Composite material hollow core fibres for active photonics

光纤构成了惊人的20亿公里长的全球电信网络的物理层，目前以20马赫的速度分叉和扩展，即超过14000英尺/秒（来源：Corning.com）。它们也是激光器、光学放大器、陀螺仪、气体或环境传感器等设备的重要组成部分，也是本地连接设备和应用的一种手段。在过去的20年里，光纤技术最重要的进步之一是二氧化硅纤维的实现，这种纤维能够使用空气芯而不是玻璃来内部引导光。空芯光子带隙光纤（HC-PBGFs）在20世纪90年代末首次被证实。研究人员发现了非凡的物理学，证明这些光纤能够传输高光功率、超短脉冲和波长区域，包括标准光纤无法传输的中红外。在这些波长区域内可以定位许多重要的应用，特别是中红外光可用于检测各种化学，生物或物理物种（例如，识别表面上的爆炸物，环境中的有害空气污染物或患者呼吸中的生物标志物）。在过去的几年里，中空纤维领域取得了巨大的进步，特别是基于一种更简单的光学设计的光子带隙纤维的竞争技术的发展，这种技术更容易制造短波和长波传输，并且已经证明在光纤内传播的光和形成包层的二氧化硅之间的重叠大大减少。这种新型的空心芯光波导被称为抗谐振光纤。在本提案中，我们将展示一种基于复合材料空心芯光纤的创新波导平台，该平台不仅能够在宽波长范围内传输低衰减的光信号，而且还可以通过调制，放大或光产生和频率转换来主动管理和控制传输的信号。

Optical fibres form the physical layer of the remarkable >2 billion km long global telecommunications network, currently bifurcating and expanding at a rate >Mach 20, i.e. over 14000 ft/sec (source: Corning.com). They are also an essential component in devices such as lasers, optical amplifiers, gyroscopes, gas or environmental sensors, as well as a means to locally link devices and applications. One of the most significant advances in optical fibre technology over the last 20 years has been the realisation of silica fibres that are able to internally guide light using an air core rather than glass. Hollow Core Photonic Bandgap Fibres (HC-PBGFs) were first demonstrated in the late 1990s. Researchers uncovered remarkable physics, demonstrating that these fibres were able to transmit high optical powers, ultrashort pulses and wavelengths regions including the mid-IR which cannot be delivered through standard optical fibres. A number of important applications can be targeted within these wavelength regions and in particular mid-infrared light can be used to detect a wide range of chemical, biological or physical species (e.g. to identify explosives on surfaces, hazardous air pollutants in the environment, or biomarkers in the breath of a patient).The last few years have seen dramatic progress in the area of hollow fibres and in particular the development of a competing technology to photonic bandgap fibres based on a much simpler optical design, which are far easier to fabricate for both short and long wavelength transmission and have been demonstrated to have a greatly reduced overlap between the light travelling within the fibre and the silica forming the cladding. This novel form of hollow core optical waveguide is known as the anti-resonant fibre. In this proposal, we will demonstrate an innovative waveguide platform based on composite material hollow core fibres which are able not only to transmit optical signals with low attenuation over a broad wavelength range of operation, but can also actively manage and control the transmitted signals, through modulation, amplification or light generation and frequency conversion.