Measurement and modelling of dispersion characteristics of a two-mode birefringent holey fibre

Employing several interferometric methods, we measured in a broad spectral range the wavelength dependences of the phase modal birefringence and the polarization mode dispersion for the LP01 and even LP11 spatial modes supported by a birefringent holey fibre. We also determined the wavelength dependence of the intermodal dispersion between the X- and Y-polarized LP01 and even LP11 spatial modes. Furthermore, using a full-vector finite-element method, we modelled all the measured dispersion characteristics and demonstrated good agreement between experimental and theoretical results.