title: Design strategies and rigorous conditions for single-polarization single-mode waveguides.
abstract: We establish rigorous necessary analytical conditions for the existence of single-polarization single-mode (SPSM) bandwidths in index-guided microstructured waveguides (such as photonic-crystal fibers). These conditions allow us to categorize designs for SPSM waveguides into four strategies, at least one of which seems previously unexplored. Conversely, we obtain rigorous sufficient conditions for the existence of two cutoff-free index-guided modes in a wide variety of microstructured dielectric waveguides with arbitrary periodic claddings, based on the existence of a degenerate fundamental mode of the cladding (a degenerate light line). We show how such a degenerate light line, in turn, follows from the symmetry of the cladding.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. kylkaren@mit.edu
authors.forename: Karen K Y
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Yehuda
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Avniel
authors.forename: Steven G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Johnson
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005336:Fiber Optic Technology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012031:Refractometry / Q000295:instrumentation*