Abstract

Hole-assisted single polarization fibers (SPFs) and polarization maintaining fibers (PMFs) have attracted significantly interest recently due to its wide range of applications. Hole-assisted SPF and PMF also have special properties that require understanding for proper fiber deployment. In this paper, we review the novel properties of a hole-assisted fiber that we recently implemented as either a SPF or PMF. We measured the fiber birefringence and the fundamental mode cutoff wavelengths, which directly determine the performance of such fiber as a SPF. We also comprehensively explored other unique characteristics of these fibers such as the length dependence of the fundamental mode cutoff, the effects of bending on the fiber cutoff wavelengths, and the performance of such fiber over a wide range of temperatures. To address the issue of selecting target fiber in a non-destructive and cost effective manner, we developed a novel method to distributedly measure the cutoff wavelength drifting along the entire length of the fiber.