Wave propagation in a single-mode fibre with dip in the refractive index

A theoretical study has been carried out on propagation in single-mode fibres having a dip in the refractive index at the centre of the core. The energy of the mode gradually spreads from the centre of the core with increase of the degree of the dip. Nevertheless the near and far-field distributions of such single-mode fibres are very nearly Gaussian in shape. A simple method of estimating the limit of the single-mode region for any kind of index profile is presented. For a particular class of profiles, dip widths up to 30% have a negligible effect on the propagation characteristics.