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US 6,968,107 B2Granted
Holey optical fibres
AssigneeUniversity of Southampton
InventorsWalter Belardi, Kentaro Furusawa, Tanya Monro, David Richardson, Paul Turner
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AssigneeUniversity of Southampton
InventorsWalter Belardi, Kentaro Furusawa, Tanya Monro, David Richardson, Paul Turner
Estimating the term…
An optical fiber structure having a holey fiber arranged in a holey outer support structure made up of holey tubes encased in a thin walled outer jacket. The holey fiber may have a solid core surrounded by a holey cladding having a plurality of rings of holes. With the invention it is possible to produce robust, coated and jacketed fibers with microstructured core features of micrometer size relatively easily using existing fiber fabrication technology. This improvement is a result of the outer holey structure which reduces the thermal mass of the supporting structure and makes it possible to reliably and controllably retain small hole features during the fiber fabrication process.
An optical fiber structure comprising a holey fiber arranged in a holey outer support structure, wherein the holey fiber is contained by a tubular structure and wherein the holey outer support structure comprises a plurality of tubular structures arranged around the tubular structure.
An optical fiber preform comprising:
A method of making a holey fiber preform comprising:
A method of guiding light along an optical fiber structure, the method comprising using an optical fiber structure comprising a holey fiber arranged in a holey outer support structure, wherein the holey fiber is contained by a tubular structure and wherein the holey outer support structure comprises a plurality of tubular structures arranged around the tubular structure, and arranging the light to have a mode field extending in a cross-sectional plane through the holey fiber, wherein the mode field is confined in the holey fiber so as to have less than one of 10%, 5%, 2%, 1%, 0.5% and 0.01% of its power extending beyond the holey fiber into the holey outer support structure.
An optical fiber structure comprising a holey fiber arranged in a holey outer support structure, wherein the holey fiber is surrounded by a first tubular structure and wherein the holey outer support structure comprises a plurality of further tubular structures arranged around the first tubular structure.
A method of guiding light along an optical fiber structure, the method comprising using an optical fiber structure comprising a holey fiber arranged in a holey outer support structure, wherein the holey fiber is surrounded by a first tubular structure and wherein the holey outer support structure comprises a plurality of further tubular structures arranged around the first tubular structure, and arranging the light to have a mode field extending in a cross-sectional plane through the holey fiber, wherein the mode field is confined in the holey fiber so as to have less than one of 10%, 5%, 2%, 1%, 0.5% and 0.01% of its power extending beyond the holey fiber into the holey outer support structure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.