Hollow Core Fibre Photonics

Project overview

Optical fibres lie at the heart of our increasingly technological society. For example, they support the internet and mobile communications that we all now take for granted, they save lives through medical diagnosis and interventions using fibre-optic endoscopes, and they enable the mass production of a huge array of commercial products through fibre laser based materials processing.

Within our Airguide Photonics research programme we aim to translate Hollow Core Fibre (HCF) technology from the research lab to a deployable fibre technology, unleashing innovative applications across a broad range of science and engineering fields.

“The ORC has been pioneering the development of fibre optics and advancing communications technology for many years and has an impressive record of using research funding to collaborate with academic and industry partners. The AirGuide Photonics programme promises to push at the boundaries once more. We are confident that the research will uncover more discoveries and lead to world-leading innovations.”
Professor Tom Rodden - Deputy Chief Executive of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)

Staff

Lead researcher

Professor David Richardson FREng, FRS

Research interests

Hollow Core Optical Fibres
Optical Communications
High Power Fibre Lasers

Connect with David

Email: djr@orc.soton.ac.uk

Other researchers

Professor Sir David Payne KBE CBE FRS FREng

Professor of Photonics

Research interests

high-power fibre lasers
spun fibres for control of dispersion, now extensively used in undersea fibre cables
the Er/Yb cladding-pumped fibre amplifier used for cable television distribution

Connect with Sir David

Email: dnp@orc.soton.ac.uk

Professor Jayanta Sahu

Professorial Fellow-Research

Connect with Jayanta

Email: jks@orc.soton.ac.uk

Professor Periklis Petropoulos

Professor

Research interests

Optical communications,
All-optical signal processing,
Novel fibre and waveguide technologies

Connect with Periklis

Email: pp@orc.soton.ac.uk

Professor Radan Slavik

Professorial Fellow-Research

Research interests

In recent years, there have been significant developments in lightwave technologies enabling wide exploitation of optical phase, as exemplified in particular by the dawn of Coherent Optical Communications - the key enabler for the growth in the capacity of the Internet. This is due to many key breakthroughs in laser technology (low-noise low-cost and compact lasers), new revolutionary concepts that have recently been introduced (e.g., the Optical Frequency Comb, the significance of which was demonstrated by the award of a Nobel Prize in 2005), and significant advances in electronics that, thanks to the increased speeds now possible, can accommodate the processing of very complicated coherent (amplitude + phase) signals.
Another exciting field is Hollow Core Optical fibres, which guides ligth in a central hole surrounded by a microstructure that prevents light escaping from the core. Although known for over 20 years, only very recently their fabrication enabled them to use their full potential.

Connect with Radan

Email: R.Slavik@soton.ac.uk

Professor Francesco Poletti

Professorial Fellow-Research

Research interests

Hollow Core Optical Fibres: design and fabrication
Optical Communications: high capacity and low latency
Novel active and passive optical fibres

Connect with Francesco

Email: frap@orc.soton.ac.uk

Collaborating research institutes, centres and groups

Fibres and Communications

We develop new fibre technologies and explore their applications in areas including communications, sensing, lasers, materials processing and imaging.

Advanced Fibre Applications

We are dedicated to exploring advanced applications of cutting-edge optical fibres, with a special emphasis on hollow core fibres. These fibres are designed and fabricated by the Zepler Institute Microstructured Fibre group, while our group focuses on aspects of these newly-emerging fibres from the ‘user perspective’.

Hollow Core Fibre

We are world-leaders in Hollow Core Optical Fibre research. Our ground-breaking fibres guide light at vacuum speeds and unprecedented intensities, enabling advances in telecoms, manufacturing, and sensing.

Optical Fibre Communications

We find new ways to use and apply optical technologies in telecommunications.

Silica Fibre Fabrication

We conduct fundamental and applied research in the field of optical fibre technology.

Research outputs

Sub-ppm gas phase Raman spectroscopy in an anti-resonant hollow core fiber

Thomas William Kelly, Ian Davidson, Charles Warren, WIlliam Brooks, Michael Foster, Francesco Poletti, David J. Richardson, Peter Horak & Natalie Wheeler, 2022, Optics Express, 30(24), 43317-43329

DOI: 10.1364/OE.473887

Type: article

Photonic lanterns, 3-D waveguides, multiplane light conversion, and other components that enable space-division multiplexing

Nicolas K. Fontaine, Joel Carpenter, Simon Gross, Sergio Leon-Saval, Yongmin Jung, David J. Richardson & Rodrigo Amezcua-Correa, 2022, Proceedings of the IEEE, 110(11), 1821-1834

DOI: 10.1109/JPROC.2022.3207046

Type: article

The generation of 1.2 µJ pulses from a Mamyshev oscillator based on a high concentration, large-mode-area Yb-doped fiber

Di Lin, Duanyang Xu, Jing He, Yutong Feng, Zhengqi Ren, Raghuraman Sidharthan, Yongmin Jung, Seongwoo Yoo & David J. Richardson, 2022, IEEE Journal of Lightwave Technology, 40(21), 7175-7179

DOI: 10.1109/JLT.2022.3198737

Type: article

Hundred-meter-scale, kilowatt peak-power, near-diffraction-limited, mid-infrared pulse delivery via the low-loss hollow-core fiber

Qiang Fu, Yudi Wu, Ian A. Davidson, Lin Xu, Gregory T. Jasion, Sijing Liang, Shuichiro Rikimi, Francesco Poletti, Natalie V. Wheeler & David J. Richardson, 2022, Optics Letters , 47(20), 5301-5304

DOI: 10.1364/OL.473230

Type: article

Angle-spliced SMF to hollow core fiber connection with optimized back-reflection and insertion loss

Cong Zhang, Eric Numkam Fokoua, Songnian Fu, Meng Ding, Francesco Poletti, David J. Richardson & Radan Slavík, 2022, IEEE Journal of Lightwave Technology, 40(19), 6474-6479

DOI: 10.1109/JLT.2022.3186721

Type: article