We report a series of experimental, analytical and numerical studies demonstrating strong circular dichroism in helically twisted hollow-core single-ring photonic crystal fiber (SR-PCF), formed by spinning the preform during fiber drawing. In the SR-PCFs studied, the hollow core is surrounded by a single ring of non-touching capillaries. Coupling between these capillaries results in the formation of helical Bloch modes carrying orbital angular momentum. In the twisted fiber, strong circular birefringence appears in the ring, so that when a core mode with a certain circular polarization state (say LC) phase-matches to the ring, the other (RC) is strongly dephased. If in addition the orbital angular momentum is the same in core and ring, and the polarization states are non-orthogonal (e.g., slightly elliptical), the LC core mode will experience high loss while the RC mode is efficiently transmitted. The result is a single-circular-polarization SR-PCF that acts as a circular polarizer over a certain wavelength range. Such fibers have many potential applications, for example, for generating circularly polarized light in gas-filled SR-PCF and realizing polarizing elements in the deep and vacuum ultraviolet.
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