Open AccessThe Airy fiber: an optical fiber that guides light diffracted by a circular aperture
Author(s) -
Itandehui Gris-Sánchez,
D. Van Ras,
T. A. Birks
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
optica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.074
H-Index - 107
ISSN - 2334-2536
DOI - 10.1364/optica.3.000270
Subject(s) - optics , fiber , optical fiber , aperture (computer memory) , physics , materials science , acoustics , composite material
In theory, no more than 80% of the light diffracted by a circular aperture can be directly coupled into one mode of an ordinary optical fiber. To improve coupling efficiency, and illustrate an inverse method for designing optical fibers with a desired mode shape, we have made an optical fiber that guides an approximate Airy pattern as one of its modes. The fiber’s attenuation was 11.0 dB/km at a 1550 nm wavelength, the match between the fiber’s mode and the ideal infinite Airy pattern was 93.7%, and the far field resembled a top-hat beam. The guidance mechanism has strong similarities to photonic bandgap guidance