Broadband terahertz fiber directional coupler

We present the design of a short broadband fiber directional coupler for terahertz (THz) radiation and demonstrate a 3 dB coupler with a bandwidth of 0.6 THz centered at 1.4 THz. The broadband coupling is achieved by mechanically downdoping the cores of a dual-core photonic crystal fiber by microstructuring the cores. This is equivalent to chemical downdoping but is easier to realize experimentally.