Preparation, characterization and application aspects of functionalized photonic crystal fibers

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Hartmut Bartelt
• Subject Area: Condensed Matter Physics
• Term: from 2001 to 2008
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5318752

Optical fibers are a backbone of modern optoelectronics and telecommunication systems. Thus, their controlled engineering with respect to the optical properties is a primary goal of contemporary research and technology. A novel type of fibers is the so-called photonic crystal fiber (PCF). PCF is a fiber with more or less regularly arranged axial air holes where the very core can be made either from air (photonic band gap fiber) or from host material (holey fiber). These fibers may exhibit various peculiarities attractive for applications. The aim of the project is to design and reproducibly fabricate both types of PCFs with minimized losses, controllable modal shape and spectral dependence, dispersion and polarization properties. To this end the dependence of the optical properties on both the PCF geometry and the material composition will be studied in detail. Thus, fabrication technologies for PCFs with differently doped materials and for different geometrical structures will be investigated. Theoretical modeling and experimentally achieved results will be compared and the design will be correspondingly optimized. Possible applications as the excitation of large area modes, nonradial symmetric and polarization dependent mode destributions as well as spectrally broadband single mode transmission and mode distributions for structured illumination will be investigated.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1113: Photonic Crystals
• Participating Person: Dr. Jens Kobelke