Design and analysis of dispersion-compensating chalcogenide photonic crystal fiber with high birefringence

Abstract

The photonic crystal fiber (PCF) with a bunch of air holes enclosing the silica core field has momentous and compelling attributes when compared with the ordinary single-mode fibers. In this work, both the birefringence and dispersion properties of a polarization-maintaining chalcogenide (ChG) photonic crystal fiber are numerically investigated by means of the finite element method. Through simulation, it is found that the birefringence of the proposed $${\mathrm{G}\mathrm{e}}_{11.5}{\mathrm{A}\mathrm{s}}_{24}{\mathrm{S}\mathrm{e}}_{64.5}$$ PCF can reach as high as $$0.03$$ when compared with the conventional fiber that has merely $$5\times {10}^{-4}$$ for wavelengths in the 2–10 $$\upmu \mathrm{m}$$ range. The PCF is designed with zero-dispersion wavelengths for x- and y-polarized modes in the 2–10 $$\upmu \mathrm{m}$$ range. It is also observed that over the entire MIR wavelength range, the GVD remains positive and has a maximum value of 30,000 ps2/nm-km. Hence, the proposed $${\mathrm{G}\mathrm{e}}_{11.5}{\mathrm{A}\mathrm{s}}_{24}{\mathrm{S}\mathrm{e}}_{64.5}$$ PCF plays the dual role of acting as a very good polarization-maintaining fiber due to its very high birefringence and an excellent dispersion-compensating fiber due to its large positive GVD. This $${\mathrm{G}\mathrm{e}}_{11.5}{\mathrm{A}\mathrm{s}}_{24}{\mathrm{S}\mathrm{e}}_{64.5}$$ PCF serves as a very good candidate for ultra-broadband high bit-rate transmission. Supercontinuum generation is another important application of PCF. Supercontinuum generation is a generation of coherent and broadband light. SC generation in PCFs has several applications in optical coherence tomography (OCT), optical frequency metrology (OFM), pulse compression, and design of ultrafast femtosecond laser pulses.