Hollow-core polymer fibres with a kagome lattice: potential for transmission in the infrared

Hollow-core microstructured polymer optical fibres with a kagome lattice cladding are reported. These fibres do not have photonic bandgaps, instead, leakage from the core is suppressed by a low density of states in the cladding, a low overlap of the core mode and the cladding modes and a reduced susceptibility to perturbations. The latter two are the result of a low overlap between the core mode and the solid parts of the microstructure, which also reduces the absorption by the polymer. Losses two orders of magnitude below the material loss were observed and the potential of hollow-core polymer fibres to guide light in the infrared, where the material absorption is high, will be discussed. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.