Thermally drawn multimaterial fibers have experienced rapid development in the past two decades owing to the high scalability, uniformity, and material and structure compatibility of the thermal drawing technique. This article reviews various multimaterial fibers based on different functional structures and their applications in disparate fields. We start from the functional structures achieved in optical fibers developed in the early stage of thermally drawn fibers. Subsequently, we introduce both typical functional structures and unique structures created in multimaterial fibers for varying applications. Next, we present the early attempts in breaking the axial symmetric structures of thermally drawn fibers for extended functionalities. Additionally, we summarize the current progress on creating surface structures on thermally drawn fibers. Finally, we provide an outlook for this trending topic towards wearable devices and smart textiles.

Zhe Wang

Mengxiao Chen

Yu Zheng

Jing Zhang

Zhixun Wang

Jiao Yang

Qichong Zhang

Bing He

Miao Qi

Haozhe Zhang

Kaiwei Li

Lei Wei

Advanced Thermally Drawn Multimaterial Fibers: Structure-Enabled Functionalities

Recently, Rayleigh scattering-based distributed fiber sensors have been widely used for measurement of static and dynamic phenomena such as temperature change, dynamic strain, and sound waves. In this review paper, several sensing systems including traditional Rayleigh optical time domain reflectometry (OTDR), <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" id="M1" style="vertical-align:-0.04981995pt" height="8.3338pt" version="1.1" viewBox="-0.0498162 -8.28398 9.6623 8.3338" width="9.6623pt">


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</svg>-OTDR, chirped pulse <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" id="M2" style="vertical-align:-0.04981995pt" height="8.3338pt" version="1.1" viewBox="-0.0498162 -8.28398 9.6623 8.3338" width="9.6623pt">


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</svg>-OTDR, and optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR) are introduced for their working principles and recent progress with different instrumentations for various applications. Beyond the sensing technology and instrumentation, we also discuss new types of fiber sensors, such as ultraweak fiber Bragg gratings and random fiber gratings for distributed sensing and their interrogators. Ultimately, the limitations of Rayleigh-based distributed sensing systems are discussed.

Xiaoyi Bao

Yuan Wang

Recent Advancements in Rayleigh Scattering-Based Distributed Fiber Sensors

Light-matter interactions have been explored for more than 40 years to achieve physical modulation of nanostructures or the manipulation of nanoparticle/biomolecule. Silicon photonics is a mature technology with standard fabrication techniques to fabricate micro- and nano-sized structures with a wide range of material properties (silicon oxides, silicon nitrides, <i>p</i>- and <i>n</i>-doping, etc.), high dielectric properties, high integration compatibility, and high biocompatibilities. Owing to these superior characteristics, silicon photonics is a promising approach to demonstrate optical force-based integrated devices and systems for practical applications. In this paper, we provide an overview of optical force in silicon nanophotonic and optomechanical systems and their latest technological development. First, we discuss various types of optical forces in light-matter interactions from particles or nanostructures. We then present particle manipulation in silicon nanophotonics and highlight its applications in biological and biomedical fields. Next, we discuss nanostructure mechanical modulation in silicon optomechanical devices, presenting their applications in photonic network, quantum physics, phonon manipulation, physical sensors, etc. Finally, we discuss the future perspective of optical force-based integrated silicon photonics.

Lip Ket Chin

Yuzhi Shi

Ai-Qun Liu

Optical Forces in Silicon Nanophotonics and Optomechanical Systems: Science and Applications

A deep learning model was built to optimize the phase flicker performance for given pulse width modulation (PWM) driving patterns of a liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) device. 10-bit phase modulation was physically realized with a phase flicker of 0.055% over 1024 addressed phase levels in respect to the total modulation range of <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" id="M1" style="vertical-align:-0.1876698pt" height="8.92284pt" version="1.1" viewBox="-0.0498162 -8.73517 14.312 8.92284" width="14.312pt">


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</svg> and a separation probability of 62.63% for the phase to stay within its level without overlapping with the adjacent ones. The spatial information bandwidth of the full high-definition (HD) LCOS device at 100 Hz was improved by 25%, from ~1.6 Gb/sec to ~2 Gb/sec.

Yuan Tong

Mike Pivnenko

Daping Chu

Implementation of 10-Bit Phase Modulation for Phase-Only LCOS Devices Using Deep Learning

Wei Wang

Advanced Devices &#x0026; Instrumentation: Integrated for Functionality to Change the World

About this journal

<p>The open access journal <em>Advanced Devices &amp; Instrumentation</em>, published in association with BIACD, is a forum to promote breakthroughs and application advances at all levels of electronics and photonics.</p>


Journal profile

Meet the editorial board

<p><em>Advanced Devices &amp; Instrumentation’s</em>&nbsp;editorial board is led by Wei Wang (China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation) and&nbsp;Daping Chu (University of Cambridge) and is comprised of experts who have made significant and well recognized contributions to the field.</p>


Editorial board

More special issue details

<p><em>Advanced Devices &amp; Instrumentation</em> is now accepting submissions for its first special issue: <a href="https://spj.sciencemag.org/adi-special-issues/metasurfaces/">Metasurface-Based Devices</a></p>
