Polycarbonate hollow-core microstructured optical fiber.

A hollow-core microstructured polymer optical fiber is fabricated from polycarbonate material and guidance by inhibited coupling in a two-layer structure is demonstrated in two strong transmission bands with minimum losses of 9.0 dB/m at 800 nm and 3.1 dB/m at 1550 nm. The latter corresponds to a loss well below the polycarbonate material loss at this wavelength, and to our knowledge it is the lowest loss hollow-core polymer fiber reported to date. The short-term operational temperature limit of the fiber is shown to be 135 degrees C, significantly higher than that of conventional polymer optical fibers made of other polymers.