Optical router for optical fiber sensor networks based on a liquid crystal cell

 

Authors
Vargas, Salvador; Sánchez Pena, José Manuel; Vázquez, Carmen; Aranda, Angel; Pérez, Isabel
Format
Article
Status
publishedVersion
Description

Optical fiber sensor networks are evolving rapidly. They are used because of the inert nature of optical fibers allowing no electromagnetic interference and safe applications in inflammable atmospheres; other relevant characteristics are their low weights and wide bandwidths as a transmission medium. In any case, it is very interesting to have specific components such as optical routers for selecting a certain path in a network with no optical to electrical and electrical to optical conversions. In this paper, we propose an all-optical router based on liquid crystals, polarizers, and a spatial split polarization beam splitter. The implemented device is designed to operate with visible light and it has been tested with plastic optical fibers. It has a crosstalk of 14 dB between selected ON channels and nonoperative OFF channels and 11-dB insertion losses. An average switch time of 100 ms is measured. The device checks the optical power level in each channel and, in case of failure, automatically switches to an operative channel while an alarm is activated.
Optical fiber sensor networks are evolving rapidly. They are used because of the inert nature of optical fibers allowing no electromagnetic interference and safe applications in inflammable atmospheres; other relevant characteristics are their low weights and wide bandwidths as a transmission medium. In any case, it is very interesting to have specific components such as optical routers for selecting a certain path in a network with no optical to electrical and electrical to optical conversions. In this paper, we propose an all-optical router based on liquid crystals, polarizers, and a spatial split polarization beam splitter. The implemented device is designed to operate with visible light and it has been tested with plastic optical fibers. It has a crosstalk of 14 dB between selected ON channels and nonoperative OFF channels and 11-dB insertion losses. An average switch time of 100 ms is measured. The device checks the optical power level in each channel and, in case of failure, automatically switches to an operative channel while an alarm is activated.

Publication Year
2018
Language
eng
Topic
Optical fiber networks
Optical sensors
Optical fiber sensors
Liquid crystals
Optical crosstalk
Optical devices
Optical fibers
Optical fiber polarization
Optical switches
Electromagnetic interference
Optical fiber networks
Optical sensors
Optical fiber sensors
Liquid crystals
Optical crosstalk
Optical devices
Optical fibers
Optical fiber polarization
Optical switches
Electromagnetic interference
Repository
RI de Documento Digitales de Acceso Abierto de la UTP
Get full text
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/1226646/
http://ridda2.utp.ac.pa/handle/123456789/4899
Rights
embargoedAccess
License