Influence of vectorial effects on optical properties of photonic-bandgap fiber

Summary form only given. Photonic crystal fibers, i.e., holey fibers (HFs), where guiding is based on modified TIR, and photonic-bandgap fibers (PBGFs), where guiding relies on a genuine photonic band gap effect, have attracted much interest recently because of their exciting peculiarities compared to standard optical fibers. Proceeding from HFs to PBGFs the influence of vectorial effects is increased due to the higher air filling fractions of the structures. In this paper we use an efficient full-vectorial method to calculate the guided modes in microstructured optical fibers based on a true photonic-bandgap effect to obtain correct mode profiles and dispersion curves. We show the necessity to include all the vectorial terms in the wave equation by direct comparison with the scalar model and a semivectorial model.