BATH, U.K. -- BlazePhotonics have further extended their wide range of hollow core photonic crystal fiber (PCF) products even further with the addition of fibers with larger core sizes which offer lower loss and increased power handling capability.

The core size is determined during manufacture by the number of rods removed to create the hollow core. As the structure is hexagonal this results in core sizes of either 7 or 19 cells. These core sizes are optimised for different application requirements.

While the smaller, 7 cell core PCFs have larger continuous operating bandwidth and a smaller number of core modes and parasitic surface modes, the 19 cell large core PCFs have a larger mode field diameter and a more Gaussian-like fundamental mode, resulting in increased coupling efficiency to high-mode quality lasers and conventional fibers. They also display lower attenuation, lower dispersion and dispersion slope, lower optical non-linearity and higher breakdown power threshold.

BlazePhotonics' CEO Simon Haslam said "These new large core photonic crystal fibers are an example of our ability to continually improve and control the optical characteristics of our fibers. We believe the high quality of our fibers demonstrates our leading position in the field."

Hollow core or photonic bandgap fibers guide light in a hollow core, surrounded by a cladding formed by a periodic arrangement of air holes in fused silica glass. Since only a small fraction of the light propagates in glass, the effect of material nonlinearity is significantly reduced and these fibers do not suffer from the same limitations on loss as conventional fibres made from solid material alone. Furthermore, unlike conventional fibers, in which material dispersion plays an important role, the dispersion properties of hollow core fibers are dominated by waveguide dispersion, and it becomes possible to achieve near-zero dispersion at any wavelength, including those in the visible spectrum.

While hollow core Photonic Crystal Fibers hold the promise to become the next generation ultra-low loss transmission fibers, they already find important applications in power delivery, pulse shaping and compression, sensors and nonlinear optics.

Fibers are now available with 7 cell and 19 cell cores at a range of wavelengths covering the entire spectrum from the IR to the visible. These fibers are protected by a single layer acrylate coating and can be stripped and cleaved like ordinary solid fibers.

BlazePhotonics Ltd.