Analysis of Polarization Rotator Based on Nematic Liquid Crystal Photonic Crystal Fiber

In this paper, the performance of high-tunable polarization rotator (PR) based on nematic liquid crystal (NLC) photonic crystal fiber is reported. The tunability of the proposed PR results from the change of the optical properties of the NLC with the temperature and external electric field. The influence of the different structure geometrical parameters, rotation angle of the director of the NLC, temperature and operating wavelength on the PR performance is investigated. The numerical results reveal that the suggested PR can provide a strong polarization conversion ratio of 99.81% with a device length of 1072 mu m. It is expected that over the 1.53-1.6 mu m wavelength range, polarization conversion would be more than 99%. The simulation results are evaluated using the full-vectorial finite-difference method and confirmed by the full-vectorial finite-difference beam-propagation method.