Holey optical fibres

摘要

An optical fibre structure comprising a holey fibre (20) arranged in a holey outer support structure made up of holey tubes (22) encased in a thin walled outer jacket (24). The holey fibre may have a solid core surrounded by a holey cladding comprising a plurality of rings of holes. With the invention it is possible to produce robust, coated and jacketed fibres with microstructured core features of micrometer size relatively easily using existing fibre fabrication technology. This improvement is a result of the outer holey structure which reduces the thermal mass of the supporting structure and makes it possible to reliably and controllably retain small hole features during the fibre fabrication process.