Terminated hollow-core fiber with suspended fiber-end

A terminated hollow-core optical fiber, comprising:

• an outer capillary having an end-face:
• a hollow-core optical fiber having a fiber-end located inside the outer capillary a first non-zero distance away from the end-face of the outer capillary;
• a fiber jacket disposed on an outer surface of the hollow-core optical fiber:
• an inner capillary disposed between an outer surface of the fiber jacket and an inner surface of the outer capillary, to hold the hollow-core optical fiber via the fiber jacket such that the fiber-end protrudes from the inner capillary and is suspended inside the outer capillary;
• and
• an endcap disposed adjacent the end-face of the outer capillary, to transmit light toward or away from the fiber-end;
• wherein respective ends of the inner and outer capillaries, farthest from the endcap, are adhered to each other.

A method for terminating a hollow-core optical fiber, comprising steps of:

• sliding a housing, an inner capillary, and an outer capillary onto a hollow-core optical fiber protected by a fiber jacket;
• stripping the fiber jacket off a fiber-end of the hollow-core optical fiber;
• cleaving the stripped fiber-end;
• positioning the inner and outer capillaries such that (a) the cleaved fiber-end is located inside the outer capillary a non-zero distance from an end-face of the outer capillary and (b) the inner capillary functions as a radial spacer between the fiber jacket and the outer capillary, with the fiber-end being suspended from the inner capillary;
• positioning the outer capillary in a channel of the housing;
• and
• after the positioning steps, securing an endcap in an opening of the channel of the housing, to situate the endcap adjacent the outer capillary and seal the channel.