Function of second cladding layer in hollow core tube lattice fibers

Abstract

Modes attenuation of the tube lattice fiber (TLF) is characterized by D/λ, where D is the core diameter and λ is the wavelength. Hence, the TLF is structured with a large core to ensure a low attenuation loss. A small core, on the other hand, facilitates the gas-filled TLF applications, but at the expense of the increased mode attenuation. We show that adding a second cladding layer to the conventional one layer TLF (1TLF) can resolve the contradicting requirements. The mode attenuation of TLF with two cladding layers (2TLF) is less influenced by the D/λ value as compared to 1TLF, thus realizing a low loss small core TLF. Furthermore, we found that adding the second layer brings another advantage to a bending performance. With a determined core size, D, a 1TLF with smaller capillary hole size, d, experiences less bending loss. However, the reduced d increases the confinement loss that counteracts the bending loss improvement. This confliction is substantially alleviated in 2TLF thanks to the second cladding layer. Theoretical investigations and experimental demonstrations are presented to evidence the important role of the second cladding ring in the TLF, which has been overlooked in prior studies.