The design of an all-solid, soft glass-based, large mode area Bragg fiber for effective single mode operation with mode effective area exceeding 1100 μm2 across the wavelength range of 2-4 μm is reported. The design adopts a new strategy to induce large differential loss between the fundamental and higher order modes for effective single-mode operation within few tens of centimetres length of an otherwise multimode fiber. In addition to having the potential for the targeted application in high power laser delivery systems; complemented by a zero dispersion wavelength at 2.04 μm and rapidly developing mid-IR optical sources, the proposed fiber should also be attractive for generation of high power, single mode and less divergent supercontinuum light over this mid-IR window. © 2011 Optical Society of America.