Broadband robustly single-mode hollow-core PCF by resonant filtering of higher-order modes

Abstract

We report a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber that is engineered so as to strongly suppress higher-order modes, i.e., to provide robust LP₀₁ single-mode guidance in all the wavelength ranges where the fiber guides with low loss. Encircling the core is a single ring of nontouching glass elements whose modes are tailored to ensure resonant phase-matched coupling to higher-order core modes. We show that the resulting modal filtering effect depends on only one dimensionless shape parameter, akin to the well-known d/Λ parameter for endlessly single-mode solid-core PCF. Fabricated fibers show higher-order mode losses some ∼100 higher than for the LP₀₁ mode, with LP₀₁ losses <0.2 dB/m in the near-infrared and a spectral flatness ∼1 dB over a >110 THz bandwidth.