IEEE - 40222

Photonic Crystal Fiber with Zero Dispersion and High

Birefringence
Binayak Anand, Pranaw Kumar, Saurabh Chandra, Jibendu Sekhar Roy
School of Electronics Engineering, KIIT University, Bhubaneshwar
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract— Two Photonic Crystal Fiber (PCFs) structures diameter of holes in the cladding region and size of the air
with holes of circular and elliptical geometry have been studied. holes. These design flexibilities results with unique features
A comparison of propagation characteristics of light have been [11] like dispersion [12], birefringence [13], endlessly single
made between structure with all air holes and partly filled with mode propagation [14] and other non-linear properties [15].
ethanol and partly with air. Second structure which is partly Birefringences [16], a highly desirable property describes the
filled shows anomalous dispersion behavior. However structure maintenance of input polarization state in fiber. It depends a
with air holes reports zero dispersion. Birefringence observed for both direction of polarization and propagation of light
2
both the structure is of the order 10 . Besides other transmitted inside the fiber. Light as an effect of birefringence
characteristics like normalized frequency, effective mode area gets splitted into two orthogonal polarization components with
and confinement loss have also been studied. different refractive indices. PCFs with high birefringence [17]
have been reported till now. Besides researchers have made
Keywords—Photonic crystal fiber, birefringence, dispersion, various effort to report highly bireringent fibers [18]. Non-
normalized frequency, effective mode area. linear effects in fibers limits its data carrying capacity. It also
results broadening of the frequency of the light propagating
I. INTRODUCTION inside the fiber. Non-linearity of a fiber is inversely
proportional to the effective mode area. Effective mode area
Chromatic dispersion in optical fiber has been one of the
increases with operating wavelength [19]. Partial incident
major limitations of fibers. Researchers have put their efforts
energy leaks out of core into the core-cladding boundary
to minimize dispersion. Howerver fibers with zero dispersion
through holes present in the cladding region facing core. Such
and large non-linearity are widely applicable in optical
kind of losses are termed as leakage loss or confinement loss.
parametric oscillator, signal switcher and multi wavelength
These losses can be reduced by increasing the contrast of
laser. Again almost flattened Dispersion observed in fibers is
refractive index between core and cladding region.
also an important issue. Splitting or broadening of optical
Researchers have made efforts to minimize such losses [20].
pulse during its propagation inside fiber is caused by
Endlessly single mode propagation offered by PCF makes
dispersion [1]. These dispersion properties are affected by the
them much preferable for transmission over conventional
refractive index contrast between core and cladding region.
optical fiber in optical communication system [21].
Variation in diameter of holes in the cladding region, pitch
factor and the arrangement of holes in the cladding region are In this paper we have simulated two PCFs structure,
the dispersion controlling parameters of fibers [2]. Dispersion structure A and structure B. Both the structure have Lead
observed in fibers are of two types:- Material dispersion and silicate as wafer and have seven rings of holes in the cladding
waveguide dispersion. Zero dispersion fibers [3], ultra region. They have three external rings with circular holes and
flattened dispersion [4] and negative dispersion [5] fiber has four internal four elliptical holes. Structure A have all holes
been reported so far. Various other PCFs structures to filled with air. Structure B have circular holes filled with air
minimize dispersion has also been simulated. Exceptional and elliptical holes filled with ethanol. Structure B reports
light guiding mechanism makes PCFs much superior to that of comparatively better results. It shows negative dispersion with
conventional optical fiber [6]. A microscopic array of channels very high birefringence. However structure A reports ultra
(may be air holes or any channel with different refractive flattened zero dispersion.
index). These channels runs along the length of the fiber.
PCFs consists of silica glass with a periodic arrangement of II. DESIGN AND THEORY
these microscopic holes or array. PCFs also known as honey
comb fibers [7] have made of promising approach to handle We have simulated two structures. Structures A have circular
the higher bit transmission. Based on the structure, PCFs are holes filled with air and elliptical holes filled with ethanol.
of two types solid core PCFs [8] and hollow core PCFs [9]. Structure B have all the holes filled with air. Intention is to
Solid core PCFs also known as index guided fibers have core study and compare the behaviour of light in process of
surrounded by holes in the cladding region with lower different material material with that of air. Transverse section
refractive index contrast. It allows the light to propagate by m- of the designed PCFs has been shown in Fig. 1 (a). Designed
TIR guiding mechanism. Hollow core fibers have core consists of seven ring of holes in the cladding region.
surrounded by holes in the cladding region with greater Structure is chosen such that it has exterior three rings with
refractive index contrast. PCFs also termed as holey fibers holes of circular dimension. Inner most four rings have holes
offers wide design flexibility [10]. These flexibility includes with elliptical geometry. Both elliptical and circular geometry
variation of pitch factor (centre to centre spacing), variation in have equal area. Also the effect of variation in geometry of

8th ICCCNT 2017

July 3 - 5, 2017, IIT Delhi,
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 IEEE - 40222

holes in the cladding region is investigated. The birefringence Where  is the hole pitch,  is the wavelength in vacuum,
of the fiber is often measured as the difference of two
the ncore is the refractive index of core which is Silica and
polarization modes propagation in the fiber [22].
neff is the effective refractive index.
B  Re (neff x )  Re (neff y ) (1)

Birefringence can also be obtained from the beat length.

Asymmetric core and effective index contrast between
orthogonal polarized modes are two important parameter
considered to reactive birefringence of a fiber. Asymmetrical
core can be achieved by varying the diameter of holes near
core. The same can be achieved by altering the shape of the
holes or a defect in the centre of the core can be introduced in
this regard. Material dispersion and waveguide dispersion
together contributes to chromatic dispersion. It can be
controlled by varying diameter of holes facing core in the
cladding region, and by varying number of holes in the
cladding region. Moreover dimension of holes in the cladding
region also effects dispersion. It can be calculated as [23]

 d Re (neff )
2

Dw  (2)
d2
Fig. 2 (b) Designed PCF structure A.
c
Where  represents wavelength and Re (neff ) is real part of
effective refractive index.
Lower effective mode area results high non-linearity. Area
occupied by the fundamental mode inside the fiber is termed
as effective mode area and is obtained by [23]
2
 E ( x, y )dxdy 2 
Aeff  
  (3)
 E ( x, y )dxdy
4

Effective mode area of a fiber is inversely proportional to its

Non-linearity. It can be determined by using [24]:

n2 2 n2
  (4)
cAeff  Aeff
Fig. 2 (b) Designed PCF structure B.
n2 is the non-linear refractive index coefficient
20 2 III. SIMULATIONS AND RESULTS
( 3.01X 10 m / W for Silica).
A full vector module of Opti FDTD software have been used
Increase in the number of holes filled with air results the mode for simulation. TBC (transparent boundary condition)
to be more confined inside the core. It results reduction in surround the core-cladding region and it has been consider to
leakage loss. However as the modes spreadout of the core with report optimized result. Wafer is made of Lead silicate with
increase in wavelength, it also results increase in loss [24]. refractive index 1.80. Structure B having lead silicate filled
Lc  8.686ko I m neff  dB / m (5) holes with elliptical geometry reports a very high
birefringence. In compare to structure B, structure A reports
Endlessly single mode to one of the unique feature of photonic birefringence of the order 10-3, where as structure B reports
birefringence of the order 10-2.
crystal fibre. Veff helps in determining in single modeness of
any fibre. It can be calculated as [24]

Veff  2 2
ncore  neff
2
(6)


8th ICCCNT 2017

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 IEEE - 40222

Fig. 2 (c) Confinement Loss behavior.

Fig. 2 (a) Birefringence behavior.

Structure A shows zero dispersion behavior at 1.2µm.

PCFs structure with circular geometry and filled with lead
silicate shows anamolous dispersion behavior over wide range
of wavelength. However a minimum of 10 ps / nm  Km
dispersion was reported by the structure „B‟ at the first and
second optical windows.

Fig. 2 (d) Normalised Frequency.

Lesser the value of effective mode area, higher is the non-
linearity for the fiber. Structure B comparatively a higher
effective mode area. Hence it will shows lesser non-linearity
behaviour.

Fig. 2 (b) Dispersion behavior.

Both the structure reports very low loss. However structure A

reports higher loss compare to that of structure B.
Veff or normalized frequency ≤ 4.1, assures the PCFs to
support single mode propagation.

Fig. 2 (e) Effective Mode Area.

8th ICCCNT 2017

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 IEEE - 40222

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8th ICCCNT 2017

July 3 - 5, 2017, IIT Delhi,
Delhi, India
 IEEE - 40222

8th ICCCNT 2017

July 3 - 5, 2017, IIT Delhi,
Delhi, India