Highly birefringent photonic crystal fibers

We report a strongly anisotropic photonic crystal fiber. Twofold rotational symmetry was introduced into a single-mode fiber structure by creation of a regular array of airholes of two sizes disposed about a pure-silica core. Based on spectral measurements of the polarization mode beating, we estimate that the fiber has a beat length of approximately 0.4 mm at a wavelength of 1540 nm, in good agreement with the results of modeling. (C) 2000 Optical Society of America.