Although optical fiber is efficient for transmitting light, its functionality is limited by the dielectric material of the core and nonlinear-optical responses and has a dielectric diffraction limit. Therefore, the optical properties of the optical fiber cannot be altered after the fiber drawing fabrication, thus limiting the development of novel in-fiber devices. In this talk, I will present our recent development of “Meta”-optical fiber, an advanced optical fiber integrated with emerging nanophotonic concepts such as optical metasurfaces, plasmonic nanowires, and zero-index photonics. I will present the development of ultrathin optical metalens which is cascaded on the facet of a photonic crystal fiber that enables light focusing. I will also discuss the first experimental demonstration of zero-index resonance excitation in an optical fiber coated with AZO nanolayer and the excitation of plasmonic resonances on holey optical fiber for advanced optical sensing and tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. These advanced “meta”-optical fibers open a pathway to revolutionary in-fiber lasers/spectroscopies, optical imaging/sensing, and optical communication devices.
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