Influence of temperature on birefringence and polarization mode dispersion in photonic crystal holey fibers

Applying a fully vectorial method, we calculated the dependence of modal birefringence and polarization mode dispersion upon wavelength in photonic crystal holey fibers of different structure. We also determined the sensitivities of these two parameters to temperature. Our results show that in the analyzed spectral range modal birefringence increases while polarization mode dispersion decreases with wavelength in both structures. The sensitivity of modal birefringence to temperature is positive and increases with wavelength while the sensitivity of polarization mode dispersion is negative and decreases with wavelength. The spectral behavior of both sensitivities is opposite to that observed in classical elliptical-core fibers.