Numerical simulations of active microstructured fibers

In order to examine the modal properties of microstructure fibers (MFs), a mixed edge-node full vectorial finite element method (VFEM) is used. Geometrical properties such as the size of the air holes need to be properly adjusted in order to have an active MF that operates as a single mode fiber laser. The VFEM is well suited to deal with complex geometries as well as active and dispersive materials. High order VFEM with quartic/cubic elements improves the overall efficiency and mode resolution by several orders of magnitude in comparison to the standard quadratic/linear VFEM.