Gas Filled Hollow Core Optical Fibers: Design, Properties
and Applications
Abstract
Hollow core optical fibers can efficiently guide light in air, within an extended wavelength range. Their adoption as a passive means for optical transmission is of particular interest for short and long-haul optical communications. However, also filling them with gases of various chemical compositions reveal to be advantageous for several applications. Firstly, this can be exploited for building novel gas-based fiber laser sources in spectral domains, or with properties, inaccessible by using conventional optical fibers. Secondly, the presence of even extremely low hazardous gas concentrations within the central core of these hollow fibers can be detected. This can be exploited by building compact hollow core fiber-based sensor devices, by using various forms of optical detection techniques. Finally, gas-based hollow core fibers could be also exploited in the field of quantum information.
Short Biography
Since his PhD studies, at the ORC, Southampton (UK), Prof. Belardi has cumulated over 20 years’ experience in the field of Specialty Optical Fibers. After having worked at the University of Bath (UK) and at the ORC, he held an Excellence Research Chair in Photonics at the University of Lille, France. After 2020, he was also the General Coordinator of the European Project GADEIRE. He joined the University of Parma, Italy, in 2023. Prof. Belardi is one of the main pioneers in the field of hollow core antiresonant optical fibers, particularly with the very first theoretical conception, proposal, and fabrication, in 2013, of a novel structure of hollow core optical fiber, that became later the most important candidate for high-capacity data transmission with low latency and loss. Moreover, he has given major contributions to the development of simplified hollow core optical fibers for practical use in the mid-infrared spectral range.
