Improved cladding-structured “ARC” large-mode-area fiber

This study presents a novel design for a large-mode-area (LMA) optical fiber featuring eight segmented, petal-shaped grooves and bending compensation, based on an "ARC" fiber structure. The proposed fiber incorporates a negative refractive index ring within the cladding to provide bending compensation, in combination with low-refractive-index segmented grooves and a high-refractive-index parabolic core profile. The fiber demonstrates strong bend resistance, enabling effective single-mode (SM) transmission at a compact bending radius of 13.5 cm, with a mode field area as large as 1880.821 μm2. The inclined cladding design for bending compensation effectively enlarges the mode area, while the eight segmented grooves reduce the cladding refractive index, thereby increasing the refractive index contrast between the core and cladding and suppressing fundamental mode (FM) loss.The proposed fiber exhibits excellent bending performance and is well-suited for use in compact, high-power laser systems.