Ring-core fiber with negative curvature structure supporting orbital angular momentum modes

Abstract

Compared to glass walls with a positive curvature, those with a negative curvature have been proven to have stronger confinement of light. Therefore, we change the multi-layered air holes in a photonic crystal fiber into several negative curvature tubes. As a result, the confinement medium is shifted from a low-index cladding material into a special structure. The theoretical analysis shows that each vector eigenmode has a corresponding threshold value for the outer tube thickness. It means that we can confine the target modes and filter the unnecessary modes by shifting the outer tube thickness. After substantial investigation on this fiber, we obtain the appropriate values for each structural parameter and then fabricate this negative curvature ring-core fiber under the guidance of the simulation results. Firstly, we draw the central cane under vacuum condition, then stack the cane and six capillaries to form the preform, and finally draw the ring-core fiber by using vacuumization method. The fiber test experiment indicates that the fiber length should be at least 15 m similar to 20 m to form the donut facula, and the tested losses of OAM(+1,1), OAM (+2,1), OAM(+3,1), and OAM(+4,1) are 0.30 dB/m, 0.36 dB/m, 0.37 dB/m, and 0.42 dB/m, respectively.