Polarization-maintaining optical microfiber.

We have successfully demonstrated a polarization-maintaining (PM) fused silica microfiber by adiabatically tapering a conventional PM fiber. Compared to standard single-mode microfibers, the proposed PM microfibers exhibit robust polarization, preserving characteristics under the presence of external perturbations, such as bending. A polarization-extinction ratio of 16 dB is typically obtained through the device with a corresponding excess loss of 0.2 dB.

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