Extruded seven-core tellurium chalcogenide fiber for mid-infrared

A novel tellurium chalcogenide (ChG) multicore fiber has been fabricated via extrusion for the first time. The fiber has seven cores in a hexagonal structure, with one center core surrounded by six other ones. The loss of the fiber is less than 3.5 dB/m in a range of 5-11 µm, and the minimum optical loss is 0.38 dB/m at 6 µm. When light is coupled to each core, the maximum transmission power is up to 1.1 W at 10.6 µm. Supercontinuum spectrum covering 2-12 µm at a bandwidth of -30 dB has been demonstrated. This tellurium ChG multicore fiber shows great potential in the field of high-power laser propagation and wide supercontinuum generation in the mid-infrared.