Propagation properties and stress sensitivity of square and hexagonal photonic crystal fiber

Propagation properties of square and hexagonal lattice photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) are analyzed here for stressed and unstressed conditions. The analysis has been carried out using finite element method (FEM). Both types of fibers are investigated here by varying number of air hole rings with same design and operating parameters. The results show that birefringence increases more as a function of stress for hexagonal PCFs than square. We also have found that external stress induced confinement loss is higher for hexagonal PCFs with lower number of air hole rings than square but it decreases very sharply with the increase of number of air hole rings.