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Photonic crystal fibres set new benchmarks

I wasn’t at CLEO for the last day, but optics.org publisher Claire Bedrock was. There was one particular talk that caught her eye:

“For those who stayed for the final day of the conference there was a fascinating day-long symposium on hollow-core photonic crystal fibre. The final talk of the day created a particular buzz, when Brian Mangan of Crystal Fibre of Denmark presented some new results obtained in a collaboration with the Technical University of Denmark.

First up was a fibre with an antiresonant core, which achieved an attenuation of 9.3 dB/km ‐ a new record for this type of seven-cell fibre). Then Mangan presented results for two high-birefringence fibres, one with an air-fill factor of 91% and the other with a lower air-fill factor of 85%. The latter produced an impressive attenuation of 19 dB/km.

When questioned at the end about the future of photonic crystal fibre. Mangan replied that ‘there are loads of talented guys in the field and I’m sure we’ll find a solution to the limitations’. This seemed an appropriate note on which to end not only a fascinating symposium but an exciting conference.”

Posted by Susan Curtis on May 10, 2008 7:44 PM | Permalink