Ultralow loss hollow-core negative curvature fibers with nested elliptical antiresonance tubes

Opt Express. 2022 May 9;30(10):17437-17450. doi: 10.1364/OE.454263.

Abstract

Hollow-core negative curvature fibers can confine light within air core and have small nonlinearity and dispersion and high damage threshold, thereby attracting a great deal of interest in the field of hollow core fibers. However, reducing the loss of hollow-core negative curvature fibers is a serious problem. On this basis, three new types of fibers with different nested tube structures are proposed in the near-infrared spectral regions and compared in detail with a previously proposed hollow-core negative curvature fiber. We used finite-element method for numerical simulation studies of their transmission loss, bending loss, and single-mode performance, and then the transmission performance of various structural fibers is compared. We found that the nested elliptical antiresonant fiber 1 has better transmission performance than that of the three other types of fibers in the spectral range of 0.72-1.6 µm. Results show that the confinement loss of the LP01 mode is as low as 6.45×10-6 dB/km at λ = 1.06 µm. To the best of our knowledge, the record low level of confinement loss of hollow-core antiresonant fibers with nested tube structures was created. In addition, the nested elliptical antiresonant fiber 1 has better bending resistance, and its bending loss was below 2.99×10-2 dB/km at 5 cm bending radius.