A multilayered effective-index method (ML-EIM) is applied to dielectric waveguides with complicated microstructures, including photonic crystal fibers and multicore fibers. In this method, the waveguide cross section is divided into multiple layers, each of which consists of a slab waveguide clipped from an arbitrary continuous cross section. Using an effective-index method for the multiple layers, the waveguide can be approximated by a simple multilayer slab structure consisting of effective refractive index layers. The ML-EIM allows us to analyze waveguides with arbitrarily complicated cross-sectional shapes using only one-dimensional slab analysis. The mode field distributions peculiar to these waveguide structures are reproduced with good accuracy by ML-EIM and their validity is confirmed by comparison with two-dimensional numerical results.
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