Microstructured optical fiber

Abstract: Photonic crystal fibers guide light by corralling it within a periodic array of microscopic air holes that run along the entire fiber length Largely through their ability to overcome the limitations of conventional fiber optics—for example, by permitting low-loss guidance of light in a hollow core—these fibers are proving to have a multitude of important technological and scientific applications spanning many disciplines The result has been a renaissance of interest in optical fibers and their uses

Abstract: We report the fabrication of a new type of optical waveguide: the photonic crystal fiber. It consists of a pure silica core surrounded by a silica-air photonic crystal material with a hexagonal symmetry. The fiber supports a single robust low-loss guided mode over a very broad spectral range of at least 458-1550 nm. Also see errata - http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/78010/

Abstract: We made an all-silica optical fiber by embedding a central core in a two-dimensional photonic crystal with a micrometer-spaced hexagonal array of air holes. An effective-index model confirms that such a fiber can be single mode for any wavelength. Its useful single-mode range within the transparency window of silica, although wide, is ultimately bounded by a bend-loss edge at short wavelengths as well as at long wavelengths.

Abstract: In this chapter, after presenting a brief review of the various types of optical waveguides, we outline the key principles and parameters which describe and define the operation of optical waveguides and fibres The ways in which propagation through optical fibres affects the properties of the guided waves are discussed, including dispersion and non linear effects Power transfer between propagating waves is essential to the operation of a number of components and the fundamentals of coupling theory are reviewed In summary, the theory given provides the foundation for understanding the detailed operation of a wide variety of optical components and systems based on optical fibre technology