Infrared glass-based negative-curvature anti-resonant fibers fabricated through extrusion

Negative curvature fibers have been gaining attention as fibers for high power infrared light. Currently, these fibers have been made of silica glass and infrared glasses solely through stack and draw. Infrared glasses' lower softening point presents the opportunity to perform low-temperature processing methods such as direct extrusion of preforms. We demonstrate an infrared-glass based negative curvature fiber fabricated through extrusion. The fiber shows record low losses in 9.75 -10.5 mu m range (which overlaps with the CO2 emission bands). We show the fiber's lowest order mode and measure the numerical aperture in the longwave infrared transmission band. The possibility to directly extrude a negative curvature fiber with no penalties in losses is a strong motivation to think beyond the limitations of stack-and-draw to novel shapes for negative curvature fibers. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America