High Nonlinearity Holey Fibers: Design, Fabrication and Applications

We describe our recent progress in the development of next-generation small-core holey fibers (HFs) with unique dispersive and nonlinear properties. We report the use of Genetic Algorithms to optimize the dispersion characteristics of silica-based HFs, and report progress in soft-glass HF fabrication which has resulted in fibers with record values of nonlinearity.