High nonlinearity glass photonic crystal nanowires

Soft glass photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) have been fabricated for the first time with the stack and draw process. The same SF6-PCFs have been successfully tapered using a brush flame method. The transverse structure of the PCF does not collapse in the tapering process and core dimensions of the fabricated photonic nanowire has been measured to be 400 nm in diameter. Supercontinuum radiation in excess of one octave has been generated in both the untapered and tapered PCF and, in the latter case, pulse energy thresholds of 65 picojoules at a pump wavelength of 1550 nm were observed.