Stress-induced birefringence in large-mode-area micro-structured optical fibers

We report on detailed numerical investigation of stress-induced birefringence in micro-structured solid-core optical fibers. The stress is induced either by external forces or stress applying parts inside the fiber. Both methods lead to different stress distributions where screening as well as enhancement effects due to the air-hole micro-structuring could be observed. Furthermore, we discuss the potential of the realization of polarization- maintaining low-nonlinearity micro-structured fibers that are suitable for applications in ultrafast optics.