Abstract
We report a significant advance in preform extrusion and die design, which has allowed for the first time the fabrication of complex structured preforms using soft glass and polymer billets. Structural preform distortions are minimized by adjustment of the material flow within the die. The low propagation loss of an extruded complex bismuth glass fiber demonstrates the potential of this advanced extrusion technique for the fabrication of novel soft glass and polymer microstructured fiber designs.
Highlights
Microstructured optical fibers (MOFs) contain an array of wavelength-scale air holes within the fiber cross-section, which allows a broad range of novel optical properties
We report a significant advance in preform extrusion and die design, which has allowed for the first time the fabrication of complex structured preforms using soft glass and polymer billets
Examples include air-core photonic bandgap fibers, large mode area fibers and fibers with broadband flattened dispersion, whose optical properties cannot be realized with conventional core-clad fiber designs or even simpler MOF
Summary
Microstructured optical fibers (MOFs) contain an array of wavelength-scale air holes within the fiber cross-section, which allows a broad range of novel optical properties. Examples include air-core photonic bandgap fibers, large mode area fibers and fibers with broadband flattened dispersion, whose optical properties cannot be realized with conventional core-clad fiber designs or even simpler MOF designs. These fiber types require the fabrication of preforms with a macroscopic structure containing large numbers of transverse features. To date these fiber types have all been demonstrated in silica-based MOFs using the stacking fabrication technique, the development of soft glass MOFs variants has been hampered to date by fabrication challenges. The flow of material within the die is explored for a range of structures and materials, and the efficacy of the extruded preforms for low-loss fiber fabrication is demonstrated
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