Cleaving of microstructured polymer optical fibres

The issue of how best to cleave PMMA microstructured polymer optical fibres (mPOF) is addressed. The impact of the following parameters on the cleaving process is considered: (i) temperature of the cutting blade, (ii) temperature of the platen holding the fibre, (iii) time allowed for thermal equilibration between fibre and platen, (iv) blade speed, and (v) blade condition. The strong influence of a temperature-dependent phase transition in the polymer on the cleaving process is established. Optically acceptable mPOF end-faces can be achieved but only over a limited range of cleavage conditions.     

Cleaved end-face quality of microstructured polymer optical fibres

The cutting of a microstructured polymer optical fibre to form an optical end-face is studied. The effect of the temperature and speed of the cutting blade on the end-face is qualitatively assessed and it is found that for fibres at temperatures in the range 70-90 °C, a blade at a similar temperature moving at a speed of less than 0.5 mm/s produces a good quality end-face. The nature of the damage caused by the cutting process was examined and found to vary with fibre temperature, blade quality and cut depth. Thermo-mechanical analysis showed that the drawn material was significantly more visco-elastic than the annealed raw material in the 70-90 °C temperature range. The behaviour of the surface damage with cut depth was found to be consistent with the behaviour of a visco-elastic material.     

Parametric processes in microstructured and highly nonlinear optical fibres

Optical parametric amplification is an important nonlinear process in photonic crystal fibres driven by the small effective area and the special dispersion characteristics of these fibres. Aside from its role in supercontinuum generation, parametric amplification can lead to efficient wavelength conversion, limited primarily by the uniformity of the diameter of currently available fibres. The related Bragg scattering process can be used for both wavelength conversion and optical switching, again limited by the physical characteristics of the fibres used.     

Silver nanocrystals modified microstructured polymer optical fibres for chemical and optical sensing

In-fibre chemical and optical sensors based on silver nanocrystals modified microstructured polymer optical fibres (MPOFs) were demonstrated. The silver nanocrystals modified MPOFs were formed by direct chemical reduction of silver ammonia complex ions on the templates of array holes in the microstructure polymer optical fibres. The nanotube-like and nanoisland-like Ag-modified MPOFs could be obtained by adjusting the conditions of Ag-formation in the air holes of MPOFs. SEM images showed that the higher concentration of the reaction solution (silver ammonia 0.5 mol/L, glucose 0.25 mol/L), gave rise to a tubular silver layer in MPOF, while the lower concentration (silver ammonia 0.1 M, glucose 0.05 M) produced an island-like Ag nanocrystal modified MPOF. The tubular Ag-MPOF composite fibre was conductive and could be directly used as array electrodes in electrochemical analyses. It displayed high electrochemical activity on sensing nitrate or nitrite ions. The enhanced fluorescence of dye molecules was observed when the island-like Ag-modified MPOF was inserted into a fluorescent dye solution.     

Antiresonant guiding microstructured optical fibers for sensing applications

A novel refractometric sensor utilizing unique spectral properties of antiresonant-guiding microstructured optical fibers is proposed. The sensor operation is based on the wavelength shift of the transmission spectrum in response to the refractive index change of a sample loaded in the air-holes of the microstructured optical fiber. Refractive index changes on the order of 0.1% can be detected using less than a nanoliter of a sample.     

The uses of diversity: non-crystalline arrays in microstructured optical fibres

Microstructured polymer optical fibres (mPOFs) can be more easily fabricated in unusual geometries than their silica counterparts, allowing a more diverse range of structures to be explored. We have used evolutionary algorithms to explore a variety of fibre structures, including non-periodic structures.     

Effect of structure random disturbances on characterizations of microstructured optical fibres

A method is presented to analyse the effect of structure random disturbances on the confinement loss and the chromatic dispersion characterizations of microstructured optical fibres, which combines multipole methods with the random statistics process. Some useful results to the fabrication of microstructured optical fibres have been obtained.     

Analysis of the beam divergence for one-rod core microstructured optical fibres

The evolution of microstructured optical fibers with hexagonal array (H-MOFs) of air-holes rooted in the background of undoped silica has led to the realization of an ideal host for encouraging and technologically entitled optical properties. We focus to explore the divergence of radiation into free space from the end-facet of solid-core H-MOFs by using the improved theoretical model. Also, we investigated the wavelength dependence of beam divergence angle for principal core mode of H-MOFs under step-index fiber approximation (SIFA). Experimental results have been included for comparison.     

Efficient non-linear optical fibres and their applications

There seem to be three possible approaches to achieve efficient non-linear optical effects in fibres: the increase of optical intensity in fibres, the control of group velocity dispersion in fibres and the use of efficient non-linear optical materials for fibres. From this viewpoint, high-numerical-aperture single-mode fibres with high optical intensity, single-mode fibres with extremely small dispersion at the operating wavelength and LiNbO₃ single-crystal fibres with efficient non-linear effects, are now being investigated. This paper describes the fabrication of these optical fibres, and their non-linear optical applications.     

Holey optical fibres: Fundamental properties and device applications

The presence of wavelength-scale holes in the transverse profile of a holey fibre can lead to novel optical properties that cannot be achieved in more conventional forms of optical fibre. Examples of such properties include broadband single-mode guidance, the extremes of fibre nonlinearity, from fibres providing tight mode confinement to those offering large mode areas, and a range of remarkable dispersive properties, including broadband flattened dispersion, anomalous dispersion below 1.3 μm, and large normal dispersion values at 1.55 μm. Fundamentals and recent progress are reviewed, ranging from design and fabrication through to applications and devices based on this emerging fibre type. To cite this article: T.M. Monro, D.J. Richardson, C. R. Physique 4 (2003).     

Hollow-core microstructured polymer optical fiber

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.     

Polycarbonate hollow-core microstructured optical fiber

A hollow-core microstructured polymer optical fiber is fabricated from polycarbonate material and guidance by inhibited coupling in a two-layer structure is demonstrated in two strong transmission bands with minimum losses of 9.0 dB/m at 800 nm and 3.1 dB/m at 1550 nm. The latter corresponds to a loss well below the polycarbonate material loss at this wavelength, and to our knowledge it is the lowest loss hollow-core polymer fiber reported to date. The short-term operational temperature limit of the fiber is shown to be 135 degrees C, significantly higher than that of conventional polymer optical fibers made of other polymers.     

Extruded high-NA microstructured polymer optical fibre

We report on use of billet ram extrusion for the first time to fabricate microstructured polymer optical fiber preforms. The shape and relative size of the air holes in the preform are well preserved during fiber drawing. Extrusion conditions have been optimized to prevent issues such as die swell and thermal degradation of the polymer material.     

Confinement losses in microstructured optical fibers

We describe a multipole formulation that can be used for high-accuracy calculations of the full complex propagation constant of a microstructured optical fiber with a finite number of holes. We show how the imaginary part of the microstructure, which describes confinement losses not associated with absorption, varies with hole size, the number of rings of holes, and wavelength, and give the minimum number of rings of holes required for a specific loss for given parameters.     

Modal cutoff in microstructured optical fibers

We analyze the nature of modal cutoff in microstructured optical fibers of finite cross section. In doing so, we reconcile the striking endlessly single-mode behavior with the fact that in such fibers all propagation constants are complex. We show that the second mode undergoes a strong change of behavior that is reflected in the losses, effective area, and multipolar structure. We establish the parameter subspace in which the fibers are single mode and an accurate value for the limit of the endlessly single-mode regime.     

Stress-induced birefringence in microstructured optical fibers

We present a numerical study of stress-induced birefringence in microstructured optical fibers (MOFs), using a finite-element method. MOFs under lateral forces and twists are considered separately. Compared with that in standard single-mode optical fibers, stress-induced linear birefringence in MOFs under a lateral force is reduced with increasing air-hole size, whereas twist-induced circular birefringence in MOFs is enhanced when the air-hole size is small.     

Prospective for biodegradable microstructured optical fibers

We report fabrication of a novel microstructured optical fiber made of biodegradable and water soluble materials that features approximately 1 dB/cm transmission loss. Two cellulose butyrate tubes separated with hydroxypropyl cellulose powder were codrawn into a porous double-core fiber offering integration of optical, microfluidic, and potentially drug release functionalities.