Subwavelength-diameter Optical Fibre - Name

Name

There is no general agreement on how these optical elements are to be called, different groups preferring to emphasize different properties of such fibres, sometimes even using different terms. The names in use include:

• subwavelength waveguide, subwavelength optical wire, subwavelength-diameter silica wire, subwavelength diameter fibre taper
• (photonic) wire waveguide, photonic wire, photonic nanowire, optical nanowires, optical fibre nanowires
• tapered (optical) fibre, fibre taper
• submicron-diameter silica fibre
• ultra-thin optical fibres
• optical nanofibre
• optical microfibres
• submicron fibre waveguides
• Micro/Nano optical wires (MNOW)

The term waveguide can be applied not only to fibres, but also to other waveguiding structures such as silicon photonic subwavelength waveguides. The term submicron is often synonymic to subwavelength in this case, taking into account that the majority of experiments are carried out with the light with the wavelength between 0.8 and 1.6 µm; however for other wavelengths this may not be true. All the names including the prefix nano- are somewhat misleading, since it is usually applied to objects with dimensions on the scale of nanometers or tens of nanometers (cf. nanoparticle, nanotechnology). The characteristic behaviour of the SDOF—high intensity of the electromagnetic field both inside and outside the fibre, maximum confinement of light in transversal cross-section—appears when the fibre diameter is about half of the wavelength of light. That is why the term subwavelength is the most appropriate for these objects.