Breaking the glass ceiling: hollow OmniGuide fibers

Steven G. Johnson; Mihai Ibanescu; Maksim A. Skorobogatiy; Ori Weisberg; Torkel D. Engeness; Marin Soljacic; Steven A. Jacobs; John D. Joannopoulos; Yoel Fink

doi:10.1117/12.463884

25 April 2002 Breaking the glass ceiling: hollow OmniGuide fibers

Steven G. Johnson, Mihai Ibanescu, Maksim A. Skorobogatiy, Ori Weisberg, Torkel D. Engeness, Marin Soljacic, Steven A. Jacobs, John D. Joannopoulos, Yoel Fink

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 4655, Photonic Bandgap Materials and Devices; (2002) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.463884
Event: Symposium on Integrated Optoelectronic Devices, 2002, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

We argue that OmniGuide fibers, which guide light within a hollow core by concentric multilayer films having the property of omnidirectional reflection, have the potential to lift several physical limitations of silica fibers. We show how the strong confinement in OmniGuide fibers greatly suppresses the properties of the cladding materials: even if highly lossy and nonlinear materials are employed, both the intrinsic losses and nonlinearities of silica fibers can be surpassed by orders of magnitude. This feat, impossible to duplicate in an index-guided fiber with existing materials, would open up new regimes for long-distance propagation and dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM). The OmniGuide-fiber modes bear a strong analogy to those of hollow metallic waveguides; from this analogy, we are able to derive several general scaling laws with core radius. Moreover, there is strong loss discrimination between guided modes, depending upon their degree of confinement in the hollow core: this allows large, ostensibly multi-mode cores to be used, with the lowest-loss TE₀₁ mode propagating in an effectively single-mode fashion. Finally, because this TE₀₁ mode is a cylindrically symmetrical ('azimuthally' polarized) singlet state, it is immune to polarization-mode dispersion (PMD), unlike the doubly-degenerate linearly-polarized modes in silica fibers that are vulnerable to birefringence.

Citation Download Citation

Steven G. Johnson, Mihai Ibanescu, Maksim A. Skorobogatiy, Ori Weisberg, Torkel D. Engeness, Marin Soljacic, Steven A. Jacobs, John D. Joannopoulos, and Yoel Fink "Breaking the glass ceiling: hollow OmniGuide fibers", Proc. SPIE 4655, Photonic Bandgap Materials and Devices, (25 April 2002); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.463884

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available