Abstract
Air-silica microstructure fibers (ASMFs), also known as "holey fibers", are silica fibers with air regions running along their length, and were first fabricated over 25 years ago.1 Recent interest in novel optical fibers and fiber-based components has led to increased excitement about the possibility of a new class of photonic devices using such air-silica waveguides. Much research has focused on "photonic crystal fibers" in which the air regions are arranged periodically. The novel transmission properties of the fundamental modes of these waveguides include "endlessly single mode"2 and photonic bandgap guidance regimes,3 Dramatic enhancements of nonlinear propagation have also been observed by using the air regions to tightly confine the guided light.4 It has also been shown that gratings can be UV written into photosensitive regions of various lipes of microstructure fibers.5,6 ASMF gratings are useful in studying the higher order modes of ASMFs, since a grating can be used to selectively excite fiber modes. Higher order modes in ASMFs are strongly influenced by the microstructure regions and offer new possibilities for the design of novel filler waveguide devices.
© 2002 Optical Society of America
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