Patents

A process of fabricating silica-based index-guided nonlinear microstructured optical fibers (MOF) with optimized suspension of innermost air holes is described where partial and complete sealing techniques are adopted to draw cane of hexagonal air hole structure. In both cases, maintaining proper differential pressure within the capillaries is of utmost importance to get desired microstructure. The effect of the suspension of the air holes in the innermost ring on the modal effective index is important to achieve higher nonlinearity. This is done by precision control of fiber drawing parameters such as temperature, drawing speed and evacuation pressure. The suspension factor of the innermost air holes surrounding the core, in addition to the air-filling fraction, decides the extent of enhancement of nonlinearity which is essential for generating a broad supercontinuum (SC) spectrum with high average power. The invention helps in producing long-length MOF, which will be required for developing an SC source for medical applications.