Photonic Crystal Fibers

Introduction
In 1990s researchers developed a new optical fiber structure.
Initially it was called Holey fiber and later became popular
as Photonic Crystal Fiber (PCF) or Microstructure Fiber.
These fibers have better optical properties of light like
dispersion,nonlinearity and biffrengence effects in
conventional optical fibers.

Structure of PCF
The major difference between the conventional optical
fiber and PFC is the cladding.
In some cases the cores regions of a PCF contain air
holes which run along the length of the fiber.
The sizes of the holes and hole to hole spacing(known
as pitch) in the microstructure and the refractive index
of its constituent material determine the light guiding
characteristics of PCFs.

Types of PCF
1. Index Guiding PCF
2. Photonic Bandgap Fiber

1.Index-Guiding PCF

Cross sectional end vies of two basic structures of index guided photonic crystal
fibers

 The fibers has a solid core that is surround by cladding region, which
contains air holes that run along the length of the fiber and can have
variety of different shapes, sizes and distribution patterns.
The holes have diameter of d and a hole to hole spacing or pitch .
The value of the hole diameter and the pitch are important for
determining the operational characteristics of an index guiding PCF.
For a diameter to pitch ratio d/ < 0.4 the fiber exhibits single mode
properties over wide range of wavlengths (from 300 to 2000nm).
Though the core and cladding are made of same material,the air hole
lower the refractive index of refraction in the cladding region(since
n=1 for air and 1.45 for Silica).
Due to this large difference in refravtive indices within small
dimensions cause refractive index of cladding depend strongly on

2.Photonic Bandgap Fiber (PBG)

The Photonic Bandgap (PBG) fibers have a different light
guiding mechanism which is base on two dimensional
photonic bandgap in the transverse plane of the cladding
region.
This photonic bandgap results from a periodic arrangement
of air holes in the cladding, wavlengths within this bandgap
are prevented from travelling in the cladding and thus are
confined to travel in a region where the index is lower than
the surrounding material.
In traditional PBG the hollow core creates a region in which
the light can propagate.

Cross sectional end view of one type of photonic bandgap fiber.

The hollow core of the fiber is formed by removing seven capillaries

from the central part of the structure.
Such structure is called air guiding or hollow core PBG and it allows 98
% propagation of light entered.
PBG have high damge threshold and low non linearity,thus they can be
used for pulse compression .
Also optical sensors or variable power power attenuators can be
constructed by filling PBG fibers with gases or liquids.

Cross-sectional image of a
microstructure fiber with
a two-dimensionally periodic cladding
consisting of an

Thank You