Sakr Hesham, Chen Yong, Jasion Gregory T, Bradley Thomas D, Hayes John R, Mulvad Hans Christian H, Davidson Ian A, Numkam Fokoua Eric, Poletti Francesco
Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, Highfield Campus, SO17 1BJ, Southampton, UK.
Lumenisity Ltd, Unit 7, The Quadrangle, Southampton, SO51 9DL, UK.
Nat Commun. 2020 Nov 27;11(1):6030. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-19910-7.
For over 50 years, pure or doped silica glass optical fibres have been an unrivalled platform for the transmission of laser light and optical data at wavelengths from the visible to the near infra-red. Rayleigh scattering, arising from frozen-in density fluctuations in the glass, fundamentally limits the minimum attenuation of these fibres and hence restricts their application, especially at shorter wavelengths. Guiding light in hollow (air) core fibres offers a potential way to overcome this insurmountable attenuation limit set by the glass's scattering, but requires reduction of all the other loss-inducing mechanisms. Here we report hollow core fibres, of nested antiresonant design, with losses comparable or lower than achievable in solid glass fibres around technologically relevant wavelengths of 660, 850, and 1060 nm. Their lower than Rayleigh scattering loss in an air-guiding structure offers the potential for advances in quantum communications, data transmission, and laser power delivery.
五十多年来，纯二氧化硅玻璃光纤或掺杂二氧化硅玻璃光纤一直是在从可见光到近红外波长范围内传输激光和光学数据的无与伦比的平台。玻璃中固化的密度波动引起的瑞利散射从根本上限制了这些光纤的最小衰减，因此限制了它们的应用，尤其是在较短波长下。在空心（空气）芯光纤中引导光提供了一种潜在的方法来克服由玻璃散射设定的这个不可逾越的衰减极限，但需要减少所有其他导致损耗的机制。在此，我们报告了具有嵌套反谐振设计的空心芯光纤，其在技术相关波长660、850和1060nm附近的损耗与实心玻璃光纤相当或更低。它们在空气引导结构中的损耗低于瑞利散射损耗，这为量子通信、数据传输和激光功率传输的进步提供了潜力。
