In this thesis we explore a novel technique to fabricate sub-micron diameter tapered fibers for sensor applications. Physically the light propagating in a tapered fiber has an evanescent field that extends into the medium surrounding the fiber containing an analyte. A sub-micron diameter taper can expels most the electromagnetic energy into the medium thus increasing the sensitivity of the meas...

The quality factor (Q), mode volume (V(eff)), and room-temperature lasing threshold of microdisk cavities with embedded quantum dots (QDs) are investigated. Finite element method simulations of standing wave modes within the microdisk reveal that Veff can be as small as 2(lambda/n)(3) while maintaining radiation-limited Qs in excess of 10(5). Microdisks of diameter 2 microm are fabricated in an...

We develop and characterize a UV ablation technique that can be used to pattern soft materials such as polymers and nonlinear molecules self-assembled over silica microstructures. Using this method, we fabricate a spatially periodic coating of nonlinear film over a thin silica fiber taper for second harmonic generation (SHG). Experimentally, we find that the second harmonic signal produced by t...

We report the fabrication and characterization of a cylindrically symmetric fiber structure that possesses significant and thermodynamically stable second-order nonlinearity. Such fiber structure is produced through nanoscale self-assembly of nonlinear molecules on a silica fiber taper and possesses full rotational symmetry. Despite its highly symmetric configuration, we observed significant se...

we solve the coupled mode equations governing the chalcogenide nonlinear fiber bragg gratings (fbgs) numerically, and obtain the bistability characteristics. the characteristics of the chalcogenide nonlinear fbgs such as: switching threshold intensity, bistability interval, on-off switching ratio are studied. the effects of fbg length and its third order nonlinear refractive index on fbg charac...

A temperature sensor based on erbium-doped fiber cascaded peanut taper (EDFCPT) structure in ring laser (FRL) cavity is proposed and studied. The was fabricated by fiber. cladding mode core interference the strong thermo-optical effect of were used to realize high sensitivity measurement temperature. thermal effects EDFCPT a broadband super-continuous light source studied compared experimentall...