Open AccessLimits of light guidance in optical nanofibers
Author(s) -
Alexander Hartung,
Sven Brueckner,
Hartmut Bartelt
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.18.003754
Subject(s) - optics , materials science , optical fiber , nanofiber , transmission (telecommunications) , fiber , adiabatic process , mode volume , mode field diameter , graded index fiber , optical power , fiber optic sensor , physics , composite material , laser , telecommunications , computer science , thermodynamics
Reducing the waist of an optical fiber taper to diameters below 1 microm can be interpreted as creating an optical nanofiber with propagation properties different from conventional optical fibers. Although there is theoretically no cutoff of the fundamental mode expected, a steep decline in transmission can be observed when the fiber diameter is reduced below a specific threshold diameter. A simple estimation of this threshold diameter applicable to arbitrary taper profiles and based on the diameter variation allowing adiabatic transmission behavior is introduced and experimentally verified. In addition, this threshold behavior is supported by investigating the variation of the power distribution of the nanofiber fundamental mode as a function of the fiber diameter.