Analysis of High Birefringence of Four Types of Photonic Crystal Fiber by Combining Circular and Elliptical Air Holes in Fiber Cladding

Abstract

This paper presents a numerical study of high birefringence induced by four types (Type 1–4) of different sizes of elliptical air holes in photonic crystal fibers (PCFs). The numerical simulation is carried out by using the finite element method. The statistical correlations between the birefringence and the various parameters are obtained. Based on our results, the birefringence is found to be largely dependent on the variation of the normalized frequency, size ratio, effective area of the circular and elliptical air holes, and the ring number of cladding. Two of our suggested structures, Type 1 and Type 3, can considerably enhance the birefringence in PCFs leading to values as high as 7.697×10−3 and 8.002×10−3 , respectively, which are much higher than that obtained by a conventional step-index fiber.