Abstract

The flexible delivery of light is vital for many applications, including laser power delivery, communication, and optical gyroscopes. Traditionally this has been achieved via all-glass, solid-core, single-mode fibers (SC-SMFs). While this approach has proved to be excellent, the solid-glass core can be limiting in terms of dispersion, non-linearity, latency, power-handling, and the range of wavelengths that can be guided. Hollow-core fibers (HCFs), where the light is guided in a gas (or vacuum) filled core, offer record low loss in the visible-NIR [1,2], and remove many of these limitations, opening up exciting new possibilities. While nested designs offer a clear path to a new generation of telecoms and power delivery fibers [1,3] the nested elements make their fabrication (manufacture) more complex compared to older, simpler single-cladding ring (“tubular”) fiber designs. Thus, there are still applications where these tubular fibers may be more appropriate. One such example is the guidance of UV-visible (350-800 nm) light, traditionally accomplished using SC-SMFs that offer ≤100 dB/km loss, a figure achievable with a tubular design.

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