Supercell lattice method for photonic crystal fibers

A supercell lattice method, believed to be novel, deduced from the plane-wave expansion method and the localized basis function method, is presented for analyzing photonic crystal fibers (PCFs). The electric field is decomposed by use of Hermite-Gaussian functions, and the dielectric constant of PCFs missing a central air hole is considered as the sum of two virtual different periodic dielectric structures of perfect photonic crystals (PCs). The structures of both virtual PCs are expanded in cosine functions. From the wave equation and the orthonormality of the Hermite-Gaussian functions, the propagation characteristics of the PCFs, such as the mode field distribution, the effective area, and the dispersion property, are obtained. The accuracy of the novel method is demonstrated as we obtain the same results when the dielectric constant is split into two virtual ideal PCs in different ways. (C) 2003 Optical Society of America.