Characterization of the channel walls roughness in photonic crystal fibers

• Surface roughness measurements inside photonic crystal fibers.
• Visualization of the channels inside the PCF's by SEM and AFM techniques.
• Height–height correlation and autocorrelation lengths of the channel roughness of a PCF.

We present electron microscope (FEI NanoSEM) and atomic force microscopy measurements of surface roughness in nanochannels in photonic crystal fibers (PCF). A method was invented to cleave the PCF along the axis without damaging the surface structure in the nanochannels allowing us to characterize the morphology of the nanochannels in the PCF. A multi-wall carbon nanotube mounted onto commercial AFM probes and super sharp silicon non-contact mode AFM probes were used to characterize the wall roughness in the nanochannels. The roughness is shown to have a Gaussian distribution, and has an amplitude smaller than 0.5 nm. The height–height correlation function is an exponential correlation function with an autocorrelation length of 13 nm, and 27 nm corresponding with scan sizes of 200×100 nm2, and 1600×200 nm2, respectively.

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