Microstructured Optical Fibres

This group is part of the Advanced Fibre Technologies & Applications Group

In recent years, two new types of optical fibre have revolutionised this dynamic field, bringing with them a wide range of novel optical properties. These new fibres, known collectively as microstructured fibres, can be made entirely from one type of glass as they do not rely on dopants for guidance. Instead, the cladding region is peppered with many small air holes, that run the entire fibre length. These fibres are typically separated into two classes, defined by the way in which they guide light:

• Holey fibres, in which the core is solid and light is guided by a modified form of total internal reflection as the air holes lower the effective refractive index of the cladding relative to that of the solid core.
• Photonic band-gap fibres, in which guidance in a hollow core can be achieved via photonic band-gap effects. The many varieties of microstructured fibres are discussed in more detail in the following sections.

Within the group we have the full range of expertise required to design, fabricate and characterise both forms of microstructured fibre, both in silica and in compound glass. We also run a large number of end application projects both in close collaboration with a range of other ORC groups, and with other external academic and industrial partners. Current collaborating organisations include amongst others: ETH Zurich, University of Dijon, Cambridge University, Mullard Space Centre, SPI Lasers Ltd, Furukawa, Hovermere Ltd, BAe Systems and SELEX.

Current projects Active project areas include amongst others: High nonlinearity dispersion-controlled MOFs Nonlinearity control in MOFs Fibres for supercontinuum generation Space applications of MOFs Tapered MOF devices Gas sensing using MOFs Broadband/low loss Photonic Bandgap Fibres MOFs for mid-IR applications Compound glass MOFs MOFs for laser beam delivery MOF laser devices Large mode area MOFs

J.C.Flanagan, D.J.Richardson, M.J.Foster, I.Bakalski, Microstructured fibers for broadband wavefront filtering in the mid-IR, Optics Express 2006 Vol.14(24) pp.11773-11786

J.H.V.Price, T.M.Monro, H.Ebendorff-Heidepriem, F.Poletti, V.Finazzi, J.Y.Y.Leong, P.Petropoulos, J.C.Flanagan, G.Brambilla, X.Feng, D.J.Richardson, Mid-IR supercontinuum generation in non-silica glass fibers, Photonics West San Jose, California 21-26 Jan 2006 (Invited)

J.C.Baggett, T.M.Monro, K.Furusawa, D.J.Richardson, Understanding bending losses in holey optical fibers, Optics Communications 2003 Vol.227 pp.317-335

M.L.V.Tse, P.Horak, J.H.V.Price, F.Poletti, F.He, D.J.Richardson, Pulse compression at 1.06 microns in dispersion-decreasing holey fibers, Optics Letters 2006 Vol.31(23) pp.3504-3506

R.Amezcua-Correa, N.G.Broderick, M.N.Petrovich, F.Poletti, D.J.Richardson, Optimizing the usable bandwidth and loss through core design in realistic hollow-core photonic bandgap fibers, Optics Express 2006 Vol.14(17) pp.7974-7985

F.Poletti, N.G.R.Broderick, D.J.Richardson, T.M.Monro, The effect of core asymmetries on the polarization properties of hollow core photonic bandgap fibers, Optics Express 2005 Vol.13(22) pp.9115-9124

J.Y.Y.Leong, S.Asimakis, F.Poletti, P.Petropoulos, X.Feng, R.C.Moore, K.E.Frampton, T.M.Monro, H.Ebendorff-Heidepriem, W.H.Loh, D.J.Richardson, Towards zero dispersion highly nonlinear lead silicate glass holey fibres at 1550nm by structured-element-stacking, ECOC 2005 Glasgow 25-29 Sep 2005 (Postdeadline)

F.Poletti, V.Finazzi, T.M.Monro, N.G.R.Broderick, V.Tse, D.J.Richardson, Inverse design and fabrication tolerances of ultra-flattened dispersion holey fibers, Optics Express 2005 Vol.13 pp.3728-3736

M.N.Petrovich, R.Amezcua-Correa, N.G.Broderick, D.J.Richardson, T.Delmonte, M.A.Watson, E.J.O'Driscoll, Photonic bandgap fibres for broadband transmission of SWIR wavelengths, EMRS-DTC Technical Conference Edinburgh 13-14 Jul 2006

2nd March 2006 - Squaring the circle  A team from the University of Southampton has made the world's first air-clad optical fibres with a square structure. These fibres provide a flexible and low cost way of creating a square beam of laser light for manufacturing applications