Finite-element analysis of birefringence in azymuthally inhomogeneous optical fibre

This communication reports the existence of a general purpose finite-element analysis program which can be used for the analysis of stress-induced birefringence in a single-mode optical fibre. This is applied to the azimuthally inhomogeneous fibre and it is found that the stress-induced birefringence is an order of magnitude larger than the geometric birefringence in the vicinity of V = 2. Maximum birefringence occurs when equal segments of different indices are used in the core.