Hollow antiresonant fibers with low bending loss

We first use numerical simulations to show that bending losses of hollow antiresonant fibers are a strong function of their geometrical structure. We then demonstrate this by fabricating a hollow antiresonant fiber which presents a bending loss as low as 0.25dB/turn at a wavelength of 3.35 mu m and a bend radius of 2.5cm. This fiber has a relatively low attenuation (<200dB/km) over 600nm mid-infrared spectral range. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America