Coupling characteristics of dual-core photonic

crystal fiber couplers

Kunimasa Saitoh, Yuichiro Sato, and Masanori Koshiba
Hokkaido University, North 13 West 8, Kita-ku, Sapporo, 060-8628, Japan
ksaitoh@ice.eng.hokudai.ac.jp

Abstract: Coupling characteristics of dual-core photonic crystal fiber (PCF)

couplers are evaluated by using a vector finite element method and their
application to a multiplexer-demultiplexer (MUX-DEMUX) based on PCF
is investigated. The PCF couplers for 1.48/1.55-µm, 1.3/1.55-µm,
0.98/1.55-µm, and 0.85/1.55-µm wavelength MUX-DEMUX are designed
and the beam propagation analysis of the proposed PCF couplers is
performed. It is shown from numerical results that it is possible to realize
significantly shorter MUX-DEMUX PCFs, compared to conventional
optical fiber couplers.
2003 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: (060.2270) Fiber Characterization; (060.2280) Fiber design and fabrication;
(060.1810) Couplers, switches, and multiplexers

References
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(1999).
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guiding photonic crystal fibers and couplers,” Opt. Express 10, 54-59 (2002),
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Lett. 27, 812-814 (2002).
13. K. Saitoh and M. Koshiba, “Full-vectorial imaginary-distance beam propagation method based on a finite
element scheme: application to photonic crystal fibers,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 38, 927-933 (2002).
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fibers: application to ultra-flattend dispersion,” Opt. Express 11, 843-852 (2003),
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layers for anisotropic optical waveguides,” J. Lightwave Technol. 19, 405-413 (2001).

#3042 - $15.00 US Received September 17, 2003; Revised November 13, 2003
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 16. F.L. Teixeira and W.C. Chew, “General closed-form pml constitutive tensors to match arbitrary
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(2003), http://www.opticsexpress.org/abstract.cfm?URI=OPEX-11-9-1015

1. Introduction
Optical fibers with silica-air microstructures called photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) [1, 2] have
attracted a considerable amount of attention recently, because of their unique properties that
are not realized in conventional optical fibers. PCFs are divided into two different kinds of
fibers. The first one, index-guiding PCF, guides light by total internal reflection between a
solid core and a cladding region with multiple air-holes [3, 4]. On the other hand, the second
one uses a perfectly periodic structure exhibiting a photonic bandgap (PBG) effect at the
operating wavelength to guide light in a low index core-region [5, 6]. In this paper, we will
focus on index-guiding PCFs, also called holey fibers (HFs).
HFs possess numerous unusual properties such as wide single-mode wavelength [4],
bend-loss edge at short wavelength [4], extremely large [7] or small [8] effective-core-area at
single-mode region, and anomalous group-velocity dispersion at visible and near-infrared
wavelengths [9]. In a usual PCF, there is one defect in the central region and the light is
guided along this defect. Recently, introducing adjacent two defects, two cores, into a PCF, it
has been shown that it is possible to use the PCF as an optical fiber coupler [10-12]. These
PCF couplers with adjacent two cores have possibility of realizing a multiplexer-
demultiplexer (MUX-DEMUX).
In this paper, coupling characteristics of dual-core PCF couplers are evaluated by using a
vector finite element method (FEM) [13, 14] and their application to a MUX-DEMUX based
on PCF is investigated. The PCF couplers for 1.48/1.55-µm, 1.3/1.55-µm, 0.98/1.55-µm, and
0.85/1.55-µm wavelength MUX-DEMUX are designed and the beam propagation analysis
[15] of the proposed PCF couplers is performed. It is shown from numerical results that it is
possible to realize significantly shorter MUX-DEMUX PCFs, compared to conventional
optical fiber couplers.
2. Guided mode analysis
We consider a PCF with multiple air holes in the cladding region surrounded by perfectly
matched layers (PMLs) regions 1 to 8 with thicknesses ti (i = 1 to 4), the cross section of
which is shown in Fig. 1, where x and y are the transverse directions, z is the propagation
direction, PML regions 1, 2 and 3, 4 are faced with the x and y directions, respectively,
regions 5 to 8 correspond to the four corners, and Wx and Wy are the computational window
sizes along the x and y directions, respectively.
Using an anisotropic PML [13, 16], from Maxwell’s equations the following vectorial
wave equation is derived:
∇ × ([ s]−1 ∇ × E ) − k02 n 2 [ s] E = 0 (1)

with
s y / sx 0 0 
  (2)
[s] =  0 sx / s y 0 
 0 0 sx s y 


where k0 = 2π/λ the free-space wavenumber, λ is the wavelength, E denotes the electric field,
and n is the refractive index. The PML parameters sx and sy are given in Table 1, where the
values of si (i = 1 to 4) are complex as

#3042 - $15.00 US Received September 17, 2003; Revised November 13, 2003
(C) 2003 OSA 1 December 2003 / Vol. 11, No. 24 / OPTICS EXPRESS 3189
 2
ρ
si = 1 − jα i   (3)
 ti 

where ρ is the distance from the beginning of PML. Attenuation of the field E in PML regions
can be controlled by choosing the values of αi appropriately.
When applying a full-vector FEM to HFs, a curvilinear hybrid edge/nodal element [17] as
shown in Fig. 2 is very useful for avoiding spurious solutions and for accurately modeling
curved boundaries of circular air holes. For the axial electric field, Ez, a nodal element with
six variables, Ez1 to Ez6, is employed, while for the transverse fields, Ex and Ey, an edge
element with eight variables, Et1 to Et8, is employed, resulting in significantly fast
convergence of solutions [17].
Dividing the fiber cross section into curvilinear hybrid edge/nodal elements, and applying
the standard finite element technique, we can obtain the following eigenvalue equation:
[ K ]{E} = β2 [ M ]{E} (4)

where β is the propagation constant, [K] and [M] are the finite element matrices [13], and {E}
is the discretized electric-field vector consisting of the edge and nodal variables.
z x
5 3 6 t3
y
silica

1 2 Wy

air hole

7 4 8 t4

t1 Wx t2
Fig. 1. Cross section of PCF surrounded by PMLs.

Et1 Ez1

1
Ez4 Et6
4 Et7
6 Ez6
Et8
Et4 5 Et3
2 3
Ez2 Ez5 Ez3
Et5
Et2
Fig. 2. Curvilinear hybrid edge/nodal element.

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 Table 1. PML parameters.

PML PML region

parameter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
sx s1 s2 1 1 s1 s2 s1 s2
sy 1 1 s3 s4 s3 s3 s4 s4

3. Characteristics of PCF couplers

We consider PCF coupler structures as shown in Fig. 3, where Λ is the hole pitch, d is the hole
diameter, and the background silica index is assumed to be 1.45. The separation between the
centers of two cores, A and B, shown in Fig. 3(a) is 3Λ and we call this PCF Type 1. On the
other hand, the separation between the centers of A and B shown in Fig. 3(b) is 2Λ and we
call this PCF Type 2. Figure 4 shows the hole-pitch dependence of coupling length L for the
two PCF couplers shown in Fig. 3, where d/Λ = 0.5, operating wavelength λ = 1.55 µm, and
the red and the blue curves denote the coupling lengths for the x-polarized and the y-polarized
modes, respectively. The coupling length L is obtained by using the propagation constants of
even mode βe and odd mode βo as
π .
L= (5)
βe − βo
The coupling length of Type 1 is shorter than that of Type 2 for the same pitch and the
same hole diameter, because the distance between the centers of A and B for Type 1 is nearer
than that for Type 2. Thus, we consider a coupler of Type 1 with shorter coupling length.
z x z x
Type 1 Type 2
y y

A B A B

Λ
d Λ d
(a) (b)
Fig. 3. Cross sections of PCF couplers of (a) Type 1 and (b) Type 2.

Figure 5 shows the hole-pitch dependence of coupling lengths for couplers with d/Λ =
0.3, 0.5 0.7, and 0.9, where the operating wavelength λ = 1.55 µm, the red and the blue curves
denote the coupling lengths for the x-polarized and the y-polarized modes, respectively. The
coupling lengths of couplers with smaller hole-pitch and smaller value of d/Λ becomes shorter.
Moreover, the coupling length of x-polarized mode is shorter than that of y-polarized mode,
because the two cores are placed in parallel to x-axis and the coupling of x-polarized mode is
stronger than that of y-polarized mode. Although, in order to obtain shorter coupling lengths,
strong coupling between cores is necessary, too strong coupling causes lower extinction ratios.
Therefore, in what follows, we consider PCF couplers using y-polarized mode. The structures

#3042 - $15.00 US Received September 17, 2003; Revised November 13, 2003
(C) 2003 OSA 1 December 2003 / Vol. 11, No. 24 / OPTICS EXPRESS 3191
shown in Fig. 3 exhibit relatively small difference between the coupling length for the x- and
y-polarized modes. The difference can be enhanced by introducing structural birefringence
into the cores. High birefringence can be obtained by adjusting the size of the air holes around
the two core regions, which gives rise to an enhanced difference in the coupling lengths for
the two polarization modes [18].
Figure 6 shows the hole-pitch dependence of coupling lengths, where d/Λ = 0.7 and the
operating wavelength λ is taken as a parameter. The coupling length increases with decreasing
the operating wavelength. A PCF coupler can separate two wavelengths λ1 and λ2, if it is in a
bar-coupled state for one wavelength and a cross-coupled state for the other; i.e., the coupling
length Lλ1 at the wavelength λ1 and the coupling length Lλ2 at the wavelength λ2 satisfy the
relation
Lλ1 : Lλ2 = even : odd (6)
or
Lλ1 : Lλ2 = odd : even. (7)

104
d /Λ =0.5
Coupling length [ µ m ]

Type 2
3
10
Type 1

2
10
x -polarization
y -polarization
101
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5
Λ [ µm ]
Fig. 4. Coupling lengths of PCF couplers with d/Λ = 0.5.

105
λ =1.55 µm
d /Λ =0.9
Coupling length [ µ m ]

4
10
0.7

103 0.5
0.3
2
10
x -polarization
y -polarization
1
10
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0
Λ [ µm ]
Fig. 5. Hole-pitch dependence of coupling lengths, taking the value of d/Λ as a parameter.

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 4
10

Coupling length [ µm ]
103
λ =0.8 µm
1.0 µm
102 1.2 µm
1.4 µm
1.55 µm 1.6 µm
d /Λ =0.7
1
10
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
Λ [ µm ]
Fig. 6. Hole-pitch dependence of coupling lengths for PCF coupler with d/Λ = 0.7, taking the
operating wavelength as a parameter.

Figure 7 shows the d/Λ dependence of coupling length ratios Lλ2/Lλ1 for couplers with
hole-pitch Λ = 1.8, 2.0, and 2.2 µm. The one wavelength λ1 is fixed at 1.55 µm and the
another one λ2 is 1.48 µm, 1.3 µm, 0.98 µm, and 0.85 µm. The wavelengths of 1.48 µm and
0.98 µm are used as pump lights in erbium-doped fiber amplifiers and the wavelength of 0.85
µm is used in short wavelength-range optical communication systems. Here, each coupler is
called Coupler 1, 2, 3, or 4. From Fig. 7, we could say that the optimum coupling-length ratio
is different for each coupler.
The structural parameters of Couplers 1 to 4 for 1.48/1.55-µm, 1.3/1.55-µm, 0.98/1.55-
µm, and 0.85/1.55-µm wavelength MUX-DEMUX are shown in Table 2. The fiber length of
Coupler 1 is longer than that of the others, because the difference between the coupling
lengths at 1.48 µm and 1.55 µm is shorter. The coupling length ratios for Couplers 1 to 4 are
L1.55 : L1.48 = 9 : 10, L1.55 : L1.3 = 2 : 3 , L1.55 : L0.98 = 1 : 2, and L1.55 : L0.85 = 1: 4, respectively,
and the fiber lengths are 2284 µm, 712 µm, 481 µm, and 1178 µm, respectively. The fiber
lengths are much shorter than conventional optical fiber couplers. In conventional optical fiber
couplers the two cores are separated by a long distance and the coupling between the modes
of the two cores is week, and so the fiber coupler length becomes long. On the other hand, in
dual-core PCF couplers investigated here the distance between the two cores is 3Λ (Λ ≅ 2
µm), and so very short coupling length can be realized.
Finally, using a vector beam propagation method [15], we confirm that the four PCF
couplers designed as Table 2 could separate two wavelengths of λ1 and λ2. The y-polarized
fundamental modes at λ1 and λ2 are inputted into the core A in Fig. 3(a) and the beam
propagation analysis is performed. Figure 8 shows the normalized power variation along the
propagation distance in the bar port. In Couplers 1 to 4, the separation of two wavelengths of
λ1 and λ2 is achieved at the propagation distance of 2284 µm, 712 µm, 481 µm, and 1178 µm,
respectively. These results are in good agreement with the coupling lengths estimated by
using (5), and Couplers 1 to 4 operate as MUX/DEMUX for 1.48/1.55-µm, 1.3/1.55-µm,
0.98/1.55-µm, and 0.85/1.55-µm wavelength, respectively. In Coupler 3, the field
confinement is weak because of smaller value of d/Λ, and so, the extinction ratio of this
coupler is lower, compared to the other couplers.

#3042 - $15.00 US Received September 17, 2003; Revised November 13, 2003
(C) 2003 OSA 1 December 2003 / Vol. 11, No. 24 / OPTICS EXPRESS 3193
 9
λ 2 =0.85 µm
8
0.98 µ m
7
6

L λ 2 / L1.55
5
4
1.3 µm
3
2 1.48 µ m
1
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
d /Λ
(a) Λ = 1.8 µm
9
8 λ 2 =0.85 µm
7 0.98 µm
6
L λ 2 / L1.55

5
4
1.3 µm
3
2 1.48 µ m
1
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
d /Λ
(b) Λ = 2.0 µm
9
8
λ 2 =0.85 µm
7
0.98 µm
6
L λ 2 / L1.55

5
4
1.3 µm
3
2 1.48 µ m
1
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
d /Λ
(c) Λ = 2.2 µm
Fig. 7. d/Λ-dependence of coupling-length ratios, where λ1 = 1.55 µm.

#3042 - $15.00 US Received September 17, 2003; Revised November 13, 2003
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 1.0 1.0
λ1 = 1.55 µm λ 2 = 1.3 µm
0.8 0.8

Normalized power
Normalized power
0.6 0.6

0.4 0.4

0.2 0.2
λ2 = 1.48 µm λ1 = 1.55 µm
0 0
0 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400 0 200 400 600 800
Distance [ µm ] Distance [ µm]
(a) Coupler 1 (b) Coupler 2
1.0 1.0
λ1 = 1.55 µm
λ1 = 1.55 µm
0.8 0.8

Normalized power
Normalized power

0.6 0.6

0.4 0.4
λ2 = 0.85 µm
0.2 0.2
λ2 = 0.98 µm
0 0
0 200 400 600 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
Distance [ µm ] Distance [ µm]
(c) Coupler 3 (d) Coupler 4
Fig. 8. Demultiplexing characteristics of PCF couplers.

Table 2. Parameters of photonic crystal fiber couplers, where λ1 = 1.55 µm.

Couplers
Parameters
1 2 3 4
λ2 [µm] 1.48 1.3 0.98 0.85
Λ [µm] 1.8 1.8 2.2 1.8
d/Λ 0.52 0.53 0.35 0.58
Fiber length [µm] 2284 712 418 1178

4. Conclusion
Coupling characteristics of dual-core PCF couplers have been numerically investigated and
MUX-DEMUX using the PCF couplers for 1.48/1.55-µm, 1.3/1.55-µm, 0.98/1.55-µm, and
0.85/1.55-µm wavelength have been proposed. From numerical results, it has been shown that
it is possible to design significantly shorter MUX-DEMUX PCFs with coupling lengths of a
few millimeters, compared to conventional optical fiber couplers with coupling lengths of
several tens or even hundreds of millimeters.
It is important that how the light should be launched into one core efficiently at the input
and collected from one core at the end of the PCF. These are problems to be considered in a
future work.

#3042 - $15.00 US Received September 17, 2003; Revised November 13, 2003
(C) 2003 OSA 1 December 2003 / Vol. 11, No. 24 / OPTICS EXPRESS 3195