Holey optical fiber with circularly distributed holes analyzed by the radial effective-index method

We analyze a holey fiber that consists of a circular distribution of air holes by the radial effective-index method. By this method, we show that the holey fiber is a leaky structure and its extended single-mode operation is governed by the differential leakage loss between the first two modes of the fiber. The effects of the hole size and the hole separation on the leakage losses of the first two modes are calculated. The leakage loss of the fundamental mode of the fiber is found to be comparable to that of a conventional holey fiber that has a hexagonal distribution of air holes. (C) 2003 Optical Society of America.