An investigation of polarization cross-coupling in air-core photonic bandgap fibers

Polarization cross-coupling is one of the most important problems in air-core photonic bandgap fibers (PBF). In this research, polarization cross-coupling is investigated for PBFs of different lengths. The analyzing and simulation results show that the orientation of the birefringent axes induced by residual core ellipticity fluctuates with an average period of ~2.5 cm and random angles uniformly distributed over approximately [-7.5°, 7.5°]. The birefringent orientation in PBF varies much more frequently and strongly than that in any conventional fiber because of the difference in drawing process, and this is the most important factor causing the strong polarization cross-coupling in PBFs.