As the nonlinear capacity limit of single mode fiber (SMF) transmission systems is being approached, space-division multiplexing (SDM) in multicore fibers (MCFs) or few-mode fibers (FMFs) is currently under intense investigations to achieve ultrahigh spectral efficiency per fiber. Meanwhile, a key advantage of SDM over simply increasing the number of SMFs, is its inherent device integration and resource sharing capability. This can potentially provide significant benefits in terms of the cost per bit in future optical networks. In order to efficiently address capacity scaling in a single optical fiber, few-mode and multicore erbium-doped fiber amplifiers are being developed. Critical for the implementation of SDM amplifiers is to achieve almost the same amount of gain for all spatial channels. In this respect, we have recently demonstrated multimode fiber amplifiers, supporting >15 modes, with a maximum differential modal gain of 2 dB and negligible mode mixing.
Orbital angular momentum (OAM) beams, have attracted great attention in recent years. An OAM beam with a phase singularity is characterized by a helical phase front which provides an additional degree of freedom for wide amount of classical and quantum optical applications. However, despite many attempts to generate and manipulate OAM beams, a robust, reliable and scalable technique to directly address generation, multiplexing and low-loss transmission of the distinct OAM beams is still in great demand. Here, we review the development of all-fiber, ring core photonics lantern mode multiplexer to generate high quality OAM beams up to the second order within a broad spectral range of >550 nm. Our device is a 5-mode mode selective photonic lantern (MSPL) with an annular refractive index profile which is fully compatible with well-established ring core and vortex transmission fibers. Through the excitation of pairs of degenerate linearly polarized (LP) modes of the MSPL, we demonstrate the generation of high quality OAM beams up to the second order. In addition, we demonstrate multiplexing of two OAM modes (OAM+1+ OAM-2) to verify complex beam pattern generation of our all fiber devices. Furthermore, by splicing the end-facet of the photonic lantern to a ring core fiber, we achieve low-loss coupling of OAM modes while maintaining high contrast spiral phase patterns. These results demonstrate the potential of photonic lanterns for generating complex optical beams.
For the first time, we demonstrate the implementation of a core pumped few mode erbium amplifier utilizing a mode selective photonic lantern for spatial modal control of the pump light. This device is able to individually amplify the first six fiber modes with low differential modal gain. In addition, we obtained differential modal gain lower than 1 dB and signal gain of approximately 16.17 dB at λs = 1550 nm through forward pumping the LP21 modes at λp = 976 nm.
We present a time dependent computer model for modal instabilities (MI) in high power fiber amplifiers based on beam propagation method. Three regimes of temporal dynamics that are characteristic of the transfer of energy between the fundamental mode and higher order mode are captured and applied to predicting the threshold of these instabilities in absence of any frequency offset between the interfering modes. Simulation results show an increase of the instabilities threshold by a factor of approximately %30 in the case of bi-directional pump scheme with respect to the forward pump configuration. Furthermore, we estimated the MI threshold applying a coupled-mode model of thermally induced instabilities which also takes account of gain saturation to its first order approximation, and obtained reasonably good agreement with respect to our beam propagation simulation results.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.