Bending loss analyses of photonic crystal fibers based on the finite-difference time-domain method.

This is a report on an effective simulation method for the bending loss analyses of photonic crystal fibers. This method is based on the two-dimensional finite-difference time-domain algorithm and a conformal transformation of the refractive index profile. We observed the temporal dynamics of light waves in a bent fiber in a simulation and obtained the bending loss as a function of bend radius and optical wavelength for the commercial photonic crystal fibers. The accuracy of this method was verified by good agreement between the simulation and experimental data.