Bandwidth enhancement by differential mode attenuation in multimode photonic crystal Bragg fibers

In multimode bandgap guiding fibers higher-order modes have high radiation losses. Once excited, after a short propagation distance such modes are leaked out of the fiber core. Reduction of the number of excited modes in the fiber core leads to a decrease of intermodal dispersion and a dramatic enhancement of fiber bandwidth. Due to the increase in the propagation loss, bandwidth enhancement by differential mode attenuation also leads to the reduction of the maximal length of a usable fiber span. We demonstrate that by proper design of a photonic crystal reflector long fiber spans of high bandwidth are possible.