Tatsuya KINJO, Yoshinori NAMIHIRA, Kazuya ARAKAKI, Taito KOGA, Shubi F. KAIJAGE, S. M. Abdur RAZZAK, Feroza BEGUM, Shinya NOZAKI¹, and Hiroki HIGA

Graduate School of Engineering and Science, University of the Ryukyus, 1 Senbaru, Nishihara, Okinawa 903-0213, Japan
¹Transdisciplinary Research Organization for Subtropical and Island Studies University of the Ryukyus, 1 Senbaru, Nishihara, Okinawa 903-0213, Japan

(Received November 13, 2009; Accepted December 18, 2009)

In this paper, we report the design of a highly nonlinear dispersion flattened high-index-core square photonic crystal fiber (PCF) for applications in optical coherence tomography (OCT). The finite-difference method with an anisotropic perfectly matched boundary layer is used as a numerical simulation tool. A set of optimized design parameters numerically resulted in a nonlinear coefficient of 79.9 W^-1 km^-1 and a dispersion of -0.186 ps/(nmċkm) at a wavelength of approximately 1.06 μm. Owing to its high nonlinear coefficient and flattened dispersion, the PCF is expected to be suitable for broadband supercontinuum generation, which is considered very important in OCT medical applications.

Key words: photonic crystal fiber (PCF), nonlinear fiber optics, dispersion (D), effective area (A_eff), optical coherence tomography (OCT), finite difference method (FDM), supercontinuum (SC)