DESIGN AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A PLASTIC OPTICAL-FIBER ACTIVE COUPLER

In this letter, we report on the first active coupler developed with t he plastic optical fiber technology. The device constructed combines t he characteristics of the most important devices arising from this tec hnology, which are switches and couplers. The solution adopted is base d on the structure of a passive contact coupler and on the switching p roperties of a nonquiral nematic liquid crystal. The device designed y ields an experimental coupling of 4.5 dB with excess losses under 2.5 dB if the device acts as a coupler; and a dynamic range of 3 dB and sw itching times of 2 ms if the device acts as a switch.