Multipole method for microstructured optical fibers. II. Implementation and results

We describe the numerical verifications of a multipole formulation for calculating the electromagnetic properties of the modes that propagate in microstructured optical fibers. We illustrate the application of this formulation to calculating both the real and the imaginary parts of the propagation constant. We compare its predictions with the results of recent measurements of a low-loss microstructured fiber and investigate the variations in fiber dispersion with geometrical parameters. We also show that the formulation obeys appropriate symmetry rules and that these rules may be used to improve computational speed. (C) 2002 Optical Society of America.