Abstract

A systematic study of directional coupling in dual- and multi-core microstructure fibers is presented. We introduce a fully three-dimensional, efficient and versatile method for modeling light propagation in index-guiding microstructure fibers. Using this model, the coupling length for the two most efficient configurations ($\sqrt{3\Lambda }$ and 2Λ inter-core separation) is determined as a function of the structural parameters (hole diameter and pitch) and wavelength.

© 2004 Optical Society of America