Pulse propagation in air-silica microstructure optical fibers

Summary form only given. Recently microstructure optical fibers with large air-fill fractions were demonstrated with zero group-velocity dispersion at /spl sim/770 nm. Experimentally these fibers appear to be single-mode over long propagation lengths at wavelengths ranging from 500 nm to 1550 nm. As a result of the unusual dispersion characteristics and mode properties of the microstructure fiber, a number of novel nonlinear effects at /spl sim/800 nm are now possible. Furthermore, microstructure fibers have potential applications in areas such as high bit-rate communications, dispersion compensation, and ultrashort pulse generation for wavelengths ranging from 700 nm to 1200 nm. In this paper we analyze the spatial mode properties of microstructure fibers and examine the propagation of femtosecond pulses with peak powers ranging up to 300 watts through fiber lengths ranging from 1 to 50 meters.