Recent breakthroughs in hollow core fiber technology
Recent breakthroughs in hollow core fiber technology
Flexible dielectric optical fibers guiding light in a hollow core were conceptually imagined at the end of the 19th century, but first demonstrated in practice about 2 decades ago. Since then, many geometric variants have been described and implemented, and theoretical models developed and finessed. Despite this, for a fairly long time the key metric by which their performance was judged - attenuation - has remained quite considerably higher than standard all-glass fibers. In this paper, we describe the recent breakthroughs in hollow core fiber technology. We trace the story of this breakthrough from the theoretical exploration of a new design of hollow core fiber, through early implementations, up to the staggering results achieved over the last 18 months. The progress reported concerns not only a reduction in the fiber attenuation level, but also a considerable improvement in modal quality of the fibers, which have led to excellent data transmission performance. These fabricated fibers tell a story of improvements in all aspects of the technology, including preform preparation, performance modelling, fiber draw dynamics and coatings.
Hollow core fiber, NANF, TELECOMS
Jasion, Gregory T.
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Bradley, Thomas
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Sakr, Hesham
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Hayes, John R.
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Chen, Yong
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Taranta, Austin
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Mulvad, Hans Christian
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Davidson, Ian A.
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Wheeler, Natalie V.
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Numkam Fokoua, Eric
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Wang, Wei
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Richardson, David J.
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Poletti, Francesco
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6 February 2020
Jasion, Gregory T.
16cfff1d-d178-41d1-a092-56e6239726b8
Bradley, Thomas
d4cce4f3-bb69-4e14-baee-cd6a88e38101
Sakr, Hesham
5ec2d89f-ab6e-4690-bbfd-b95fa4cb792d
Hayes, John R.
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Chen, Yong
0bfb3083-4cd2-4463-a7a4-f48c4158b15a
Taranta, Austin
bc2e834f-0d85-44a1-a874-8150df1f73d9
Mulvad, Hans Christian
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Davidson, Ian A.
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Wheeler, Natalie V.
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Numkam Fokoua, Eric
6d9f7e50-dc3b-440a-a0b9-f4a08dd02ccd
Wang, Wei
94191ea2-eaa4-4003-b464-73ef70b5e18c
Richardson, David J.
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Poletti, Francesco
9adcef99-5558-4644-96d7-ce24b5897491
Jasion, Gregory T., Bradley, Thomas, Sakr, Hesham, Hayes, John R., Chen, Yong, Taranta, Austin, Mulvad, Hans Christian, Davidson, Ian A., Wheeler, Natalie V., Numkam Fokoua, Eric, Wang, Wei, Richardson, David J. and Poletti, Francesco
(2020)
Recent breakthroughs in hollow core fiber technology.
Li, Guifang and Zhou, Xiang
(eds.)
In Next-Generation Optical Communication: Components, Sub-Systems, and Systems IX.
vol. 11309,
SPIE..
(doi:10.1117/12.2548585).
Record type:
Conference or Workshop Item
(Paper)
Abstract
Flexible dielectric optical fibers guiding light in a hollow core were conceptually imagined at the end of the 19th century, but first demonstrated in practice about 2 decades ago. Since then, many geometric variants have been described and implemented, and theoretical models developed and finessed. Despite this, for a fairly long time the key metric by which their performance was judged - attenuation - has remained quite considerably higher than standard all-glass fibers. In this paper, we describe the recent breakthroughs in hollow core fiber technology. We trace the story of this breakthrough from the theoretical exploration of a new design of hollow core fiber, through early implementations, up to the staggering results achieved over the last 18 months. The progress reported concerns not only a reduction in the fiber attenuation level, but also a considerable improvement in modal quality of the fibers, which have led to excellent data transmission performance. These fabricated fibers tell a story of improvements in all aspects of the technology, including preform preparation, performance modelling, fiber draw dynamics and coatings.
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More information
e-pub ahead of print date: 31 January 2020
Published date: 6 February 2020
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank: Lucy Hooper, Marcelo Alonso, Arsalan Saljoghei and Mike Fake for their assistance; and we gratefully acknowledge the support of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and ERC (grant agreement no. 682724).
Venue - Dates:
Next-Generation Optical Communication: Components, Sub-Systems, and Systems IX 2020, , San Francisco, United States, 2020-02-05 - 2020-02-06
Keywords:
Hollow core fiber, NANF, TELECOMS
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 457936
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/457936
ISSN: 0277-786X
PURE UUID: 5486c923-b1d0-4ad8-84db-88337059a1ed
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 22 Jun 2022 16:54
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 03:44
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Contributors
Author:
Thomas Bradley
Author:
John R. Hayes
Author:
Eric Numkam Fokoua
Author:
Wei Wang
Editor:
Guifang Li
Editor:
Xiang Zhou
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