Photonic Crystal Fiber Research

With the progress of the science and the society, people demand more about the micromation, high speed and stability of integrated circuit (IC), and traditional electronic technology can't meet the demands of the development any longer. So, people begin to turn to the high-speed, large-capacity and low-attenuation photonic system. Since the concept of photonic crystal (PC) came into being in 1987, people expected to control photonics with PC, just as semiconductor controls electronics. In this paper, to begin with the concept of PC, the characters of PC are detailedly elucidated. Depending on the spacial periodic distribution of the dielectric constant, PCs are sorted. And the manufacture methods of PC are introduced. Combined with the characters, the applications in many careers such as optical communications and opto-electronics are analyzied. Because of the limitation of the structure and manufacture technology, traditional optical fiber has much proper attenuation and dispersion. Photonic crystal fiber (PCF) has been the hot research object in the field of optics and opto-electronics as its remarkable difference and superiority in the structure and character compared with conventional fiber. By introducing the concept of PCF, the structure and light-guiding principle of PBG-PCF and TIR-PCF is respectively introduced, the characters and applications of these two kinds of PCFs are elucidated. Combined with the development of PCF, the practical significance about PCF's study is emphasized. Because of the great difficulty in manufacturing, it's very important for PC to be simulated theoretically by numerical methods. Theoretical computation not only gives necessary aids to experimental manufacture, but also is included in PC's study itself. The complexity of PC makes it impossible to get the close analytical solution. So, the accurate numerical simulation is vital for the analysis of PC's light-guiding characters and structure parameters decision. In this paper, the principle that photonic bandgap comes into being is analysized, furthermore the different light-guiding principle of PBG-PCF and TIR-PCF is elucidated. All kinds of numerical methods that are used to compute photonic bandgap and light-guiding characters are introduced, and the advantages/disadvantages of each method, the suitable situation when it can be utilized are also analyzed.