Modelling of Dispersion flattened Photonic Crystal

Fibers for Communication Application

M. Samiul Habib1,*, M. A. Motin1, M. I. Hasan2 , M. Selim Habib1, S.M. Abdur Razzak1 , and M. A. Goffar Khan1
1

Electrical & Electronic Engineering, 2Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering

Rajshahi University of Engineering & Technology, Rajshahi-6204, Bangladesh
*
samiul.engieee@gmail.com

AbstractWe present a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) for shaping

nearly zero ultra-flattened dispersion and low splice loss at
telecom window. The finite-element method with perfectly
matched layers boundary condition is used to investigate the
guiding properties. Simulation results reveal that, ultra-flattened
dispersion of 0 0.8 ps/nm/km is obtained in a wavelength range
of 1.33 to 1.71 m with low splice loss of 3.82 dB in the entire
band of interest from an eight-ring PCF.
Keywords- photonic crystal fiber, effective area, ultraflattened dispersion, confinement loss.

I. INTRODUCTION
Photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) [1] have claddings that
contain tiny air-holes in a pure silica background. Inclusion of
air-holes in the cladding creates sufficient index difference
between the core and the cladding to guide light by the
mechanism of total internal reflection (TIR). One of the
appealing characteristics of such fibers is that their chromatic
dispersion and modal properties can be controlled significantly
by varying the size of the air-holes, their number, and their
positions [2]. As a result, PCFs exhibit a number of unique
properties including wide range single mode operation, zero
dispersion at visible wavelengths, super high or low
nonlinearities, high birefringence, and ultra-flattened
dispersion [3]-[4]. Therefore, PCFs are so attractive in
controlling application specific dispersion and modal
properties [5]. Control of fibers chromatic dispersion is
crucial for practical applications to optical fiber
communication systems, dispersion compensation, and
nonlinear optics [6]. The confinement loss is also an important
loss parameter in PCFs. By modulating the parameters of the
holey cladding, it is possible to design application specific
guiding properties [7]. In broadband communications systems,
fiber dispersion and confinement loss play very important
roles. For example, in wavelength division multiplexing
systems it is essential to maintain a uniform response in
different wavelength channels. This is strictly achieved by
ensuring ultra-flattened dispersion characteristics of fibers [8].
This novel property of PCFs helps in tuning transmission
characteristics namely dispersion, nonlinearity, and
confinement loss in smart ways. In this paper, we report a
design of dispersion-flat using a hexagonal cladding concept.

Optimizing the geometrical parameters, such as air-hole

diameters and their position, the ultra-flattened zero dispersion
PCF can be efficiently designed. This proposed design can
operate effectively as a single mode fiber with ultra-flattened
chromatic dispersion of 0 0.8 ps/nm/km (380 nm flat band)
and low splice loss of 3.82 dB at 1.55 m wavelength.
II.

DESIGN METHODOLOGY

Fig. 1 shows geometric structure of the proposed

hexagonal PCF. The air-hole diameters on the first ring and
second ring is d1, d2, while air-hole diameters on the fifth to
eighth ring is same d, and diameter of air-holes on third and
fourth ring is same d3= d 4. The air-hole pitch is . The
refractive index of the air hole and fiber silica is na=1 and ns
=1.45 respectively.
600

d d
d

d1

d3
d2

Fig. 1. Geometry of proposed eight-ring DF-PCF with 1st ring air-hole

diameter d1, 2nd ring air-hole diameter d2, 3rd and 4th ring diameter is same
d3= d4, diameter of air-holes on 5th to 8th rings is d, air-hole pitch and
number of ring, Nr=8.

dispersion slope as d1/ = 0.27 but the slope changes

significantly from the positive slope to negative one near the
wavelength at 1.33 m as the d1/ increased to 0.31 and 0.32.

1.445
eff

Effective Refractive Index, [n ]

As shown in Fig. 1, there are three tuning parameters,

namely d1, d2 and for controlling the dispersion nature of the
eight-ring PCF. Air-hole dimension of the first two rings is
scaled down to flatten the dispersion characteristics and
outer cladding air-holes dimension are kept larger to reduce
the confinement loss.

III. SIMULATION METHODOLOGY AND EQUATION

The fiber is simulated by a Finite Element Method
(FDM) with Perfect Matched Layers (PMLs) absorbing
boundary condition. The COMSOL software 4.2 version is
used as a simulation tool. The FEM directly solves the
Maxwell equations to best approximate the value of the
effective refractive index. Once the modal effective
refractive index, neff is obtained by solving an eigen value
problem drawn from Maxwell equations using the
COMSOL software 4.2, effective area and chromatic
dispersion of PCFs can be easily calculated. Chromatic
dispersion D can be obtained using the following relation
[9]

where, E is the electric field derived by solving the

Maxwell equations.

IV.

SIMULATION RESULTS

In this proposed PCF design, ultra-flattened zero

dispersion PCF can be efficiently designed by optimizing
the geometrical parameters, such as air-hole diameters and
their position. We first set air-hole diameters of the outer
cladding at d / = 0.9. In the outer most cladding a high
value normalized diameter is chosen for better field
confinement and also to reduce the confinement loss. Fig. 2
shows wavelength dependence of refractive index of the
DF-PCF for different pitch condition, . From fig. 2 it is
seen that effective refractive index increases with air-hole
pitch, due to increased of cladding region.
Fig. 3 shows an example of the effect of changing d1/ on
the dispersion slope with d1/ = 0.27, 0.31, 0.32 respectively,
for a fixed air-hole pitch =1.93 m and outer ring
normalized diameter d/ = 0.9. According to simulation, it has
been seen that flattened dispersion is greatly depend on first
ring normalized diameter d1/. Dispersion slope greatly
depends on first ring air-hole diameter. There is positive

1.435
1.43
1.425
1.42
1.415

Fig. 2. Variation of pitch, on the refractive index with d1 / = 0.30, d2/ =

0.33, d3/ = d4/ = 0.365, d/ = 0.9.

Chromatic Dispersion D[ps/(nm.km)]

Aeff = ( - - |E|2 dxdy ) - - |E|4 dxdy ............ (2)

1.44

1.41
1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9
Wavelength [ m]

D() = /c (d2Re[neff]/d2) ..........................(1)

Where Re[neff] is the real part of effective refractive index
neff , is the wavelength, c is the velocity of light in vacuum.
The material dispersion given by Sellmeier formula is directly
included in the calculation. Therefore, D in (1) corresponds to
the chromatic dispersion of the DF-PCF. The effective area
Aeff is calculated as follows [10]

=1.85
=1.93
=1.95
=2.00

20
15
10
5
0
-5
-10
-15

d1/ =0.27

-20

d1/ =0.31
d1/ =0.32

1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9

Wavelength [ m]

Fig. 3. Variation of d1/ on the dispersion slope with d1 / = 0.27, 0.31 and
0.32 respectively, outer ring normalized diameter d/ = 0.90, d2/ = 0.33,
d3 / = d4/ = 0.365 and fixed air-hole pitch = 1.93 m.

Now, effect of changing normalized air-hole diameter of the

second ring on dispersion curve has been investigated by
putting pitch =1.93 m and d1/ = 0.30, d3/ = d4/= 0.365,
d/ = 0.81. Fig. 4 reveals that dispersion is almost flat for all

For optimum result, air-hole diameter on the first ring is

scaled down to shape dispersion property. Finally, air-hole
pitch, is varied to achieve target zero ultra-flattened
chromatic dispersion in wide band wavelength range. Fig. 6
shows dispersion characteristic of the DF-PCF for optimized
set of parameters. Ultra-flattened dispersion curve of 0 0.8
ps/nm/km is obtained in a 1.33 to 1.71 m wavelength range.

10
5
0
-5
-10

=1.93, d /=0.30
2

-15

=1.93, d /=0.32

-20

=1.93, d /=0.34

-25
1

2
2

1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9

Wavelength [ m]

Fig. 4. Effect of d2/ on the dispersion level with d2/ = 0.30, 0.32 and 0.34
respectively, outer ring normalized diameter d/ = 0.81, d1/ = 0.30, d3/ =
d4/ = 0.365 and fixed air-hole pitch =1.93 m.

Chromatic Dispersion D[ps/(nm.km)]

+4.47 ps/nm/km for =1.85, 1.95 and 2.0 m. Fig. 5 shows

the effect of changing air-hole pitch, on the chromatic
dispersion behavior with d1/ = 0.30, d2/ = 0.33, d3/ = d4/
= 0.365 and d/ = 0.9.

20
15

Chromatic Dispersion D[ps/(nm.km)]

Chromatic Dispersion D[ps/(nm.km)]

three cases. It is seen that normalized diameter of the second

ring influences the dispersion level. The dispersion level is
about -5.36, -2 and +1.58 ps/nm/km, respectively in a broad
range of wavelength from 1.35 to 1.65 m, for d2/ = 0.30,
0.32 and 0.34.

10
5

Optimum Dispersion Curve

0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
1

1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9

Wavelength [ m]

10
5

Fig. 6. Wavelength dependence of the DF-PCFs chromatic dispersion for

optimum parameters: =1.93, d1/=0.30, d2/=0.33, d3 / = d4/ = 0.365,
d/ = 0.9.

0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
1

=1.85
=1.93
=1.95
=2.00

1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9

Wavelength [ m]

Fig. 5. Effect of changing pitch, on the dispersion behavior .

From fig. 5 it is seen that dispersion level depends on the

air-hole pitch. The dispersion level is about -5.47, +1.36 and

Fig. 7 shows effective area of the fiber for different pitch

condition. The effective is 10.43m2, which is small compared
to that of conventional fibers at 1.55-m wavelength for
optimum design parameters. Efective area of the fiber
increases with increasing pitch. Moreover, it is seen that at the
longer wavelength the effective area is almost same for all
pitch conditions.
Fig. 8 shows wavelength dependence of mode field
diameter (MFD) and splice loss between this fiber and
conventional single mode fibers (SMFs). The MFD of the
SMF is considered 10.0 m. The MFD is calculated by the
well known Pitermann II formula [11], and the splice loss Ls
is calculated by [12]-

Ls 20 log10

2 wSMF wPCF
dB
2
2
wSMF
wPCF

Where, WSMF and WPCF are the MFDs of the SMF and the
photonic crystal fiber or PCF respectively. The MFD and
splice loss of this proposed fiber is 3.64 m and 3.82 dB at
1.55 m.

Finally, a comparison is made between properties of the

dispersion flat PCF and some other fibers designed for
telecom applications. Table I compares those fibers taking into
flat dispersion magnitude and range, number of design
parameters including number of rings in the cladding, and
splice losse. Nr, N, and Nd correspond to the number of rings,
pitches, and different seized air-hole diameters used in PCF
design respectively.

Effective Area, Aeff [ m2]

16
Table I

14
PCFs

D
(ps/nm/km)

Flat
band
(nm)

Splic
Loss
(dB)

NDP
(Nr, N, Nd )

Ref. [3]

0 + 4.8

350

---

8,2,2

Ref. [13]

0.35

350

4.035

5,1,3

Proposed
D-PCF

0 0.8

380

3.82

8,1,3

12
10

=1.85
=1.93
=1.95
=2.00

8
6
1

1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9

Wavelength [ m]

Fig. 7. Wavelength dependence of the DF-PCFs effective

area for different pitch condition.

4.5

V. CONCLUSION
A near-zero ultra-flattened chromatic dispersion with low
splice loss for the eight-ring hexagonal PCF has been reported.
In this proposed DF-PCF design, flattened dispersion of 0
0.8 ps/nm/km from 1.33 to 1.71 m wavelength ranges (380
nm flat band) and splice loss of 3.82 dB at 1.55-m
wavelength is numerically demonstrated.

REFERENCES

5
MFD
Splice Loss

[1]

[2]
4

MFD [m]

Splice Loss [dB]

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[3]

[4]
[5]
[6]
3

1.1

1.2

1.3

1.4
1.5
1.6
Wavelength, [m]

1.7

1.8

1.9

2
2

[7]
Fig. 8. Wavelength dependence of the DF-PCFs MFD and splice loss
for optimum design parameters.

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