Optical isolators are important components in fiber optic communication and sensing systems. Conventional optical isolators, including bulk and in-line fiber types, mainly rely on the Faraday rotation effect and require… Click to show full abstract
Optical isolators are important components in fiber optic communication and sensing systems. Conventional optical isolators, including bulk and in-line fiber types, mainly rely on the Faraday rotation effect and require external magnetic fields, which result in structural complexity and integration challenges. In this paper, a fiber-type optical isolator based on magneto-optic photonic crystal fiber (MO-PCF) is proposed, which utilizes non-reciprocal phase shifts (NRPS) in a Mach-Zehnder configuration. The full-vector finite element method (FV-FEM) is used to analyze the transmission characteristics. In the proposed isolator, the PCF cores are filled with magnetic and non-magnetic materials, to enhance the non-reciprocity of light by applying a magnetic field perpendicular to the polarization direction and propagation direction. Based on these analyses, the designed MO-PCF structure achieves a NRPS per wavenumber of 0.863 × 10-3 rad/μm. In the optical isolator, the coupling length is 612.3 μm, ensuring the function of an optical isolator.
               
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