Low loss, low dispersion and highly birefringent terahertz porous fibers

We demonstrate that porous fibers in addition to low loss and high confinement, have near zero dispersion for 0.5-1 THz resulting in reduced terahertz signal degradation compared to microwires. We also show for the first time that these new fibers can be designed, introducing asymmetrical sub-wavelength airholes within the core, to achieve high birefringence ≈0.026. This opens up the potential for realization of novel polarization preserving fibers in the terahertz regime.