Finite element simulation of radiation losses in photonic crystal fibers

In our work we focus on the accurate computation of light propagation in finite size photonic crystal structures with the finite element method (FEM). We discuss how we utilize numerical concepts like high‐order finite elements, transparent boundary conditions and goal‐oriented error estimators for adaptive grid refinement in order to compute radiation leakage in photonic crystal fibers and waveguides. Due to the fast convergence of our method we can use it e.g. to optimize the design of photonic crystal structures with respect to geometrical parameters, to minimize radiation losses and to compute attenutation spectra for different geometries. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)