Adiabatic coupling in tapered air-silica microstructured optical fiber

We study adiabatic mode propagation in tapered air-silica microstructured optical fibers and demonstrate efficient coupling into a robust high-delta microstructured fiber. In the waist region of the taper, the core mode is tightly confined by the air holes and exhibits properties similar to a high-delta waveguide such as enhanced peak intensity and widely flattened anomalous dispersion. We exploit these properties to generate tunable self-frequency shifting Raman solitons over the communications window from 1.3 μm to 1.65 μm, with over 60% conversion efficiency These fiber devices are practical for several reasons: they can be fusion spliced to standard single-mode fibers with relatively low loss, they are mechanically strong, due to the supporting cladding, and because the mode is isolated from the surrounding air interface, they can potentially be recoated allowing for packaging.