title: Endlessly single-mode photonic crystal fiber.
abstract: We made an all-silica optical fiber by embedding a central core in a two-dimensional photonic crystal with a micrometer-spaced hexagonal array of air holes. An effective-index model confirms that such a fiber can be single mode for any wavelength. Its useful single-mode range within the transparency window of silica, although wide, is ultimately bounded by a bend-loss edge at short wavelengths as well as at long wavelengths.
authors.forename: T A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Birks
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Knight
authors.forename: P S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Russell