Measurement of group velocity dispersion in a solid-core photonic crystal fiber filled with a nematic liquid crystal

Abstract

Liquid crystal-filled photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) are promising candidates for electrically tunable integrated photonic devices. In this Letter, we present group velocity measurements on such fibers. A large mode area PCF, LMA8, was infiltrated with the liquid crystal mixture, E7. The measurements were performed with an interferometric setup. The fiber exhibits several spectral transmission windows in the visible wavelength regime that originate from the bandgap guiding mechanism. The dispersion of these windows is very unusual compared to typical fibers. Our measurements show that it can change from -2500 ps km(-1) nm(-1) to +2500 ps km(-1) nm(-1) within a spectral range of only 15 nm. This leads to multiple zero dispersion wavelengths in the visible wavelength range.