Optical Fiber Technology 5, 305᎐330 Ž1999.

Article ID ofte.1998.0279, available online at http:rrwww.idealibrary.com on

Invited Paper

Photonic Crystal Fibers: A New Class of

Optical Waveguides
Jes Broeng

Department of Electromagnetic Systems, Technical Uni¨ ersity of Denmark, Building 348,

DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark
E-mail: jb@emi.dtu.dk

Dmitri Mogilevstev

Optoelectronics Group, School of Physics, Uni¨ ersity of Bath, Cla¨ erton Down,
Bath, BA2 7AY, United Kingdom

and

Stig E. Barkou and Anders Bjarklev

Department of Electromagnetic Systems, Technical Uni¨ ersity of Denmark, Building 348,

DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark

Received September 9, 1998

Remarkable properties of optical fibers with a high-index core region and

a surrounding silicarair photonic crystal cladding have recently been re-
ported. Here we discuss the physics, the special guiding properties, and the
theoretical tools developed for the modeling of these photonic crystal fibers.
With an emphasis on the applicational aspects of the fibers, we study their
single-mode operation, bending losses, and dispersion properties. While
exhibiting certain unique properties, the high-index core photonic crystal
fibers share many common features with conventional optical fibers, at-
tributed to an operation based on the well-known mechanism of total
internal reflection. Fundamentally different from all high-index core fibers,
in this work we demonstrate a novel type of optical waveguide, operating
truly by the photonic bandgap effect. The novel fiber has an improved
photonic crystal cladding and a central low-index structural defect along
which the light is guided. The novel fiber has several unique features due to
its different waveguidance mechanism, including remarkable dispersion

305
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Copyright 䊚 1999 by Academic Press
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306 BROENG ET AL.

properties and the potential to localize part of the guided mode in air
regions. The results presented are fundamental in the field of photonic
bandgap guidance, and this new class of optical waveguide is, therefore,
expected to be of future interest to a large variety of research areas. 䊚 1999
Academic Press

I. INTRODUCTION

Optical fibers and integrated optical waveguides are today finding wide use in
areas covering telecommunications, sensor technology, spectroscopy, and medicine
w1x. Their operation usually relies on light being guided by the physical mechanism
known as total internal reflection ŽTIR., or index guiding. In order to achieve TIR
in these waveguides Žwhich are formed from dielectrics or semiconductors., a
higher refractive index of the core compared to the surrounding media is required.
TIR is a physical mechanism that has been known and exploited technologically for
many years. However, within the past decade the research in new purpose-built
materials has opened up the possibilities of localizing and controlling light in
cavities and waveguides by a new physical mechanism, namely the photonic
bandgap ŽPBG. effect w2᎐9x.
The PBG effect may be achieved in periodically structured materials having a
periodicity on the scale of the optical wavelength. Such periodic structures are
usually referred to as photonic crystals, or photonic bandgap structures. By
appropriate choice of crystal structure, the dimensions of the periodic lattice, and
the properties of the component materials, propagation of electromagnetic waves
in certain frequency bands Žthe photonic bandgaps. may be forbidden within the
crystal. This ability of photonic crystals to inhibit the propagation of photons with
well-defined frequencies has a close analogy with the electronic properties of
semiconductors w10, 11x. This fact has caused a tremendous interest in photonic
crystals, and their utilization has been predicted to have a major impact on a wide
range of photonics applications w12᎐15x. Furthermore, the scalability of the electro-
magnetic properties of photonic crystals allows them to be exploited over the whole
electromagnetic spectrum, covering optical to microwave frequencies w16᎐18x.
A special class of components incorporating photonic crystals are optical fibers
Žor waveguides. with a two-dimensional Ž2D. periodic variation in the plane
perpendicular to the fiber axis and an invariant structure along it. We refer to such
structures as photonic crystal fibers ŽPCF. w19x. Within the past few years Russell
and co-workers have pioneered this field by the realization of PCFs, compromising
fine silica fibers with an array of air holes running down their length Žsee Fig. 1.
w19᎐23x. This microstructured fiber has recently been used to form waveguides with
new propagation properties, compared to conventional optical fibers. We will
address these properties here, as well as the presently used tools for their
modeling.
Although these new waveguides show remarkable properties, it is important to
notice that they have a core, with a refractive index above the effective index of the
surrounding material, and the waveguidance is caused by TIR. The realization of a
fiber that truly operates by the photonic bandgap effect would naturally be of great
 PHOTONIC CRYSTAL FIBERS 307

FIG. 1. Photonic crystal fiber, currently fabricated at the University of Bath w23x.

interest from both a fundamental and an application-oriented point of view. For

the triangular-based cladding structure used for the PCFs, it has proven difficult to
realize a structure exhibiting PBG effect at optical wavelengths. We have thus
turned our interest toward different crystal structures. This search for new struc-
tures has proven to be very fruitful and has led to the development of a new PCF
design w24, 25x. We here present an investigation of this novel PCF, which appears
immediately realizable. It thus seems very promising for achieving the goal of
experimental realizations of new optical fibers, guiding light by a mechanism
different from that of all former fibers.
The paper is organized in the following way. In Section II we present three
different methods currently applied for the modeling of PCFs. The properties of
the index guiding PCFs are discussed in Section III, and in Section IV we
investigate new photonic crystal cladding structures and explain the principles for
waveguiding by the PBG effect. The novel PCF design is presented, and its
flexibility and possibilities of improving and adding to today’s fiber applications are
discussed.

II. MODELING PHOTONIC CRYSTAL FIBERS

The complex nature of the cladding structure of the PCFs does not allow for the
direct use of methods from traditional fiber theory. Especially for the novel PCF,
operating by the PBG effect, the full vectorial nature of the electromagnetic waves
308 BROENG ET AL.

has to be taken into account, and a method closely related to the plane-wave
methods used for calculating electronic bandgaps in semiconductors has been
developed. However, for the index-guiding PCFs, a simpler scalar model, based on
an effective-index of the cladding, has proven to give a good qualitative description
of the operation. We will be using this model to gain qualitative information about
the properties of the high-index core triangular PCFs, as well as a more advanced
method, based on the direct solution of Maxwell’s equations around the core
region of the triangular PCF using a set of localized basis functions, for accurately
determining the modal dispersion properties.

A. Effecti¨ e-Index Approach

In order to establish a relatively simple numerical tool that could provide
qualitative mode-propagation properties of the high-index core triangular PCFs,
Birks et al. w26x proposed a method in which sequential use of well-established
fiber tools was applied. The fundamental idea behind this work was to first
evaluate the periodically repeated hole-in-silica structure of the cladding and then
Žbased on the approximate waveguiding properties of this cladding structure .
replace the cladding by a properly chosen effective index. In this model, the
resulting waveguide then consists of a core and a cladding region that have
refractive indices n co and n cl , respectively. The core is pure silica, but the
definition of the refractive index of the microstructured cladding region is given in
terms of the propagation constant of the lowest-order mode that could propagate
in the infinite cladding material. We will now briefly review this scalar effective-
index method, which also has been used as a basis for the approximate dispersion
and bending analysis presented in w27x and elaborated on in Section IIIB of this
paper.
The first step of the effective-index method is to determine the cladding mode
field, ⌿, by solving the scalar-wave equation within a simple cell centered on one
of the holes. The diameter of these cells equals the pitch, ⌳, between the holes of
the cladding structure, and as illustrated in Fig. 2, their hexagonal shapes have
been approximated by a circular one in order to make a general circular symmetric
mode solution possible. By reflection symmetry, the boundary condition at the cell
edge Žat radius ⌳r2. is d⌿rds s 0, where s is the coordinate normal to the edge.
This means that in the corners of the original hexagonal-shaped cells we have to
imagine constant fields with values equal to those at the circular cell boundary.
The propagation constant of the resulting fundamental space-filling mode, ␤fsm , is
used to define the effective index of the cladding as n eff s ␤fsm rk Žwhere k is the
free-space propagation constant of light with wavelength ␭.. Figure 2 further shows
an example of the resulting field distribution in the cladding cell. It should also be
noted that in the calculation of this cladding field Žtogether with the effective-index
value. we have used the normal weakly guiding field assumption w28x, although the
index step between the central hole Žrefractive index 1.0. and the surrounding silica
Žrefractive index around 1.45. actually is considerable. However, the hereby intro-
duced inaccuracy is considered to be less significant than the approximation of the
 PHOTONIC CRYSTAL FIBERS 309

FIG. 2. Mode distributions in cladding cell for a silica PCF with a pitch of 2.3 ␮ m, and an air-hole
size given by dr⌳ s 0.40 Žfiber parameters comparable to those presented by Birks et al. in w26x.. The
modes are calculated at wavelengths 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 ␮ m. Inset shows the hexagonally shaped cladding
cell with its inscribed circular approximation. A slightly different circular approximation was used
in w26x.

guided-mode field in the effective-index fiber compared to the actual field in the
PCF.
Now having determined the cladding- and core-index values, we may calculate
the approximate propagation properties of the PCF as for a step-index fiber with
core index n co , core radius ⌳r2, and cladding index n cl s n eff . As an extension to
the cladding-mode model originally described in w26x, it was in w27x added that the
refractive index for silica was wavelength dependent. This was done through
the introduction of the generally applied Sellmeier formula w29x. In Section IIIB,
the effective-index model will be used for an investigation of bending loss and
dispersion properties.

B. The Method of Localized Basis Functions

Despite the good qualitative information provided by the simple effective-index
model, advanced numerical methods must be used for highly accurate modeling of
the PCFs. A method based on the direct solution of Maxwell’s equations, using a
representation of the refractive index and the field distributions as sums of
localized basis functions, has recently been developed for the modeling of triangu-
lar PCFs w30x. Here, we will review the method, and in Section IIIA we apply it to
the calculation of single-mode operation and group velocity dispersion of triangular
PCFs.
The guided modes of the PCFs are localized in the close vicinity of the defect
forming the core. Therefore, it is possible to model the guided modes by represent-
ing the fields as sums of functions localized in the vicinity of the core. A clear
310 BROENG ET AL.

advantage of such an approach is that for an appropriately chosen set of basis

functions, only a modest number of functions are required to accurately describe
the bound mode, thereby significantly lowering the demand for computational
resources. To implement the method we reformulate Maxwell’s equations for a
medium translationally invariant along the z axis as an eigenvalue problem for the
propagation constant ␤ w31x,

Ž ⵜH2 qk 2␧ . h H q Ž ⵜH ln Ž ␧ . . = Ž ⵜH =h H . s ␤ 2 h H , Ž 1.

where ⵜH denotes the gradient in the periodic xy plane, k is the free-space wave
number, and the components of the vector h H s w h x h y xT correspond to the
transversal components of the magnetic field H,

Hi s h i exp i Ž ␤ z y ck 0 t . ; i s x, y.

For the system of basis functions we used the set of Hermite᎐Gaussian functions
w30x

␾m n s exp y Ž x 2 q y 2 . r2⌳2 Hm Ž xr⌳ . H Ž yr⌳ . , Ž 2.

where Hm is the Hermite polynomial of the order m and ⌳ denotes the period of
the lattice. The functions ␾m n are mutually orthogonal and form a complete
system in the xy plane. They are localized in the vicinity of the point x, y s 0. In
the basis of functions ␾m, n Eq. Ž1. becomes the algebraic eigenvalue problem

Ý Lmk ,,ln h kH, l s ␤ 2 h mH, n Ž 3.

kl

for the vector of coefficients h k,Hl representing the transversal magnetic field in the
Hermite᎐Gaussian basis. Lm, n
k, l are the matrix coefficients of the operator on the
left-hand side of Eq. Ž1. in the Hermite᎐Gaussian basis. They are real and may be
found analytically for a wide range of lattices.
The implementation of the method becomes especially simple in the high-
frequency regime, where the coupling between the orthogonal components of the
field in the transversal plane becomes negligible. In this regime, a scalar approxi-
mation holds, and the eigenvalue problem Ž3. becomes Hermitian. For calculations
of the guided modes of the PCFs, the third term in Eq. Ž1., describing the coupling
between the orthogonal components of the field in the transversal plane, scales
with the air filling fraction, and for small holes the high-frequency limit is reached
very quickly. For example, triangular PCFs with an air filling fraction less than 10%
are in the high-frequency regime for wavelengths less than ⌳.

C. Full-Vectorial Plane-Wa¨ e Expansion Method

For the general calculation of photonic bandgaps in full periodic structures and
the modes introduced by structural defects, various methods have been proposed
w32᎐37x. One of the most widely used is the plane-wave method w32x. This method
solves the full-vector wave equation for the magnetic field and, as the name
 PHOTONIC CRYSTAL FIBERS 311

implies, is based on a plane-wave expansion of the field and an expansion of the

position-dependent dielectric constant. The method has a very general nature for
treating periodic structures and may be applied to one-, two-, and three-dimen-
sional problems. It allows one to calculate the photonic band diagrams of photonic
crystals and thereby the possible existence, width, and positioning of any PBGs. By
an enhancement of the simple plane-wave method, it may also be used to treat the
important case of structural defects in the photonic crystal. This is the method we
will be employing in Section IV for the analysis of the novel PCF.
For a single mode, the full-vector wave equation of the magnetic field H k may
be obtained from Maxwell’s equations and expressed as

1 ␻2
ⵜ= ⵜ = Hk s y Hk , Ž 4.
␧Ž r. c2

where k represents the wave propagation vector of the mode and ␧ Ž r . is the
position-dependent dielectric constant of the periodic structure. Taking advantage
of the periodic nature of the problem, the H-field may be expanded into a sum of
plane waves using Bloch’s theorem as

Hk s Ý h kyG exp Ž yi Ž k y G. ⭈ r. , Ž 5.
G

where G represents a lattice vector in reciprocal space, describing the periodic

structure. The dielectric constant may be expressed as a Fourier series expansion

1
s Ý VG exp Ž iG ⭈ r . , Ž 6.
␧Ž r. G

where
1 1
VG s H ␧ Ž r . expŽ yiG ⭈ r . dr. Ž 7.
Au

In Ž7., A u indicates the area of a unit cell, i.e., the smallest region, that may be
used to represent the periodic structure. In Section IV we will look in greater
detail at the special unit cells applied for the modeling of PCFs. Finally, by
substituting Ž5. and Ž6. into Ž4. a matrix eigenvalue problem is obtained, where, for
a fixed wave vector, k, the frequencies, ␻ , of the allowed modes in the periodic
structure are found as eigenvalues.

III. INDEX-GUIDING PCFS

Due to an operation based on total internal reflection, the properties of

high-index core triangular PCFs in many respects resemble those of step-index
fibers. However, very important differences occur as a result of the complex
geometry of the cladding structure. In this section we address some of the basic
waveguiding properties of the PCFs and compare them to standard optical fibers.
312 BROENG ET AL.

Second, we look at some of their more advanced properties which have a direct
application-oriented interest.

A. Basic Properties
Similar to standard optical fibers, the high-index core triangular PCFs will always
support at least one index-guided mode. In Fig. 3, we have illustrated the field
distribution of the lowest-order mode of a triangular PCF. The specific mode is for
a PCF with a pitch, ⌳, of 2.3 ␮ m, and a hole size dr⌳ of 0.23, where d is the air
hole diameter. The experimentally obtained field distribution is for the PCF
operating at ␭ s 458 nm. The corresponding contour plot of the calculated field is
presented in Fig. 3b. The field was calculated using the method of localized basis
functions, in the high-frequency regime, using 200 basis functions. The distribution
is seen to have the same rotational symmetry of the PCF. The field barely extends
beyond the first row of air holes surrounding the defect, so the high-index region
within the first row of holes indeed acts as the core of the fiber.
A manifestation of the resemblance of triangular PCFs to step-index fibers
appears clearly when regarding the group velocity dispersion ŽGVD. of the funda-
mental mode. In Fig. 4 we have illustrated this by plotting the frequency depen-
dence of the GVD for index-guiding PCFs and equivalent step-index fibers chosen
by matching their effective cladding indices in the low-frequency limit w26x. From
the figure a very similar behavior of the GVD is observed. There is, however, one
important feature separating the GVD of the two fiber types. For both fibers the
GVD of the lowest-order mode can reach negative values. While step-index fibers,
however, always support more than one guided mode in the relevant frequency
range, PCFs may be designed to support only a single mode in the same interval.

FIG. 3. Contour maps of the intensity distribution in the transversal plane of the observed Ža. and
modeled Žb. lowest-order mode for ␭ s 458 nm. The spacing between the air holes is ⌳ s 2.3 ␮ m, and
the ratio of hole diameter to the spacing is dr⌳ s 0.23. Filled circles represent the air holes closest to
the defect.
 PHOTONIC CRYSTAL FIBERS 313

FIG. 4. Group velocity dispersion of the lowest-order mode of PCFs Ža. and of equivalent
step-index fibers with the diameter of the core equal to 2⌳ Žb.. On both plots the curves correspond in
descending order to dr⌳ s 0.45, 0.35, 0.25. The plots represent a normalized waveguide dispersion
⭸ 2 Ž ␤⌳ .r⭸ Ž k⌳ . 2 . Positive values of this quantity correspond to the normal conventional waveguide
dispersion.

This makes the realization of PCFs having single-mode operation with negative
GVD a realistic possibility.
In fact, the triangular PCFs may be designed for endlessly single-mode opera-
tion. This unique ability was first explained by Birks et al. using the effective-index
approximation for the cladding structure w26x Žsee also Section IIA.. In traditional
fiber theory, a normalized frequency, V, is often used to determine the number of
guided modes in step-index fibers w31x,

2␲␳
Vs 'n 2
y n2cl , Ž 8.
␭ co

where ␳ is the core radius. Unlike for step-index fibers, the effective V value for
PCFs tends to a stationary value in the high-frequency regime. This behavior is
illustrated in Fig. 5 and is a result of the strong wavelength dependency of the
photonic crystal cladding index. In the high-frequency limit, the effective index of
the cladding n cl is approaching n co w26x, and we therefore realize from Ž8. that a
stationary Veff value may be reached for the PCFs. This is, of course, in direct
contrast to standard optical fibers, where the cladding index is largely wavelength
independent, and V ª ⬁ for ␭ ª 0, resulting in multimode operation.
The stationary Veff-value is defined by the ratio of the hole diameter d to the
period of the lattice ⌳, and increases with the ratio. Thus by designing PCFs with
dr⌳ below a certain value, Veff may be kept under the second-order mode cutoff
314 BROENG ET AL.

value over any wavelength range, thereby ensuring an endlessly single-mode

operation. For step-index fibers this cutoff V value is 2.405, and although a
different value is expected for the PCFs, we see from Fig. 5 that a cutoff Veff of
approximately 2.5 has been experimentally obtained. Above this Veff value the
triangular PCFs support higher-order modes, and a calculated field profile of the
second-order mode is illustrated in Fig. 6. The profile is seen to be very similar to
second-order modes of step-index fibers.

B. Ad¨ anced Properties

Among the most interesting aspects of the work on PCFs are of course their
waveguiding properties with respect to their possible application in modern fiber
optical communication and sensor systems. This means that a considerable interest
is directed toward aspects such as spotsize behavior, loss properties, and dispersion
properties. It is noteworthy that this area of investigation is still very young, and we
must, consequently, expect that many new developments and more accurate
methods for characterization and analysis will enter in the field. However, in order
to get a first impression of some of the waveguiding properties of PCFs, we have
chosen to apply the effective-index model Ždescribed in Section IIA. in an approxi-
mate analysis of the macrobending and dispersion properties of triangular PCFs.

FIG. 5. Veff for triangular high-index core PCFs. The curves correspond to values of dr⌳ s 0.45,
0.35, 0.25, 0.2 in descending order. ŽX. Second-order-guided modes observed experimentally; ŽO. cases
where the PCFs were found to support only the fundamental mode w22x. The measured contour map in
Fig. 3a corresponds to the lowest-frequency ŽO. point.
 PHOTONIC CRYSTAL FIBERS 315

FIG. 6. Theoretical near-field contour plot of the second-order guided mode of a PCF with
dr⌳ s 0.41 and ⌳r␭ s 4.8. Similar to the fundamental mode, the field of the second-order mode is
confined within the first row of holes represented as dotted circles.

B.1. Bending losses. The macrobending losses of optical fibers are very impor-
tant, not only from a practical handling point of view, but also because they define
the spectral window in which the fiber may be operated and provide important
information about the modes of the fiber. In w26x, the bending properties of the
PCF were described by the introduction of a critical bend radius, i.e., a radius
under which the fiber may not be bent in order for the excess bending loss to be
below a given limit. However, in order to numerically characterize the unique PCF
bending properties including both a low-wavelength and a long-wavelength bend-
loss edge, we have here chosen to apply the bending loss formula described in w38x.
In this formulation, which has proven to provide very accurate results for standard
optical fibers, the power loss coefficient due to macrobending is written as

y4⌬w 3
'␲ A2e a exp
␣s
ž 3a¨ 2
R
/ , Ž 9.
¨2
4 Pw ( wR
a
q
2⌬w

where ⌬ is the relative index difference between the maximum refractive index in
the core region and the cladding index, a is the core radius, ¨ is the normalized
316 BROENG ET AL.

frequency, and w is the normalized decay parameter in the cladding. R is the

radius of curvature, A e is the amplitude coefficient of the cladding electric field,
and P is the propagation power carried by the fundamental mode. Applying
Eq. Ž9., we directly calculated the bend loss from the Bessel-function coefficients
and propagation constant of the effective-index fiber. In order to choose a realistic
bend radius in this analysis, we consider a situation where the full length of the
fiber is coiled at a radius of 6.0 cm Žcorresponding to dispersion-compensating
fiber coils, or coils in a laboratory.. The bending-loss values for different air-hole
dimensions are shown in Fig. 7 for a silica PCF with ⌳ s 2.3 ␮ m. One of the most
important observations is that both the upper and the lower bend edges are found,
which clearly is in contrast to the case of the standard fiber. This difference is
further illustrated in Fig. 7, where the bend loss is also shown for a standard fiber,
which has the same core᎐cladding refractive-index difference as the PCF at the
wavelength ␭ s 1.3 ␮ m, and a core diameter of ⌳. The bending loss results in
Fig. 7 also indicate that a large operational wavelength range Žof interest to optical
communications. is available with PCFs. In addition, the PCFs have the perspective
of providing very low scattering losses, because they may be fabricated from
undoped silica, and as long as the air holes may be manufactured with sufficiently
large diameters, the PCFs seem considerably more bending resistant than standard
optical fibers.
B.2. Dispersion. If applications of PCFs are considered within the area of
optical communication systems, then the most interesting question at present will
probably be, What are the dispersion properties of the PCFs? In order to get closer
to the answers to this question, the dispersion properties have been calculated
using the effective-index model outlined in Section IIA. Once more, the design
outlined in w26x, i.e., a PCF with a pitch of 2.3 ␮ m, is used as a point of reference.

FIG. 7. Bending loss properties for standard fiber and PCFs coiled with a 6.0 cm radius. The
numbers indicate the relative air-hole diameter dr⌳. Similar results have been presented in w27x.
 PHOTONIC CRYSTAL FIBERS 317

For such fibers with variable air-hole filling fractions, the calculated dispersion is
shown in Fig. 8 as a function of wavelength.
From Fig. 8, we first note that for very small air filling fractions, e.g., when the
influence of the air holes is strongly limited, the dispersion curve is expectedly very
close to the material dispersion of pure silica Žzero dispersion wavelength around
1.3 ␮ m.. As the diameter of the air holes is increased, the waveguide disper-
sion becomes increasingly strong, and we obtain a significantly reduced dispersion.
It is particularly interesting that an almost constant dispersion level around
y60 psrkmrnm is predicted for a ratio dr⌳ s 0.40. Note also that the wave-
length range Žover which the flattened dispersion is calculated. is very broad, and
with reference to Section IIIB.1, the bending loss properties are not considered to
be a serious limit. These dispersion results indicate the interesting possibility of
applying the PCFs as dispersion-compensating or dispersion-managed fibers for
optical communication systems. Therefore, to investigate this option further, a
number of different designs have been analyzed. The most spectrally constant
dispersion values were calculated for fibers with relative air-hole sizes around
dr⌳ s 0.40. Some of the results are presented in Fig. 9, where very flat dispersion
curves with values below y100 psrkmrnm are seen.
For the fiber parameter range used in Fig. 9, it is noteworthy that the effective
normalized frequency w26x, Veff , is in the range from 2.0 to 3.5 Žsmallest value for
smallest pitch.. This should be compared to the result of Knight et al. w22x Žsee also
Fig. 5., who found that a PCF with Veff - 2.5 could be expected to support only a
single mode. Although based on an approximate numerical method, the dispersion
results strongly indicate that PCFs have potential applications as dispersion-manag-
ing components, and we aim to address the issue of dispersion properties in much
more detail in future work.

FIG. 8. Dispersion as a function of wavelength for PCFs with a fundamental cell diameter
⌳ s 2.3 ␮ m Žcurves are shown for different ratios dr⌳ .. Similar results have been presented in w27x.
318 BROENG ET AL.

FIG. 9. Dispersion as a function of wavelength for PCFs with a relative hole size of dr⌳ s 0.40
Žcurves for different pitch values: 1.4᎐3.2 ␮ m in steps of 0.3 ␮ m.. Similar results have been presented
in w27x.

IV. WAVEGUIDING BY THE PBG EFFECT

The PCFs we have been investigating so far have all had the common character-
istic of a high-index core and an operation based on TIR. In the remainder of this
paper, we address a radically new concept for optical fibers, namely photonic
bandgap guiding PCFs. For an understanding of the principle of waveguiding by
the PBG effect, and as a basis for the analysis of the novel PCF, we first briefly
touch upon some general aspects of photonic crystals and their classification.

A. What Is a Photonic Bandgap?

To support a full 3D PBG, that is the photonic crystal does not allow any modes
within a band of frequencies to propagate, irrespectiple of direction, the crystal
needs a full 3D periodicity w10, 39, 40x. However, structures with a 1D and 2D
periodicity are also generally classified as photonic crystals w41᎐43x. Where the 1D
case is well known and has been exploited for many years, finding use in, e.g.,
high-reflective mirrors, the possibilities of utilizing 2D periodic structures for
achieving PBGs have only been realized within the past decade. The main reason
for this is that where any refractive index contrast between the different layers in a
1D periodic structure results in a 1D forbidden gap, the realization of 2D PBGs is
far more demanding. The realization requires both a relatively large refractive
index contrast and a properly designed wavelength-scale periodic microstructuring
of the material. Such a periodic structuring at the wavelength scale represents
today the major technological difficulty for the realization of 2D and 3D photonic
crystals operating at optical frequencies.
 PHOTONIC CRYSTAL FIBERS 319

A.1. 3D field propagation in 2D photonic crystals. For 2D photonic crystals, with

wave propagation restricted to the periodic plane, the electromagnetic fields may
be decomposed into separate TE and TM components. While the low-index
contrast between silica and air does not allow for overlapping PBGs for TE- and
TM-polarized waves, it is important to notice that for the case of true 3D field
propagation in 2D silicarair structures, full PBGs may open up w20x. In this
quasi-3D case a separation of the fields in TE and TM components is no longer
valid, and when using the term PBG in connection with the PCF investigations, we
refer to a PBG common to all polarizations w44, 45x.
For 2D photonic crystals Žincluding quasi-3D cases such as for the photonic
crystal fibers. the vectors describing the 2D lattice have no component out of the
periodic plane. For 3D field propagation in a 2D structure Ži.e., quasi-3D case. the
out-of-plane component of the wave propagation vector, ␤ , will therefore always
remain constant. This knowledge of a well-defined out-of-plane component of the
wave propagation vector for a fixed frequency mode is crucial for the analysis of
the PBG guiding PCF. In the analysis, we operate with a normalized out-of-plane
propagation wave vector component, ␤⌳ Žnormalized propagation constant., and
normalized frequencies, k⌳, where again ⌳ is the distance between the nearest
holes and k the free-space wave constant Žs 2␲r␭..

B. Impro¨ ed Cladding Structures: Honeycomb-Based Photonic Crystals

Although the high-index core in triangular PCFs will always result in a funda-
mental mode guided by TIR, it is possible for higher-order modes to be PBG
guided, requiring that the cladding structure exhibit the PBG effect. Until now,
however, no such PBG-guided modes have been observed in triangular PCFs, and
we have turned, therefore, our interest toward new cladding structures, in a search
of photonic crystals exhibiting PBG effect at realizable dimensions. A structure
that has proven superior to triangular structures, with respect to broader PBGs, is
the honeycomb, or graphite, structure w24, 46, 47x. The honeycomb structure is
illustrated in Fig. 10, along with an indication of ⌳ and the unit cell of the
structure. As shown in Fig. 10, the air filling fraction, f, defined as the total area of
the air holes in a unit cell relative to the total unit cell area, will not be the same
for a triangular and a honeycomb structure with similar ⌳ and air-hole size. When
comparing triangular and honeycomb structures and using f to describe the
structures, it is, therefore, important to notice that for the same ⌳ and hole size,
the honeycomb structure has a factor 2r3 smaller f value.
A band-structure calculation using the plane-wave method for a honeycomb
structure with an air filling fraction of 30% at a fixed ␤ value of 2␲r⌳ is
illustrated in Fig. 11. The band diagram reveals the existence of two PBGs
Žprimary and secondary gaps.. For the specific ␤ value, no modes are allowed to
propagate in the honeycomb photonic crystal if their frequencies fall within one of
the two PBGs. To exemplify how to perform designs from the normalized parame-
ters obtained from, e.g., the band diagram in Fig. 11, we chose a nearest hole
distance, ⌳, of 2 ␮ m. For this value, the lower PBG region boundary of the
primary gap Ž k⌳ s 4.75. corresponds to the free-space wavelengths ␭ s 2.65 ␮ m.
320 BROENG ET AL.

FIG. 10. The two-dimensional honeycomb PBG structure.

FIG. 11. Band-structure calculation for a honeycomb photonic crystal with an air filling fraction of
30% and out-of-plane wave-vector component fixed at 2␲r⌳. The three high symmetry points of the
honeycomb crystal lattice are indicate by O, M, and X. For a full characterization of the photonic
bandgaps of the crystal it is sufficient to sweep the in-plane component of the wave propagation vector
along the boundaries of the irreducible Brilloin zone of the lattice w32x.
 PHOTONIC CRYSTAL FIBERS 321

By varying the ␤ value and plotting the boundaries of the two bandgaps, the result
in Fig. 12 is obtained. As is shown in the figure the silicarair photonic crystal does
not exhibit any forbidden gaps in the pure 2D case Ž ␤⌳ s 0.; however, as ␤⌳ is
increased Žmoving out of the plane. forbidden regions do open up. In the figure, we
have introduced the ‘‘radiation line’’ defined as the envelope of the lowest-
frequency-allowed mode Ži.e., the fundamental space filling mode of the structure ..
For the further analysis of honeycomb-based cladding structures, we include an
investigation of the effect of adding small interstitial holes in the cladding struc-
ture. Such interstitial holes have been observed remaining in the cladding of recent
PCFs, and attributed to the stack-and-pull fabrication technique of the PCFs w48x.
In Fig. 13 we have illustrated the unit cells that were used, both for the study of
triangular structures ŽFig. 13a. and for honeycomb structures modified by intersti-
tial holes ŽFig. 13b.. The relative size of the two gaps of the honeycomb structure
with f s 30% is illustrated in Fig. 14. The relative size is defined as the width of
the gap relative to its center frequency. Included also is the relative size of the first
PBG appearing for a triangular structure with same air-hole sizes Ž f s 45%.. As
seen, the relative size of the PBGs for the honeycomb structures is considerably
larger than for the corresponding triangular structure. Furthermore, the interstitial
holes are seen to increase the size of the PBGs, where in triangular structures
these have been found to decrease the PBGs w24x. Building on the intuitive ideas of
Joannopoulos et al. w3x, where the broadest complete PBGs were found for
structures with large nodes connected by thin veins Žsee Fig. 15., we realize the
superiority of the honeycomb structure over the triangular structure. The honey-
comb structure has intrinsically larger nodes and relatively narrower veins than the

FIG. 12. Out-of-plane properties of a honeycomb photonic crystal with an air filling fraction of
30%. Two complete gaps are seen to open up above the radiation line, defined as the frequency of the
fundamental space filling mode.
322 BROENG ET AL.

FIG. 13. Ža. Unit cell employed for the study of triangular photonic crystals. The angle between the
two lattice vectors R 1 and R 2 is 120⬚. Žb. Unit cell employed for the general study of photonic crystals
with a hexagonal symmetry. A honeycomb structure with interstitial holes results from setting the radius
of the corner holes to zero.

triangular structure. Furthermore, for the triangular structure, we notice that the
interstitial holes fall right in the center of the nodes Žthereby severely damaging
their ability to act as high-index centers .; in contrast, the interstitial holes in the
honeycomb structure are seen to leave the nodes undisturbed, while at the same
time narrowing the veins even further.

FIG. 14. Relative size of the photonic bandgaps for a honeycomb lattice with filling fraction
f s 30%. Interstitial holes are seen to have the effect of increasing the bandgaps. The insert shows the
geometry of the honeycomb lattice with interstitial holes Ž f int s 5%, f tot s 50%.. Similar results have
been presented in w24x.
 PHOTONIC CRYSTAL FIBERS 323

FIG. 15. Schematic illustration of the concept of nodes and veins for an intuitive understanding of
the influence of interstitial holes in triangular structures Ža. and honeycomb structures Žb..

The investigations of cladding structures presented thus far have been for
relatively large f values, where the triangular structures exhibit the PBG effect.
However, apart from the broader PBGs, the honeycomb structures also exhibit the
PBG effect at much lower f values than the triangular structures. This may prove
vital for the realization of the novel fiber. We have found complete PBGs in
honeycomb structure for f values down to as low as 5%, where no PBGs exist for
triangular structures. We therefore conclude that at realizable air-hole sizes, the
PBG effect is exhibited for honeycomb photonic crystals, and thus the basic
requirement for obtaining confinement by this new physical mechanism may be
fulfilled.

C. No¨ el PCF Design

Based on the results from the investigations of honeycomb-based cladding
structures, we have recently proposed a novel PCF design operating solely by the
PBG effect w24x. A cross-sectional schematic of the honeycomb-based PCF is
illustrated in Fig. 16, along with the design of the high-index core triangular-based
PCFs. Apart from the improved cladding structure it is seen to have a low-index
centrally placed structural defect. This defect is easily introduced as an extra air
hole with a size of the same order as the remainder of air holes. The exhibition of
the PBG effect at realistic fabrication parameters is, of course, a fundamental
prerequisite for obtaining PBG guidance, but the low-index defect proves further
advantageous for studies of PBG guidance, as it does not allow a fundamental
mode guided by TIR. An important feature of the new PCF is that it provides an
extra degree of design freedom compared to triangular PCFs. For triangular PCFs
only the pitch, the cladding hole sizes, and their shapes may be tuned for obtaining
specific guiding properties. Since the core in these PCFs is simply created by a
missing air hole, its geometry will be fixed by the above properties. In addition to
the parameters of the triangular PCFs, the novel PCF further offers the possibility
of varying the size and the shape of the central air hole, independently of the other
fiber parameters. In Section IVD we shall demonstrate how the guided modes of
the novel PCF may be affected by such changes.
324 BROENG ET AL.

FIG. 16. Ža. Cross-sectional view of a honeycomb photonic crystal fiber. For light having a
frequency within the PBG of the surrounding cladding structure, the central periodicity-breaking region
may act as a defect site, to which light can be confined. If the light has a nonzero wave-vector
component in the direction of the fiber axis, it may thus be guided along the defect. Žb. Cross-sectional
view of a triangular photonic crystal fiber. The central defect here causes a high-index region to allow
waveguiding by total internal reflection.

D. Confinement of Light at Low-Index Defects: PBG Wa¨ eguidance

For an easy-to-grasp explanation of the mechanism of confining light by the
PBG effect, we consider a light source at a structural defect in a photonic crystal.
The light source is operating at a fixed frequency falling inside the forbidden gap
of the corresponding perfect photonic crystal. In the close vicinity of the defect the
light does not experience the periodicity of the photonic crystal Žthe periodicity is,
of course, broken at the defect., and the light may well be allowed as the PBG
effect locally is not exhibited. Propagating away from the defect, the light starts
experiencing the full periodic nature of the photonic crystal and will be expelled by
the PBG effect, and thus forced back to the defect site. In this way a very strong
confinement of the light around the defect site may be achieved, and the light will
only be allowed to propagate if this takes place in the close vicinity of the defect
site. Such PBG confinement has for planar structures Žpure 2D case. theoretically
been shown to result in extraordinary optical waveguides, with lossless transmission
around sharp 90⬚ degree bends w5, 9x. For the novel fiber a point defect, such as the
central air hole, allows for modes with a frequency falling inside the PBG of the
cladding structure to be guided along the defect in the direction perpendicular to
the periodic plane, i.e., along the fiber axis.
To determine the guided modes of the honeycomb PCF, we employed a so-called
supercell enhancement to the plane-wave method. This enhancement allows the
treatment of structural defects in the photonic crystal. The principle for the
 PHOTONIC CRYSTAL FIBERS 325

enhancement is simple, as it just includes representing the structure by a large unit

cell in which the defect is included. The real problem that is solved is thus a
periodic structure, where also the defect is repeated periodically. For the accurate
calculation of the defect modes it is therefore necessary to choose a supercell
sufficiently large that the spacing between the two nearest defects is large enough
for their coupling to become negligible w33x. For the analysis of the honeycomb
PCF we are operating with a supercell resulting in a spacing between two nearest
defects of five simple honeycomb lattice vectors. Using the supercell plane-wave
calculation with a basis of 2905 plane waves, the modal dispersion curves, illus-
trated in Fig. 17, were obtained. The calculation is for a honeycomb fiber with
f s 18%, a central air-hole diameter of 65% of the cladding holes, and no
interstitial holes. The figure reveals several important differences between the
novel fiber and conventional fiber, including the high-index core PCFs. First, no
modes above the radiation line are observed, proving that no modes will be guided
by total internal reflection in the novel design. For index guiding fibers, confine-
ment is only achieved for modes having an effective index below the index of the
core region and above the index of the cladding region Žthe radiation line..
Considering first conventional fibers, a continuum of modes are allowed below the
radiation line; however, as these modes are not confined to the core region but
represent allowed cladding modes, a real fiber will not serve as a waveguiding
structure for these modes. For the novel fiber, however, we see forbidden regions
opening up below the radiation line, a phenomenon uniquely caused by the

FIG. 17. Core modes of a honeycomb PCF. The top dashed curve is the radiation line, illustrating
the effective refractive index of the cladding. The solid curves show the guided core modes. The
dash᎐dotted curves surrounding the guided modes represent the PBG boundaries. Constant frequency
lines Ždotted. are also illustrated, with their respective values given at the lower part of the figure.
Similar results have been presented in w49x.
326 BROENG ET AL.

periodic structuring of the cladding. In these regions no modes are allowed in the
full periodic photonic crystal, as discussed earlier, but the introduction of the
central defect may cause the existence of localized defect modes. Indeed a doubly
degenerate mode is seen to enter into the primary forbidden region at approx.
␤⌳ s 5 and remains there until approx. ␤⌳ s 30. At ␤⌳ around 15, a second
mode is seen to enter the secondary bandgap. Single-mode operation of this
specific PCF therefore may be achieved for ␤⌳ s 5 to 15. For a PCF with
⌳ s 2.0 ␮ m this interval corresponds to ␭ s 1.2᎐3.2 ␮ m. We have found all the
defect modes that are positioned inside the forbidden region to be localized to the
low-index defect region. Moving to the PBG boundaries the modes start coupling
to the allowed cladding modes, and these now-resonant defect modes therefore will
not be supported by the PCF waveguide over long distances. Sharp transmission
spectra for the PBG-guiding PCFs are therefore expected. As the defect modes
move to the center of the PBG regions a very tight confinement around the
low-index region is observed.
In Fig 18 we have plotted the calculated field distribution for the defect mode
appearing in the primary PBG at ␤⌳ s 10. As shown in Fig. 18 the field is strongly
localized around the low-index core region. Although peak intensity appears
outside the air region, this confined mode is fundamentally different to any guided
modes in high-index fibers. In principle, even strong localization in the air regions
of PBG-guiding PCFs is possible, and the prospects of this are clearly very
appealing; e.g., for sensor applications, the ability to confine light in air regions will

FIG. 18. Field distribution of a mode positioned in the primary PBG of the cladding. The real space
hole structure around the fiber core is indicated by dotted circles. A strong confinement to the
low-index core region is observed Ždark regions represent high intensity .. Similar results have been
presented in w49x.
 PHOTONIC CRYSTAL FIBERS 327

open up sensing possibilities that cannot be achieved by today’s known fiber types.
Also for telecommunications applications, localization of part of the guided mode
in air Žor vacuum. regions may prove very interesting. It is clear that nonlinear
effects may dramatically be reduced by the realization of a pure silica fiber, where
a large portion of the field is guided in vacuum. Regarding nonlinear effects as
setting the ultimate limits for the operation of today’s fibers, it is clear that
PBG-guiding PCFs have the potential to break the today known limitations. As the
results presented in this paper only represent the first efforts to explore the
potential of these new fibers, much work remains before they may find their way to
practical applications. An important feature to determine is the dispersive proper-
ties of the PBG-guiding PCFs. We expect from the different waveguiding mecha-
nism that these will be significantly different from index-guiding fibers. Although
not directly presented in this paper, we may gain some knowledge of the dispersion
in the honeycomb fibers from Fig. 17. First, it is seen that the modal index range in
which the fibers may be operated is greatly widened compared to that of conven-
tional fibers. As conventional fibers operate by TIR, this range is limited by the
core and cladding index difference. However, for the PBG-guiding PCFs we see a
much larger modal index range to operate in. Second, since the dispersion of the
novel fiber may be viewed as the curvature of the modal index curve, we realize
that the enlarged modal index range correspondingly greatly enlarges the possibili-
ties of operating the novel PCF in a region with specifically tailored dispersive
properties. Therefore, an obvious potential application of the novel PCFs will be as
dispersion managing components.
Finally, we focus on the appealing high flexibility of the novel fiber. By the
photonic bandgap effect, it is, as demonstrated, possible to open up forbidden
regions by correctly microstructuring the cladding and by introducing a defect site
to localize light within this region. By independently optimizing the cladding and
the defect structures, it is thus possible to tailor the properties of the fiber. In
Fig. 19 we have illustrated that it is possible by varying the size of the central
defect hole, but keeping the cladding structure fixed, to precisely tune the fre-
quency of the defect mode within the PBG region of the cladding. Although we
have only been investigating defect sites introduced by a single additional air hole,
many other ways of creating such defects may be thought of; e.g., for polarization-
managing purposes the introduction of asymmetric defects Žpossibly with a larger
defect region than that presented here. seems intuitively a correct design route. In
future work, we will aim at addressing such more sophisticated PBG-guiding PCFs.

V. SUMMARY

In this paper we have reviewed some of the progress in the field of photonic
crystal fibers. Emphasis has been on the applicational aspects of high-index core
triangular photonic crystal fibers, and qualitative results on their single-mode
operation, bending losses, and dispersive properties have been presented. We have
been investigating the basic guiding properties of a new class of optical fibers,
which are radically different from all known fibers of today, and are operating
328 BROENG ET AL.

FIG. 19. Tuning of the frequency of the core mode precisely within the PBG by varying the size of
the central hole. The plot is for a fixed value of ␤⌳ s 5.

solely by the photonic bandgap effect. The prospects of having a fundamentally

new way of guiding light, completely different from that exploited for several
decades now in conventional optical fibers, seem extremely interesting and we have
briefly touched upon some of the new possibilities offered by the novel fibers.
While the results presented in this paper represent the first efforts to explore the
potential of these new fibers, much work remains for determining their potential
use in specific applications, and we will pursue this in more detail in our future
work.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Professor Philip St. J. Russel, Dr. Jonathan C. Knight, and Dr. Tim A. Birks are acknowledged for
fruitful discussions. This work was supported by the Danish Technical Research Council under the
THOR ŽTechnology by Highly Oriented Research. program.

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