Potentialities of glass air-clad micro- and nanofibers for nonlinear optics

Micro- and nanofibers constitute an attractive platform for testing nonlinear devices with millimeter size in a simple and flexible fashion, with potential applications in ultra-fast all-optical communications. In this article, we present challenges that must be addressed and targets that can be reached using such a platform. We describe a tunable laser source capable of delivering pulses with a kilowatt peak power and a sub-0.1-nm linewidth that is specially designed for the study of resonant devices such as the nonlinear loop resonator. Experimental and simulation results are presented for silica microfiber based nonlinear devices. The prospect of developing hybrid devices combining highly nonlinear glasses and silica fibers is supported by numerical simulations of the coupling between two nanofibers of largely different optical indices.