New slant on photonic crystal fibers

We present the novel use of microstructured optical fibers not as 'light-pipes', but in a transverse geometry to manipulate the light propagating across the fiber. Fundamental and higher-order bandgaps were observed experimentally in this geometry using a number of techniques. The comparison of the measured spectra with photonic band structure and Finite-Difference Time-Domain simulations provide strong evidence that the spectral features are a result of the periodic nature of the fiber microstructure in the transverse direction.