[16p-P14-1~10] 3.14 Optical control devices and optical fibers

[16p-P14-8] Bistable Fiber Optic Element That Uses Polyethylene Glycol

Takashi Fukuyama¹, 〇Mitsunori Saito¹ (1.Ryukoku Univ.)

Keywords:bistable transmission, polyethylene glycol, optical scattering

Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is a transparent liquid, and turns to a translucent solid by solidification at around room temperature. A bistable transmission function is attainable with the PEG, since its super-cooling state is stable. When a blue laser beam of 0.2 W was irradiated to the dye-dispersed PEG in the solid phase for 10 s, it melted and the transparent liquid phase was maintained for 30 min. It returned to the scattering solid phase by the cooling process of 30 s.