Coupling Characteristics of Multicore Photonic Crystal Fiber-Based 1$\,\times\,$ 4 Power Splitters

A new design of multicore photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) is proposed and investigated through full-vectorial finite-element method and finite-element beam propagation method. The fiber design comprises four identical cores surrounding a central core. The optical power launched into the central core is equally divided into other neighboring four cores with a 25% of coupling ratio. The coupled-mode analysis is also carried out to understand the supermode patterns and the coupling characteristics. Through numerical simulations, it is demonstrated that the optical power can be divided equally in a 5.8-mm-long multicore PCF. The power coupling characteristics obtained through coupled-mode analysis are in very good agreement with those calculated from beam propagation method solver.