Nanofiber design for dispersion management

Abstract

Recent researches have revealed that the multi-layer subwavelength-diameter fiber (SDF) provides promising solutions in dispersion management by controlling waveguide dispersion through proper tailoring of the fiber structure. These SDFs are potentially feasible for a great variety of applications including optical communication, atom trapping, phased array radar, optical sensing and non-linear optics. However, the dependence of waveguide dispersion on the configuration of the SDF has not been adequately studied, which results in the lack of solid theoretical models for practical experiment and fabrication of SDF. Therefore, we construct analytical models for air-cladding and 3-layer SDF based on the exact solutions for propagation modes of light travelling in the respective guiding media. By utilizing the models built, detailed investigations on the dispersion properties of the SDF are also conducted. The air-cladding SDF model constructed in this project successfully reproduces the existing published results that the air-cladding SDF could achieve waveguide dispersion up to ns/(nm∙km) scale, compared to that of the conventional weakly guided fiber in ps/(nm∙km) scale. Moreover, the 3-layer SDF model developed in this project effectively demonstrates feasibility of managing dispersion by shifting the dispersion curves properly. A design of the 3-layer SDF, which has -3053 ps/(nm∙km) dispersion at 1550nm wavelength communication window, is proposed as an instance of accomplished dispersion management by optimized adjustment of the configuration of multi-layer SDF.