Back-Compatibility of Hollow Core Fibers with Single-Mode Fiber Infrastructure

Hollow core optical fibers (HCFs) have many unique properties when compared to solid glass-core fibers, such as standard silica glass-made single-mode fibers, SMFs. Although we can expect that future fiber components and subsystems for HCF-based systems would be available with HCF pigtails (i.e., directly connected to HCFs), it is important to ensure the “back-compatibility” with the existing SMF-based systems. Such compatibility is also important in situations that need a combination of both technologies, such as HCF systems assisted with erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs).

A connection between HCF and SMF has four key performance metrics: coupling loss, coupling modal purity, (parasitic) back-reflection, and stability. In this webinar, we will first discuss how some unique features of HCF need to be considered in the evaluation of these four parameters. Following this, we will review methods used to evaluate these parameters. Subsequently, we will discuss key approaches to SMF-HCF connection and review the state-of-the-art. We will finish by reviewing achievable performance.

Subject Matter Level: Intermediate - Assumes basic knowledge of the topic

What You Will Learn:
• Key challenges when connecting hollow-core and glass-core fibers
• Key approaches to connecting hollow core and glass-core fibers
• Achievable performance of such a connection

Who Should Attend:
• Scientists with an interest in hollow core fiber applications
• Optical engineers
• Students learning about optical fiber infrastructure

About the Presenter: Radan Slavík from the University of Southampton

Radan Slavík (Fellow of IEEE and Optica) received the PhD. degree in optics from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague, Czechia, in 2000, and the DSc. degree from the Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czechia, in 2009. Subsequently, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Centre d'Optique, Photonique et Laser, Université Laval, Quebec City, QC, Canada. In 2004, he established a research group focusing on optical signal processing using fibre gratings at the Institute of Photonics and Electronics, Czech Academy of Sciences.

Since 2009, he has been with the Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton, U.K. His Advanced Fibre Applications research group covers topics of optical and optics-assisted signal processing, the study of environmental sensitivity of optical fibres, and hollow-core optical fibres and their applications in telecommunications, metrology, quantum, and sensing.