We demonstrate a projection lithography method that induces optical index changes in a flexible polymer cable that is continuously translated through the image plane. We demonstrate that a static spot pattern generates a grid of waveguides along the cable length via a continuous extrusion process. Rotations or scaling of the optical spot array can fabricate image inverters or magnifying face pl...

fibre data links: present progress and future prospects’. Proc. 2nd Int. Conf. Plastic Optical Fibre and Applications, 1993, pp. 8-13 5 K O I K E , ~ . : ‘High bandwidth, low loss polymer fibres’. Proc. ECOC‘92, 1992, Vol. 2, pp. 679486 6 ISHIGURE, T., NIHEI, E., and KOIKE, Y.: ‘Graded-index polymer optical fibre for high-speed data communication’, Appl. Opt. , 1994, 33, (19), pp. 42614266 4 WA...

Guidance in a liquid core is possible with microstructured optical fibers, opening up many possibilities for chemical and biochemical fiber-optic sensing. In this work we demonstrate how the bandgaps of a hollow core microstructured polymer optical fiber scale with the refractive index of liquid introduced into the holes of the microstructure. Such a fiber is then filled with an aqueous solutio...

Ageing and degradation has been accomplished on Microstructured Polymer Optical Fiber (MPOF) by changing simulated ambient environmental condition to ascertain their suitability in possible automotive application. Both single Moded Microstructured Polymer Optical Fiber (SM-MPOF) and Graded Index Microstructured Polymer Optical Fiber (GI-MPOF) has been studied for physical ageing and chemical de...

This article provides an up-to-date review on nanocomposites composed of inorganic nanoparticles and the polymer matrix for optical and magnetic applications. Optical or magnetic characteristics can change upon the decrease of particle sizes to very small dimensions, which are, in general, of major interest in the area of nanocomposite materials. The use of inorganic nanoparticles into the poly...

In the quest of finding the ideal polymer optical fiber (POF) for Bragg grating sensing, we have fabricated and characterized an endlessly single mode microstructured POF (mPOF). This fiber is made from cyclo-olefin homopolymer Zeonex grade 480R which has a very high glass transition temperature of 138 °C and is humidity insensitive. It represents a significant improvement with respect to the a...

Highly sensitive photoalignment of liquid crystals (LCs) can be realized by axis-selective triplet energy transfer. Addition of a triplet photosensitizer (phosphorescent donor) into a photocrosslinkable polymer tethering E-cinnamate side chains ensures dramatic enhancement of photosensitivity to generate the optical anisotropy of polymer film and surface-assisted LC photoalignment. Photoirradia...

The imaging capabilities of a multicore microstructured polymer optical fibre with a square array of 112 air holes are demonstrated. Coherent imaging is achieved either by guiding light in polymer cores between air holes, or by guiding light in the air channels themselves. This potentially provides a miniaturised endoscope for medical applications, or a two-dimensional parallel optical data lin...

The temperature sensitivity of the free spectral range (FSR) for a polymer-overlaid microfiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) is investigated both theoretically and experimentally. The waist diameter of the optical microfiber can be controlled to alter the thermal expansion and optic properties of the polymer-coated MZI. Inserting an optical microfiber with a strong evanescent field into the...

A new class of hierarchically structured polymer optical materials possessing an internal refractive index gradient that mimics biological optical materials is described. The new materials permit the fabrication of gradient refractive index (GRIN) lenses with an unprecedented variety of index gradients. Gradients with different functional forms in both the radial and axial directions have been ...