Fine, Reversible and Broadband Tuning of the Group Velocity Dispersion of Tapered Silica Fibers in a Thermo-Optic Polymer Matrix

The development of tapered optical fibers embedded in a thermo-optic polymer matrix with reversibly tailored group velocity dispersion is hereby presented. Dispersion measurements for these tapered fibers were performed using white light spectral interferometry. The tapered fibers exhibit reversible thermo-optic group velocity dispersion tuning in both the normal and the anomalous regime in a broad spectral window extending from the E-band to the L-band of the telecommunication laser bandwidth. Group delay dispersion can be controlled thermo-optically within tuning ranges of up to −2230 fs ² in the anomalous and 2090 fs ² in the normal dispersion regime for single tapered fibers. Connecting a few of these polymer-embedded tapered fibers together offers even wider delay ranges that can be reversibly controlled. Thus, the polymer embedded tapers can be used as a versatile and modular dispersion management toolbox with the advantage of seamless integration with standard fiber optic systems. Such a dispersion management toolbox can be of use in the development of cavities for ultrafast fiber lasers and in other applications requiring fine and reversible dispersion control.