This video Demonstrates several new products based on the nano structures fabricated directly on the optical fiber facet
For this demonstration we have a fiber coupled laser that is connected to a fiber splitter
This way we have the light coming out of two fibers
The first output I connect to a regular single mode fiber
The beam coming out of the fiber has Gaussian shape and diverges with 0.13 radian numerical aperture
The next output I connect to the fiber with a nanostructure fabricated on its facet
The beam coming out of the nano structured fiber is an optical vortex that carries orbital angular momentum
It is created by a spiral phase plate on a fiber's edge
The beam has a donut shape. Optical vortices are used in STED microscopy,
telecommunications and optical trapping.  Another structure that can be fabricated on a fiber is a collimator
Fiber collimator controls the divergence angle of the output beam, for example, to make the beam narrower
Fiber collimators are used to match fiber output with the numerical aperture of the optical system and to simplify coupling into fibers
By combining the optical performance of the fiber collimator and vortex phase plate
we can also control the divergence of the vortex beam
This beam also carries orbital angular momentum, but the divergence angle is much narrower
Our designs can operate from blue light to near-infrared
To demonstrate the next structure I will use a green laser diode
The Nano structure on this fiber is a flat top beam shaper
While the beam from a regular fiber has a Gaussian shape,
the beam from this fiber has uniform intensity in the center. The beam divergence is also much wider
Beam shapers are typically used for illumination applications, including next-generation displays.
Fiber optics makes optical setups easy to use
compact and alignment free. Using fibers with nano structures for light
manipulation directly on the fiber edge expands the capabilities of the fiber optic systems.
Visit us at FiberPhotonics.com to learn more about these and other nanostructured fibers
