Hollow-core microstructured polymer optical fiber

Abstract

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.

Luminescent Properties of Oxazine 170 Perchlorate Doped PMMA Fiber

“…Moreover, the using of much thicker fibers (significantly higher flexibility of polymeric materials) allows easy and efficient connection to light sources and detectors and makes it proper solution for inexpensive data transmission applications and sensors [7]. There are reported several constructions of POFs fibers: well-known core-cladding (step and gradient index profile) and sophisticated (single-mode, non-linear, photonic band gap, and microstructured) polymer optical fibers [16][17][18][19][20][21]. Additionally, the waveguiding properties of optical fibers give an opportunity to radiative energy conversion or amplification.…”

Light propagation mechanism switching in a liquid crystal infiltrated microstructured polymer optical fibre

“…Since then other polymers with specific properties have also been used for mPOF, including, e.g., the cyclo−olefin polymer (Zeonex) [5,6] and co−polimer (Topas) [7,8], poly− styrene and polycarbonate (PC) [9]. The application of po− lymers in PCF technology gives many advantages including relatively low−cost fibre fabrication and processing, great resistance to mechanical stress, large−spot single−mode gui− dance and high flexibility even at large fibre diameters [2,3,10]. Moreover, thanks to different fabrication methods available for mPOFs (including extrusion or drilling at low temperature), sophisticated fibre cross−sections with holes of arbitrary shape and size, in any desired arrangement, can be easily obtained.…”

Tunability of discrete diffraction in photonic liquid crystal fibres

“…A cross−section of a typical PCF (whose first prototype has been demonstrated by the group of P. Russell in 1996 [2]) consists of two main sec− tions -namely, the circular core and the annular cladding. The latter acts as a photonic lattice (designed on the same scale as a wavelength) and is formed by the periodic matrix (typically square or triangular) of microscopic air−holes or micro−rods distributed in a solid material (e.g., in pure silica [2][3], non−silica, high−index/multi−component glasses [4][5][6], silver−halide crystalline materials [7] or polymers [8][9]). The core region can be either made of solid materials (as in conventional fibres) [1][2][3][4][5]7,8], or remain hollow [1,3,6,9] (as it is also in the structure presented here).…”