Abstract

Few-mode fiber design suitable for long-haul dense space division multiplexing (SDM) transmission is proposed, where the spatial density and the splicing characteristics of the fiber is optimized. We numerically investigate the impact of the number of modes per core in a multi-core structure on the total number of spatial channels possible and the splice loss property. It is shown that increased number of mode per core enables us to improve the spatial density while maintaining feasible splice-induced differential modal attenuation. We then successfully fabricate a 10-mode 12-core fiber with a cladding diameter of 217 μm, that achieves a relative core multiplicity factor (RCMF) of 101.7 and maximum number of spatial channels among the possible few-mode multi-core fiber designs with a cladding diameter of less than 250 μm. Experiments confirm that its splice-induced differential modal attenuation characteristics were better than those of previously reported 114-spatial-channel fiber.

Heterogeneous trench-assisted few-mode multi-core fiber with low differential mode delay

Jiajing Tu, Kunimasa Saitoh, Katsuhiro Takenaga, and Shoichiro Matsuo
Opt. Express 22(4) 4329-4341 (2014)

Bandwidth density as a figure of merit for few-mode multi-core fibers

Tetsuya Hayashi and Tetsuya Nakanishi
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Optimal design of 4LP-mode multicore fibers for high spatial multiplicity

Yuki Tobita, Takeshi Fujisawa, Taiji Sakamoto, Takashi Matsui, Shota Saitoh, Katsuhiro Takenaga, Kazuhiko Aikawa, Shinichi Aozasa, Kazuhide Nakajima, and Kunimasa Saitoh
Opt. Express 25(5) 5697-5709 (2017)

Heterogeneous trench-assisted few-mode multi-core fiber with graded-index profile and square-lattice layout for low differential mode delay

Jiajing Tu, Kunimasa Saitoh, Yoshimichi Amma, Katsuhiro Takenaga, and Shoichiro Matsuo
Opt. Express 23(14) 17783-17792 (2015)

Few-mode fiber, splice and SDM component characterization by spatially-diverse optical vector network analysis

Simon Rommel, José Manuel Delgado Mendinueta, Werner Klaus, Jun Sakaguchi, Juan José Vegas Olmos, Yoshinari Awaji, Idelfonso Tafur Monroy, and Naoya Wada
Opt. Express 25(19) 22347-22361 (2017)