The invention relates to a microstructured optical fiber for generating supercontinuum light upon feeding of pump light. The light can be incoherent light. The microstructured optical fiber has a first section and a second section, where the first and second sections have one or more different features. The invention also relates to a supercontinuum source comprising a microstructured optical fiber according to the invention.

Described are optical fibers and scanning fiber displays comprising optical fibers. The disclosed optical fibers include a plurality of mass adjustment regions, such as gas-filled regions, positioned between a central waveguiding element and an outer periphery for reducing a mass of the optical fiber as compared to an optical fiber lacking the plurality of mass adjustment regions.

A method for forming an article includes providing a material having a first material property; forming a melt pool by exposing the material to an optical beam having at least one beam characteristic, wherein the melt pool has at least one melt pool property determinative of a second material property of the material; and modifying the at least one beam characteristic in response to a change in the melt pool property.

A method of processing by controlling one or more beam characteristics of an optical beam may include: launching the optical beam into a first length of fiber having a first refractive-index profile (RIP); coupling the optical beam from the first length of fiber into a second length of fiber having a second RIP and one or more confinement regions; modifying the one or more beam characteristics of the optical beam in the first length of fiber, in the second length of fiber, or in the first and second lengths of fiber; confining the modified one or more beam characteristics of the optical beam within the one or more confinement regions of the second length of fiber; and/or generating an output beam, having the modified one or more beam characteristics of the optical beam, from the second length of fiber. The first RIP may differ from the second RIP.

An object of the present invention is to provide a structure of an optical fiber capable of satisfying desired requirements of an output power, a propagation distance, and a beam quality. In the design of the PCF of the present invention, the PCF has air holes having diameters d and intervals in an overlapping region where a region of A.sub.eff of a desired value or more and a cutoff region in a desired higher-order mode overlap each other on a graph where the horizontal axis represents d/ and the vertical axis represents , so that it is possible to sufficiently cut off the mode which is the desired higher-order mode or more, and thus, it is possible to select a region where the A.sub.eff is large.

The invention relates to a photonic crystal fiber, in particular single-mode fiber, for the transmission of electromagnetic radiation in the IR wavelength range of >1 m, in particular in the wavelength range from 1 m to 20 m, preferably from 9 m to 12 m, having a light-conducting hollow core, in particular a hollow core having a diameter D, and a plurality of hollow bodies, in particular hollow tubes composed of a chalcogenide glass, arranged around the light-conducting hollow core. The hollow bodies (10, 20) are arranged in such a way that the diameter D of the light-conducting hollow core is greater than the shortest wavelength to be transmitted, preferably at least 20 m, preferably at least 50 m, particularly preferably at least 100 m, preferably in the range from 100 m to 500 m, in particular in the range from 150 m to 350 m, and the damping for the transmission of electromagnetic radiation is <2 dB/m, in particular <1 dB/m, preferably <0.3 dB/m, in particular <0.1 dB/m.

An optical fiber for an optical fiber sensor and a chemical sensor using the same are disclosed. The optical fiber includes a core area, and a suspended cladding area formed around the core area and having at least one cladding hole. The core area has at least one core hole for reducing an effective refractive index of the core area. The optical fiber and the chemical sensor using the same may have improved measurement sensitivity by increasing an evanescent field fraction of existing suspended core fibers.

The invention relates to a supercontinuum light source comprising a microstructured optical fiber and a pump light source. The microstructured optical fiber comprises a core and a cladding region surrounding the core, as well as a first fiber length section, a second fiber length section and an intermediate fiber length section between said first and second fiber length sections. The first fiber length section comprises a core with a first characteristic core diameter. The second fiber length section comprises a core with a second characteristic core diameter, smaller than said first characteristic core diameter, where said second characteristic core diameter is substantially constant along said second fiber length section. The intermediate length section of the optical fiber comprises a core which is tapered from said first characteristic core diameter to said second characteristic core diameter over a tapered length.

A fiber structural body includes a first fiber, and a second fiber spliced to the first fiber such that light having propagated through the first fiber propagates through the second fiber. At least one of the fibers is a photonic crystal fiber. The second fiber is coated with a first coating layer and a second coating layer in order from a splice surface, and the first coating layer has a refractive index n.sub.1 larger than that of a clad layer of the second fiber. In the fiber structural body, L, r, n.sub.1, and NA satisfy a particular relationship.

Disclosed herein are methods, apparatus, and systems for providing an optical beam delivery device, comprising a first length of fiber comprising a first RIP formed to enable modification of one or more beam characteristics of an optical beam by a perturbation device and a second length of fiber having a second RIP coupled to the first length of fiber, the second RIP formed to confine at least a portion of the modified beam characteristics of the optical beam within one or more confinement regions.