Improving the electric field sensing capabilities of the long-period fiber grating coated with a liquid crystal layer

The hybrid liquid crystal long-period fiber grating structure presented here uses the 1702 liquid crystal as a thin layer on the bare long-period fiber grating. To achieve the highest long-period fiber grating sensitivity to the liquid crystal layer presence, a UV-induced host grating, with a relatively short period of 226.8 mu m, was chosen. This design makes it possible to couple light from the propagating core mode to a cladding mode at a wavelength near the phase-matching turning point. This phenomenon is exploited here for the first time to measure the thermal and electric field responses of the liquid crystal long-period fiber grating structure. All experimental results achieved in this work are supported by theoretical analysis. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America