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We have fabricated microstructured polymer optical fibers that guide light in a hollow core using the photonic bandgap mechanism. The hollow core allows the use of polymer fibers to be extended to wavelength ranges where material absorption typically prohibits their use, with attenuation lower than the material loss observed in the infrared. The fabrication method is similar to other microstructured polymer optical fibers, which has favorable implications for the feasibility of manufacturing such bandgap fibers.

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We show how to design a round optical fiber so that it is effectively single moded, with no polarization degeneracy. Such fibers would be free from the consequences of polarization degeneracy or near degeneracy - phenomena such as polarization fading in interferometry, and polarization mode dispersion - and so may offer an alternative to polarization maintaining fibers for the avoidance of these phenomena. The design presented builds on an earlier observation of polarization selective refection in Bragg fibers.

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