Study of Fiber Taper Diameter Characterization Using Forward Brillouin Scattering (CAT#: STEM-ST-0122-YJL)

Introduction

Light confinement in fiber tapers, especially in the subwavelength regime, enables a variety of applications in nonlinear optics, supercontinuum generation, Brillouin scattering, and quantum optics. Additionally, these micro-wires can be used to couple light into and out of photonic circuits and special fibers. In many of these applications, fine control of the micro-wire diameter is critical. Similarly, quantum optics experiments rely on strict control of the evanescent field in order to trap atoms/particles. Controlling the propagation properties, such as the effective index and the depth of the evanescent field, becomes even more difficult for wires with sub-micron diameter, as these parameters change quite rapidly. It is therefore of great importance to precisely characterize the diameter of the wire as well as its uniformity along its length.