Anafibre is an analytical mode solver for cylindrical step-index optical fibres. It computes guided modes by solving dispersion relations and evaluating corresponding electromagnetic fields analytically.

Features

• 🔬 Analytical solutions for guided modes in cylindrical fibres
• 🌈 Mode visualisation with plotting utilities for field components
• 📊 Dispersion analysis helpers and effective index calculations
• ⚡ Fast computation of propagation constants with SciPy-based root finding
• 🎯 Flexible materials support via fixed indices, callables or refractiveindex.info database
• 📐 Optional unit support through Astropy

Installation

Install from PyPI

pip install anafibre

Optional extras

• Interactive notebook display support (IPython/Jupyter)

  pip install "anafibre[ipython]"
  

• Plotting and animations with Matplotlib

  pip install "anafibre[plot]"
  

• Units support using astropy.units.Quantity

  pip install "anafibre[units]"
  

• refractiveindex.info database support via the refractiveindex package

  pip install "anafibre[refractiveindex]"
  

• All optional features (ipython + plot + units + refractiveindex)

  pip install "anafibre[all]"
  

Special thanks to Ivan Toftul, author of the refractiveindex package, which powers Anafibre’s refractiveindex.info integration.

Core API Overview

Anafibre has two main objects:

• StepIndexFibre — defines the waveguide (geometry + materials)
• GuidedMode — represents a single solved eigenmode

The typical workflow is:

# Set up the fibre
fibre = fib.StepIndexFibre(core_radius=250e-9, n_core=2.00, n_clad=1.33)
# Set up the fundamental mode (here with x polarisation)
HE11 = fibre.HE(ell=1, n=1, wl=700e-9, a_plus=1/np.sqrt(2), a_minus=1/np.sqrt(2))
# Construct the grid
x = np.linspace(-2*fibre.core_radius, 2*fibre.core_radius, 100)
y = np.linspace(-2*fibre.core_radius, 2*fibre.core_radius, 100)
X, Y = np.meshgrid(x, y)
# Evaluate the field on the grid 
E = mode.E(x=X, y=Y)

---

StepIndexFibre

Defines the fibre geometry and material parameters and provides dispersion utilities.

Required inputs

• core_radius (float in meters or astropy.units.Quantity)
• One of:
  • core, clad as RefractiveIndexMaterial
  • n_core, n_clad (float or callable λ→ε(λ))
  • eps_core, eps_clad (float or callable λ→ε(λ))

Optional inputs

• mu_core, mu_clad (float or callable λ→ε(λ))

Example

fibre = fib.StepIndexFibre(core_radius=250e-9, n_core=2.00, n_clad=1.33)

# Or with astropy.units imported as u and with refractiveindex installed:
fibre = fib.StepIndexFibre(
  core_radius = 250*u.nm,
  core = fib.RefractiveIndexMaterial('main','Si3N4','Luke'),
  clad = fib.RefractiveIndexMaterial('main','H2O','Hale'))

Provides

• Mode constructors for HE_ℓn , EH_ℓn , TE_0n , and TM_0n modes

  fibre.HE(ell, n, wl, a_plus=..., a_minus=...)
  fibre.EH(...)
  fibre.TE(n, wl, a=...)
  fibre.TM(...)
  

  Each returns a GuidedMode object.

• Dispersion utilities to find V, b, k_z , and n_eff and the dispersion function F for given parameters

  fibre.V(wavelength)
  fibre.b(ell, m, V=..., wavelength=..., mode_type=...)
  fibre.kz(...)
  fibre.neff(...)
  fibre.F(ell, b, V=..., wavelength=..., mode_type=...)
  

• Geometry and material properties as attributes

  fibre.core_radius
  fibre.n_core(wavelength)
  fibre.n_clad(...)
  fibre.eps_core(...)
  fibre.eps_clad(...)
  fibre.mu_core(...)
  fibre.mu_clad(...)
  

• Maximum mode order supported for a given wavelength

  fibre.ell_max(wavelength, m=1, mode_type=...)
  fibre.m_max(ell, wavelength, mode_type=...)
  

---

GuidedMode

Represents a guided mode with methods to calculate fields and properties. It is created using StepIndexFibre mode constructors.

Provides

• Field evaluation in (ρ,ϕ,z) or (x,y,z) coordinates, when z is not provided z=0 is assumed

  E = mode.E(rho=Rho, phi=Phi, z=Z)
  H = mode.H(rho=Rho, phi=Phi, z=Z)
  E = mode.E(x=X, y=Y, z=Z)
  H = mode.H(x=X, y=Y, z=Z)
  

Both return arrays with a shape (..., 3) corresponding to the Cartesian vector components. Note that if a grid is passed to the function then it is cached, so subsequent calls with the same grid (for example to get magnetic field) will be much faster.

• Jacobians (gradients) of the fields

  J_E = mode.gradE(rho=Rho, phi=Phi, z=Z)
  J_H = mode.gradH(rho=Rho, phi=Phi, z=Z)
  J_E = mode.gradE(x=X, y=Y, z=Z)
  J_H = mode.gradH(x=X, y=Y, z=Z)
  

Both return arrays with a shape of (..., 3, 3), corresponding to the Cartesian tensor components.

• Power evaluated via numerical integration

  P = mode.Power()
  

Visualisation

The package ships with a built-in plotting utility that creates time-resolved animations of the electromagnetic field in the transverse cross-section of the fibre. There are two options for using it:

• Option A − Passing the mode(s) with weights to the animate_fields_xy function directly:

  anim = fib.animate_fields_xy(
        modes=None,            # GuidedMode or list[GuidedMode]
        weights=None,          # complex or list[complex] (amplitudes/relative phases), default 1
        n_radii=2.0,           # grid half-size in units of core radius (when building grid)
        Np=200,                # grid resolution per axis
        ...)
  

• Option B − Passing fields with their own ω:

  anim = fib.animate_fields_xy(
        fields=None,           # list of tuples (E, H, omega) with E/H phasors on same X,Y grid
        X=None, Y=None,        # grid for Option B (required if fields given)
        z=0.0,                 # z-slice to evaluate modes at (ignored if fields given)
        ...)
  

Whichever way you choose, the resulting anim object is a standard Matplotlib animation and can be displayed in Jupyter notebooks or saved to file. One can also specify which field components to show (E, H, or both) and figure size instead of ... in the above snippets.

anim = fib.animate_fields_xy(
      ...,
      show=("E", "H"),       # any subset of {"E","H"}
      n_frames=60,           # number of frames in the animation 
      interval=50,           # delay between frames in ms 
      figsize=(8, 4.5))      # figure size in inches (width, height)

Finally, the animation can be displayed in a Jupyter notebook using the display_anim helper function:

fib.display_anim(anim)

or saved to file using the standard Matplotlib API:

# Save as mp4 (requires ffmpeg)
anim.save("mode_animation.mp4", writer="ffmpeg", fps=30)

# Or as a gif
anim.save("mode_animation.gif", writer="pillow", fps=15)

Citation

If Anafibre contributes to work that you publish, please cite the associated paper:

@misc{golat2026anafibre,
  title         = {A robust and efficient method to calculate electromagnetic modes on a cylindrical step-index nanofibre}, 
  author        = {Sebastian Golat and Francisco J. Rodríguez-Fortuño},
  year          = {2026},
  eprint        = {2602.14930},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  primaryClass  = {physics.optics},
  url           = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.14930}}