Gas flow modelling of hollow-core optical fibre evacuation through laser-machined channels in the cladding
Gas flow modelling of hollow-core optical fibre evacuation through laser-machined channels in the cladding
Hollow-core optical fibres (HCF), where light is guided in air-filled holes inside a silica fibre structure, have exceptional guidance properties such as low loss, low optical nonlinearity, and low noise-induced phase fluctuations. HCF nonlinearity and thermoconductive noise [1] could be significantly reduced further, if the fibres could be evacuated and guidance achieved in vacuum. However, because of the small core size, evacuating a HCF from the fibre ends is a very slow process, e.g. it takes over 60 h to reduce the average pressure in a 100 m long fibre with 20 μm core diameter from 1 bar to 0.1 bar (250 days for 1 km length). One way to accelerate fibre evacuation is by machining small holes through the cladding along the fibre length, e.g. through laser ablation [2]. Here we use fluid dynamics simulations to establish the required shape and size of the machined holes and their spacing to achieve given evacuation times.
Horak, Peter
520489b5-ccc7-4d29-bb30-c1e36436ea03
Srinivasan, Kavitha
03d944fc-cdc1-4077-930b-dabcf655155e
Slavík, Radan
2591726a-ecc0-4d1a-8e1d-4d0fd8da8f7d
Wheeler, Natalie V.
0fd34178-a77b-4c71-a3a6-86a1f634f1a0
15 August 2025
Horak, Peter
520489b5-ccc7-4d29-bb30-c1e36436ea03
Srinivasan, Kavitha
03d944fc-cdc1-4077-930b-dabcf655155e
Slavík, Radan
2591726a-ecc0-4d1a-8e1d-4d0fd8da8f7d
Wheeler, Natalie V.
0fd34178-a77b-4c71-a3a6-86a1f634f1a0
Horak, Peter, Srinivasan, Kavitha, Slavík, Radan and Wheeler, Natalie V.
(2025)
Gas flow modelling of hollow-core optical fibre evacuation through laser-machined channels in the cladding.
In 2025 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC).
IEEE.
1 pp
.
(doi:10.1109/CLEO/Europe-EQEC65582.2025.11109249).
Record type:
Conference or Workshop Item
(Paper)
Abstract
Hollow-core optical fibres (HCF), where light is guided in air-filled holes inside a silica fibre structure, have exceptional guidance properties such as low loss, low optical nonlinearity, and low noise-induced phase fluctuations. HCF nonlinearity and thermoconductive noise [1] could be significantly reduced further, if the fibres could be evacuated and guidance achieved in vacuum. However, because of the small core size, evacuating a HCF from the fibre ends is a very slow process, e.g. it takes over 60 h to reduce the average pressure in a 100 m long fibre with 20 μm core diameter from 1 bar to 0.1 bar (250 days for 1 km length). One way to accelerate fibre evacuation is by machining small holes through the cladding along the fibre length, e.g. through laser ablation [2]. Here we use fluid dynamics simulations to establish the required shape and size of the machined holes and their spacing to achieve given evacuation times.
Text
CLEO_HCF_evacuation_gas_flow3
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Submitted date: 27 January 2025
Accepted/In Press date: 27 March 2025
Published date: 15 August 2025
Venue - Dates:
CLEO/Europe-EQEC 2025, , Munich, Germany, 2025-06-23 - 2025-06-27
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 501950
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/501950
PURE UUID: 0b9d6bb5-8d28-410f-ad61-6c94bc2d68c0
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Date deposited: 12 Jun 2025 16:51
Last modified: 04 Nov 2025 05:01
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