Highly-nonlinear photonic crystal fibre with high figure of merit around 1 µm

The fabrication and characterisation of a highly-nonlinear germanium doped silica based photonic crystal fibre are reported. It exhibits high Kerr and Raman nonlinear coefficients as high as 69.3 W−1.km−1 and 94 W−1.km−1, respectively, with a low attenuation of 17.5 dB/km around 1 µm, which leads to a record figure of merit at this wavelength.