Demonstration of a microelectromechanical tunable Fabry-Pérot cavity based on graphene-bonded fiber devices.

ABSTRACT

Taking advantage of the high thermal conductivity of graphene, this Letter demonstrates a microelectromechanical (MEM) tunable Fabry-Pérot (F-P) cavity, based on a graphene-bonded fiber device (GFD), which acts as a microheater. By increasing the electric current from 0 to 8 mA in the heater, the temperature of the GFD can rise and approach a value of 760 K theoretically. This high temperature will cause a deformation of the fiber, allowing the graphene-bonded fiber end to form a gap-adjustable F-P cavity with a cleaved single-mode fiber. The gap in the cavity can be reduced by increasing the current applied, leading the transmittance of the cavity to change. In this work, a highly sensitive current sensor (5.9×105 nm/A2) and a tunable mode-locked fiber laser (1.2×104 nm/A2) are created based on the MEM tunable F-P cavity.