High power pulse delivery over a short distance through an all-solid anti-resonant microstructured optical fiber at [formula omitted] wavelength

Abstract

We propose an all-solid silica-based, large mode area (LMA) anti-resonant microstructured optical fiber through which optical pulses of high-power can be delivered at the near mid-infrared wavelength range. Anti-resonant guidance of light has been achieved in the silica-based microstructured geometry by embedding 15 high-index solid cylinders in a low-index background matrix that essentially creates a node-less negative curvature cladding region surrounding the low-index core. The fiber geometry has been optimized in such a way that a large mode area of ∼2000μm2 is achieved for the fundamental mode with a loss in the order of 0.04 dB/m at 2μm wavelength. Moreover, the higher-order modes are at least one order of magnitude lossy than the fundamental mode at the operating wavelength. The optimized fiber structure has exhibited that a pulse of peak power as high as 1 kW and width of 2.2 ps can be sustained without any alteration in shape and degradation of power when the pulse is delivered through the fundamental mode over the proposed fiber length of 25 m. Hence, this proposed unique silica-based all-solid anti-resonant fiber structure is suitable for short-distance delivery of high-power pulses at 2μm wavelength with effective single mode separation.