2018/02/28 by Satyanarayana Bade, Bertrand Denolle, Bade, Satyanarayana +11 · 1 citation
Engineering · #Applied Physics (physics.app-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Optical Network Technologies #Photonic and Optical Devices #Semiconductor Lasers and Optical Devices
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1803.07907
openalex publication_date 2018/02/28 · openalex created_date 2022/10/01 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Space Division Multiplexing (SMD) is a very attractive technique for\naddressing the ever-growing demands in transmission capacity by enabling the\nuse of a new parameter textemdash space textemdash to increase the number\nof channels in multi-mode fibers. One key component to build a spatially\nmultiplexed-based optical network is a spatial multiplexer and demultiplexer\ncombining signals from multiple single-mode fibers into as many channels in a\nmulti-mode fiber. In this article, we report the fabrication and\ncharacterization of a pair of 45-mode spatial multiplexer and demultiplexer\nsaturating all the modes of a standard 50~\μm core graded-index (OM2)\nmulti-mode fiber. The multiplexers are based on Multi-Plane Light Conversion\n(MPLC), a technique that enables the control of the transverse shape of the\nlight by multiple reflections on specifically designed phase plates. We show\nthat by using a separable variable basis of modes, such as Hermite-Gaussian\n(HG) modes, we are able to drastically reduce the number of reflections hence\nreducing the insertion losses and modal crosstalks. The multiplexers typically\nshow an average 4~dB insertion loss and -28~dB cross-talk across the C band.\nFinally, we emphasize the use of this higher-order modes multiplexer to explore\nthe propagation properties inside multi-mode fibers and more specifically the\nmode group crosstalks as well as the impact of fiber bending.\n