High group birefringence in air-core photonic bandgap fibers

A numerical investigation of group birefringence is carried out on a recently reported highly birefringent hollow-core photonic bandgap fiber by use of an efficient vector finite-element method. The hollow fiber core has an area as large as that of approximately four airholes in the cladding region and assumes a rhombic shape with round corners, and the airholes in the cladding region are hexagonal and provide a high air-filling fraction. Numerical results show very high group birefringence of the order of 10(-2) and phase birefringence of the order of 10(-3).