Pure chiral optical fibres.
We investigate the properties of optical fibres made from chiral materials, in which a contrast in optical activity forms the waveguide, rather than a contrast in the refractive index; we refer to such structures as pure chiral fibres. We present a mathematical formulation for solving the modes of circularly symmetric examples of such fibres and examine the guidance and polarisation properties of pure chiral step-index, Bragg and photonic crystal fibre designs. Their behaviour is shown to differ for left- and right-hand circular polarisation, allowing circular polarisations to be isolated and/or guided by different mechanisms, as well as differing from equivalent non-chiral fibres. The strength of optical activity required in each case is quantified.
Institute of Photonics and Optical Science (IPOS), School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Sydney, NSW, Australia. leon.poladian@sydney.edu.au
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L
Poladian
M
M
Straton
A
A
Docherty
A
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Argyros
D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D008027:Light; D055100:Optical Fibers; D012031:Refractometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012542:Scattering, Radiation