Endlessly single-mode holey fibers: the influence of core design

Kunimasa Saitoh,Yukihiro Tsuchida,Niels Asger Mortensen,Masanori Koshiba

doi:10.1364/opex.13.010833

Abstract

In this paper we evaluate the cut-off properties of holey fibers (HFs) with a triangular lattice of air holes and the core formed by the removal of a single (HF1) or more air holes (HF3 and HF7). With the aid of finite-element simulations we determine the single-mode and multi-mode phases and also find the air hole diameters limiting the endlessly single-mode regime. From calculations of V and W parameters we find that in general HF1 is less susceptible to longitudinal non-uniformities compared to the other designs for equivalent effective areas. As an example we illustrate this general property for the particular case of a macro-bending induced loss.

Highlights

Large-mode-area (LMA) single-mode fibers are essential to many applications including high power delivery, fiber amplification, and low non-linear data transmission
In this paper we evaluate the cut-off properties of holey fibers
(HFs) with a triangular lattice of air holes and the core formed by the removal of a single (HF1) or more air holes (HF3 and HF7)

Summary

Introduction

Large-mode-area (LMA) single-mode fibers are essential to many applications including high power delivery, fiber amplification, and low non-linear data transmission. While standard optical fibers have difficulties in providing both large mode area and single-mode operation, all-silica photonic crystal fibers [1], referred to as holey fibers (HFs), are highly potential candidates for realizing LMA single-mode fibers This owes mainly to their endlessly singlemode properties [2] which allows for very broad-band single mode LMA HFs [3]-[5] and even broad-band polarization maintaining and single-polarizing LMA HFs have been achieved with the addition of stress-applying parts [6], [7]. [8] and in general we find that the HF1 is superior to the HF3 and HF7 in terms of the susceptibility to longitudinal non-uniformities for equivalent effective areas We illustrate this general property by means of calculations of the V and W parameters and we illustrate it for the particular case of a macro-bending induced loss mechanism

Endlessly single-mode structure and the V parameter

Susceptibility to longitudinal non-uniformities and bending loss properties

Conclusions