Abstract

An area of recent excitement is the study and application of silica fiber waveguide devices with enhanced properties. These device structures fall into two general categories: 1) highly integrated tunability; and 2) radical modification of the index profile from that in a conventional fiber. This paper describes a range of novel waveguide structures that enhance the functionality of fiber gratings and show great potential for further applications. They include per-channel dispersion trimming devices [1, 2] and electrically tunable broadband fiber filters [3] that use integrated thin-film metal heaters as well as novel grating filters that exploit the unique properties of air-silica and hybrid air-silica-polymer microstructured fibers.

© 2000 IEEE