Numerical and experimental analysis of the birefringence of large air fraction slightly unsymmetrical holey fibres

Careful numerical computations show that very slight geometrical imperfections of the cross-section of actual large air-fraction holey fibres (d/Λ > 0.6) may induce surprisingly high birefringence, corresponding to beat lengths as short as few millimeters. The spectral variations of this birefringence obeys laws similar to those of elliptical core Hi-Bi holey fibres with low air-fraction. For all the tested fibres, the group birefringence numerically deduced from the only shape birefringence is in good agreement with the measured one that does not varies when strongly heating the fibres. These computations and measurements show that the contribution of possible inner stress to the birefringence is negligible.