Analysis of guided modes in photonic crystal fibers using the finite-difference time-domain method

An efficient finite-difference time-domain method is proposed for the full- wave analysis of guided modes in photonic crystal fibers. The three-dimensi onal hybrid guided modes can be calculated by a two-dimensional mesh, if on e assumes that the propagation constant along the z-direction (propagation direction) is fixed. Furthermore, only real variables are used in the prese nt method. Therefore, the computation time and computer memory are signific antly reduced. The results for a honeycomb-based silica-air photonic crysta l fiber are in very good agreement with the results from the plane-wave exp ansion method. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.