Compact Design of an Electrically Tunable and Rotatable Polarizer Based on a Liquid Crystal Photonic Bandgap Fiber

In this letter, a compact electrically controlled broadband liquid crystal (LC) photonic bandgap fiber polarizer is designed and fabricated. A good fiber coupling quality between two single-mode fibers and one 10-mm-long LC-filled photonic crystal fiber is obtained and protected by using SU-8 fiber fixing structures during the device assembly. The total insertion loss of this all-in-fiber device is 2.7 dB. An electrically tunable polarization extinction ratio of 21.3 dB is achieved with 45deg rotatable transmission axis as well as switched on and off in the wavelength range of 1300-1600 nm.

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