Mitsuhiro TATEDA^* and Akihiro TAKASHI

Graduate School of Advanced Integration Science, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoicho, Inage-ku, Chiba 263-8522, Japan

(Received June 4, 2009; Accepted July 9, 2009)

Fiber Fabry–Perot etalon (FFPE) is a device designed as an optical frequency filter, and its transmission characteristics change depending on temperature. The temperature dependence of the transmission frequency of an FFPE made of a highly birefringent fiber was found to be -2.31 GHz/deg, which is almost the same as that of a conventional etalon. On the contrary, its temperature dependence of the transmission frequency separation due to birefringence was found to be -140 MHz/deg. This is about 18 times larger than that for a conventional FFPE, and it implies that an FFPE made of highly birefringent fiber is promising as a temperature sensor with a high precision.

Key words: fiber Fabry–Perot etalon, polarization-maintaining and absorption-reducing fiber, birefringence, transmission characteristics, temperature dependence

^*E-mail address: tateda@faculty.chiba-u.jp