Temperature Dependent Birefringence in Microstructured Optical Fiber

Two customized MOFs with three-solid-cores of 4  ${\mu }$ m with a 10  ${\mu }$ m and 7.5  ${\mu }$ m core separation periodicity were used to monitor the thermal properties for a range of 18–40  ${^\circ }$ C. The goal of this investigation was to characterize and evaluate the use of microstructured optical fibers for temperature limited biocompatible devices. A guarded hot plate apparatus was assembled and used to measure the fiber response to prescribed temperatures. An imaged-based detection system was developed to collect the thermal attributes for the three-core optical fiber. The results agree with the theoretical models showing that light is coupled from the center core to the neighboring cores. There is an unexpected periodic dependence of the birefringence and intensity with time, indicating diffusion limited cooling and thermal equilibrium processes.