A six-strut suspended core fiber for cylindrical vector mode generation and propagation

Area of Science:

• Optics and Photonics
• Materials Science
• Fiber Optics

Background:

• Suspended core fibers (SCFs) are crucial for advanced optical applications.
• Generating and controlling cylindrical vector (CV) modes is essential for various photonic technologies.
• F2 glass offers unique properties for optical fiber fabrication.

Purpose of the Study:

• To fabricate and simulate a novel six-strut SCF using F2 glass.
• To investigate the generation and propagation of CV modes in the SCF.
• To evaluate the purity and potential of the SCF for selectable CV mode generation.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of a six-strut SCF with a 2.5 μm effective core diameter using F2 glass.
• Numerical simulations to analyze effective refractive index differences for higher-order CV modes.
• Experimental generation and characterization of TE01 and TM01 modes.

Main Results:

• The SCF exhibits a large effective refractive index difference (10^-4-10^-3) between higher-order CV modes.
• Experimentally achieved high purity for TE01 (82%) and TM01 (85%) modes.
• Demonstrated selectable generation and propagation of CV modes within the designed SCF.

Conclusions:

• The fabricated F2 glass SCF is a viable platform for CV mode generation.
• The SCF shows potential for applications requiring controlled propagation of specific CV modes.
• This research contributes to the development of advanced optical waveguides for tailored light manipulation.