TY - JOUR
T1 - Tunable transformation optical waveguide bends in liquid
AU - Liu, Hai L.
AU - Zhu, Xiao Q.
AU - Liang, Li
AU - Zhang, Xuming
AU - Yang, Yi
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgment. We acknowledge the support from nanofabrication assistance from Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at Wuhan University.
Funding Information:
Funding. National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (61378093, 61377068); Open Foundation of National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (QNLM2016ORP0410); Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (2014CFA033); State Oceanic Administration, People’s Republic of China.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Optical Society of America.
PY - 2017/8/20
Y1 - 2017/8/20
N2 - Optical waveguide bends are indispensable to integrated optical systems, and many methods to mitigate bend loss have thus been proposed. Transformation optics (TO) causes light to travel around a bend as if it was propagating in a straight waveguide, eliminating the bend loss. Many reported TO waveguide bends have utilized solid materials, but there are fundamental difficulties for real applications because of their complex fabrication, lack of reconfiguration, and the so-called effective medium condition. Here, we develop a method to overcome these problems using the convection–diffusion of liquids. It enables real-time tunable transformation optical waveguide bends using natural liquid diffusion while still exhibiting the major merits of quasi-conformal mapping. We have experimentally demonstrated bending in visible light by 90 and 180° while preserving the intensity profile at a reasonably high level of fidelity. This work bridges fluid dynamics and optics and has the potential for application in on-chip biological, chemical, and biomedical measurements, as well as detectors and tunable optical systems.
AB - Optical waveguide bends are indispensable to integrated optical systems, and many methods to mitigate bend loss have thus been proposed. Transformation optics (TO) causes light to travel around a bend as if it was propagating in a straight waveguide, eliminating the bend loss. Many reported TO waveguide bends have utilized solid materials, but there are fundamental difficulties for real applications because of their complex fabrication, lack of reconfiguration, and the so-called effective medium condition. Here, we develop a method to overcome these problems using the convection–diffusion of liquids. It enables real-time tunable transformation optical waveguide bends using natural liquid diffusion while still exhibiting the major merits of quasi-conformal mapping. We have experimentally demonstrated bending in visible light by 90 and 180° while preserving the intensity profile at a reasonably high level of fidelity. This work bridges fluid dynamics and optics and has the potential for application in on-chip biological, chemical, and biomedical measurements, as well as detectors and tunable optical systems.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85028359149&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1364/OPTICA.4.000839
DO - 10.1364/OPTICA.4.000839
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85028359149
SN - 2334-2536
VL - 4
SP - 839
EP - 846
JO - Optica
JF - Optica
IS - 8
ER -