Microstructured optical fibers are not new, but interest has revived because of their potential applications in fields such as optical communications and optical coherence tomography. In an article in the Dec. 17 issue of Optics Express, researchers from Lucent Technologies' Optical Fiber Solutions in Murray Hill, N.J., compiled studies of modal characteristics of several fiber designs to present multiple device applications that may provide a platform for future photonics technologies.The studies used Bragg gratings inscribed into core regions of the microstructures to determine the modal qualities of the fibers. The researchers applied these studies to design structures such as hybrid tunable optical fiber waveguides, tunable grating filters, tapered microstructured optical fibers and nonlinear devices.