Optical-assembly periodic structure of ferrofluids in a liquid core/metal cladding optical waveguide.

We present a novel and simple mechanism for the fabrication of periodic microstructure based on a ferrofluids core/metal cladding optical waveguide chip. The ultrahigh-order modes excited in the millimeter scale guiding layer lead to the ordered particle aggregates in ferrofluids without applying a magnetic field. Since the absorption of photons by the extremely dilute ferrofluids is extremely small and the Soret effect is not noticeable, a tentative explanation in terms of the optical trapping effect is proposed. Furthermore, this scheme exhibits all-optically tunable reflectivity and lateral Goos-Hänchen shift, which potentially may be for practical use in novel optical devices.