TRANSMISSION THROUGH TWISTED CLAD LIQUID CRYSTAL OPTICAL FIBERS

The paper presents an analytical investigation of three-layer twisted clad liquid crystal fiber in respect of its power propagation characteristics. The fiber under consideration has dielectric non-magnetic materials in its core and inner clad sections, whereas the outermost clad is made of radially anisotropic liquid crystal material. Twist in the fiber is introduced in the form of superfine helical turns at the interface of the core and the inner clad regions with specified values of pitch angle. Results demonstrate large confinement of optical power in the outermost liquid crystal section. Further, the angle of twist is seen to have its pronounced effect on controlling the flow of power as it exhibits the ability of governing the propagation characteristics of the medium. The observed propagation feature is attributed to the radial anisotropy of the liquid crystal outer region as well as the amount of twist introduced, and attracts useful applications of such complex fiber structures in evanescent field optical sensing and other coupling devices primarily used in integrated optics.