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. Hollow core fibers have low light attenuation because the light travels through air rather than glass, but other sources of loss have limited the performance so far. Here the authors design and demonstrate a Nested Antiresonant Nodeless hollow core fiber that has losses competitive with standard solid-core fiber at several important wavelengths.

/pdf/hollow-core-optical-fibres-with-comparable-attenuation-to-44sxv30yc8.pdf

Hollow core optical fibres with comparable attenuation to silica fibres between 600 and 1100 nm.

In the research field of hollow-core optical fiber (HCF), one type of fiber geometry with a leaky mode nature has unexpectedly taken center stage over the last couple of years: the so-called hollow-core anti-resonant fiber (ARF). The guidance mechanism of this ARF has been elucidated explicitly, the optical performance of the fiber has improved significantly, and the range of potential fiber application areas has expanded steadily. This paper will review our continuous efforts to understand, design, and fabricate this hollow-core ARF with the aim of lower loss and wider bandwidth. We also explore the possibility of using an advanced form of ARF in communications applications. In the long journey of looking for optical fibers that provide better performance than conventional solid-core glass fibers, exploitation of the hidden potential of artificial photonic micro-structures will continue to advance.

Recent Progress in Low-Loss Hollow-Core Anti-Resonant Fibers and Their Applications

Remarkable recent demonstrations of ultra-low-loss inhibited-coupling (IC) hollow-core photonic-crystal fibres (HCPCFs) established them as serious candidates for next-generation long-haul fibre optics systems. A hindrance to this prospect and also to short-haul applications such as micromachining, where stable and high-quality beam delivery is needed, is the difficulty in designing and fabricating an IC-guiding fibre that combines ultra-low loss, truly robust single-modeness, and polarisation-maintaining operation. The design solutions proposed to date require a trade-off between low loss and truly single-modeness. Here, we propose a novel IC-HCPCF for achieving low-loss and effective single-mode operation. The fibre is endowed with a hybrid cladding composed of a Kagome-tubular lattice (HKT). This new concept of a microstructured cladding allows us to significantly reduce the confinement loss and, at the same time, preserve truly robust single-mode operation. Experimental results show an HKT-IC-HCPCF with a minimum loss of 1.6 dB/km at 1050 nm and a higher-order mode extinction ratio as high as 47.0 dB for a 10 m long fibre. The robustness of the fibre single-modeness is tested by moving the fibre and varying the coupling conditions. The design proposed herein opens a new route for the development of HCPCFs that combine robust ultra-low-loss transmission and single-mode beam delivery and provides new insight into IC guidance.

/pdf/low-loss-single-mode-hybrid-lattice-hollow-core-photonic-4y1y4ow60q.pdf

Low-loss single-mode hybrid-lattice hollow-core photonic-crystal fibre.

The fabrication of hollow core microstructured fibers is significantly more complex than solid fibers due to the necessity to control the hollow microstructure with high precision during the draw. We present the first model that can recreate tubular anti-resonant hollow core fiber draws, and accurately predict the draw parameters and geometry of the fiber. The model was validated against two different experimental fiber draws and very good agreement was found. We identify a dynamic within the draw process that can lead to a premature and irreversible contact between neighboring capillaries inside the hot zone, and describe mitigating strategies. We then use the model to explore the tolerance of the draw process to unavoidable structural variations within the preform, and to study feasibility and limiting phenomena of increasing the produced yield. We discover that the aspect ratio of the capillaries used in the preform has a direct effect on the uniformity of drawn fibers. Starting from high precision preforms the model predicts that it could be possible to draw 100 km of fiber from a single meter of preform.

Fabrication of tubular anti-resonant hollow core fibers: modelling, draw dynamics and process optimization.

We report a Nested Antiresonant Nodeless hollow-core Fiber (NANF) operating in the first antiresonant passband. The fiber has an ultrawide operational bandwidth of 700 nm, spanning the 1240–1940 nm wavelength range that includes the O-, S-, C- and L- telecoms bands. It has a minimum loss of 6.6  dB/km at 1550 nm, a loss ≤7  dB/km between 1465–1655 nm and ≤10  dB/km between 1297–1860 nm. By splicing together two structurally matched fibers and by adding single mode fiber (SMF) pigtails at both ends we have produced a ∼1 km long span. The concatenated and connectorized fiber has an insertion loss of approximately 10 dB all the way from 1300 nm to 1550 nm, and an effectively single mode behavior across the whole spectral range. To test its data transmission performance, we demonstrate 50-Gb/s OOK data transmission across the O-to L-bands without the need for optical amplification, with bit-error-rates (BERs) lower than the 7% forward error correction (FEC) limit. With the help of optical amplification, 100-Gb/s PAM4 transmission with BER lower than the KP4 FEC limit was also achieved in the O/E and C/L bands, with relatively uniform performance for all wavelengths. Our results confirm the excellent modal purity of the fabricated fiber across a broad spectral range, and highlight its potential for wideband, low nonlinearity, low latency data transmission.

/pdf/interband-short-reach-data-transmission-in-ultrawide-3ime8b276f.pdf

Interband Short Reach Data Transmission in Ultrawide Bandwidth Hollow Core Fiber

We report fabrication of a Nested Antiresonant Nodeless hollow-core Fibre (NANF) with a minimum loss of 1.3dB/km at 1450nm and a 65nm bandwidth below 1.5dB/km. The 0.5-km long fibre is effectively single moded and is shown capable of data transmission.

/pdf/record-low-loss-1-3db-km-data-transmitting-antiresonant-45xza8szw3.pdf

Record Low-Loss 1.3dB/km Data Transmitting Antiresonant Hollow Core Fibre

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Record Low-Loss 1.3dB/km Data Transmitting Antiresonant Hollow Core Fibre