IEEE LEOS Distinguished Lecturer,
Photonic crystal fibres (PCFs) have been the focus of increasing scientific and technological interest since the first working example was reported in 1996. Although superficially similar to a conventional optical fibre, PCF has a unique microstructure, consisting of an array of microscopic holes (i.e., channels) running along its entire length. These holes act as optical barriers or scatterers, which suitably arranged can “corral” light within a central core (either hollow or made of solid glass). The holes can range in diameter from ~25 nm to ~50 mm. Although most PCF is formed in pure silica glass, it has also recently been made using polymers and non-silica glasses, where it is difficult to find compatible core and cladding materials suitable for conventional total internal reflection guidance. PCF supports two guidance mechanisms: total internal reflection, in which case the core must have a higher average refractive index than the holey cladding; and a two-dimensional photonic bandgap, when the index of the core is uncritical – it can be hollow or filled with material. Light can be controlled and transformed in these fibres with unprecedented freedom, allowing for example the guiding of light in a hollow core, the creation of highly nonlinear solid cores with anomalous dispersion in the visible and the design of fibres that support only one transverse spatial mode at all wavelengths. The PCF concept has ushered in a new and more versatile era of fibre optics, with a multitude of different applications spanning many areas of science.
Recent reviews are available in: Science 299 (358-362) 2003 & Nature 424 (847-851) 2003
Philip Russell is Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Bath, where he heads the Optoelectronics Group. He obtained his PhD (1979) at the University of Oxford and subsequently has worked in research laboratories and universities in Europe and the USA. His group specializes in photonic crystals and optical fibre devices, and its work led to the formation of BlazePhotonics Ltd (www.blazephotonics.com) in 2001, whose aim is the commercial exploitation of photonic crystal fibre. He has over 400 publications and holds a substantial number of patents in many aspects of photonics. He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America and in 2000 won its Joseph Fraunhofer Award/Robert M. Burley Prize for the invention of photonic crystal fibre, first proposed in 1991. He is the founding chair of the Optical Society of America's Topical Meeting Series on Bragg Gratings, Photosensitivity and Poling in Glass. In 2002 he won the Applied Optics Division Prize of the UK Institute of Physics and he is currently a LEOS Distinguished Lecturer and the recipient of a Royal Society/Wolfson Research Merit Award. His work on photonic crystals (both in films and fibres) is recognised by a continuing series of plenary, keynote and invited talks at conferences and summer schools all over the world.