Analysis of air-guiding photonic bandgap fibers

We present what is to our knowledge the first theoretical analysis of air-guiding photonic bandgap fibers. The fibers are characterized by a large hollow core and a microstructured cladding exhibiting photonic bandgap effects. Using an efficient, full-vectorial numerical method, we explain the operational principle of the fibers and obtain detailed information about the properties of the air-guided modes. This information includes accurate determination of the modes' spectral extent, cutoff properties, and mode-field distributions.