Dependence of the Transmission Characteristics of Photonic Crystal Fiber on the Macrobending Radius and the Mechanically induced Microbending

Abstract

It is reported that the spectral loss of photonic crystal fiber (PCF) having a large hole-to-hole distance (~ 10 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$) is sensitive to micro- and macrobending when compared with the conventional single-mode fiber. In this paper, we will present the measurement result of the macro- and microbending characteristics of fabricated PCF with large hole-to-hole distance (> 10 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$) . For the macrobending experiment, the fiber was simply wound around a circular structure with variable diameter that could be reduced to a few centimeters. For the microbending case, regularly spaced silica rods were attached on a slide glass and pressed against the fiber by loading a stack of metal plates of known weight on the glass. The transmission loss spectrum shows a rather flat response to the to microbending, and this makes the PCF a good candidate for a wideband variable optical attenuator.