Post-Processing of Hollow-Core Photonic Crystal Fibers: Selective Hole Inflation and Tapering

Abstract

We report on post-processing experiments using hollow-core photonic crystal fibers. We show that, by simultaneously heating and internally pressurizing the fibers, we can taper or modify the sizes of the fiber microstructure features. Particularly, by employing a technique for selectively obstructing the microstructure elements, we could attain tailored modifications of the fiber architecture, namely the inflation of selected cladding tubes, which can be of interest for the development of new devices and sensors.