Te-As-Se glass microstructured optical fiber for the middle infrared.

We present the first fabrication, to the best of our knowledge, of chalcogenide microstructured optical fibers in Te-As-Se glass, their optical characterization, and numerical simulations in the middle infrared. In a first fiber, numerical simulations exhibit a single-mode behavior at 3.39 and 9.3 microm, in good agreement with experimental near-field captures at 9.3 microm. The second fiber is not monomode between 3.39 and 9.3 microm, but the fundamental losses are 9 dB/m at 3.39 microm and 6 dB/m at 9.3 microm. The experimental mode field diameters are compared to the theoretical ones with a good accordance.