Ultrahigh birefringent index guiding photonic crystal fibers

A novel index guiding photonic crystal fiber made of pure silica is proposed which yields very high birefringence (∼3.474×10−2) over the 1.55 µm wavelength band and higher at longer wavelengths. Employing finite element method, optical properties such as chromatic dispersion, polarization mode dispersion, confinement loss, nonlinearity etc. are calculated and the effects of variation of fiber parameters on them are analyzed. A strategy for trade-off between confinement loss and chromatic dispersion without affecting the birefringence is demonstrated. The proposed fiber is likely to find important applications in coherent optical communication systems and sensing applications.