Optical Fiber Technology 9 (2003) 199–209

www.elsevier.com/locate/yofte

Recent progress in microstructured polymer optical

fibre fabrication and characterisation
Martijn A. van Eijkelenborg,a,∗ Alexander Argyros,a,b Geoff Barton,c
Ian M. Bassett,a Matthew Fellew,a,b Geoffrey Henry,a
Nader A. Issa,a,b Maryanne C.J. Large,a Steven Manos,a,b
Whayne Padden,a Leon Poladian,a and Joseph Zagari a,c
a Optical Fibre Technology Centre, Australian Photonics Cooperative Research Centre, University of Sydney,
206 National Innovation Centre, Australian Technology Park, Eveleigh, NSW 1430, Sydney, Australia
b School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
c Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia

Received 18 December 2002; revised 16 April 2003

Abstract
Recent progress in microstructured polymer optical fibre fabrication and characterisation will be
presented. A wide range of different optical functionalities can now be obtained by modifications of
the microstructure, as is demonstrated by the fibres presented here. Microstructured fibres that are
single-mode, highly birefringent or show twin-core coupling are described, in addition to graded-
index microstructured fibres and hollow core fibres, the latter case being where light is guided in an
air core. Microstructured polymer optical fibres are an exciting new development, offering opportu-
nities to develop fibres for a wide range of applications in telecommunications and optical sensing.
 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Polymer optical fibres; Microstructure; Photonic crystal fibres; Photonic band gap fibre; Local area
networks; Optical sensing

1. Introduction

A new class of polymer optical fibres was reported recently [1–5], in which the guid-
ing of light is achieved by the introduction of a pattern of microscopic air holes that run

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: m.eijkelenborg@oftc.usyd.edu.au (M.A. van Eijkelenborg).

1068-5200/$ – see front matter  2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S1068-5200(03)00045-2
200 M.A. van Eijkelenborg et al. / Optical Fiber Technology 9 (2003) 199–209

down the entire length of the fibre. This eliminates the need for chemical modifications
to the polymer material as is required for many conventional polymer optical fibres. Mi-
crostructured polymer optical fibres (MPOFs) offer new opportunities and can significantly
enhance the functionality of polymer optical fibres (POFs).
The idea of guiding light using microstructure has previously been explored in silica
fibres, in so-called photonic crystal fibre (PCF), microstructured fibre (MOF) or “holey”
fibre (HF) [6,7]. It has been shown that single-mode guidance in a relatively large core is
possible [8], that non-linear processes can be enhanced by orders of magnitude [9,10], and
that guidance in an air core can be achieved when the microstructure is arranged to create
a photonic band gap [6].
MPOFs, however, offer many advantages over their glass counterparts. To name a few,
the fabrication of MPOF is much easier due to the much more favourable balance between
surface tension and viscosity at the draw temperature which reduces the chance of holes
collapsing; the MPOF microstructure is not restricted to close-packed arrangements of cir-
cular holes, as is the case for glass PCF fabricated by the capillary stacking technique; more
material modifications are possible, owing to the much lower processing temperatures and
the intrinsic tailorability of polymers; and the base materials and the fibre processing is
cheaper, while the fibres remain flexible even at large diameters.
The combination of low-cost fibre fabrication and large-spot single-mode or multi-
mode guidance provides potential advantages for MPOF in applications such as local-area
networks (LANs) or fibre-to-the-home (FTTH). In addition, polymers with high glass tran-
sition temperatures can be used for MPOF, and problems associated with dopant diffusion
are eliminated, offering advantages for high temperature applications (for example in the
automotive industry).
An overarching advantage is that quite different MPOFs can be manufactured within the
same fabrication framework, as simple changes in the microstructure can provide fibres
with distinctly different functionalities. This is demonstrated in this paper by presenting
an overview of recent MPOF work, including single-mode, highly-birefringent, twin-core,
graded-index, and hollow-core MPOFs.

2. Fabrication and materials

A range of different materials and fabrication methods can be used to make MPOF
preforms. In addition to the capillary stacking technique, as is traditionally used for glass
PCF, polymer preforms can be made using techniques such as extrusion, polymerisation
in a mould, drilling, or injection moulding. With such techniques available, it becomes
straightforward to obtain different cross-sections in the preform, with holes of arbitrary
shapes and sizes in any desired arrangement. This is a major advantage over silica-glass
based PCF, where the hole structure is mostly restricted to hexagonal or square close-
packed structures due to the commonly used capillary stacking technique.
In the present study, commercial extruded polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) preforms
with a glass transition temperature (Tg) of 115 ◦ C were used for ‘proof of concept’ ex-
ploratory MPOF experiments. This material is of relatively poor optical quality; the scat-
tering losses from impurities being around 3 dB/m. After a proof of concept of a particular
 M.A. van Eijkelenborg et al. / Optical Fiber Technology 9 (2003) 199–209 201

Fig. 1. Example of a single-mode microstructured polymer optical fibre (MPOF) with 1.9 µm diameter air holes
spaced at 3.5 µm.

MPOF, the material is replaced with purified or fluorinated PMMA to obtain low-loss prop-
erties.
MPOF is drawn at a rate of several m/min at a constant tension of 60 to 100 g and a
‘hot-zone’ temperature of ∼160 ◦ C. The resulting MPOF structures, such as that shown
in Fig. 1, are maintained over lengths in excess of 100 m. Fibres are generally drawn to
an external diameter of 200 µm, with a fibre diameter uniformity of ±1 µm achieved by
utilisation of a well-tuned feedback control loop between the capstan speed and the fibre
diameter monitor.
In drawing a microstructured fibre, there exists a balance between the surface tension
and the viscosity of the material at the draw temperature [11]. Clearly, a high draw tem-
perature (leading to a lower viscosity), will result in surface tension effects dominating,
leading to possible distortion of the hole structure, such as partial or complete collapse of
the holes. A small reduction in the size of the air holes relative to the hole spacing is often
observed in drawn fibres. However, this can be minimised by lowering the draw temper-
ature, thus increasing the viscosity and maximising the fibre draw tension, although this
approach is limited by the risk of fibre breakage.
At the drawing temperature, the surface tension of PMMA is ∼0.032 N/m [12] and the
viscosity was measured to be ∼5 × 106 Pa s. This compares favourably with the equivalent
values for silica glass, though for many glasses accurate values for surface tension and
its variation with temperature are unavailable. Vitreous silica, which is commonly used to
fabricate PCF, has a surface tension of ∼0.30 N/m and a viscosity of ∼3.6 × 106 Pa s
at the draw temperature [11,13]. Clearly, for PMMA the balance between surface tension
and viscosity shows a ten times more favourable relationship compared to glass, making
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MPOF drawing with PMMA an inherently more robust process than glass PCF drawing. In
addition, by avoiding the capillary stacking technique, the monolithic nature of the MPOF
preform provides further robustness against structural deformation.

3. Single-mode MPOF

Using MPOF technology we can readily produce single-mode polymer fibres—a feat
that is difficult with conventional POF technology due to the small core size and refractive
index contrast required. Microstructured fibres such as shown in Fig. 1 have been shown
to be single moded at a wavelength of 633 nm, by demonstrating that the near and far field
patterns are insensitive to the launching conditions and bending of the fibre, and that an
interference experiment with a standard glass single-mode fibre showed a clear interfer-
ence pattern [1]. The chromatic dispersion of the single-mode MPOF reported in [1] was
measured to be 100 ps/nm km at a wavelength of 855 nm, with a zero-dispersion wave-
length of 1.35 µm [14]. Note that, as with conventional glass PCF, ultra-high dispersion
microstructured fibres can be fabricated for applications in dispersion compensation. In
addition, dispersion flattened MPOF can be fabricated, where the dispersion is small and
constant over a broad wavelength range, or dispersion shifted fibres can be made, where the
dispersion zero is shifted towards (or into) the visible range of the spectrum for non-linear
applications.
As part of our fabrication procedure, we have developed a polymer preform sleeving
technique, which involves jacketing a microstructured cane of ∼3 mm diameter with a
sleeve of 12 mm outer diameter and 6 mm inner diameter. The space between the cane and
the sleeve is filled with capillaries to achieve a tight fit. After fusing and annealing of the
sleeved preform, it is redrawn to obtain an MPOF with a much smaller inter-hole spacing
and hence a smaller core size. An electron microscope image of one such fibres is shown
in Fig. 2a with a hole spacing of 1.3 µm, along with a 0.5 µm hole diameter. The strong
confinement achieved by the size-reduction of the hole structure increases effects such as
waveguide dispersion, birefringence and non-linearity, each with their own potential appli-
cations. Figure 2b shows a contour plot of the measured near-field guided-mode intensity
profile of this fibre.

4. Graded-index multi-mode MPOF

Multi-mode graded-index POF (GI-POF) has been previously developed for data com-
munication applications, providing thick flexible fibres with high bandwidth and large spot
sizes for easy installation in LANs. However, the technology behind conventional GI-POF
is very complex and costly, since a polymerisation process that produces a near-perfect
parabolic index profile is required for efficient compensation of the modal dispersion [15].
This is seen as an opportunity for employment of MPOF technology, by allowing a cost-
effective alternative. It has been shown that for small enough hole structures, the mi-
crostructure in the fibre remains unresolved by the light, and the whole structure can be
approximated by an effective refractive index profile. This has been explored in a previ-
 M.A. van Eijkelenborg et al. / Optical Fiber Technology 9 (2003) 199–209 203

Fig. 2. (a) Electron microscope image of a single-mode microstructured polymer optical fibre with inter hole
spacing of 1.3 and 0.5 µm diameter holes. The core diameter is 2.1 µm. (Image courtesy of the Electron Micro-
scope Unit, Sydney University.) (b) Contour plot of the measured near-field intensity profile of the guided mode
in the core of the fibre. Contours trace the 90, 70, 30, and 5% intensity levels.
204 M.A. van Eijkelenborg et al. / Optical Fiber Technology 9 (2003) 199–209

Fig. 3. Graded-index microstructured polymer optical fibre (GIMPOF).

ous paper, where MPOFs with multiple depressed-index rings were presented [2]. Using
the average-index effect, we have fabricated a large-core multi-mode graded-index MPOF
(GIMPOF) by using a graded hole structure as shown in Fig. 3. Here, the hole diame-
ter increases with distance from the centre, so that the azimuthal average provides an
approximation to the ideal near parabolic graded-index profile to compensate for modal
dispersion [4].
The GIMPOF in Fig. 3 was drawn from a preform with 216 holes of varying diameter
(1.2, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 4.0 mm). It has an outer diameter of 220 µm and a core region of 65 µm
diameter. Large-spot multi-mode guidance is observed in these fibres, but more work is
required to establish the potential transmission bandwidth. Experiments are planned with
low-loss materials to further investigate this application.

5. Highly birefringent MPOF

Conventional circularly symmetric optical fibres do not maintain the polarisation state
of the guided mode along their length. Bends and stresses in the fibre introduce regions of
birefringence with varying orientation, leading to changes in the polarisation of the guided
light. The use of highly birefringent (HiBi) fibres can reduce such environmental influ-
ences. In conventional fibres, form birefringence (as induced by a non-circular core shape)
leads to relatively small amounts of birefringence. Stress-induced birefringence, achieved
through introducing stress elements next to the core (as e.g., in ‘bow-tie’ or ‘panda’ fibres)
is generally much stronger. In microstructured fibres this situation is different, and form
 M.A. van Eijkelenborg et al. / Optical Fiber Technology 9 (2003) 199–209 205

(a) (b)

Fig. 4. Example of a single-mode highly birefringent MPOF: (a) preform and (b) close up of the fibre structure.

birefringence can in fact be the dominant birefringence mechanism due to the large index
contrast between the air holes and the host material. HiBi microstructured fibres can be
fabricated by introducing an asymmetry in the waveguide structure, e.g., by using arrange-
ments of different hole sizes and spacing in order to break the symmetry, or alternatively
by using non-circular shaped holes. A HiBi microstructured fibre with a beat length be-
low 1 mm arising from an arrangement of two different hole sizes has previously been
demonstrated in silica [16]. Compared to conventional HiBi fibres, birefringence arising
from microstructure asymmetries is relatively temperature insensitive, which is an impor-
tant benefit for sensing applications.
We have developed two techniques to fabricate MPOFs such as shown in Fig. 4. This fi-
bre was designed to exhibit high levels of form birefringence due to the elliptically shaped
holes around the core and the asymmetrical shape of the core. The fabrication of the
preform with elliptical holes (Fig. 4a) was achieved by a combination of squashing and
annealing a preform that initially had circular holes. This structure is then maintained in
the fibre draw [M. Fellew et al., unpublished].
The birefringence of a fibre such as that shown in Fig. 4b was measured using the
technique reported in [16]. White light is launched into the fibre polarised at 45◦ to the bire-
fringence axis, while the output of the fibre is collected with an optical spectrum analyser
after a polariser orientated at 90◦ to the launch polarisation. The features of the measured
spectrum allow a determination of the birefringence as well as the variation of birefrin-
gence versus wavelength. Polarisation beat lengths of 8 mm at 800 nm were measured.
Much smaller beat lengths are expected by reducing the dimensions of the structure and
by optimising the asymmetry of the microstructure design. By further exploring the effects
206 M.A. van Eijkelenborg et al. / Optical Fiber Technology 9 (2003) 199–209

of non-circular holes, we expect that highly birefringent MPOF with beat lengths below
1 mm (birefringence larger than 10−3 ) can be fabricated in the near future.

6. Twin-core MPOF

A twin-core MPOF such as that shown in Fig. 5 has been fabricated by the omission
of two (rather than one hole) to create the cores. The fabrication of twin-core MPOF is
much less involved than the fabrication of conventional twin-core silica fibre, which re-
quires chemical vapour deposition to make two preforms, which are subsequently sliced in
half (slightly off centre), polished and fused to form a single preform with two cores. Fab-
rication of silica fibre with more than two cores is even more complicated still. In contrast,
multiple-core MPOF is fabricated in a single stage, using exactly the same techniques as
used in the single-core case.
Multi-core fibres are attractive for applications in telecommunications and optical fibre
sensing. One example is in the use of a twin-core MOF for strain measurement, specifically
for measuring curvature in engineering structures by interrogating the two cores interfer-
ometrically [17]. As the two cores are embedded in the same cladding structure, common
mode rejection is very effective at preventing unwanted sensitivity to external disturbances.
In addition, the exit face of a twin-core fibre, with two single-mode localised spots, acts as
an ideal fringe projector.
The periodicity in the twin-core fibre in Fig. 5 is 4.8 µm, leading to a spacing of 9.6 µm
between the centres of the two cores. The coupling length of this fibre was measured by
launching white light into one core and collecting light from the other end with a spectrum
analyser. From the observed periodicity in the measured spectrum, a coupling length of
6.8 mm at 650 nm could be inferred.
Calculations were performed using the ABC FDM method [18], taking into account the
actual structure of the fibre, including slight structural asymmetries. One of the holes next
to the core was found to be about 25% larger than the others, and as a result, a remarkable

Fig. 5. Twin core MPOF with two cores separated by 9.6 µm.
 M.A. van Eijkelenborg et al. / Optical Fiber Technology 9 (2003) 199–209 207

reduction in the coupling length arose. Good agreement between experiment and theory
was obtained [W. Padden et al., unpublished].

7. Photonic band gap structures

In a photonic band gap fibre, light is guided due to the photonic band gap (PBG) ef-
fect, similar to an electronic band gap for electrons in semiconductors. In this case, the
microstructure prohibits propagation of certain wavelengths through the cladding. This ef-
fect can be used to confine light to a fibre core. Since PBG guidance does not rely on total
internal reflection, the core can either be a solid, or, more interestingly, an air core. This
effect has been previously demonstrated in silica PCF with a large and very regular hexag-
onal pattern of holes [6,10]. The creation of an air-core guiding PBG MPOF could reduce
the effects of material absorption, and thus provide a possible new route to achieve further
reduction of the losses of POFs.
Air-cored PBG polymer fibres have been fabricated, an example is shown in Fig. 6.
Evidence of photonic band gap guiding through short lengths of fibre with a structure as
shown in Fig. 6b has been observed [19]; a brightly coloured orange mode was transmitted
through the air core when white light was launched into the fibre, a signature of PBG
guiding. Unfortunately, these initial results have proved difficult to reproduce, a fact that
has been attributed to non-uniformities in the fibre structure, both in the transverse and
longitudinal direction, which lead to a closing of the band gap.
On-going work is focusing on the fabrication of PBG MPOF with a larger air fraction, a
larger core and smaller hole spacing, in order to achieve a larger bandwidth for the guided
light. In addition, MPOFs in which the air holes are positioned on concentric rings are be-
ing investigated in the context of multi-layer Bragg fibres [2]. As with PBG guiding, Bragg

(a) (b)

Fig. 6. Examples of photonic band gap MPOF: (a) an air-core polymer PBG fibre of 220 µm external diameter
and (b) a close-up of the microstructure with a 5 µm hole spacing.
208 M.A. van Eijkelenborg et al. / Optical Fiber Technology 9 (2003) 199–209

guidance also facilitates guidance in an air core, and it has been predicted that pure single-
mode guiding of a polarisation non-degenerate mode is possible with Bragg fibres [20,21].

8. Conclusions

Microstructured polymer optical fibres (MPOFs) offer intriguing possibilities for devel-
oping fibres with new functionalities. In this paper, we have presented an overview of our
recently fabricated MPOFs, including single-mode, highly birefringent, graded-index, and
air-core MPOF. This new class of polymer fibres clearly has a bright future ahead of it, and
we have only just begun to realise the true potential of these fibres.

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the Australian Photonics Cooperative Research Centre and the Aus-
tralian Research Council for partial funding of this work. We would also like to thank
Barry Reed for the preparation of the preforms and the Electron Microscope Unit at the
University of Sydney for the electron microscope image.

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