Abstract
Hollow-core fiber (HCF) is a promising candidate for optofluidic applications because it can act as a gas-cell, permitting intense fluid-light interaction over extended lengths with low optical loss and inherent flexibility. Such a platform could pave the way for an all-fiberized, compact, robust and practical system for sensing applications. To facilitate this, we report a high-precision and repeatable micro-machining technique using focused ion beam (FIB) milling on a nodeless anti-resonant hollow-core fiber (ARHCF). Ga+ ions are bombarded on a 43 µm thick outer cladding of ARHCF for 30 minutes, to create a 50 µm deep fluidic channel, that has a negligible influence on the guiding properties of the fiber. The milled channel, followed by the 2.8 µm gap between adjacent 500 nm thin capillary tubes, provides direct access for liquid/gas to diffuse into the hollow-core region. The novel design presented here will allow ARHCFs to be spliced with solid-core fibers while preserving the fluidic channel. Corroborating results from simulation of such a structure are presented to demonstrate that no additional loss is induced by the milled hole.
Highlights
Hollow-core fibers (HCFs) have been an active field of research in fields of high power lasers due to their high damage threshold and telecommunication due to their low latency [1]
Ga+ ions are bombarded on a 43 μm thick outer cladding of anti-resonant hollow-core fiber (ARHCF) for 30 minutes, to create a 50 μm deep fluidic channel, that has a negligible influence on the guiding properties of the fiber
The micro-structured cladding of a hollow core photonic bandgap (PBG) (HCPBG) fiber is composed of holes that run through the bulk material and create a 2D crystal lattice that forbids certain frequencies from propagating through them
Summary
Hollow-core fibers (HCFs) have been an active field of research in fields of high power lasers due to their high damage threshold and telecommunication due to their low latency [1]. We present a novel approach of using a well-known ion beam milling technique to create a channel between the adjacent capillaries of a nodeless ARHCF, to provide access for fluid transfer to the fiber core, even when the ARHCF is spliced to a solid-core SMF. This technique takes advantage of the capillary separation in nodeless ARHCF and the fact that the outer cladding region is not involved in the ARROW mechanism. This minimizes or even completely eliminates additional loss as a result of the micro-machining, this is corroborated by numerical simulations
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