10 Gbit∕s 2 km photonic crystal fibre transmission with 850 nm directly modulated singlemode VCSEL

We made an all-silica optical fiber by embedding a central core in a two-dimensional photonic crystal with a micrometer-spaced hexagonal array of air holes. An effective-index model confirms that such a fiber can be single mode for any wavelength. Its useful single-mode range within the transparency window of silica, although wide, is ultimately bounded by a bend-loss edge at short wavelengths as well as at long wavelengths.