Magnetically controllable wavelength-division-multiplexing fiber coupler

In this paper, a magnetically controllable wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) fiber coupler has been proposed and experimentally demonstrated. A theoretical model has been established to analyze the influences of the weak as well as strong couplings to the wavelength tunability of this coupler. Experimental results show that the operation wavelength tunability of the proposed WDM coupler could be fulfilled for an applied magnetic field intensity range of 0 Oe to 500 Oe, and particularly it possesses high operation performances within the magnetic field intensity ranging from 25 Oe to 125 Oe when additional transmission loss and isolation are both considered. Within this range, the two selected channels show the wavelength tunability of 0.05 nm/Oe and 0.0744 nm/Oe, respectively, and the isolation between the two branches is higher than 24.089 dB. Owing to its high isolation, good splitting ratio stability, and high wavelength tunability, the proposed controllable WDM coupler is anticipated to find potential applications in such fields as fiber laser, fiber sensing and fiber-optic communications. Moreover, the fiber coupler integrated with the magnetic fluid would be valuable for the design of magnetically controllable mode-division-multiplexing devices. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America