The various mode effective indices of the doped photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) are compared, the mode field distributions of the fundamental mode and the second-order mode are analyzed, and the single-mode condition is presented. The mode effective indices of large-core doped PCFs with different core indices and structure parameters are simulated by the finite element method (FEM). The relations of the core index with the fiber structure parameters of pitch, hole-to-pitch ratio and core diameter are obtained for single-mode propagation. In the design and fabrication of the doped PCF, we can adjust the core index and fiber structure parameters to achieve large mode area and single-mode propagation.