Transverse propagation of ultraviolet and infrared femtosecond laser pulses in photonic crystal fibers

Abstract

We studied the influence of the angular orientation of a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) on the optical power that reaches the fiber core during femtosecond grating inscription at 267 nm and 800 nm. In our numerical study we considered two types of PCFs: three PCF designs with a standard hexagonal lattice and one highly birefringent PCF with three rows of air holes. A dedicated figure of merit, the Transverse Coupling Efficiency (TCE), is used throughout the paper to estimate the influence of the PCF cladding on the laser power that reaches the core region. We found that at an inscription laser wavelength of 800 nm and for a high filling factor hexagonal lattice PCF, the TCE can reach 1.4. This means that the microstructure can actually help delivering a higher power to the core region of the PCF than what can be achieved with a conventional step-index fiber with similar diameter. For the highly birefringent PCF even higher TCE values (up to 2.8) can be achieved for a wide range of orientations.

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