Abstract

The adiabatically tapered single mode optical fiber provides an attractive method for gaining access to the fiber modal field for studying nonlinear interactions with external media surrounding the taper. In this paper we describe a new class of such nonlinear devices where the medium surrounding the tapered fiber is a laser dye solution; we present preliminary results of efficient optical amplification and saturable absorption at power levels compatible with diode and doped fiber lasers.

© 1990 Optical Society of America