Determined polarization state of light is required in nonlinear optics applications related to ultrashort and single-cycle light pulse generation. Such short time scales require up to full octave of spectral width of light. Fiber-based, pulse-preserving and linearly polarized supercontinuum can meet these requirements. We report on the development -from linear simulations of the fiber structure, through fabrication of physical fibers to their versatile characterization -of polarization maintaining, highly nonlinear photonic crystal fibers, intended for femtosecond pumping at a wavelength of 1560 nm. Full octave of linearly polarized light around this wavelength would enable to cover amplification bandwidths of the three major fiber amplifiers from ytterbium doped systems up to thulium and holmium doped fiber amplifiers, with a coherent, linearly polarized seed signal. At the same time, an all-normal chromatic dispersion profile over an entire transmission window, and small dispersion of nonlinearity in the developed fibers, would facilitate use of commercially available femtosecond fiber lasers as pump sources for the developed fibers.

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We study the theoretical formation of optical vortices using a nanostructured gradient index phase mask. We consider structures composed of spatially distributed thermally matched glass nanorods with high and low refractive indices. Influence of effective refractive profile distribution, refractive index contrast of component glasses and charge value on the quality of generation of vortices are discussed. A trade-off between waveguiding and phase modulation effects for various refractive index contrast is presented and analysed.

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