Vectorial wave analysis of stress-applied polarization-maintaining optical fibers by the finite-element method

A vectorial wave analysis of stress-applied polarization-maintaining optical fibers is presented using a vector -field finite-element method. In this approach, the divergence-free constraint for is imposed and the spurious, nonphysical solutions which are included in the solutions of earlier vectorial finite-element methods do not appear in a guided region. In order to verify the accuracy of solutions, numerical results for a step-index circular-core fiber are presented and compared with exact ones. We also propose an approximate method for calculating the splice loss between two optical fibers and show the normalized radiated power caused by transverse offset between two stress-applied optical fibers.