A photonic crystal fibre generates light from the ultraviolet to the mid-infrared
The light generated by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen is more colourful than a rainbow. The scientists couple a low-energy, infrared laser pulse into a photonic crystal fibre (PCF) which is tailor-made so that the spectrum of the pulse broadens significantly to become white light: the generated spectrum spans from the deep-ultraviolet region to the mid-infrared region – a world record at such low input energy. The researchers from MPL in Erlangen are the first to produce microstructured glass fibres from a material that is particularly resistant to ultraviolet light, unlike conventional quartz glass. This material (ZBLAN) is actually extremely difficult to draw fibres from, and up until now it was regarded as impossible to draw photonic crystal fibres from it. In such fibres, a 2D periodic structure of hollow channels surrounds the fibre core, and runs along the entire length the...