008670:Metals; D012996:Solutions