Ferroelectric all-polymer hollow Bragg fibers for terahertz guidance

Design of hollow all-polymer Bragg fibers using periodic multilayers of ferroelectric polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) polymer and a low loss polycarbonate (PC) polymer is demonstrated. Efficient band gap guiding is predicted near the transverse optical frequency of a PVDF material in the terahertz regime. Optimal reflector designs are investigated in the whole terahertz region. Depending on frequency, the lowest loss hollow Bragg fiber can be one of the following: a photonic crystal fiber guiding in the band gap regime, a metamaterial fiber with a subwavelength reflector period, a single PC, or a PVDF tube. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.