Preparation and characterization of microstructured silica holey fibers filled with high-index glasses

Silica based microstructured holey fibers offer the possibility for filling with unconventional fiber materials. Of special interest are chalcogenide glasses due to their high refractive index and their nonlinear optical properties. We demonstrate two types of fibers: an index guiding fiber type with high-index glass core and silica cladding and a fiber with silica core surrounded by a periodic, hexagonal high-index glass structure giving antiresonant guiding properties. We prepared such fibers filled with arsenic sulphide glass and arsenic selenide glass by a pressurized infiltration technique. The manufacturing process is modelled on the basis of viscous glass flow parameters and is compared with experimental results obtained from the filled fibers. The propagation and spectral transmission properties of such fibers are measured and discussed.