Experimental study of an elliptical-core photonic bandgap fiber with thin core wall and high aspect ratio and its birefringence characteristics

We fabricate an elliptical hollow-core photonic bandgap fiber (EC-PBGF) with a core-wall thickness of 65 nm and an aspect ratio of 1.4. The core is expanded by applying positive pressure in the hollow-core region during the fiber-drawing process. Both the reduction of core-wall thickness and the increase of aspect ratio result in the enhancement of optical properties in terms of a low attenuation loss and group birefringence. The minimum loss and group birefringence of the fabricated EC-PBGF2 are measured to be 0.1 dB/m and 0.012, respectively.