The many colors of photonic bandgap fibers: theory, materials, processing, characterization and applications

Summary form only given. A fabrication method is introduced which enables the combination of two solid materials having dissimilar indices of refraction in a single fiber structure. This method involves the selection of optically distinct yet thermally compatible materials, a novel preform fabrication technique and fiber draw, and has led to the fabrication of the first optical transmission fiber that has lower losses than the materials that it is made of. The characterization effort of these novel structures is presented in light of the extensive theory design and modeling work that has been conducted at MIT and others. In particular the focus of this work is on direct reflection measurements of cylindrical bandgap fibers that corroborate the magnitude and position of the bandgaps as well as more recent results pertaining to fibers for high-power laser transmission. Other applications are also discussed.