All-fiber add-drop filters based on microfiber knot resonators

We demonstrate an all-fiber add-drop filter composed of a microfiber knot (working as a resonator) and a fiber taper (working as a dropping fiber). The dropping taper can be either parallel or perpendicular to the input port of the filter. A quality factor Q factor) of 13,000 is obtained from a parallel-coupling 308 mu m diameter microknot add-drop filter with a free spectral range (FSR) of 1.8 nm. A Q factor of similar to 3300 is obtained from a cross-coupling 65 mu m diameter microknot add-drop filter with a FSR of 8.1 nm. This device is particularly easy to fabricate and to connect to fiber systems. (C) 2007 Optical Society of America