Vol. 27, No.

8 | 15 Apr 2019 | OPTICS EXPRESS 11608

7-cell hollow-core photonic bandgap fiber with

broad spectral bandwidth and low loss
XIN ZHANG,1 SHOUFEI GAO,1 YINGYING WANG,1,* WEI DING,2 XIAOCONG
WANG,1 AND PU WANG1,3
1
National Center of Laser Technology, Institute of Laser Engineering, Beijing University of Technology,
Beijing 100124, China
2
Laboratory of Optical Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190,
China
3
wangpuemail@bjut.edu.cn
* dearyingyingwang@hotmail.com

Abstract: The limited spectral bandwidth achieved in state-of-the-art hollow-core photonic

bandgap fibers (HC-PBGF) has hindered its implementation in a wide range of applications.
Here we demonstrate that broad spectral bandwidth and low loss can be simultaneously
achieved in 7-cell HC-PBGF. Several 7-cell HC-PBGFs operating at 1550 nm telecom band
and 1 μm laser band are present. One of the fibers exhibits a minimum loss of 6.5 dB/km at
1633 nm and a 3 dB bandwidth of 458 nm, approaching a bandwidth to central wavelength
ratio of 26%. This is to our knowledge the broadest bandwidth achieved in triangular lattice
HC-PBGF and the lowest transmission loss in 7-cell HC-PBGF.

© 2019 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement

1. Introduction
Hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (HC-PCF) has now been recognized as a versatile tool in
the field of optics and beyond. To enhance their capability of handling real-world
applications, one key pursuit of HC-PCF development is to combine broad spectral
bandwidth, low transmission loss, and low bending sensitivity into a single fiber. So far, there
are two types of fibers available, namely hollow-core photonic bandgap fiber (HC-PBGF) [1]
and hollow-core anti-resonant fiber (HC- ARF) (or inhibited-coupling fiber) [2]. HC-ARF is a
good candidate for broadband operation because glass webs in the cladding area, which can
be approximately regarded as one dimensional optical structures [3], have much sparser
(deleterious) resonances distributed in frequency domain compared to its HC-PBGF
counterpart, whose cladding consists of an array of identical two-dimensional optical
structures (i.e. silica rods) [4]. Recently demonstrated method of increasing the number of
cladding layer [5,6] has proven to be an effective way to achieve ultralow loss HC-ARF.
However, with respect to the third requirement, HC-ARFs are still very susceptible to
bending [5,7] because of its leaky mode nature and small numerical aperture of the core
mode, impeding many important applications in gyroscopes [8], optical communication
networks [9,10], endoscopes [11] and nonlinear optics [12,13], where the fiber must be
coined tightly, implemented around a sharp corner or in a compact form.
In HC-PBGF, the photonic bandgap (PBG) mechanism and the bound mode nature
provide opportunities to simultaneously obtain ultralow transmission loss, ultralow bending
sensitivity and sufficient bandgap width. However, while ultralow loss and ultralow bending
sensitivity have been experimentally realized, the spectral bandwidth of fabricated HC-PBGF
was usually narrow. For example, in [14], ultralow loss of 1.7 dB/km at 1565 nm and ultralow
bending sensitivity have been achieved, but the 3 dB bandwidth (the wavelength range where
the fiber loss is less than two times of its minimum value. Henceforth referred to as BW for
short) was less than 40 nm. In [9], the fiber has a transmission loss of 3.5 dB/km at 1500 nm,
but the BW was only 160 nm. In HC-PBGF, the bandgap width is largely determined by the

#359137 https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.27.011608
Journal © 2019 Received 30 Jan 2019; revised 27 Mar 2019; accepted 28 Mar 2019; published 10 Apr 2019
 Vol. 27, No. 8 | 15 Apr 2019 | OPTICS EXPRESS 11609

air-filling fraction (AFF) of the cladding lattice [15], while the surface modes (SMs) localized
near the core surround can penetrate into the bandgap thus makes the transmission window
narrow. According to theoretical prediction, a triangular lattice PBGF with a high AFF (e.g.
>0.95) [15] and a uniform core-surround thickness 50-60% that of the cladding struts [16]
could guarantee a BW 0.3 times the central wavelength (Δλ/λc > 0.3) [15]. In realistic
fabrication, however, a high AFF needs high inflation in the fiber drawing process, whose
downside is a non-uniform glass wall thickness in the core-surround layer. Empirically, the
distortion is exacerbated in large core HC-PBGFs whose core-surround contour is composed
of multifold segments. For example, the 19- and 37-cell HC-PBGFs contain 18 and 24
segments in the core-surround contour respectively and it is difficult to completely control the
thicknesses of all the glass segments during fiber drawing. As a result, the BW of 19-cell HC-
PBGF so far is limited by 235 nm (Δλ/λc < 0.156, see Table 1) [17].
Eliminating SMs proves to be easier in 7-cell PBGF than in large core PBGFs. The BWs
of 7-cell HC-PBGFs are 253 nm with the loss of 15 dB/km at 1550 nm, and >150 nm (limited
by the measurement technique) with the loss of 9.5 dB/km at 1650 nm in [18]. In [19], ~230
nm bandwidth was obtained with the loss of 80 dB/km at 1440 nm. The relatively higher
losses can be attributed to the small core size with higher spatial overlaps of the core mode
and the glass (1% in 7-cell HC-PBGF vs 0.2-0.4% in 19-cell HC-PBGF [20]), resulting in
higher surface roughness scattering loss (SSL). How to simultaneously achieve SM-free
broad BW (Δλ/λc towards 0.3) and low transmission loss in HC-PBGF is still an open
question.
In this work, we demonstrate that simultaneously achieving low loss and broad bandwidth
is feasible in 7-cell HC-PBGF. By optimizing the fiber fabrication parameters, we managed to
enlarge the core size of 7-cell HC-PBGF to 23 µm and achieved a loss value of 6.5 dB/km at
1633 nm as well as a BW of 458 nm. This represents an unprecedented performance in terms
of BW and loss in triangular lattice 7-cell HC-PBGF. If counting for the loss below 25
dB/km, the transmission window extends from 1493 nm to 2003 nm, covering both the
traditional telecom band (compatible for erbium-doped fiber amplifier) and the potentially
new telecom band at 2 µm (adapted for thulium-doped fiber amplifier) [21]. By structural
downscaling, we also demonstrate HC-PBGFs operating at 1440 nm and 1080 nm
respectively.
2. Fiber fabrication and characterization
7-cell HC-PBGF was drawn using the modified stack-and-draw technique with no solid rods
inserted in the interstitial places [18]. In order to maximize transmission BW, all the structural
parameters have been optimized in the stacking stage. A very thin glass tube with the
thickness ~20% that of the cladding tubes was added as the core tube, resulting in a cane with
the core wall thickness ~60% of the cladding strut thickness [Fig. 1(a)]. This essential step
helps to assure a SM-free transmission band and to minimize distortion of core-surrounding
[16]. During the fiber draw, systematic studies were performed to find out the optimum
pressurization condition. Firstly, a high pressure in the cladding ensures a big expansion ratio
(a big AFF) and therefore a broad PBG. The lack of interstitial rods also entails a relatively
bigger expansion ratio, enabling the glass nodes in the cladding area to distribute more
separately. Here, we achieved an AFF of 0.956. Secondly, the pressure control inside the core
region is crucial for maximum optical performance. On one hand, an over-expanded core may
entail a lower surface scattering loss. On the other, distortion in the core-surround may give
rise to strut SMs in the blue side of the PBG [22]. In previous work, 19-cell PBGF usually
adopt an over-expanded core defect to achieve lower loss in sacrifice of the bandwidth [9,17],
while 7-cell PBGFs usually possess a regular core size, i.e. 3 times the pitch [18,19] for a
relatively broad bandwidth. This actually limits the loss achieved in 7-cell PBGF. Here, we
intentionally over-expand the core defect to a diameter of 23 µm (in comparison to the 10-19
µm core diameter in typical 7-cell PBGFs [18–20,23]). Surprisingly, unlike the 19-cell PBGF
 Vol. 27, No. 8 | 15 Apr 2019 | OPTICS EXPRESS 11610

where an enlarged core tends to distort the core-surround structure and introduced several
SMs inside the PBG [9,17,24], here no SMs was observed inside the > 400 nm bandgap. This
indicates that 7-cell PBGF is more robust to structural expansion than the 19-cell PBGF since
its core surround contour only consists of 12 segments. Simultaneously attaining the two
goals of low loss and broad bandwidth is probably easier in 7-cell HC-PBGF.
Figure 1(b) shows a scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) image of a 7-cell HC-PBGF
with the outer diameter of 175 μm, the core diameter of 23.5 μm, the pitch (Λ, hole-to-hole
distance) of 6.1 μm and the hole diameter to pitch ratio (d/Λ) of 0.99. The strut thickness is
estimated to be ~65 nm, and the average core wall thickness is ~40 nm. To measure the
transmission loss, a standard cutback measurement was performed where a supercontinuum
source is butt-coupled to a 300 m long fiber and then its 3 m cut-back section, with the output
end connected to an optical spectral analyzer (OSA). The accuracy of the measurement was
guaranteed by multiple cleaving the output end for both the full fiber length and the cut-back
section, showing ignorable variation. Figure 1(c) and (d) plots the transmission and loss
spectra. No SMs has been observed. The BW, denoted by loss < 13 dB/km, extends from
1530 nm to 1988 nm (except the OH peak at 1894 nm). This 458 nm wide BW is much
broader than previously reported results [9,14,17–19,23]. Here, HCl gas absorption is
observed at 1750 nm - 1850 nm region [25] and the disturbance around 1894 nm is caused by
OH absorption [26], not SMs. By properly gas purging, it is believed that those OH induced
loss peaks can be greatly suppressed [27]. If counting for the sub-25 dB/km bandwidth, it
extends from 1493 nm to 2003 nm (or 51.15 THz) with the minimum loss of 6.5 dB/km at
1633 nm and 10 dB/km at 1550 nm. Simulations have also been performed using a finite-
element mode solver (COMSOL Multiphysics) [28] with optimized mesh size and perfectly
matched layer. All the structural parameters are extracted from the SEM image of the fiber
with small adjustment within the range of uncertainties. In Fig. 1(d), the red curve shows the
simulated loss including both the confinement loss and surface scattering loss. A reasonable
agreement is shown between experiment and simulation.

Fig. 1. (a) Optical microscopy image of a cane prior to fiber drawing. (b) SEM image of the 7-
cell HC-PBGF. (c) Measured transmission spectra of 300 m (gray) and 3 m (black) long HC-
PBGF under the same launching condition. (d) Cutback measured (black solid) and simulated
(red dotted) loss spectra.

To quantify the fiber’s performance under bending, the HC-PBGF sample is manually
bent in radius R of 25 mm, 12.5 mm and 6.5 mm respectively. Their transmission spectra are
compared with that of the quasi-straight fiber (R >10 cm) to deduce the bending loss (BL).
We surprisingly find, under R = 25 mm for over 200 turns, the transmission spectra overlaps
well with that of the quasi-straight fiber over the whole transmission band from 1493 nm to
2003 nm, indicating a negligible BL (<2 dB/km). Under R = 12.5 mm for 200 turns, the BL is
 Vol. 27, No. 8 | 15 Apr 2019 | OPTICS EXPRESS 11611

still indistinguishable in the central part of the transmission band from 1600 nm to 1930 nm
(< 10 dB/km) Fig. 2. Only at the short wavelength edge from 1470 nm to 1560 nm, the BL
rises to 10-50 dB/km. For R = 6.5 mm with 200 turns, the high BL at the short wavelength
edge causes a red-shift of the bandgap (1600 - 2040 nm with the BL less than 40 dB/km).
This red shift of the bandgap edge can be ascribed to the increased coupling from the
fundamental core mode to cladding modes under tight bending as observed and studied
previously [29,30]. This remarkably low BL, compared to the single mode fiber with BL in
the level of 5-15 dB/m at R = 10 mm [31] and the HC-ARF with BL in the level of 0.7-10
dB/km at R = 100 mm [5] make the 7-cell HC-PBGF the exclusive choice for many bending-
insensitive applications.

Fig. 2. Bending loss spectra of the 7-cell HC-PBGF under R = 12.5 mm (black curve) and 6.5
mm (blue curve).Due to the short fiber length (15.7 m for 200 turns at R = 12.5 mm), measured
loss under 10 dB/km is indistinguishable and could be regarded as noise. The insert shows the
photos of the bent fiber under test with 200 turns each.

Using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer with two delay stages, we measure the group index
and dispersion of the fiber. We firstly adjust two arms to have the same length; then, the test
fiber is placed straightly in one arm, and the delay stage in the other arm is adjusted to
compensate for time delay [10]. From spectral interferogram acquired from an OSA, the
phase difference is extracted, and the dispersion can be derived by applying polynomial fit.
With the knowledge of the fiber length and the relative position of two delay stages, the group
index can be inferred. At 1550 nm, we measure the group index (ng) to be 1.00346 ± 0.00010
and the group velocity dispersion (GVD) to be 1.65 ps/nm/km (Fig. 3). The ng curve shows a
“U” shape, and the GVD curve shows an “S” shape with the zero-dispersion wavelength at
1540 nm.
 Vol. 27, No. 8 | 15 Apr 2019 | OPTICS EXPRESS 11612

Fig. 3. ng (black curve) and GVD (blue curve) spectra of the 7-cell HC-PBGF measured from a
20 cm long HC-PBGF.

HC-PBGF is generally multimode fiber. Using a spectral and spatial (S2) imaging
technique [32], we characterize the modal contents after a fiber length of 5 m within the
wavelength range from 1548 nm to 1552 nm. The two peaks at the group delays of 10.41 and
12.81 ps/m can be identified as LP11a and LP11b modes with the multipath interference (MPI)
values to be −18.6 and −19.4 dB, respectively [Fig. 4]. The two peaks at the group delays of
22.02 and 23.22 ps/m can be attributed to the LP21 and LP02 modes, respectively. According
to [33], adding shunt cores could further improve the singe modality with minor effect to
transmission loss.

Fig. 4. S2 analysis of the 7-cell HC-PBGF. A typical MPI curve as a function of the differential
group delay for 5 m fiber.

3. 7-cell HC-PBGF at other important wavelength

By structural downscaling, a series of fibers for transmission at shorter wavelengths were
drawn from the same stack. Figure 5(a) shows a SEM image of a fiber operating at the
traditional telecom band with the outer diameter of 145 μm, an average core diameter of 16.5
μm, an average hole-to-hole distance of 4.6 μm and an AFF of 95.6%. As shown in Fig. 5(c),
this fiber has a flat transmission window from 1236 nm to 1656 nm with one OH absorption
peak at 1364 nm, covering the full O, E, S, C, L telecom bands. The minimum attenuation is
14 dB/km at 1310 nm and the loss at 1550 nm is 17 dB/km. The second fiber operates at the
 Vol. 27, No. 8 | 15 Apr 2019 | OPTICS EXPRESS 11613

Nd and Yb laser wavelength region. It has an outer diameter of 105 μm and a hollow-core
diameter of 13.1 μm. The average pitch and AFF were 3.6 μm and 95.2% respectively [(Fig.
5(b)]. The minimum loss falls at 1070 nm with the value of 22.4 dB/km and the 3 dB BW of
258 nm [(Fig. 5(d)]. Such a broadband HC-PBGF at 1064 nm could be of particular interest
for ultrashort laser pulse applications. No SM has been observed in any of these fibers,
corroborating that low loss, broad BW could be combined in 7-cell HC-PBGF.

Fig. 5. (a&b) SEM images of the fabricated 7-cell HC-PBGFs centered at 1440 nm and 1080
nm. (c&d) Measured cut-back loss from 300 m to 5 m and from 100 m to 5 m respectively for
the two fibers.

4. Comparison with previous results

In Table 1, a comparison between our work and previously reported works is listed. Thanks to
the ultrahigh AFF in our HC-PBGF as well as the complete exclusion of the SMs, we fully
exploit the PBG resource and demonstrate a BW to central wavelength ratio (Δλ/λc)
approaching 0.3. Meanwhile, the loss of 6.5 dB/km is also the lowest among the 7-cell HC-
PBGFs. According to the prediction in [15], further improving Δλ/λc toward 0.4 requires an
AFF to be nearly 0.97, namely strut glass thickness smaller than 40 nm. This will be very
challenging for microstructured fiber if not impossible.
Table 1. Optical performance comparison of reported PBGFs*

λmin Loss λc BW (3 dB) Δλ/λc

affiliations type
(nm) (dB/km) (nm) (nm) (3dB)

NKT Photonics [23] 7-cell 1990 10 2045 195 9.5%

Univ. Southampton [24] 19-cell 1984 3.2 1883 167 8.9%

This work 7-cell 1633 6.5 1760 458 26.0%

Univ. Southampton [17] 19-cell 1574 4.1 1500 235 15.7%

Univ. Bath [14] 19-cell 1565 1.7 1570 39 2.5%

Univ. Bath [18] 7-cell 1550 15 1600 253 15.8%

Max Planck Institute
19-cell 1530 1.8 1450 20 1.4%
[34]
 Vol. 27, No. 8 | 15 Apr 2019 | OPTICS EXPRESS 11614

OFS [35] 19-cell 1520 5.9 1527 98 6.4%

Univ. Southampton [9] 19-cell 1500 3.5 1525 160 10.5%

Univ. Bath [19] 7-cell 1440 80 1550 230 14.8%

Corning [36] 7-cell 1500 13 1450 100 6.9%

This work 7-cell 1310 14 1440 420 29.2%

Univ. Bath [37] 7-cell 1102 78 1064 145 13.6%

This work 7-cell 1070 22.4 1080 258 23.9%

Univ. Bath [38] 7-cell 1060 60 1064 170 16.0%

Univ. Southampton [39] 37-cell 1047 12.4 1050 75 7.1%

*These data are extracted from the loss spectra in the reference papers.

5. Conclusion
In conclusion, we have presented several low loss and broad BW 7-cell HC-PBGFs. The
combination of low transmission loss (6.5 dB/km), low bending loss (<2 dB/km under the
bending radius of 25 mm), broad BW (Δλ/λc approaching 0.3), and appropriate mode field
diameter (around 18 μm) represents an attractive feature for compact all fiber systems for a
wide range of applications in telecommunication, nonlinear optics, femtosecond pulse
delivery, distributed gas sensing, spectroscopy, etc.
Funding
National Research and Development Program of China (No. 2017YFB0405200), the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, Nos. 61675011, 61827820, 61527822,
61575218, 61535009), Beijing Nova Program (No. Z181100006218097), and Scientific
Research Program of Beijing Municipal Education Commission (No. KZ201810005003).
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