Analysis and Design of Photonic Crystal Fibers Based on an Improved Effective-Index Method

Author

Li, Hongbo ; Mafi, Arash ; Schülzgen, Axel ; Li, Li ; Temyanko, Valery L. ; Peyghambarian, Nasser ; Moloney, Jerome V.

Author_Institution

Arizona Center for Math. Sci., Arizona Univ., Tucson, AZ

Volume

25

Issue

5

fYear

2007

fDate

5/1/2007 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1224

Lastpage

1230

Abstract

The modal characteristics of photonic crystal fibers (PCFs), with guiding cores consisting of one or seven missing airholes, are investigated with the finite element method and compared to those of step-index fibers (SIFs). To extend the applicability of the classical SIF theories to PCFs, the effective refractive index of photonic crystal cladding and the effective core radius of a PCF are studied systematically, based on simple physically consistent concepts. With the new effective cladding index and core radius of PCFs, the classical definition of the V parameter for SIFs is extended to PCFs, and a highly efficient approach based on the effective-index method is developed for the design of PCFs. The new design approach has been successfully employed to analyze the modal properties of PCF lasers with depressed-index cores and further tested by using it to effectively estimate the number of guided modes for PCFs with large cores

Keywords

fibre lasers; finite element analysis; laser modes; optical fibre cladding; photonic crystals; refractive index; depressed-index cores; effective-index method; finite element method; guided modes; guiding cores; modal properties; photonic crystal fiber cladding; photonic crystal fiber design; photonic crystal fiber lasers; photonic crystal fibers; refractive index; step-index fibers; Fiber lasers; Finite element methods; Laser modes; Optical fiber testing; Optical fiber theory; Optical refraction; Optical variables control; Photonic crystal fibers; Photonic crystals; Refractive index; $V$ parameter; Effective-index method (EIM); fiber laser; photonic crystal fiber (PCF);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JLT.2007.893924

Filename

4167964