Chromatic dispersion and losses of microstructured optical fibers

Using a rigorous and vector multipole method, we compute both losses and dispersion properties of microstructured optical fibers with finite cross sections. We restrict our study to triangular lattices of air-hole inclusions in a silica matrix, taking into account material dispersion. The fiber core is modeled by a missing inclusion. The influence of pitch, hole diameter, and number of hole rings on chromatic dispersion is described, and physical insights are given to explain the behavior observed. It is shown that flattened dispersion curves obtained for certain microstructured fiber configurations are unsuitable for applications because of the fibers' high losses and that they cannot be improved by a simple increase of the number of air-hole rings.