Fabrication and study of microstructured optical fibers with elliptical holes

Abstract

We report the fabrication of what are believed to be the first microstructured optical fibers with uniformly oriented elliptical holes. A high degree of hole ellipticity is achieved with a simple technique that relies on hole deformation during fiber draw. Both form and stress-optic birefringence are characterized over a broad wavelength range. These measurements are in excellent agreement with numerical modeling and demonstrate a birefringence as high as 1.0 x 10(-4) at a wavelength of 850 nm.