Pulse propagation in a decoupled two-core fiber

It is known that a decoupled two-core fiber can prevent monochromatic light at a specific wavelength (the decoupling wavelength) launched into one core from coupling to the other core. In this paper, we show that a pulse at the decoupling wavelength launched into one core of such a fiber inevitably splits into two pairs of pulses propagating in the two cores along the fiber. The minimum distance required for pulse splitting to be visible is inversely proportional to the coupling-coefficient dispersion in the fiber and linearly proportional to the pulse width. It would take only several centimeters of a recently demonstrated decoupled two-core photonic-bandgap fiber to observe the pulse-splitting effect with a 100-fs pulse. We also study the effects of self-phase modulation on the pulse propagation dynamics in a decoupled two-core fiber in both the normal and anomalous dispersion regimes. © 2010 Optical Society of America.