TY - JOUR
T1 - Monolithic mode-selective few-mode multicore fiber multiplexers
AU - Riesen, Nicolas
AU - Gross, Simon
AU - Love, John D.
AU - Sasaki, Yusuke
AU - Withford, Michael J.
N1 - Copyright the Author(s) 2017. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.
PY - 2017/8/1
Y1 - 2017/8/1
N2 - With the capacity limits of standard single-mode optical fiber fast approaching, new technologies such as space-division multiplexing are required to avoid an Internet capacity crunch. Few-mode multicore fiber (FM-MCF) could allow for a two orders of magnitude increase in capacity by using the individual spatial modes in the different cores as unique data channels. We report the realization of a monolithic mode-selective few-mode multicore fiber multiplexer capable of addressing the individual modes of such a fiber. These compact multiplexers operate across the S + C + L telecommunications bands and were inscribed into a photonic chip using ultrafast laser inscription. They allow for the simultaneous multiplexing of the LP01, LP11a and LP11b modes of all cores in a 3-mode, 4-core fiber with excellent mode extinction ratios and low insertion losses. The devices are scalable to more modes and cores and therefore could represent an enabling technology for practical ultra-high capacity dense space-division multiplexing.
AB - With the capacity limits of standard single-mode optical fiber fast approaching, new technologies such as space-division multiplexing are required to avoid an Internet capacity crunch. Few-mode multicore fiber (FM-MCF) could allow for a two orders of magnitude increase in capacity by using the individual spatial modes in the different cores as unique data channels. We report the realization of a monolithic mode-selective few-mode multicore fiber multiplexer capable of addressing the individual modes of such a fiber. These compact multiplexers operate across the S + C + L telecommunications bands and were inscribed into a photonic chip using ultrafast laser inscription. They allow for the simultaneous multiplexing of the LP01, LP11a and LP11b modes of all cores in a 3-mode, 4-core fiber with excellent mode extinction ratios and low insertion losses. The devices are scalable to more modes and cores and therefore could represent an enabling technology for practical ultra-high capacity dense space-division multiplexing.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85026737269&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/CE110001018
UR - http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DE160100714
U2 - 10.1038/s41598-017-06561-w
DO - 10.1038/s41598-017-06561-w
M3 - Article
C2 - 28765621
AN - SCOPUS:85026737269
SN - 2045-2322
VL - 7
SP - 1
EP - 9
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
M1 - 6971
ER -