Single-polarization Hybrid Hollow-core Anti-resonant Fiber Designs at 2 $\mu$m

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel hybrid hollow-core anti-resonant fiber design at 2 μm that achieves high birefringence, single-polarization operation, and low loss, with potential applications in polarization filtering.

Contribution

The paper presents a new hybrid silica/chalcogenide cladding design for HC-ARFs that enhances polarization suppression and maintains low loss at 2 μm, advancing fiber performance.

Findings

Strong suppression of x-polarization with low loss for y-polarization

High birefringence and polarization-extinction ratio achieved

Low bend-loss allows for compact coiling applications

Abstract

In this letter, to the best of our knowledge, a new type of hollow-core anti-resonant fiber (HC-ARF) design using hybrid silica/chalcogenide cladding is presented for single-polarization, high-birefringence, and endlessly single-mode operation at 2 $\mu$m wavelength. We show that the inclusion of a chalcogenide layer in the cladding allows strong suppression of $x$-polarization, while maintaining low propagation loss and single-mode propagation for $y$-polarization. The optimized HC-ARF design includes a combination of low propagation loss, high-birefringence, and polarization-extinction ratio (PER) or loss ratio of 0.02 dB/m, 1.2$\times$10$^{-4}$, >550 respectively, while the loss of the $x$-polarization is >20 dB/m. The proposed fiber may also be coiled to small bend radii while maintaining low bend-loss of $\approx$ 0.01--0.1 dB/m, and can potentially be used as polarization filter based on the different gap separations and bend conditions.