Design and optimization of photonic crystal fibers for broad-band dispersion compensation

Design of photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) for application of broad-band dispersion compensation is investigated by using an improved design model based on combination of a rigorous vector solver for modal properties and a scaling approach for dispersion characteristics. The newly designed PCF is shown to exhibit large normal dispersion up to -474.5 ps/nm/km, nearly five times of conventional dispersion compensating fibers, and compensate conventional single-mode fibers within /spl plusmn/0.05 ps/nm/km over a 236-nm wavelength range. Furthermore, the design model and methodology can be applied to design other dispersion-based devices such as dispersion flattened fibers and dispersion shifted fibers.