Versatile technique to functionalize optical microfibers via a modified sol-gel dip-coating method

We present a convenient and versatile technique to functionalize microfibers by depositing sol-gel jackets via a modified dip-coating method. This was elucidated by gain-functionalizing microfibers with erbium-ytterbium codoped silica sol-gel jackets. For a 4.5-cm-long coated microfiber, an internal gain of 1.8 dB and a net gain of 0.8 dB for a 1550 nm signal were observed, when combing together the gain of the doped jackets and low loss of microfibers. With benefits of convenience and versatility, this technique can be used for functionalizing microfibers with jackets showing gains in other spectral ranges, high nonlinearity, high sensitivity, and many other functions.