Hollow core optical fibres with comparable attenuation to silica fibres between 600 and 1100\u2009nm

Hesham Sakr,Francesco Poletti,Thomas D Bradley,Hans Christian H Mulvad,Ian A Davidson,Yong Chen,Gregory T Jasion,John R Hayes,Eric Numkam Fokoua

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-19910-7

Hesham Sakr, Francesco Poletti + Show 7 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19910-7

Copy DOI

Abstract

For over 50 years, pure or doped silica glass optical fibres have been an unrivalled platform for the transmission of laser light and optical data at wavelengths from the visible to the near infra-red. Rayleigh scattering, arising from frozen-in density fluctuations in the glass, fundamentally limits the minimum attenuation of these fibres and hence restricts their application, especially at shorter wavelengths. Guiding light in hollow (air) core fibres offers a potential way to overcome this insurmountable attenuation limit set by the glass’s scattering, but requires reduction of all the other loss-inducing mechanisms. Here we report hollow core fibres, of nested antiresonant design, with losses comparable or lower than achievable in solid glass fibres around technologically relevant wavelengths of 660, 850, and 1060 nm. Their lower than Rayleigh scattering loss in an air-guiding structure offers the potential for advances in quantum communications, data transmission, and laser power delivery.

Highlights

For over 50 years, pure or doped silica glass optical fibres have been an unrivalled platform for the transmission of laser light and optical data at wavelengths from the visible to the near infra-red
We have shown that through greater understanding of the loss mechanisms in hollow-core fibres, choice of an appropriate structure—the Nested Antiresonant Nodeless Fibres (NANFs)—careful control of design parameters and fabrication procedures, air-guiding fibres with loss comparable to, and in some cases lower than achievable in a solid core fibre can be realised at a range of wavelengths between 600 and 1100 nm
When the loss values of the three NANFs presented here, the lowest reported by any fibre to date at their respective wavelength of operation, are combined with other unique properties offered by air-guiding fibres, the potential of this technology to transform numerous applications of high scientific and commercial interest becomes evident

Summary

Introduction

For over 50 years, pure or doped silica glass optical fibres have been an unrivalled platform for the transmission of laser light and optical data at wavelengths from the visible to the near infra-red. We report hollow core fibres, of nested antiresonant design, with losses comparable or lower than achievable in solid glass fibres around technologically relevant wavelengths of 660, 850, and 1060 nm Their lower than Rayleigh scattering loss in an air-guiding structure offers the potential for advances in quantum communications, data transmission, and laser power delivery. Since the RSC of a glass is proportional to the temperature at which the density fluctuations in the liquid state are frozen-in, low-softening temperature glasses, such as chalcogenides or multi-component heavy metal halides, have been studied thoroughly[5] These can in principle offer RSC close to an order of magnitude lower than that of silica glass[6], the lowest loss produced to date in these glass families is still about 1000 times higher than their theoretically anticipated Rayleigh scattering limit. This has left single component silicon dioxide—silica—a glass that can be synthetised with the required part per billion purity through vapour phase deposition techniques and that does not suffer from re-crystallisation to the same degree, as the unbeatable go-to glass for state-of-the-art loss at wavelengths between

Methods

Results

Conclusion