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Abstract:The objective of the present investigation is to propose and theoretically demonstrate the effective suppression of higher-order modes in large-hollow-core photonic band gap fibers (PBGFs), mainly for low-loss data transmission platforms and/or high power delivery systems. The proposed design strategy is based on the index-matching mechanism of central air-core modes with defected outer core modes. By incorporating several air-cores in the cladding of the PBGF with 6-fold symmetry it is possible to resonantly couple the light corresponding to higher-order modes into the outer core, thus significantly increasing the leakage losses of the higher-order modes in comparison to the fundamental mode, thus making our proposed design to operate in an effectively single mode fashion with polarization independent propagation characteristics. The validation of the procedure is ensured with a detailed PBGF analysis based on an accurate finite element modal solver. Extensive numerical results show that the leakage losses of the higher-order modes can be enhanced in a level of at least 2 orders of magnitude in comparison to those of the fundamental mode. Our investigation is expected to remove an essential obstacle in the development of large-core single-mode hollow-core fibers, thus enabling them to surpass the attenuation of conventional fibers. T. Murao, K. Saitoh, and M. Koshiba, "Design of air-guiding modified honeycomb photonic band-gap fibers for effectively single mode operation," Opt.

Abstract:In this paper, detailed properties of bent solid-core photonic bandgap fibers (SC-PBGFs) are investigated. We propose an approximate equivalent straight waveguide (ESW) formulation for photonic bandgap (PBG) edges, which is convenient to see qualitatively which radiation (centripetal or centrifugal radiation) mainly occurs and the impact of bend losses for an operating wavelength. In particular, we show that cladding modes induced by bending cause several complete or incomplete leaky mode couplings with the core mode and the resultant loss peaks. Moreover, we show that the field distributions of the cladding modes are characterized by three distinct types for blue-edge, mid-gap, and red-edge wavelengths in the PBG, which is explained by considering the cladding Bloch states or resonant conditions without bending. Next, we investigate the structural dependence of the bend losses. In particular, we demonstrate the bend-loss dependence on the number of the cladding rings. Finally, by investigating the impacts of the order of PBG and the core structure on the bend losses, we discuss a tight-bending structure.

We investigate photonic band-gap (PBG) profiles of a modified honeycomb lattice structure and we identify the structural parameters that possess the largest band-gap. By incorporating the identified profile into the cladding, the wavelength dependence of the dispersion properties and confinement losses of air-guiding modified honeycomb PBG fibers (PBGFs) is investigated through a full-vector modal solver based on finite element method. In particular, we find that broadband effectively singlemode operation from 1450 nm to 1850 nm can be achieved using a modified honeycomb PBGF with a defected core realized by removing 7 air holes.

Abstract:In this paper, we propose a novel mechanism for suppression of higher-order modes (HOMs), namely multiple resonant coupling, in allsolid photonic bandgap fibers (PBGFs) with effectively large core diameters. In an analogy to the well-known tight-binding theory in solidstate physics, multiple anti-resonant reflecting optical waveguide (ARROW) modes bound in designedly arranged defects in the cladding make up Bloch states and resultant photonic bands with a finite effective-index width, which contribute to the suppression of HOMs. In particular, contrary to the conventional method for the HOM suppression using the index-matching of the HOMs in the core of the PBGF and the defect mode arranged in the cladding, the proposed mechanism guarantees a broadband HOM suppression without a precise structural design. This effect is explained by the multiple resonant coupling, as well as an enhanced confinement loss mechanism which occurs near the condition satisfying the multiple resonant coupling. Moreover, we show that the proposed structure exhibits a lower bending loss characteristic when compared to the conventional all-solid PBGFs. The simultaneous realization of the single-mode operation and the low bending loss property is due to the novel cladding concept named as heterostructured cladding. The proposed structure also resolves the issue for the increased confinement loss property in the first-order photonic bandgap (PBG) at the same time.