Low-loss asymptotically single-mode propagation in large-core OmniGuide fibers

We present the light-propagation characteristics of OmniGuide fibers, which guide light by concentric multi-layer dielectric mirrors having the property of omnidirectional reflection. We show how the lowest-loss TE01 mode can propagate in a single-mode fashion through even large-core fibers, with other modes eliminated asymptotically by their higher losses and poor coupling, analogous to hollow metallic microwave waveguides. Dispersion, radiation leakage, material absorption, nonlinearities, bending, acircularity, and interface roughness are considered with the help of leaky modes and perturbation theory, and both numerical results and general scaling relations are presented. We show that cladding properties such as absorption and nonlinearity are suppressed by many orders of magnitude due to the strong confinement in a hollow core, and other imperfections are tolerable, promising that the properties of silica fibers may be surpassed even when nominally poor materials are employed. (C) 2001 Optical Society of America.