title: Colloidal photonic crystal cladded optical fibers: Towards a new type of photonic band gap fiber.
abstract: A facile approach of fabricating a new type of hollow photonic band gap fibers is proposed. Templates for generating such fibers are demonstrated by a complete and uniform coating of a standard silica optical fiber (125 mum diameter) with a three-dimensional colloidal photonic crystal through isothermal heating evaporation induced self-assembly. The photonic crystal cylindrical annulus is characterized by optical and scanning electron microscopy, and is found to yield a 1.4-mum stop band by optical reflection and transmission spectroscopy. The results also demonstrate a practical means of enveloping macro- or micro-curved surfaces with three-dimensional photonic crystals, a task that is geometrically challenging by other photonic crystal fabrication methods.
authors.forename: Jianzhao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Heman
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Valdivia
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kitaev
authors.forename: Geoffrey
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ozin