Silver coatings in selected holes of microstructured polymer optical fibres

One of the possibilities enabled by microstructured optical fibres is the incorporation of other materials within the microstructure. Increasing interest is focusing on the use of metals in this context. We demonstrate true, size independent, selective filling of the holes in a microstructured optical fibre (MOF), using the neck down region of a MOF as a "funnel". One of the simplest applications of selective filling is the fabrication of an absorptive polarizer. We present modeling of an in-fibre polarizer using the fabricated structure.