Dispersion optimization of nonlinear glass photonic crystal fibers and impact of fabrication tolerances on their telecom nonlinear applications performance

For most telecom nonlinear applications a high effective nonlinearity, low group velocity dispersion with a low dispersion slope and a short fibre length are the key parameters. Combining photonic crystal fibre (PCF) technology with highly nonlinear glasses could meet these requirements very well. We have performed dispersion optimization of PCFs made from selected nonlinear glasses with a solid core and small number of hexagonally arrayed air holes. The optimization procedure employs the Nelder-Mead downhill simplex algorithm. For the modal analysis of the photonic crystal fibre structure a fully-vectorial mode solver based on the finite element method is used. We have obtained two types of dispersion optimized nonlinear PCF designs: PCFs of the first type are single-mode and highly nonlinear with a small and flattened dispersion in the 1500-1600 nm range. These PCF structures have air holes hexagonally arrayed in from 3 to 5 rings, however, their dispersion characteristics are very sensitive to variations in structural parameters. PCFs of the second type are two-ring PCFs with larger multi-mode cores. They have fundamental mode's zero dispersion wavelength around 1550 nm with non-zero moderate dispersion slopes which are less sensitive to structural variation. It is supposed that this alternative PCF design will be easier to fabricate. The effects of fabrication imprecision on the dispersion characteristics for both PCF designs are demonstrated numerically and discussed in the context of nonlinear telecom applications.

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