Abstract

Microstructured optical fibres (MOFs) are fibres that guide light by means of an arrangement of air-holes that run down the entire fibre length. In the kind of MOFs here considered, also named holey fibres (HFs), guidance arises from average-index effects: the holes form the cladding region around the solid core. HFs can be made from a single material, such as pure silica, and so the modes of such fibres are inherently leaky because the core refractive index is the same as the index beyond the (finite) cladding region.

© 2002 Optical Society of America