Abstract

The concept of photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) has opened the route to a new family of optical fibers available for a wide range of applications in nonlinear optics. The nonlinear performances are based both on the easy chromatic dispersion management possible with PCFs and on the increased fiber nonlinearity, thanks to the small effective mode areas accessible with these fibers. Hence, even if necessary, the intrinsic nonlinearity of the material used to realize the fiber generally plays a secondary role. This is true for most of the realizations which are based on pure silica glass, a matrix with modest nonlinear coefficients. However, various glass matrices are known to offer larger nonlinear coefficients and could be useful to further improve the performances of systems based on highly nonlinear fibers. Among these, conventional glasses containing dopants presenting nonlinear properties, like gold nanoparticles (Au NPs), appear as promising candidates [1]. However, realization of glasses doped by Au NPs is mainly limited to films and bulk materials and there are only two reports of insertion of such systems in the core of a conventional optical fiber, mainly due to the difficulty induced by the high temperatures commonly used to synthesize optical fibers (typically 1500-2000^◦C) as compared to the gold melting point [2,3].

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