WO2002041050A9 - A micro-structured optical fibre - Google Patents
A micro-structured optical fibreInfo
- Publication number
- WO2002041050A9 WO2002041050A9 PCT/DK2001/000774 DK0100774W WO0241050A9 WO 2002041050 A9 WO2002041050 A9 WO 2002041050A9 DK 0100774 W DK0100774 W DK 0100774W WO 0241050 A9 WO0241050 A9 WO 0241050A9
- Authority
- WO
- WIPO (PCT)
- Prior art keywords
- cladding
- optical fibre
- index
- fibre according
- larger
- Prior art date
Links
Classifications
-
- C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
- C03—GLASS; MINERAL OR SLAG WOOL
- C03B—MANUFACTURE, SHAPING, OR SUPPLEMENTARY PROCESSES
- C03B37/00—Manufacture or treatment of flakes, fibres, or filaments from softened glass, minerals, or slags
- C03B37/01—Manufacture of glass fibres or filaments
- C03B37/02—Manufacture of glass fibres or filaments by drawing or extruding, e.g. direct drawing of molten glass from nozzles; Cooling fins therefor
- C03B37/025—Manufacture of glass fibres or filaments by drawing or extruding, e.g. direct drawing of molten glass from nozzles; Cooling fins therefor from reheated softened tubes, rods, fibres or filaments, e.g. drawing fibres from preforms
- C03B37/027—Fibres composed of different sorts of glass, e.g. glass optical fibres
- C03B37/0279—Photonic crystal fibres or microstructured optical fibres other than holey optical fibres
-
- C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
- C03—GLASS; MINERAL OR SLAG WOOL
- C03B—MANUFACTURE, SHAPING, OR SUPPLEMENTARY PROCESSES
- C03B37/00—Manufacture or treatment of flakes, fibres, or filaments from softened glass, minerals, or slags
- C03B37/01—Manufacture of glass fibres or filaments
- C03B37/012—Manufacture of preforms for drawing fibres or filaments
- C03B37/01205—Manufacture of preforms for drawing fibres or filaments starting from tubes, rods, fibres or filaments
- C03B37/01211—Manufacture of preforms for drawing fibres or filaments starting from tubes, rods, fibres or filaments by inserting one or more rods or tubes into a tube
- C03B37/0122—Manufacture of preforms for drawing fibres or filaments starting from tubes, rods, fibres or filaments by inserting one or more rods or tubes into a tube for making preforms of photonic crystal, microstructured or holey optical fibres
-
- C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
- C03—GLASS; MINERAL OR SLAG WOOL
- C03B—MANUFACTURE, SHAPING, OR SUPPLEMENTARY PROCESSES
- C03B37/00—Manufacture or treatment of flakes, fibres, or filaments from softened glass, minerals, or slags
- C03B37/01—Manufacture of glass fibres or filaments
- C03B37/02—Manufacture of glass fibres or filaments by drawing or extruding, e.g. direct drawing of molten glass from nozzles; Cooling fins therefor
- C03B37/025—Manufacture of glass fibres or filaments by drawing or extruding, e.g. direct drawing of molten glass from nozzles; Cooling fins therefor from reheated softened tubes, rods, fibres or filaments, e.g. drawing fibres from preforms
- C03B37/027—Fibres composed of different sorts of glass, e.g. glass optical fibres
- C03B37/02781—Hollow fibres, e.g. holey fibres
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G02—OPTICS
- G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
- G02B6/00—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings
- G02B6/02—Optical fibres with cladding with or without a coating
- G02B6/02295—Microstructured optical fibre
- G02B6/023—Microstructured optical fibre having different index layers arranged around the core for guiding light by reflection, i.e. 1D crystal, e.g. omniguide
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G02—OPTICS
- G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
- G02B6/00—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings
- G02B6/02—Optical fibres with cladding with or without a coating
- G02B6/02295—Microstructured optical fibre
- G02B6/02314—Plurality of longitudinal structures extending along optical fibre axis, e.g. holes
- G02B6/02319—Plurality of longitudinal structures extending along optical fibre axis, e.g. holes characterised by core or core-cladding interface features
- G02B6/02323—Core having lower refractive index than cladding, e.g. photonic band gap guiding
- G02B6/02328—Hollow or gas filled core
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G02—OPTICS
- G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
- G02B6/00—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings
- G02B6/02—Optical fibres with cladding with or without a coating
- G02B6/02295—Microstructured optical fibre
- G02B6/02314—Plurality of longitudinal structures extending along optical fibre axis, e.g. holes
- G02B6/02342—Plurality of longitudinal structures extending along optical fibre axis, e.g. holes characterised by cladding features, i.e. light confining region
- G02B6/02347—Longitudinal structures arranged to form a regular periodic lattice, e.g. triangular, square, honeycomb unit cell repeated throughout cladding
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G02—OPTICS
- G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
- G02B6/00—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings
- G02B6/02—Optical fibres with cladding with or without a coating
- G02B6/02295—Microstructured optical fibre
- G02B6/02314—Plurality of longitudinal structures extending along optical fibre axis, e.g. holes
- G02B6/02342—Plurality of longitudinal structures extending along optical fibre axis, e.g. holes characterised by cladding features, i.e. light confining region
- G02B6/02357—Property of longitudinal structures or background material varies radially and/or azimuthally in the cladding, e.g. size, spacing, periodicity, shape, refractive index, graded index, quasiperiodic, quasicrystals
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G02—OPTICS
- G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
- G02B6/00—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings
- G02B6/02—Optical fibres with cladding with or without a coating
- G02B6/02295—Microstructured optical fibre
- G02B6/02314—Plurality of longitudinal structures extending along optical fibre axis, e.g. holes
- G02B6/02342—Plurality of longitudinal structures extending along optical fibre axis, e.g. holes characterised by cladding features, i.e. light confining region
- G02B6/02361—Longitudinal structures forming multiple layers around the core, e.g. arranged in multiple rings with each ring having longitudinal elements at substantially the same radial distance from the core, having rotational symmetry about the fibre axis
-
- C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
- C03—GLASS; MINERAL OR SLAG WOOL
- C03B—MANUFACTURE, SHAPING, OR SUPPLEMENTARY PROCESSES
- C03B2203/00—Fibre product details, e.g. structure, shape
- C03B2203/10—Internal structure or shape details
- C03B2203/14—Non-solid, i.e. hollow products, e.g. hollow clad or with core-clad interface
-
- C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
- C03—GLASS; MINERAL OR SLAG WOOL
- C03B—MANUFACTURE, SHAPING, OR SUPPLEMENTARY PROCESSES
- C03B2203/00—Fibre product details, e.g. structure, shape
- C03B2203/10—Internal structure or shape details
- C03B2203/14—Non-solid, i.e. hollow products, e.g. hollow clad or with core-clad interface
- C03B2203/16—Hollow core
-
- C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
- C03—GLASS; MINERAL OR SLAG WOOL
- C03B—MANUFACTURE, SHAPING, OR SUPPLEMENTARY PROCESSES
- C03B2203/00—Fibre product details, e.g. structure, shape
- C03B2203/42—Photonic crystal fibres, e.g. fibres using the photonic bandgap PBG effect, microstructured or holey optical fibres
-
- C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
- C03—GLASS; MINERAL OR SLAG WOOL
- C03B—MANUFACTURE, SHAPING, OR SUPPLEMENTARY PROCESSES
- C03B2205/00—Fibre drawing or extruding details
- C03B2205/08—Sub-atmospheric pressure applied, e.g. vacuum
-
- C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
- C03—GLASS; MINERAL OR SLAG WOOL
- C03B—MANUFACTURE, SHAPING, OR SUPPLEMENTARY PROCESSES
- C03B2205/00—Fibre drawing or extruding details
- C03B2205/10—Fibre drawing or extruding details pressurised
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G02—OPTICS
- G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
- G02B6/00—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings
- G02B6/02—Optical fibres with cladding with or without a coating
- G02B6/02295—Microstructured optical fibre
- G02B6/02314—Plurality of longitudinal structures extending along optical fibre axis, e.g. holes
- G02B6/02385—Comprising liquid, e.g. fluid filled holes
Definitions
- the present invention relates to electromagnetic waveguides, especially optical fibres, having micro-structures in cladding region(s).
- Photonic bandgap fibre typically involves a dielectric structure with a refractive index that varies periodically in a cross-section perpendicular to the fibre length axis.
- the period is in the order of an optical wavelength, and the guiding mechanism due to the photonic bandgap effect is fundamentally different from the total internal reflection, which is the basic principle according to which the optical standard fibres work.
- the Bragg diffraction principle that is used in photonic bandgap fibres, radiation within certain wavelength intervals can only propagate in the longitudinal direction with essentially no lateral leakage. . "' ,
- a dielectric mirror can be made as a periodic structure of stacked dielectric layers with alternating high and low refractive index. Total light reflection for any angle of incidence and any polarisation of the incident light can be obtained by proper design (see J. Lekner, J. Opt.A., Vol.2, 2000, pp.349-352, and references herein for theoretical analysis). Experimental demonstrations can be found in D. N. Chigrin et al., J. Lightwave Technol., vol.17, November 1999, pp.2018-2024.
- a dielectric waveguide can be constructed by folding the dielectric mirror so that an air (or dielectric) core is surrounded by a totally reflecting layered cladding, which confines the guided light. Described in a cylindrical co-ordinate system whose z-axis coincides with the waveguide ' axis, the refractive index of the cladding has no angular dependence but has a periodic dependence on the radius.
- These waveguides are in this patent application denoted as "radial-periodic" structures.
- the radial-periodic waveguides have several potential advantages compared to traditional optical fibres, whose light guidance is based on total internal reflection at the boundary between the high refractive index core and the low refractive index cladding.
- the fact that the light propagates in air rather than in a dielectric such as silica holds out the prospect of reducing both material absorption losses and non-linearities. These phenomena cause serious problems in optical communication systems.
- the multiplicity of design parameters e.g., refractive indices and dimensions of layers
- design waveguides which closely match even complex design goals as for instance elaborately specified dispersion properties.
- index contrasts of this order of magnitude could turn out to be an insuperable difficulty of large-scale production of semi-periodic hollow waveguides, since it is expected to be very difficult to find the required dielectrics. They must have high index contrasts, low loss, chemical stability and mechanical robustness, and they must furthermore be thermally, chemically and mechanically compatible so that they can be combined in a production process. Moreover it is a disadvantage from an economical point of view that completely new production processes must be developed, if optical waveguides are no longer based on silica.
- micro-structured fibres are not limited to fibres with an array of cladding features.
- EP 0 810 453 A1 and US Patent no. 5,802,236 describes an alternative micro-structured fibre having circular symmetry, with the core feature surrounded by a multi-layer (exemplarily more than 10 or even 20 layers) cladding, with alternating relatively high and low refractive indices. It is, furthermore, mentioned that the refractive indices and layer thickness are selected such that the structure has a desired effective refractive index profile.
- the layer thickness can be chosen such that an inner cladding region has a relatively low effective refractive index, and an outer cladding region that surrounds the inner cladding region has an effective refractive index of value between that of the core region and the inner cladding region.
- a micro- structured fibre can be made, for instance, by drawing from a preform, with the described multilayer cladding formed by e.g., a conventional deposition technique such as MCVD, or by collapsing a multiplicity of glass tubes around the core feature.
- EP 0 810 453 A1 also describes a non-periodic micro-structured fibre preform having a silica-rod core feature of diameter 0.718 mm.
- This rod is surrounded by six silica tubes of inner diameter 0.615 mm and outer diameter 0.718 mm, which in turn are surrounded by more than four layers of silica tubes of inner diameter 0.508 mm and outer diameter 0.718 mm.
- This preform is overclad with silica tubes selected to yield, after drawing, a desired fibre diameter. It is, however a disadvantage that this fibre design (employing two different hole dimensions) does not have alternating concentrically distributed effective refractive index values, such as it is the case with the semi-periodic fibres disclosed in this application.
- WO 00/16141 describes a micro-structured fibre having axial change in density of the cladding layer controlled through the fraction of the cladding volume that is air or a glass of a composition different from that of the base cladding glass.
- the axial variation in cladding indices changes the signal mode power distribution, thereby changing key waveguide parameters such as magnitude and sign of dispersion, cut-off wavelength, and zero dispersion wavelength.
- WO 00/16141 also incorporates cladding layer structures, which contain an array of features, periodic or randomly distributed, comprising a material in place of the pores, and further the core region may be segmented into two or more portions, for obtaining equivalent index profiles to those normally described in standard fibre technology.
- cladding layer density can be made to alternate from high to low and low to high in adjacent segments along the preform axis (length axis) of the preform by changing the porosity of the cladding layer, and in particular, respective adjacent segments along the preform axis could alternate between a condition in which the cladding layer is essentially free of pores and a condition in which the cladding layer contain pores.
- the parameters provided in WO 00/16141 describe fibres with pitches from.about 0.4 ⁇ m to 20 ⁇ m, and a typical outside diameter about 125 ⁇ m.
- the filaments are obtained through a glass of different composition compared to the base glass, it is specifically mentioned that if one wishes the filament containing cladding layer to interact with light in the manner of a photonic crystal having a full band gap, the filament size and spacing should be such to accommodate a pitch in the range of about 0.4 ⁇ m to 5 ⁇ m, and the respective dielectric constants of the matrix glass and the glass comprising the columns of glass contained therein should differ by about a factor of three.
- a directly measurable quantity is the so-called filling fraction that is the volume of disposed features in a micro-structure relative to the total volume of a micro-structure.
- the filling fraction may be determined from direct inspection of the fibre cross-section.
- the refractive index is the conventional refractive index of a homogeneous material.
- the procedure of determining the effective refractive index, which for short may be referred to as the effective index, of a given micro-structure at a given wavelength is well-known to those skilled in the art (see e.g., Joannopoulos et al., "Photonic Crystals", Princeton University Press, 1995 or Broeng et al., Optical Fiber Technology, Vol. 5, pp.305-330, 1999).
- the present invention makes use of employing such a method that has been well-documented in the literature (see previous Joannopoulos-reference).
- the effective index is roughly identical to the weighted average of the refractive indices of the constituents of the material, , that is, the effective index is close to the geometrical index in this wavelength regime.
- radial periodic fibres two- dimensionally periodic fibres (whose cladding features define a two-dimensional lattice structure), random cladding structures (see WO 00/16141) and semi-periodic fibres (to be defined in the following) may all be termed micro-structured fibres.
- non-periodic is used in connection with arrangements of features in the cladding region.
- non-periodic is meant that the whole cladding structure of a fibre cannot be periodic in two independent directions- or stated in terms understood by those skilled in the art: the whole cladding structure cannot be generated from a unit cell (unit cells are used to describe periodic structures). In simple one-dimensional structures the unit cell has the size of one period.
- unit cells for two-dimensional periodic structures have the size of the period.
- the unit cell becomes an area, such that the boundary of the unit cell on one side describes the periodicity in one independent direction, while the boundary of another side of the unit cell describes the period in another independent direction.
- non-periodic also covers cladding structures in which the cladding features differs in some property as for example the cross-sectional diameter.
- embodiments of the present invention allow for parts of the cladding structure to be periodic, while the cladding structure as a whole may be non-periodic.
- this may refer to the part of the cladding structure, which is important for the guided modes only.
- non- periodic may refer to that the cladding features are arranged irregularly or differ in some property, e.g. diameter, when looking at the whole micro-structured cladding region.
- the main problem to be solved by the invention is to be able to guide light in micro- structured fibres, while obtaining improved polarisation and dispersion properties (the fibres according to the invention may be designed only to guide light in a single mode in the relevant wavelength region(s)).
- the fibres are aimed at applications at visible to near- infrared wavelengths.
- the fibre may guide light mainly within a low index core (e.g., a hollow core-region).
- a periodic cladding allows the formation of forbidden energy levels of the photons in the cladding: photonic bandgaps, PBGs.
- photonic bandgaps are an optical analogue to the electronic bandgaps of periodic semiconductor crystals.
- the periodicity need not be two- dimensional, for the cladding to support a guided mode within a hollow core.
- the important quality is a two- or three-dimensional photonic bandgap.
- Optics Express, 7:10-22, 1 , 2000 this allows guidance of light within a hollow core-region fibre with a circular symmetric cladding structure (a radial periodic structure, which may be described as a one-dimension ' ally periodic structure using semi-polar coordinates).
- the present invention may provide for fibres, which are not strictly periodic structures in one, two or three dimensions.
- the fibres does have a micro structured cladding, which in some respects may be periodic, and the present invention therefore provides fibre solutions, which distinguish themselves from micro-structured fibres with arbitrary non-periodic cladding structures (see e.g. Monro et al., Optics Letters, Vol.25, No.4, Febr.15, 2000, pp.206-208).
- Micro-structured fibres with a non-periodic cladding structure have already been applied for in patents (see e.g. United States Patent no. 5,155,792 and EP 0 810 453 A1 , United States Patent no. 5,802,236).
- the structures revealed in these non-periodic patent applications are non-periodic structures with special optical properties.
- the fibres of the present invention where another class of micro-structured fibres, which are not strictly periodic are disclosed.
- structures which allow the formation of photonic bandgaps in the cladding structure (as opposed to the structures in United States Patent no. 5,155,792 and EP 0 810 453 A1 , United States Patent no. 5,802,236, or Monro et al., Optics Letters, Vol.25, No.4, Febr.15, 2000, pp.206-208), while the structures are not periodic (as opposed to the structures disclosed in e.g., Cregan et. al, and by Kawanishi et. al).
- an optical fibre for transmitting light said optical fibre having an axial direction and a cross-section perpendicular to said axial direction, said optical fibre comprising: a core region, and a micro-structured cladding surrounding said core region, wherein the cladding comprises a number of successive concentric cladding regions encompassing said core region, each of said concentric cladding regions having inner and outer boundaries of substantially similar cross-sectional shape and a substantially constant background refractive index; a first plurality of the concentric cladding regions being of a low index type, each of said first cladding regions comprising a plurality of spaced apart first cladding features elongated in the fibre axial direction, each said first cladding feature having a refractive index being lower than the background refractive index of the cladding region comprising the cladding feature, and each said first cladding feature having a largest cross-sectional dimension being smaller than or equal to the distance between the inner and the outer boundary of .the cladding region
- the present invention also covers embodiments wherein the above mentioned term “geometrical index” is substituted by the term “effective index”, due to the fact that both the geometrical index and the effective index are changed by the insertion of the cladding features.
- the arrangement of cladding features in relation to the micro-structured cladding as a whole is a non-periodic arrangement in the cross-sectional plane.
- the second cladding regions being of a high index type may also comprise a plurality of spaced apart cladding features, referred to as second cladding features, while still being of a high index type.
- said arrangement of cladding features may comprise any cladding features of the first and second cladding regions, while still being a non-periodic arrangement in relation to the micro-structure cladding as a whole.
- the largest cross-sectional dimension of the first cladding features and the distance between the inner and the outer boundary of the cladding region comprising the cladding feature are considered in the same cross section of the fibre perpendicular to its axial direction. It is preferred that the cross section is substantially identical throughout the length of the optical fibre.
- the cladding structure may consist of only a number of cladding holes embedded within a silica matrix. What is unique about the cladding structures of the present invention is that the holes need not be distributed periodically in the cladding for photonic bandgaps to appear.
- the cladding structures of the present invention may be understood as a sequence of radial alternating high and low effective index concentric rings. Within the low effective index rings, a. number of low index features (typically air-holes) are placed.
- the inventors have thus realized that not only the refractive index, as usually assumed, but also the effective index or the geometrical index may be used to form photonic bandgaps in micro-structured fibres.
- the present invention covers embodiments in which the largest cross-sectional dimension of any one of the spaced apart cladding features is smaller than a predetermined wavelength of light to be guided by said fibre.
- the ratio of said largest cross-sectional dimension divided by said predetermined wavelength is preferred to be below 0.8, such as below 0.6, such as below 0.5, such as below 0.4, such as below 0.3, such as below 0.2, or such as below 0.1.
- any distance L from the inner boundary of a high index region to the outer boundary of a following low index region taken along a radial direction in the cross-sectional plane may be larger than or equal to a minimum length Lmin and below or equal to a maximum length Lmax, where Lmax is two times Lmin.
- the cladding regions are dimensioned so that any value of L taken along any radial direction is larger than 2 times, such as larger than 3 times, such as larger than 4 times a predetermined wavelength of light to be guided by said-fibre.
- At least 6 spaced apart high index type cladding regions each may have a radial width being larger than half the wavelength of a predetermined wavelength of light to be guided by the fibre, while said radial width is smaller than the predetermined wavelength of light to be guided by the fibre.
- At least 6 spaced apart low index type cladding regions each may have a radial width being larger than a predetermined wavelength of light to be guided by the fibre, while the radial width is smaller than three times the predetermined wavelength of light to be guided by the fibre. It is also within a preferred embodiment that at least 6 spaced apart low index type cladding regions each have a radial width being larger than 1.5 ⁇ m, such as larger than 2.0 ⁇ m, such as larger than 2.5 ⁇ m, such as larger than 3.0 ⁇ m, such as larger than 3.5 ⁇ m, such as larger than 4.0 ⁇ m, such as larger than 4.5 ⁇ m.
- the optical fibre is manufactured for guidance of light with a predetermined wavelength, ⁇ , said guided light having an effective mode index, ⁇ /k, where ⁇ is the propagation constant of the guided mode, and where k is the free-space wave number of said predetermined wavelength, it is preferred that for each of at least 6 spaced apart high index type cladding regions the radial width is in the
- n eff _hig is the effective refractive index of the corresponding high index type cladding region
- m is zero or a predetermined whole positive number.
- n ⁇ ff _ ig h is the effective refractive index of the corresponding high index type cladding region, and m is zero or a predetermined whole positive number.
- the radial width may be given by the geometrical index so that for each of at least 6 spaced apart high index type cladding regions the radial width is in the range of
- n ge _ h ig h is the geometrical index of the corresponding high index type cladding region, and m is zero or a whole positive number. Also here it is preferred that for each of said at least 6 spaced apart high index type
- the radial width is approximately equal to where ng e n i gh is the geometrical index of the corresponding high index type cladding region, and m is zero or a whole positive number.
- ng e n i gh is the geometrical index of the corresponding high index type cladding region
- m is zero or a whole positive number.
- the number m may differ for each of the at least 6 high index cladding regions, which may also result in different radial widths. However, it is preferred that the number m is the same for each of said at least 6 spaced apart high index type cladding regions.
- the effective refractive index or geometrical index is substantially the same for each of said at least 6 spaced apart high index type cladding regions.
- m may be selected from the numbers 0, 1, 2 or 3.
- a first part of the spaced apart high index type cladding regions has a radial width according to a first value of the above described number m
- a second part of the high index type cladding regions has a radial width according to a second value of the number m.
- the first value of m may be larger than the second value of m
- the first part of high index type cladding regions may be arranged closer to the core region than the second part of high index type cladding regions.
- an optical fibre of the present invention is manufactured for guidance of light with a predetermined wavelength, ⁇ , said guided light having an effective mode index, ⁇ /k, where ⁇ is the propagation constant of the guided mode, and where k is the free-space wave number of said predetermined wavelength, it is also within a preferred embodiment that for each of at least 6 spaced apart low index type cladding regions the radial width is
- n e ffj 0 w is the effective refractive index of the corresponding low index type cladding region
- m is zero or a predetermined whole positive number.
- n effjow is the effective refractive index of the corresponding low index type cladding region
- m is zero or a predetermined whole positive number.
- the radial width may also here be given by the geometrical index so that for each of at least 6 spaced apart low index type cladding regions the radial width is in the
- n gejow is the geometrical index of the corresponding low index type cladding region
- m is zero or a whole positive number
- each of the at least 6 low index cladding regions may have a different effective refractive index or geometrical index resulting in a corresponding different value or range of values for the radial width.
- the number m may differ for each of the at least 6 low index cladding regions, which may also result in different radial widths.
- the number m is the same for each of said at least 6 spaced apart low index type cladding regions. It is also preferred that for each of said at least 6 spaced apart low index type cladding regions, m is selected from the numbers 0, 1, 2 or 3.
- a first part of the spaced apart low index type cladding regions has a radial width according to a first value of the above described number m, while a second part of the low index type cladding regions has a radial width according to a second value of the number m.
- the predetermined wavelength is in the range of 1.4-1.6 ⁇ m, such as around 1.55 ⁇ m.
- the optical fibre is manufactured for guidance of light with a predetermined wavelength, ⁇ , said guided light having an effective mode index, ⁇ /k, where ⁇ is the propagation constant of the guided mode, and where k is the free-space wave number of said predetermined wavelength
- the radial width of each of the cladding region pairs is in the range of 0.9-1.1 times
- n eff_hign is the effective refractive index of the corresponding high index type cladding region and n effjow is the effective refractive index of the corresponding low index type cladding region, and m is zero or a predetermined whole positive number, and n is zero or a predetermined whole positive number.
- radial width is approximately equal to
- n g e_high is the effective refractive index of the corresponding high index type cladding region and n gejow is the effective refractive index of the corresponding low index type cladding region, and m is zero or a predetermined whole positive number, and n is zero or a predetermined whole positive number.
- radial width is approximately equal to
- each of the high index regions and low index regions of the at least 6 cladding regions pairs may have a different effective refractive index or geometrical index resulting in a corresponding different value or range of values for the radial width of the cladding region pairs.
- the number m may differ for each of the at least 6 high index cladding regions
- the number n may differ for each of the at least 6 low index cladding regions, which may also result in different radial widths of the cladding region pairs.
- embodiments of the invention having at least 6 spaced apart high index cladding regions and/or at least 6 spaced apart low index cladding regions. It should be understood that the present invention also covers embodiments having at least 8, such as at least 10, such as at least 12, such as at least 14, or such as at least 20 spaced apart high index cladding regions and/or spaced apart low index cladding regions.
- each of the second plurality of concentric cladding regions are made of a solid material with no cladding features to thereby obtain high index type cladding regions.
- each of said second plurality of cladding regions may be made of a solid material having a substantially constant refractive index.
- each of said second cladding regions may comprise a plurality of spaced apart second cladding features elongated in the fibre axial direction.
- each said second cladding feature may have a refractive index being different from the background refractive index of the cladding region comprising the cladding feature, and each said second cladding feature may have a largest cross-sectional dimension being smaller than or equal to the distance between the inner and the outer boundary of the cladding region comprising the cladding feature.
- the second cladding features may have a refractive index being lower than the background refractive index of the cladding region comprising the cladding feature.
- the present invention also covers embodiments in which the second cladding features have a refractive index being higher than the background refractive index of the cladding region comprising the cladding feature.
- first cladding features for each of said first cladding regions occupy a ratio of the area of the first cladding region being larger than or equal to a minimum ratio Fell
- the second cladding features for each of said second cladding regions occupy a ratio of the area of the second cladding region being smaller than or equal to a maximum ratio Fcl2
- Fcl2 is smaller than Fell
- the first cladding features and the second cladding features may have substantially the same refractive index.
- the first cladding features and the second cladding features may have substantially the same cross-sectional dimensions. It is preferred that the largest cross-sectional dimension of any one of the spaced apart first or second cladding features is smaller than 5.0 ⁇ m, such as smaller than 2.0 ⁇ m, such as smaller than 1.0 ⁇ m, such as smaller than 0.7 ⁇ m, such as smaller than 0.4 ⁇ m, such as smaller than 0.2 ⁇ m, such as smaller than 0.1 ⁇ m.
- the spaced apart first cladding features within a given first cladding region are spaced at substantially equal distances.
- the centres of the plurality of spaced apart first cladding features are arranged essentially at even distances within each or at least part of said first cladding regions.
- the first cladding features are arranged in a locally two-dimensionally periodic structure within each or at least part of said first cladding regions.
- second cladding features When there are spaced apart second cladding features within a given second cladding region it is preferred that these second cladding features are spaced at substantially equal distances. Preferably, the centres of the plurality of spaced apart second cladding features are arranged essentially at even distances within each or at least part of said second cladding regions. Also here, it is preferred that the second cladding features are arranged in a locally two-dimensionally periodic structure within each or at least part of said second cladding regions.
- the center of any of the spaced apart first cladding features is situated near the center of another spaced apart first cladding feature at a distance smaller than 5.0 ⁇ m, such as smaller than 2.0 ⁇ m, such as smaller than 1.0 ⁇ m, such as smaller than 0.7 ⁇ m, such as smaller than 0.4 ⁇ m, such as smaller than 0.2 ⁇ m, such as smaller than 0.1 ⁇ m.
- the cladding regions may be formed in different shapes, but in a preferred embodiment the shape of the inner and outer boundaries of the cladding regions is substantially circular or elliptical.
- the centres of the plurality of spaced apart first cladding features may be arranged essentially on concentric circles or ellipses within said first cladding regions.
- the centres of the plurality of spaced apart second cladding features may be arranged essentially on concentric circles or ellipses within said second cladding regions.
- the shape of the inner and outer boundaries of the cladding regions may be substantially polygonal.
- the centres of the plurality of spaced apart first and/or second cladding features may be arranged essentially on concentric polygons.
- the ratio of the radial widths of the radial widest and the radial most narrow of the concentric cladding regions should be less than 4, such as less than 3, such as less than 2, such as less than 1.5, such as less than 1.2, such as less than 1.1.
- the present invention also covers embodiments, wherein the value of the radial widest width of any of the cladding regions divided by a predetermined wavelength to be guided by the fibre is less than 3.0, such as less than 2.0, such as less than 1.5, such as less than 1.0, such as less than 0.5, such as less than 0.3.
- the cladding regions may be made of different materials or materials with different background refractive index, as long as the requirement to the variation in high index cladding regions and low index cladding regions is fulfilled. However, it is preferred that each of the concentric cladding regions has the same background refractive index.
- the background material of at least one of the concentric cladding regions is a dielectric material such as silica with a refractive index in the range of 1.43 to 1.49, such as around 1.45.
- the first and/or second cladding features may be formed by voids.
- the invention also covers embodiments in which the first and/or second cladding features may contain air or another gas, or contain water, oil, gasoline or another liquid.
- each of said cladding regions has a geometrical or effective index being lower than 1.25, such as lower than 1.2, such as lower than 1.15, such as lower than 1.1 , such as lower than 1.05.
- the geometrical index of the second or high index cladding region with the lowest geometrical index is more than 5% larger than the geometrical index of the first or low index cladding region with the highest geometrical index, such as more than 10% larger, such as more than 20% larger, such as more than 25% larger, such as more than 30% larger, such as more than 35% larger, such as more than 40% larger, such as more than 45% larger.
- the core region comprises a hollow core.
- the hollow core region may contain a vacuum, air or another gas, or contains a liquid.
- the present invention may be made from a silica-glass perform.
- it may be advantageous to make the fibre from other types of glass or dielectrics, such as polymers or plastics.
- Other materials than silica glass may offer greater flexibility in the design process, or they may offer new optical qualities, due to a different refractive index, or novel loss or non-linear qualities.
- the core region contains a dielectric, such as silica glass.
- the core region may comprise a dielectric such as silica glass doped with a substance selected from the group consisting of erbium, ytterbium, neodymium, thulium and praseodymium.
- the core region may comprise silica glass having a dopant selected from the group consisting of germania, alumina, phosphorus, titania, boron and fluorine.
- the largest cross-sectional dimension is larger than 1 ⁇ m, such as larger than 2 ⁇ m, such as larger than 4 ⁇ m, such as larger than 8 ⁇ m, such as larger than 15 ⁇ m, such as larger than 30 ⁇ m.
- fibres of the present invention may allow guidance of light in a hollow core and in a single mode in fibres consisting only of silica and air (like the fibres disclosed by Cregan et.al, but opposed to the fibres disclosed by Kawanishi et. al). This greatly facilitates the ease of production, and potentially reduces the propagation loss of the fibre.
- This advantage is pronounced in the sense that up until now, it has not been described how to realize long lengths of circular symmetric micro structured fibres, which guide light mainly within a hollow core (like e.g. the fibres disclosed in Kawanishi et.al).
- a further advantage of the invention is that fibres according to the invention may make it possible to guide light in a mode, which is virtually circularly symmetric.
- a circular mode reduces coupling losses to standard fibres (because of a better mode overlap, as understood by those skilled in the art), and the circular mode can also be advantageous when considering bending losses (fibres without a preferred bending direction).
- a further advantage of the present invention is that the structures of the present invention may allow guided solutions with a very low mode-index, said mode-index being defined as the propagation constant along the fibre divided by the wave-number.
- solutions with a mode-index of zero are possible (this is also possible with the fibres disclosed by Kawanishi et. al., but it is impossible with the fibres disclosed by Cregan et al., since no two-dimensional PBGs, with a propagation constant of zero, exist in pure silica/air structures).
- a localised solution with a mode-index close to zero propagates very slowly.
- the group velocity of the guided mode, along the fibre should be equal to or less than the free-space velocity of light multiplied by the mode-index, assuming the mode-index is less than unity.
- a guided mode with a mode- index of zero therefore, in principle does not guide light along the fibre, while at the same time light cannot escape in the transverse direction due to the photonic bandgap effect.
- the light is propagating with an unusual low group velocity. This, however, may only be obtained at discrete wavelengths. In practice, therefore, it is difficult to obtain fibres, which stop the light.
- Such solutions have very strong positive group velocity dispersion (said group velocity dispersion being defined as - ⁇ /c d 2 ⁇ mode-index ⁇ / d ⁇ 2 , where c is the free-space velocity of light and ⁇ is the free-space wavelength) as well as a very large positive group velocity dispersion slope.
- group velocity dispersion being defined as - ⁇ /c d 2 ⁇ mode-index ⁇ / d ⁇ 2 , where c is the free-space velocity of light and ⁇ is the free-space wavelength
- Such a quality is unattainable using standard optical fibre technology.
- Kawanishi et al. discloses the possibility of guided solutions with zero or near zero mode-index, however, they do not disclose the importance of such solutions- namely the large group velocity dispersion and dispersion slope.
- the fibres disclosed in the present application may be designed to exhibit strong negative group velocity dispersion, at a desired wavelength.
- a further aspect of the designs of the present invention is that it becomes possible to have guided solutions, which consist of only one polarization.
- Such polarizing fibres are of interest in systems, where the polarization must be known.
- Polarizing fibres may also provide means of avoiding birefringence in micro-structured fibres, since small deviations from a perfect structural symmetry may create birefringence in fibres like the one disclosed in Cregan et al.
- the fibres may allow guidance of light within hollow cores within larger wavelength intervals than does the fibres disclosed by Cregan et al.
- the PBGs of the structures of the present invention may inherently extend over larger wavelength regions than does the PBGs of two-dimensional structures, like the one disclosed in Cregan et. al (considering only the wavelength regions where the PBGs cover a mode-index of unity or less).
- a further advantage of the present invention is that the fibres disclosed herein may allow guidance of light within hollow cores with a guided mode-index close to unity, within larger wavelength intervals than does the fibres disclosed by Cregan et al. This is because the PBGs of two-dimensional periodic structures are inherently smaller than the PBGs of the semi-periodic structures of the fibres of the present invention.
- the present invention may be embedded in an article (which e.g., can be used in an optical fibre communication system) that comprises micro-structured fibre that is intended to guide light at a predetermined wavelength.
- the fibre may consist of adjacent concentric circular or elliptical rings, said rings alternating such that a porous ring is adjacent to two solid rings and visa versa.
- Each ring consists of a dielectric material (not necessarily the same dielectric for each ring).
- Porous rings furthermore, may have a large number of spaced apart features, said features consisting of a material (vacuum, air, gas, liquid, dielectric) differing from the dielectric material they are embedded within.
- the porous rings therefore, may have an effective index differing from the solid rings, due to their spaced apart features.
- porous rings By ensuring that the spaced apart features are small compared to the wavelength, light may see the porous rings essentially as a homogenous material, with a refractive index close to the effective or geometrical index of the porous ring.
- the effective or geometrical index of one or more porous rings may vary radial due to a radial variance in the placing of spaced apart features, which offers the possibility of further tailoring the variance of the radial varying effective or geometrical index.
- the radial varying effective or geometrical index allows light to be guided within a central core region (which may itself be hollow or dielectric or hollow filled with a liquid) through a photonic bandgap like effect, similar to the photonic bandgap effect responsible for the guiding in radial periodic fibres as described by Markou et. al.
- the wavelength and the cross section of the spaced apart cladding features may have a comparable size
- light begins to sense the cladding features.
- this raises the effective index of the particular cladding ring.
- the cladding ring may still behave almost as having an effective or geometrical index (with e.g. near circular symmetry) in this wavelength region, it may still be possible to use the fibre as a semi periodic photonic bandgap fibre. It may therefore be an advantage of the present invention that it may allow a larger wavelength dependence of the effective or geometrical index of the cladding rings than does the prior art radial periodic fibres. This advantage can be used to tailor the group velocity dispersion of semi periodic fibres.
- the spaced apart features within the porous rings are allowed to be considerably larger. This is because the holes may be placed in a locally periodic manner, which allows the formation of photonic bandgaps in the porous rings. Light can, therefore, be reflected significantly, even though light does not sense the material of the ring as an almost homogenous material. Since the photonic bandgaps may include an effective or geometrical index of 1 or below, this may offer the possibility of having cladding rings, which in some respects acts as air. This is an advantage, since it makes it possible to have rigid low index rings, which have basic qualities similar to a hypothetical ring of air, which hypothetical air ring would obviously lack the rigidity necessary in the final fibre.
- the porous rings are not circular or elliptical, but polygonal.
- the advantage of such an arrangement may be that the spaced apart features may be placed on a two-dimensional lattice (as long as the entire cladding structure is still not two-dimensionally periodic), and thereby increase the possibility of having photonic - bandgaps in the porous layers.
- the solid rings are replaced by porous rings.
- the rings may still have an alternating refractive index, such that each ring with low effective index is adjacent to two rings with high index. This may be obtained by having a different feature size in the two types of rings or/and by employing rings with a different background material in the two types of rings.
- the cladding rings need not be circular.
- the advantage of using elongated rings is that a high degree of birefringence may be obtained.
- birefringence may be obtained by having elongated features within the porous rings.
- the rings may have comparable radial widths.
- wide rings may not be more than four times wider than narrow rings.
- the effective index of the high index rings is demanded to be very much higher than low index rings.
- An example is a geometrical or effective index of the high index rings, which is at least 30% higher than the geometrical or effective index, respectively, of low index rings.
- a high effective index contrast may be a requirement in structures with large photonic bandgaps.
- the core is demanded to have a refractive index, which is below the geometrical or effective index of the low index ring, e.g. a hollow core. As understood by those skilled in the art, this may only be possible due to photonic bandgaps in the cladding structure. This does not imply that all preferred embodiments have a low refractive index core, actually another preferred embodiment has a silica glass core.
- the rings with a high effective index are placed radial periodic.
- the rings with a high effective index are placed radial periodic.
- the cladding rings of the semi-periodic fibres according to the present invention may be designed, so that the electric field has minimum amplitude at the interfaces. Since the guiding effect is still a photonic bandgap effect we will refer to such fibres as fibres with a geometrical or effective index, whic varies in an essentially radial periodic manner. . *' .,
- Fig.1 A illustrates a one-dimensional Bragg stack according to the prior art.
- Fig.1 B illustrates the cross section of a radial periodic optical waveguide known from the prior art.
- Fig.2A shows the photonic bandgaps of a one-dimensional Bragg stack.
- the materials used are silica and air. This corresponds to the bandgaps of a fibre according to the present invention, when the low index rings contains almost only air.
- Fig.2B shows the photonic bandgaps of a one-dimensional Bragg stack.
- the materials used are silica and a material with refractive index 1.2.
- Fig.3 shows schematically a cross section of a preferred embodiment of a semi-periodic micro-structured fibre according to the present invention.
- Fig.4 shows schematically the cross section of a hollow-core micro-structured fibre according to the prior art.
- Fig.5 schematically illustrates a cross section of a preferred embodiment of a hollow-core semi-periodic micro-structured fibre with a 60-degree symmetry according to the present invention.
- Fig.6 schematically illustrates a cross section of a preferred embodiment of a hollow-core semi-periodic micro-structured fibre according to the present invention.
- the cladding features are placed on concentric circles.
- Fig.7 illustrates the mode field distribution of a guided mode within a hollow-core semi- periodic micro-structured fibre according to the present invention.
- Fig.8 illustrates a band diagram for a hollow-core semi-periodic micro-structured ' fibre according to the present invention.
- Fig.9 illustrates the effective refractive index as a function of the reciprocal wavelength- normalised pitch for a triangular micro-structured cladding section.
- one-dimensional Bragg stacks as schematically shown in Fig.1 A, are known to exhibit photonic bandgaps.
- the Bragg stack consist of alternating layers of high index material (11) and low index material (12). Light incident directly on the stack is reflected completely by the Bragg-stack if the thickness of each layer corresponds to a quarter of a wavelength of the light.
- Such a Bragg stack is typically referred to as a dielectric mirror (since in principle all light is reflected), or it is termed a quarter wave stack.
- the wavelengths intervals, in which light is reflected are termed the photonic bandgaps of the Bragg stack at normal incidence.
- Bragg stacks are designed for normal incidence, since the light will then not propagate in the invariant direction of the crystal.
- photonic bandgaps also exist for non-normal incidence (see e.g. J. Lekner et. al).
- the Bragg stack is bended such that it takes the form of concentric circles circumscribing a central core (see Fig. 1 B)
- light at normal incidence which is allowed in the core-region but not in the surrounding Bragg stack due to a photonic bandgap of the Bragg stack, will be trapped in the core-region (15) by so called Bragg reflection as described in e.g. Kawanishi et.al.
- a fibre with radial alternating high index (13) and low index (14) a radial periodic fibre, since the fibre will often be designed to be almost periodic in the radial direction.
- the propagation in the invariant crystal direction (assuming non-normal incidence) can be turned into an advantage, since this allows light to propagate down the invariant axis of the fibre.
- radial periodic fibres it is therefore possible to guide light, assuming non-normal incidence, or to trap the light (or stop the propagation of light) using non-normal incidence.
- Fig 2A shows the photonic band gaps of a Bragg stack consisting of layers of silica (refractive index 1.45) and layers of air (refractive index 1.0). The silica and air layers have equal thickness in this example.
- the photonic bandgaps are shown as forbidden mode-index intervals, ⁇ /k intervals.
- the photonic bandgaps are shown as a function of the so-called normalized frequency, ⁇ / ⁇ .
- ⁇ is the period of the Bragg stack (the combined thickness of on layer of silica and one layer of air), and ⁇ is the free-space wavelength of the light.
- ⁇ is the free-space wavelength of the light.
- a hypothetical radial periodic fibre with a silica/air cladding structure, light which lies within a photonic bandgap will not leak into the cladding, but instead be trapped to the core- region by the photonic bandgap effect (see e.g. Kawanishi et. al).
- Fig. 2A is only shown photonic bandgaps for ⁇ /k ⁇ 1.
- Photonic bandgaps also exist for ⁇ /k > 1 , however, these are not shown, since we here wish to stress the possibility of guiding light mainly within hollow core-regions, which is only possible when ⁇ /k ⁇ 1.
- guidance within other types of cores e.g. a silica core, is possible when ⁇ /k > 1 , as well as when ⁇ /k ⁇ 1.
- Fig. 2A is of theoretical interest only for radial periodic fibres, since it is not possible to make a rigid radial periodic fibre with air-rings (at least not using presently known prior art).
- Fig.2B is shown a similar plot, however, in this case the crystal consist of silica (refractive index 1.45), and a hypothetical material with refractive index 1.2. Again photonic bandgaps exist. Even though no rigid material with refractive index 1.2 exist, the present inventors have realized a way to utilise photonic bandgaps, such as the one shown in Fig. 2B.
- a porous material with an effective index of 1.2 is sufficient.
- Such a material could be created by e.g. having silica with a large number of small air holes within it. The air holes and the bridges between the air holes, should be small compared to the wavelength of light, to ensure that the porous material acts as a homogeneous material with a refractive index equal to the effective index of the material. In this case our calculations show, that the effective index is close to the geometrical index, which is the average refractive index of the porous material.
- Fig. 2 therefore also illustrates the photonic bandgaps of a semi periodic fibre according to the present invention, provided the cladding features are sufficiently small compared to the wavelength of the light. Notice, that photonic bandgaps may also appear in the region where the light has a wavelength comparable to (and even slightly larger than) the feature size, however, the effective index of the cladding layers will then be wavelength dependent. This will also alter the wavelength dependence of the photonic bandgaps of the fibre, which in turn will alter the group velocity dispersion of the guided mode(s).
- the present invention therefore offers new possibilities within group velocity control not possible with the prior art radial periodic fibres (since radial periodic fibres do not have micro-structured rings). Fig.
- the shaded area (31) is a solid material (e.g. silica or polymer), which can be drawn into fibre.
- the non- shaded areas (32) and (33) denote air (or another material different from the background material).
- Fig. 3 therefore, corresponds to a micro-structured fibre with a hollow core (32), and alternating layers of silica (31) and porous (micro-structured) silica (34).
- a preform for such a structure may be made by employing silica tubes corresponding to the silica shapes (e.g. circular rings). Between the silica tubes is placed a large number of small silica tubes, which will act to form the porous layers in the final fibre.
- the final size of the air holes may be controlled by controlling the air pressure in the air-holes during drawing. For reasons of clarity only one air hole for each small tube is shown in Fig. 3. In a drawing process this could be obtained by using vacuum to remove the interstitial holes naturally present in the preform. Often, however, it is desirable to have as much air as possible in the porous layers of the final fibre. One may then choose to avoid removing the interstitial holes by omitting the usage of vacuum during the pulling of the fibre. Instead, the air pressure may be controlled during drawing (using e.g. pumps, or sealing one end of the preform) to maximize the air-filling fraction in the porous layers. Both techniques will be simple to use due to the silica rings, which act to air-tighten the structure during drawing of the fibre, so that air from one low effective index cladding ring can not move to another low index cladding ring during drawing.
- Fig. 2 The advantage of having a large portion of air in the porous layers, is illustrated in Fig. 2.
- a low effective index in the porous layers give larger bandgaps, which offers the possibility of binding the field tightly to the core, as well as obtaining guidance in wide wavelength intervals.
- Small bandgaps may be an advantage when the desire is single-mode guidance within a large core region.
- One of the advantages of the present invention is therefore the flexibility made possible, by being able to design a porous material with a desired effective index.
- the fibre shown in Fig. 3 is not two-dimensionally periodic. It is however not random either, due to the ring-like structure.
- the refractive index is not a radial periodic structure. However, the effective index is almost radial periodic.
- semi periodic fibres This also helps to clarify, that effects known from periodic structures may also be found in semi-periodic fibres despite their geometric non-periodic nature.
- Semi periodic fibres may therefore be considered a special class of non-periodic fibres, which have an effective or a geometrical index, which is periodic, while the refractive index is non-periodic.
- the rings with a high effective index are placed radial periodic.
- radial periodic fibres it is well known that the best confinement of the field is obtained when the refractive index is chosen such, that the field has zero amplitude at the ring interfaces (see e.g. J. Marcou et al).
- the cladding rings of semi-periodic fibres may be designed, so that the electric field has minimum amplitude at the interfaces. Since the guiding effect is still a photonic bandgap effect we will refer to such fibres as fibres with a geometrical (and an effective) index, which varies in an essentially radial periodic manner.
- polarization mode dispersion is expected to be increasingly important to overcome, as the bit rate continues to increase in future optical transmission;,systems.
- the radial layers need not have the same thickness in semi periodic fibres. Varying the solid layer thickness, compared to the porous layer, offers the possibility of designing the photonic bandgaps for a given size, or for a given ratio between the TE and the TM bandgaps at a specific normalised wavelength. Those skilled in the art will recognise that the lattice constant, ⁇ then offers the ability of moving the desired bandgap to a desired free space wavelength by choosing the appropriate size of ⁇ , which determines the structural size in the final fibre. Semi periodic fibres therefore offer great design flexibility.
- the thickness of the individual layers does often not vary periodically near the core region. Instead, the thickness of the layers is chosen such as to obtain maximum confinement of the field. This is done by designing the fibres such that the field intensity is near zero at the interfaces between the layers.
- the preferred embodiments of the present invention are not limited to embodiments where the effective index varies in a radial periodic manner. Instead, the basic requirement is that each of the multiple low geometrical index regions is surrounded by a high geometrical index region.
- Fig. 4 is shown the schematic design of a fibre of the prior art, which is able to guide light in a hollow core (41).
- the cladding air holes (42) define a two- dimensional periodic cladding structure. It is the periodicity of the structure, which allows the formation of photonic bandgaps, and thereby allows guidance of light by the photonic bandgap effect.
- Fig. 5 is shown the design of a semi periodic fibre with hexagonal rather than circular silica rings. Again, the fibre is not two-dimensionally periodic, however, in this case it is obvious that the porous rings (51) have some periodicity within them.
- the structure shown in Fig. 5 can readily be stacked and drawn. However, one might easily envision a structure where the solid silica shapes (52) have some air-holes within them, by e.g. omitting only some of the air-holes in the silica rings (compared to Fig. 4).
- semi periodic fibres need not have solid silica rings in the final fibre.
- the silica rings may in another preferred embodiment be replaced by porous rings with an effective or geometrical index different from the effective index of the first type of porous rings.
- the fibre is demanded to be non-periodic.
- Such semi periodic structures may readily be made with a hexagonal ring structure, however, they can also be made with circular symmetry. In this case the stacking process of the preform is more delicate, however it may be performed.
- the motivation for creating structures where all the cladding rings are porous, is that it allows greater flexibility in the design of photonic bandgaps.
- fibres with circular symmetry are that the field solutions then have circular symmetry as well. This is an advantage, since optical fibres of today have circular symmetry. Further, fibres with circular symmetry do not have angles where special care must be taken to avoid that the field escapes (such as e.g. the corners of the hexagonal rings in Fig. 5). Further, placing the cladding features on concentric circles may be used to control the birefringence of the fibre.
- elongated rings e.g. ellipses
- This offers the possibility of birefringence control, and may be an advantage for fibres to be used in e.g. polarization preserving systems.
- Another way of controlling polarisation mode dispersion in semi periodic fibres is to use elongated holes in the cladding and/or core region.
- One may also elongate the core region, or form a core region with a centre differing from the centre of the concentric cladding rings.
- the background material e.g. 52
- a preferred embodiment forms the radial varying index, not by changing the size of a number of air holes in the rings, but by changing the background material.
- the advantage compared to radial periodic fibres is in this case that the air holes are used to design the effective index of each ring, rather than to create a large index contrast.
- Other preferred embodiments vary both the air holes and the background index to obtain maximum flexibility in the design process.
- dopants in the core region to enhance nonlinear effects in the fibre.
- This will typically be employed when the semi periodic fibre has a dielectric core (e.g. silica).
- dielectric core e.g. silica
- the possibilities are well known from the prior art of standard optical fibres and includes processes such as the Kerr effect, four wave mixing, photo sensitivity, parametric amplification, self-phase modulation, cross phase modulation, parametric creation of light at new wavelengths (lasing) and many more.
- Enhanced non-linear effects may also be obtained within hollow core(s) by introducing a nonlinear gas or liquid into the core.
- Third harmonic generation involves sending in light at one frequency, ⁇ , and extracting generated light at the third harmonic frequency, 3 ⁇ .
- the process can also be reversed, such that light at the frequency 3 ⁇ is sent into the fibre, and light s extracted at the frequency ⁇ .
- Such a process is very much desired for the creation of new powerfull, small and relatively inexpensive blue light frequency or UV light frequency lasers.
- the reversed process could be used to create new infrared lasers.
- Such lasers can be used for Mid infrared spectroscopy, as understood by those skilled in the art, since the fundamental vibrational transition of most environmentally important gases and pollutants lie in the 2-20 ⁇ m range.
- the absorption spectrum therefore provides a unique "fingerprint" of the gases.
- Such infrared lasers could therefore be used in mid infrared spectroscopy to obtain a real time method for the detection of gases and their concentration.
- the process is very inefficient in standard optical fibres, since it is difficult to obtain conservation of photon momentum in the process.
- semi periodic fibres it should be possible to obtain third harmonic generation.
- the modes should have a good modal overlap. Since the refractive index grows with the frequency, the refractive index of both the core and the cladding grows with frequency in standard optical fibres. As a result the mode index of the guided modes also grows with the frequency, making it difficult to obtain efficient third harmonic generation in standard optical fibres.
- the guided mode at the frequency 3 ⁇ is a photonic bandgap mode
- the guided mode at the frequency ⁇ can be either an index guided mode (similar to the index guided modes in the prior art micro-structured fibres- see e.g. Monro et. al.), or a photonic bandgap mode.
- semi periodic fibres are photonic bandgap fibres, it is possible to obtain efficient third order harmonic generation using semi periodic fibres- since our calculations show that guided modes within different photonic bandgaps can have a good modal overlap. ; • . '
- Fig. 7 is shown calculated contour plots (71) within a hollow core region (72) of a semi periodic fibre (73).
- the contour plots illustrate that it is possible to guide light within a hollow core region in a semi periodic fibre. It further illustrates that the field has circular symmetry. Notice, that for reasons of clarity a cladding structure with less air than the structure calculated upon is shown.
- Fig. 8 illustrates how the mode-index of the guided modes can behave in a semi periodic fibre. Only some of the guided modes are shown. Notice that the guidance is within limited wavelength intervals, due to the limited intervals of the photonic bandgaps (se e.g. Fig. 2A).
- Fig. 9 illustrates the effective index of the fundamental space filling modes as a function of the normalized wavelength, ⁇ / ⁇ , for a silica structure with air holes.
- the normalised wavelength is large, the mode index becomes almost independent of wavelength. This is evidence that the structure is sensed by light as an effective material, rather than a micro structured material.
Abstract
Description
Claims
Priority Applications (2)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
AU2002223515A AU2002223515A1 (en) | 2000-11-20 | 2001-11-20 | A micro-structured optical fibre |
US10/416,502 US6892018B2 (en) | 2000-11-20 | 2001-11-20 | Micro-structured optical fiber |
Applications Claiming Priority (6)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
DKPA200001744 | 2000-11-20 | ||
DKPA200001744 | 2000-11-20 | ||
US28772801P | 2001-05-02 | 2001-05-02 | |
DKPA200100691 | 2001-05-02 | ||
DKPA200100691 | 2001-05-02 | ||
US60/287,728 | 2001-05-02 |
Publications (3)
Publication Number | Publication Date |
---|---|
WO2002041050A2 WO2002041050A2 (en) | 2002-05-23 |
WO2002041050A3 WO2002041050A3 (en) | 2002-09-26 |
WO2002041050A9 true WO2002041050A9 (en) | 2004-05-13 |
Family
ID=27222460
Family Applications (1)
Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/DK2001/000774 WO2002041050A2 (en) | 2000-11-20 | 2001-11-20 | A micro-structured optical fibre |
Country Status (3)
Country | Link |
---|---|
US (1) | US6892018B2 (en) |
AU (1) | AU2002223515A1 (en) |
WO (1) | WO2002041050A2 (en) |
Families Citing this family (59)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US6892018B2 (en) | 2000-11-20 | 2005-05-10 | Crystal Fibre A/S | Micro-structured optical fiber |
CN1489712A (en) * | 2001-01-25 | 2004-04-14 | �ź㴫 | Photonic crystal optical waveguides having tailored dispension profiles |
WO2002084350A1 (en) * | 2001-04-11 | 2002-10-24 | Crystal Fibre A/S | Dual core photonic crystal fibers (pcf) with special dispersion properties |
AU2002317703A1 (en) * | 2001-06-08 | 2002-12-23 | Crystal Fibre A/S | Photonic bandgap fibre, and use thereof |
ATE413269T1 (en) | 2001-07-16 | 2008-11-15 | Massachusetts Inst Technology | METHOD FOR PRODUCING FIBER OPTICAL FIBERS |
US7272285B2 (en) | 2001-07-16 | 2007-09-18 | Massachusetts Institute Of Technology | Fiber waveguides and methods of making the same |
US7319709B2 (en) * | 2002-07-23 | 2008-01-15 | Massachusetts Institute Of Technology | Creating photon atoms |
JP2004240390A (en) * | 2002-12-10 | 2004-08-26 | Sumitomo Electric Ind Ltd | Optical fiber |
AU2003290349A1 (en) | 2002-12-20 | 2004-07-14 | Blazephotonics Limited | Photonic bandgap optical waveguide |
US7321712B2 (en) | 2002-12-20 | 2008-01-22 | Crystal Fibre A/S | Optical waveguide |
WO2004083918A1 (en) | 2003-03-21 | 2004-09-30 | Crystal Fibre A/S | Photonic bandgap optical waveguidewith anti-resonant core boundary |
WO2004092793A1 (en) * | 2003-04-17 | 2004-10-28 | Nippon Telegraph And Telephone Corporation | Single mode optical fiber with electron vacancies |
ATE502907T1 (en) * | 2003-06-30 | 2011-04-15 | Prysmian Spa | METHOD AND DEVICE FOR DRILLING PREFORMS FOR HOLE LIGHT GUIDE FIBERS |
US7873251B2 (en) * | 2003-08-01 | 2011-01-18 | Bayya Shyam S | Photonic band gap germanate glass fibers |
US20050074215A1 (en) | 2003-08-01 | 2005-04-07 | United States Of America As Represented By The Secretary Of The Navy | Fabrication of high air fraction photonic band gap fibers |
US6993230B2 (en) * | 2003-08-01 | 2006-01-31 | The United States Of America As Represented By The Secretary Of The Navy | Hollow core photonic band gap infrared fibers |
US7444838B2 (en) | 2003-10-30 | 2008-11-04 | Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties, Inc. | Holey optical fiber with random pattern of holes and method for making same |
WO2005049517A1 (en) * | 2003-11-24 | 2005-06-02 | The University Of Sydney | Multicore microstructured optical fibres for imaging |
US7280730B2 (en) | 2004-01-16 | 2007-10-09 | Imra America, Inc. | Large core holey fibers |
US20050180674A1 (en) * | 2004-02-12 | 2005-08-18 | Panorama Flat Ltd. | Faraday structured waveguide display |
US20050201715A1 (en) * | 2004-03-29 | 2005-09-15 | Panorama Flat Ltd. | System, method, and computer program product for magneto-optic device display |
US7310466B2 (en) | 2004-04-08 | 2007-12-18 | Omniguide, Inc. | Photonic crystal waveguides and systems using such waveguides |
US7167622B2 (en) | 2004-04-08 | 2007-01-23 | Omniguide, Inc. | Photonic crystal fibers and medical systems including photonic crystal fibers |
US7231122B2 (en) | 2004-04-08 | 2007-06-12 | Omniguide, Inc. | Photonic crystal waveguides and systems using such waveguides |
US7349589B2 (en) | 2004-04-08 | 2008-03-25 | Omniguide, Inc. | Photonic crystal fibers and medical systems including photonic crystal fibers |
US7331954B2 (en) | 2004-04-08 | 2008-02-19 | Omniguide, Inc. | Photonic crystal fibers and medical systems including photonic crystal fibers |
FR2871796B1 (en) * | 2004-06-21 | 2006-09-15 | Alcatel Sa | METHOD AND INSTALLATION FOR MANUFACTURING A FIBER ELEMENT WITH A SELECTIVE LIGHT FILTER |
JP4990796B2 (en) * | 2004-12-30 | 2012-08-01 | イムラ アメリカ インコーポレイテッド | Photonic bandgap fiber |
FI125571B (en) * | 2005-02-23 | 2015-11-30 | Liekki Oy | Bundle of optical fibers and a process for making them |
FI120471B (en) * | 2005-02-23 | 2009-10-30 | Liekki Oy | Optical fiber processing method |
US7787729B2 (en) | 2005-05-20 | 2010-08-31 | Imra America, Inc. | Single mode propagation in fibers and rods with large leakage channels |
US7529278B2 (en) * | 2005-05-23 | 2009-05-05 | Polaronyx, Inc. | Nonlinear polarization pulse shaping model locked fiber laser at one micron with photonic crystal (PC), photonic bandgap (PBG), or higher order mode (HOM) fiber |
US7559706B2 (en) * | 2006-02-22 | 2009-07-14 | Liekki Oy | Light amplifying fiber arrangement |
US7793521B2 (en) * | 2006-03-01 | 2010-09-14 | Corning Incorporated | Method enabling dual pressure control within fiber preform during fiber fabrication |
US7854143B2 (en) * | 2006-12-22 | 2010-12-21 | Ofs Fitel Llc | Optical fiber preform with improved air/glass interface structure |
US7496260B2 (en) | 2007-03-27 | 2009-02-24 | Imra America, Inc. | Ultra high numerical aperture optical fibers |
EP2201415B1 (en) * | 2007-09-26 | 2019-07-03 | Imra America, Inc. | Glass large-core optical fibers |
FR2924866B1 (en) * | 2007-11-09 | 2014-04-04 | Alcatel Lucent | RARE EARTH DOPED OPTICAL FIBER DEVICE FOR TRANSMITTING OR AMPLIFYING A SIGNAL IN THE "S" BAND |
US8213077B2 (en) * | 2008-04-22 | 2012-07-03 | Imra America, Inc. | Multi-clad optical fibers |
JP4561869B2 (en) * | 2008-05-08 | 2010-10-13 | ソニー株式会社 | Microbead automatic identification method and microbead |
JP5203063B2 (en) * | 2008-06-24 | 2013-06-05 | オリンパス株式会社 | Multiphoton excitation measurement system |
US9063299B2 (en) | 2009-12-15 | 2015-06-23 | Omni Guide, Inc. | Two-part surgical waveguide |
US8903214B2 (en) * | 2010-06-25 | 2014-12-02 | Nkt Photonics A/S | Large core area single mode optical fiber |
US20130058611A1 (en) * | 2011-09-01 | 2013-03-07 | Feng Shi | Photonic crystal optical waveguide solar spectrum splitter |
US20130142312A1 (en) * | 2011-12-02 | 2013-06-06 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | X-ray waveguide and x-ray waveguide system |
KR101302412B1 (en) * | 2012-08-01 | 2013-09-02 | 광주과학기술원 | Optical fiber for chemical sensor |
CN103048730A (en) * | 2012-12-31 | 2013-04-17 | 江苏大学 | Microstructural terahertz (THz) optical fiber |
SG11201803838TA (en) | 2015-11-10 | 2018-06-28 | Nkt Photonics As | An element for a preform, a fiber production method and an optical fiber drawn from the preform |
WO2017108061A1 (en) | 2015-12-23 | 2017-06-29 | Nkt Photonics A/S | Hollow core optical fiber and a laser system |
EP4009087A1 (en) | 2015-12-23 | 2022-06-08 | NKT Photonics A/S | Photonic crystal fiber assembly |
WO2018222981A1 (en) | 2017-06-02 | 2018-12-06 | Commscope Technologies Llc | Concentric fiber for space-division multiplexed optical communications and method of use |
US10578797B2 (en) * | 2018-01-24 | 2020-03-03 | Stc.Unm | Hollow core optical fiber with light guiding within a hollow region based on transverse anderson localization of light |
CN108459370B (en) * | 2018-03-09 | 2020-01-14 | 华南理工大学 | Photonic crystal fiber with Dirac point in photonic band gap by taking quartz glass as matrix |
CN109655434B (en) * | 2019-02-22 | 2024-01-26 | 东北大学 | Optical fiber LMR sensor for multi-parameter measurement |
CN110989066B (en) * | 2019-12-20 | 2022-01-11 | 京东方科技集团股份有限公司 | Polaroid, manufacturing method thereof and display device |
CN113126279B (en) * | 2019-12-31 | 2022-10-18 | 成都理想境界科技有限公司 | Optical fiber scanner and near-to-eye display system |
CA3173046A1 (en) * | 2020-02-25 | 2021-09-02 | Biolitec Unternehmensbeteiligungs Ii Ag | Structured silica clad silica optical fibers |
US20230185019A1 (en) * | 2021-12-14 | 2023-06-15 | Optoskand Ab | Terminated hollow-core fiber with endcap |
WO2023215296A1 (en) * | 2022-05-03 | 2023-11-09 | The Regents Of The University Of California | Hollow core optical waveguiding enabled by zero-index materials |
Family Cites Families (15)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US5155792A (en) * | 1991-06-27 | 1992-10-13 | Hughes Aircraft Company | Low index of refraction optical fiber with tubular core and/or cladding |
US6002829A (en) * | 1992-03-23 | 1999-12-14 | Minnesota Mining And Manufacturing Company | Luminaire device |
EP0810453B1 (en) * | 1996-05-31 | 2001-10-10 | Lucent Technologies Inc. | Article comprising a micro-structured optical fiber, and method of making such fiber |
US5802236A (en) * | 1997-02-14 | 1998-09-01 | Lucent Technologies Inc. | Article comprising a micro-structured optical fiber, and method of making such fiber |
GB9713422D0 (en) * | 1997-06-26 | 1997-08-27 | Secr Defence | Single mode optical fibre |
AU755223B2 (en) * | 1998-06-09 | 2002-12-05 | Crystal Fibre A/S | A photonic band gap fibre |
CN1145813C (en) | 1998-09-15 | 2004-04-14 | 康宁股份有限公司 | Waveguides having axially varying structure |
JP2001235649A (en) | 2000-02-23 | 2001-08-31 | Sumitomo Electric Ind Ltd | Optical fiber |
US6636677B2 (en) * | 2000-02-28 | 2003-10-21 | Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. | Optical fiber |
US6400866B2 (en) * | 2000-03-04 | 2002-06-04 | Lucent Technologies Inc. | Decoupling of transverse spatial modes in microstructure optical fibers |
JP4211194B2 (en) | 2000-05-15 | 2009-01-21 | 住友電気工業株式会社 | Optical fiber |
US6418258B1 (en) * | 2000-06-09 | 2002-07-09 | Gazillion Bits, Inc. | Microstructured optical fiber with improved transmission efficiency and durability |
US6792188B2 (en) * | 2000-07-21 | 2004-09-14 | Crystal Fibre A/S | Dispersion manipulating fiber |
WO2002039159A1 (en) | 2000-11-10 | 2002-05-16 | Crystal Fibre A/S | Optical fibres with special bending and dispersion properties |
US6892018B2 (en) | 2000-11-20 | 2005-05-10 | Crystal Fibre A/S | Micro-structured optical fiber |
-
2001
- 2001-11-20 US US10/416,502 patent/US6892018B2/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
- 2001-11-20 WO PCT/DK2001/000774 patent/WO2002041050A2/en not_active Application Discontinuation
- 2001-11-20 AU AU2002223515A patent/AU2002223515A1/en not_active Abandoned
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
WO2002041050A3 (en) | 2002-09-26 |
US6892018B2 (en) | 2005-05-10 |
US20040071423A1 (en) | 2004-04-15 |
WO2002041050A2 (en) | 2002-05-23 |
AU2002223515A1 (en) | 2002-05-27 |
Similar Documents
Publication | Publication Date | Title |
---|---|---|
US6892018B2 (en) | Micro-structured optical fiber | |
US7349611B2 (en) | Photonic bandgap fibre, and use thereof | |
AU755547B2 (en) | Microstructured optical fibres | |
AU763796B2 (en) | A photonic crystal fibre and a method for its production | |
Knight et al. | Pure silica single-mode fibre with hexagonal photonic crystal cladding | |
EP1421420B1 (en) | Optical Fibre with high numerical aperture | |
US7174078B2 (en) | Dual core photonic crystal fibers (PCF) with special dispersion properties | |
KR100637542B1 (en) | A method of making a photonic crystal fibre | |
US6985661B1 (en) | Photonic crystal fibre and a method for its production | |
WO2003050571A2 (en) | A method and apparatus relating to photonic crystal fibre | |
WO2009107824A1 (en) | All solid photonic bandgap fiber | |
Hao et al. | Optimized design of unsymmetrical gap nodeless hollow core fibers for optofluidic applications | |
Liu et al. | Quasiperiodic photonic crystal fiber | |
WO2010127676A1 (en) | Hollow-core optical fiber incorporating a metamaterial cladding | |
Jin et al. | Spectral characteristics and bend response of Bragg gratings inscribed in all-solid bandgap fibers | |
van Eijkelenborg et al. | Bending-induced colouring in a photonic crystal fibre | |
Broeng et al. | Crystal fibre technology | |
Windeler | Microstructure Fibers | |
Zhu et al. | Photonic crystal fibers and their applications in optical communications and sensors | |
Leon-Saval | Optical fibre transitions for device applications | |
Flanagan et al. | Parasitic modes in large mode area microstructured fibers | |
Bjarklev et al. | Photonic bandgap fibers: theory and experiments |
Legal Events
Date | Code | Title | Description |
---|---|---|---|
AK | Designated states |
Kind code of ref document: A2 Designated state(s): AE AG AL AM AT AT AU AZ BA BB BG BR BY BZ CA CH CN CO CR CU CZ CZ DE DE DK DK DM DZ EC EE EE ES FI FI GB GD GE GH GM HR HU ID IL IN IS JP KE KG KP KR KZ LC LK LR LS LT LU LV MA MD MG MK MN MW MX MZ NO NZ OM PH PL PT RO RU SD SE SG SI SK SK SL TJ TM TR TT TZ UA UG US UZ VN YU ZA ZW |
|
AL | Designated countries for regional patents |
Kind code of ref document: A2 Designated state(s): GH GM KE LS MW MZ SD SL SZ TZ UG ZM ZW AM AZ BY KG KZ MD RU TJ TM AT BE CH CY DE DK ES FI FR GB GR IE IT LU MC NL PT SE TR BF BJ CF CG CI CM GA GN GQ GW ML MR NE SN TD TG |
|
AK | Designated states |
Kind code of ref document: A3 Designated state(s): AE AG AL AM AT AT AU AZ BA BB BG BR BY BZ CA CH CN CO CR CU CZ CZ DE DE DK DK DM DZ EC EE EE ES FI FI GB GD GE GH GM HR HU ID IL IN IS JP KE KG KP KR KZ LC LK LR LS LT LU LV MA MD MG MK MN MW MX MZ NO NZ OM PH PL PT RO RU SD SE SG SI SK SK SL TJ TM TR TT TZ UA UG US UZ VN YU ZA ZW |
|
AL | Designated countries for regional patents |
Kind code of ref document: A3 Designated state(s): GH GM KE LS MW MZ SD SL SZ TZ UG ZM ZW AM AZ BY KG KZ MD RU TJ TM AT BE CH CY DE DK ES FI FR GB GR IE IT LU MC NL PT SE TR BF BJ CF CG CI CM GA GN GQ GW ML MR NE SN TD TG |
|
121 | Ep: the epo has been informed by wipo that ep was designated in this application | ||
DFPE | Request for preliminary examination filed prior to expiration of 19th month from priority date (pct application filed before 20040101) | ||
REG | Reference to national code |
Ref country code: DE Ref legal event code: 8642 |
|
WWE | Wipo information: entry into national phase |
Ref document number: 10416502 Country of ref document: US |
|
122 | Ep: pct application non-entry in european phase | ||
COP | Corrected version of pamphlet |
Free format text: PAGE 3/11, DRAWINGS, ADDED |
|
NENP | Non-entry into the national phase |
Ref country code: JP |
|
WWW | Wipo information: withdrawn in national office |
Country of ref document: JP |