Author : Uma R. Rao and B. K. Lande

Optical networks have improved the global connectivity with very high data rates. The need for higher data rates is perpetually increasing with increased number of internet users. The fabrication technique of conventional optical fibers is refined to a great extent ever since the first fiber was fabricated. There has been very little scope left in the future in this regard. A special class of optical fibers known as Photonic Crystal Fibers(PCF) have been recently developed. They exhibit peculiar propagation characteristics and hence prove to have potential application in the design of advanced optical network components. PCFs are the major focus of current research in the field of optical networks. A brief account of these amazing optical structures and the possibilities of designing optical network components using PCFs have been presented in this paper.

Keywords: Photonic crystal fibers, index guiding, photonic band gap, dispersion compensator, erbium doped fiber amplifiers, fiber nonlinearities.

Article published in the Proceedings of National Conference on ‘Women in Science & Engineering’ (NCWSE 2013), SDMCET Dharwad