Low loss, low dispersion and highly birefringent terahertz porous fibers

Abstract

We demonstrate that porous fibers in addition to low loss and high confinement, have near zero dispersion for 0.5–1 THz resulting in reduced terahertz signal degradation compared to microwires. We also show for the first time that these new fibers can be designed, introducing asymmetrical sub-wavelength airholes within the core, to achieve high birefringence ≈0.026. This opens up the potential for realization of novel polarization preserving fibers in the terahertz regime.