A Novel Electrically Tunable Long-Period Fiber Grating Using a Liquid Crystal Cladding Layer

The main aim of the presented work is the integration of a long-period fiber grating and a liquid crystal into a hybrid structure, in order to develop an innovative fiber optic device controlled by an external electric field. The studied long-period fiber grating was fabricated using UV irradiation in a boron co-doped fiber (PS1250/1500, manufactured by Fibercore). As a liquid crystal we used a typical 5CB nematic liquid crystal. The sensing mechanism of the proposed loss filter relies on long-period fiber grating attenuation bands sensitivity to optical properties of the liquid crystal layer. The results obtained show that the long-period fiber grating with a nanosized liquid crystal layer exhibits one order of magnitude higher electrical sensitivity and a lower level of the voltage control than the long-period fiber grating with a micro-sized liquid crystal layer.