Antiresonant reflecting photonic crystal optical waveguides

We propose a simple analytical theory for low-index core photonic bandgap optical waveguides based on an antiresonant reflecting guidance mechanism. We identify anew regime of guidance in which the spectral properties of these structures are largely determined by the thickness of the high-index layers and the refractive-index contrast and are not particularly sensitive to the period of the cladding layers. The attenuation properties are controlled by the number of high/low-index cladding layers. Numerical simulations with the beam propagation method confirm the predictions of the analytical model. We discuss the implications of the results for photonic bandgap fibers. (C) 2002 Optical Society of America.