Tunable diffraction and self-defocusing in liquid-filled photonic crystal fibers

Abstract

We suggest and demonstrate a novel platform for the study of tunable nonlinear light propagation in two-dimensional discrete systems, based on photonic crystal fibers filled with high index nonlinear liquids. Using the infiltrated cladding region of a photonic crystal fiber as a nonlinear waveguide array, we experimentally demonstrate highly tunable beam diffraction and thermal self-defocusing, and realize a compact all-optical power limiter based on a tunable nonlinear response.