Application of an ARROW model for designing tunable photonic devices

Microstructured optical fibers with the low refractive index core surrounded by high refractive index cylindrical inclusions reveal several intriguing properties. Firstly, there is a guiding regime in which the fibers' confinement loss is strongly dependent of wavelength. In this regime, the positions of loss maxima are largely determined by the individual properties of high index inclusions rather than their position and number. Secondly, the spectra of these fibers can be tuned by changing the refractive index of the inclusions. In this paper we review transmission properties of these fibers and discuss their potential applications for designing tunable photonic devices.