Hybrid metal-dielectric THz fibers: Design and perspectives

We present the state of development of the practical low-loss and low-dispersion terahertz fibers. We investigate the optical characteristics of two-wire plasmonic waveguides, porous, and foam-based dielectric waveguides and highlight their advantages and disadvantages. Our research group demonstrated a hybrid metal-dielectric fiber resulting from fusion of the two aforementioned types of waveguides. Hybrid fibers offer a broad design space to customize dispersion characteristics. Lastly, we present various examples of fabrication and optical characterization of the proposed fibers.