Optical fibre nanowires and microwires: fundamentals and applications
Dr. Gilberto Brambilla (Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton)

<p> In this seminar I will present a brief review of the properties and of the applications of optical fibres nanowires and microwires (OFNM). <p>

<p> OFNM offer a number of unique optical and mechanical properties: <p>

<p> 1) Large evanescent fields: a considerable fraction o f the power can propagate in the evanescent field outside the physical boundary of an OFNM. This allows the fabrication of atom guides, sensors, high -Q resonators and particle handling. <p>

<p> 2) High nonlinearity: light confinement into a very small area over long lengths allows for the observation at relatively modest power levels of strong nonlinear interactions, such as supercontinuum generation.<p>

<p> 3) Extreme configurability: OFNMs show an extraordinary mechanical strength and can easily be bent and manipulated into micron size coils with relatively low bending loss. This allows for highly compact devices with complex geometry: e.g. 3D coil resonators.<p>

<p> 4) Low-loss interconnection to fiberised components: OFNs are fabricated by from optical fibres and thus preserve the original optical fibre dimensions at their input and output allowing ready splicing to standard fibres. Moreover, these fibre pigtails have macroscopic dimensions and allow the manipulation of a single nanowire without the expensive instrumentation typical of the nano-science and nano-technology worlds.<p>

<p> OFNM applications include, amongst others: sub-wavelength light sources, mode filters, resonating sensors, supercontinuum generators and particle propulsion. <p>