Sensing and transmission characteristics of a rocking filter fabricated in a side-hole fiber with zero group birefringence

We report on sensing and transmission characteristics of rocking filters fabricated in a silica side-hole fiber with group birefringence changing its sign at certain wavelength (lambda(G) = 0), which corresponds to parabolic-like spectral dependence of beat length. Unusual birefringence dispersion of the side-hole fiber is induced by an elliptical germanium doped core located in a narrow glass bridge between two holes. Rocking filters fabricated in such a fiber have two resonances of the same order located on both sides of lambda(G) = 0. The sensitivity of both resonances has an opposite sign, which makes it possible to double the response of the rocking filter by applying the differential interrogation scheme. We demonstrate that in this way a pressure sensitivity of the rocking filter can be enlarged to 132 nm/MPa. We also show that by fabricating the rocking filter with a period close to maximum beat length a coupling between polarization modes can be obtained in a broad band reaching 240 nm. (C)2013 Optical Society of America