Solid microstructured optical fiber

An all-solid microstructured fiber based on two thermallymatched silicate glasses with a high index contrast has been fabricated for the first time. The microstructured cladding was shown to be essentially unchanged during fiber drawing. Fiber attenuation was measured as 5dB/m at 1.55m by the cutback method. High nonlinearity 230 W-1km-1 has been predicted and experimentally demonstrated in this fiber at 1.55m. In addition, modeling predicts that near-zero dispersion can be achieved between 1.5-1.6m in this class of high nonlinear fiber.