Zoned microstructure fiber for low-dispersion waveguiding and coupling to photonic crystals.

We describe a zoned microstructure fiber that exhibits low dispersion and virtually zero spherical aberration because of its optimized piecewise Gaussian index profile. We present results of a nine-zone design that has an average refractive index of 2.3, a refractive-index contrast of 0.1, a first zone radius of 1.67 microm, and a maximum core radius of 5 microm. It has an in-fiber focal length of 8.88 microm and can focus light to a spot size of radius 315 nm, facilitating efficient coupling between single-mode fiber and photonic crystals.