Electrical tunable Fabry-Perot interferometer using a poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene-chlorofluoroethylene) terpolymer

Electrical tunable Fabry-Perot interferometers (FPIs) using a poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene-chlorofluoroethylene) terpolymer were fabricated and characterized. Using pure strain tuning, which for the terpolymer films under mechanically clamped condition is 1.3% under 100 V/mum field, we show that a tunable range of 22.5 nm can be obtained at wavelengths near 1.5 mum. Due to the opposite sign of the field-induced strain and the refractive index change from the electro-optic effect, the FPI using a terpolymer film directly as the cavity of the etalon shows a smaller tunability (0.78% under 100 V/mum). (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.