Passive polarization filtering in negative curvature hollow-core fibers

A novel negative curvature hollow-core fiber (NCF) design is proposed capable of spectral and polarization filtering in the near-infrared region. The designed six-tube silica-based NCF contains nest elements in the form of suspended tubes radially anchored with a pole to the outer cladding in the vertical direction. In contrast, standard nested cladding elements without any suspension are used through the horizontal axis. This fiber configuration introduces an asymmetry in the core, which helps maintain the orthogonal X and Y polarization states in the fiber core. Pole anchors in vertically positioned tubes only give rise to the spectral filtering confinement loss profile for a vertically polarized state. Based on the geometrical optimization of the fiber, we achieved an improved birefringence on the order of 10-5 with filtered wavelength losses below 0.01 dB/km in the wavelength range of 1.4 µm to 1.7 µm. The operational bandwidth, polarization extinction ratio, filtered wavelengths, birefringence, and modulation depth loss can be tuned by optimizing the fiber parameters, including outer tube thickness, nest tube diameter, and pole dimensions. This proposed fiber design with selective transmission spectrums has untapped potential sensing capabilities in hollow-core negative curvature fibers. © 2023 SPIE. All rights reserved.