Abstract

In this paper, we present a new and efficient technique for the exact reconstruction of large mode area (LMA) higher order mode (HOM) optical fibers by using arbitrary shape HOM electric field profiles. One known strategy to achieve LMAs for high power optical applications is by using optical fibers supporting multimode operation, and engineering these fibers such that they operate on just a single transverse mode. Although the fundamental mode is preferred in most circumstances, there is an increasing interest in operating on a single HOM instead since these can have interesting dispersion characteristics and also significantly higher ability to scale mode areas. An issue with the use of HOMs in high power applications is that often they demonstrate regions of high field intensity across the core. This leads to problems with optical damage at lower values of effective area than might otherwise be expected. In order to avoid this problem, we offer designs of optical fibers supporting mode-flattened HOM electric fields. We develop a new inverse transmission line technique for calculating directly and accurately the refractive index profiles of such fibers from knowledge of the desired HOM electric field. We demonstrate this algorithm with a number of example reconstructions of LMA HOM optical fibers supporting prescribed mode-flattened electric field profiles with ultralarge effective mode areas We expect such fiber designs to be useful in the mitigation of nonlinear effects and in thermal and damage management.

© 2016 IEEE

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