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Optics

A photonic crystal fibre

Nature volume 396, pages 415–416 (1998)Cite this article

Ordinary optical fibres guide light by total internal reflection, which relies on the refractive index of the central core being greater than that of the surrounding cladding. Writing in Science, Jonathan Knight and colleagues1 describe a fundamentally different type of optical fibre, one that has a core with a lower refractive index than the cladding and so rules out the possibility of total internal reflection. Instead, light is guided by a mechanism which allows it to be piped through air.

In the early days of this field, it seemed that a large contrast in refractive index, such as that between air and a semiconductor (which has a refractive index, n, greater than 3), would be needed to achieve a photonic bandgap. But Birks et al.4 showed in theory that it is possible to create a two-dimensional photonic bandgap using the modest contrast in refractive index between air and silica (n = 1.5), providing that the light has a component travelling parallel to the direction of the rods.

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Figure 1: Cross-section of the photonic crystal fibre of Knight et al.1.

J. C. KNIGHT

Figure 2: Guided light.

J. C. KNIGHT

References

  1. Knight, J. C., Broeng, J., Birks, T. A. & Russell, P. StJ. Science 282, 1476–1478 (1998).

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  3. Cassagne, D., Jouanin, C., & BBertho, D. Phy. Rev. B 52, R2216–R2220 (1995).

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  4. Birks, T. A., Roberts, P. J., Russell, P. StJ., Atkin, D. M. & Shepherd, T. J. Electron. Lett. 31, 1941–1943 (1995).

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  5. Knight, J. C., Birks, T. A., Russell, P. StJ. & Atkin, D. M. Optics Lett. 21, 1547–1549 (1996).

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  6. Birks, T. A., Knight, J. C. & Russell, P. StJ. Optics Lett. 22, 961–963 (1997).

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  7. Knight, J. C., Birks, T. A., Cregan, R. F., Russell, P. StJ. & de Sandro, J. P. Electron. Lett. 34, 1347–1348 (1998).

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  1. the Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PJ, UK

    Pauline Rigby

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  1. Pauline Rigby
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Rigby, P. A photonic crystal fibre. Nature 396, 415–416 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/24739

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