PCK? No, it's PCF

Will PCF be the next big thing? PCF stands for Photonic Crystal Fiber, and is a relatively new type of optical fiber that has confinement characteristics which differ from (and are often considered superior to) conventional optical fibers such as SMF (Single Mode Fiber).

The jury is still out at the moment, but the potential is apparently immense, with possible (and some currently being applied) uses in fiber-optic communication, fiber lasers, nonlinear devices (e.g supercontinuum generation (SCG)), and high-power transmission, to name a few. Another area of application is in OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography).

It is quite interesting as there are several types of PCFs, such as Photonic Bandgap Crystal Fiber and Holey Fiber. No, the latter is not a relative of holey cheese.

Who knows, maybe I will even make use of PCFs in my research. Before that though, I have to do some more research into the feasibility of it, and explore the various possibilities.