Cladding mode coupling in long-period gratings formed in photonic crystal fibers

We extend the improved effective index method (IEIM) to analyze the cladding mode of the photonic crystal fiber (PCF) and to predict cladding mode coupling in gratings. By introducing a new step-index fiber model for the PCF, the cladding mode coupling between a LP₀₁ core mode and HE₁₁ cladding mode in long-period gratings formed in PCF is accurately predicted by the IEIM. The fiber model works well for the PCF used here not only in predicting resonant mode coupling, but also in analyzing core and low-order cladding modes.