High birefringence photonic crystal fiber with a complex unit cell of asymmetric elliptical air hole cladding

Abstract

High birefringence induced by elliptical air hole photonic crystal fibers (EHPCFs) is analyzed numerically using the finite-element method. Statistical correlations between the birefringence and the various parameters are obtained. We found that the complex elliptical air hole is better than that of a circular one to obtain high birefringence in photonic crystal fibers. Our suggested structures can considerably enhance the birefringence in EHPCFs and show that the birefringence can be as high as 1.1294 x 10(-2), which is higher than the birefringence obtained from conventional step-index fiber (5 X 10(-4)), circular air holes PCF (3.7 X 10(-3)), and elliptical hollow PCF (2.35 x 10(-3)). (C) 2007 Optical Society of America.