Finite-element modal analysis of large-core multimode optical fibers

Plastic optical fibers that are a typical large-core multimode optical fiber support a great number of modes compared with conventional silica-glass multimode optical fibers. So far the WKB method has been used for most of the modal analyses of these fibers because of a great number of guided modes. We describe the accurate eigenmodal analysis of large-core multimode optical fibers with the finite-element method (FEM) and compute the propagation constants of all LP modes. In addition, the FEM has a strong advantage for arbitrary core profiles whereas the WKB method is not suitable for nonmonotonic profiles. To demonstrate the advantage, we apply the FEM to the fiber having sinusoidal fluctuations. (C) 2004 Optical Society of America.