Characterization of highly elliptical submicron core polarization preserving fibers: theory and experiment.

Propagation characteristics of highly elliptical submicron core single-mode fibers have been calculated and compared with the measured beat length, cutoff wavelength of the first higher-order mode, and the far-field intensity distribution. The results show excellent agreement in the case of beat length and only reasonable agreement in the case of cutoff and mode field diameter. These discrepancies are discussed and explained.