Silver halide photonic crystal fibers for the middle infrared

Photonic crystal fibers are normally holey silica fibers, which are opaque in the mid- and far-infrared. We have fabricated novel fibers by multiple extrusions of silver halide crystalline materials, which are highly transparent in the mid-infrared. These fibers are composed of two solid materials; The core consists of pure AgBr, and the cladding includes AgCl fiberoptic elements arranged in two concentric hexagonal rings around the core. Flexible fibers of outer diameter 1 mm and length of similar to1 m were fabricated, and their optical properties were measured. These fibers exhibited core-clad behavior and would be extremely useful for IR laser power transmission, IR radiometry, and IR spectroscopy. (C) 2004 Optical Society of America.