Soliton propagation at short wavelengths in photonic crystal fibres

Summary form only given. A photonic crystal fibre (PCF) is an optical fibre with a more-or-less regular array of microscopic air holes running along its length. Proposed in 1992, the first working example was made in 1996. In the paper we consider a PCF in which light is guided at a missing (filled in) air hole in an array of holes. This high index defect guides by modified total internal reflection. The unusual dispersion properties of the cladding with its array of air holes impart novel dispersion to the guided mode. In particular it is possible to obtain zero group velocity dispersion in the visible/near IR in a single mode PCF, with anomalous GVD at longer wavelengths. This is unattainable in conventional fibres where the zero GVD point must be beyond 1.27 /spl mu/m. Such modified dispersion in PCF brings the exciting possibility of generating solitons at wavelengths within the tuning range of Ti:sapphire in the very near infrared. A similar fibre has also been shown experimentally to generate white-light supercontinua over the visible and infrared.