Patent ID: 7327928

Claim:
A method for shifting a beam wavelength comprising: introducing the beam into a hollow core chalcogenide photonic bandgap glass fiber having a Raman active gas disposed in the core, the gas comprising at least one of hydrogen, deuterium, methane, hydrogen iodide, and mixtures thereof; conveying the beam through the core while it interacts with the gas to produce a Stokes beam of a different wavelength; and removing the Stokes beam from the core of the fiber, wherein the hollow core chalcogenide photonic bandgap glass fiber includes a microstructured region disposed around said core and a solid region disposed around said microstructured region for providing structural integrity to said microstructured region, said microstructured region comprising a plurality of openings having a center to center distance such as to yield at least one photonic band gap in the infrared region beyond about 2 μm wavelength.