Terahertz Hollow-Core Optical Fibers for Efficient Transmission of Orbital Angular Momentum Modes

Terahertz (THz) radiation has recently received a lot of interests in science and technology. The potential of orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light in the THz region is a novel idea for researchers with increasing applications in broadband communications. THz waveguides have rarely been reported to generate and guide OAM modes. In this paper, we propose for the first time hollow-core optical fibers consist of circular air-hole arrays for guiding THz OAM modes with the topological charge order up to l = 3. Using numerical simulations, two low-loss transmission windows over 0.47 - 0.65 THz (window1) and 0.95 - 1.20 THz (window2) are recognized to guide OAM modes. Results show that both windows of the THz fiber exhibit the flat near-zero dispersion as well as low confinement loss (similar to 10(-3) dB/cm) with simultaneously high purity of the OAM modes (higher than 90%). Finally, two designs of THz optical fibers consist of one and two rings of air-hole arrays in their cladding are examined and it is shown that difference of the confinement loss and the modal purity between two designs are negligible. This implies that hollow-core optical fibers consist of one ring of air-hole array in their cladding are very promising for efficient transmission of OAM modes in the THz region.

Automated summary

This paper proposes a novel hollow-core optical fiber for guiding high-order OAM modes in the THz region, consisting of circular air-hole arrays. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the fiber can guide OAM modes in two low-loss transmission windows from 0.47 to 0.65 THz and 0.95 to 1.20 THz with low dispersion, low loss, and high modal purity.