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A general design rule of scrambling-type mode (de)multiplexers (mode scramblers) based on silica planar lightwave circuit (PLC) with small mode-dependent-loss (MDL) is presented for a mode-division multiplexing (MDM) system. First, we consider four- and eight-mode scramblers and demonstrate that if the number of modes is 2(N), it is possible to construct small-MDL mode scramblers by using Y-branch waveguides and mode rotators. Next, a 6-mode scrambler, which can be used for four linearly polarized (LP) mode transmission in MDM system, is considered, and the MDL is large if Y-branch waveguides are cascaded simply, originating from the radiation loss of unwanted modes at the Y-branch. We propose a 2 + 4-type mode scrambler by combining 2- and 4-mode scramblers and demonstrate that it is possible to design a small MDL 6-mode scrambler. (C) 2020 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement

We propose a new gain fiber structure with an inverse index profile for high power amplification of a Gaussian single mode beam. A large mode area (LMA) design can be fulfilled with the inverse index profile by implementing a graded index in the depressed core. We numerically show that the proposed gain fiber can guide a single mode Gaussian beam with a large beam area and amplify the beam to a kW level output power.

This paper describes theoretical and experimental investigations of an optical time domain reflectometry (OTDR) that conducts measurements in the 2-LP mode region of the fiber under test. Rayleigh backscattering amplitude coefficients from the HE11 mode to higher-order vector modes are analyzed to clarify the evolution in the state of polarization of the backscattered vector modes with respect to that of the probe HE11 mode. Based on the analysis, we then propose a technique for reducing amplitude fluctuations in the OTDR traces attributed to intensity distribution evolution of the LP11 mode. A proof-of-concept demonstration is performed on optical fibers in the laboratory and field environments, and the measured results confirm its usefulness.

We propose and demonstrate an all-fiber passively mode-locked laser with a figure-8 cavity, which generates pulsed cylindrical vector beam output based on a mode selective coupler (MSC). The MSC made of a two mode fiber and a standard single mode fiber is used as both the intracavity transverse mode converter and mode splitter with a low insertion loss of about 0.65 dB. The slope efficiency of the fiber laser is > 3%. Through adjusting the polarization state in the laser cavity, both radially and azimuthally polarized beams have been obtained with high mode purity which are measured to be > 94%. The laser operates at 1556.3 nm with a spectral bandwidth of 3.2 nm. The mode-locked pulses have duration of 17 ns and a repetition rate of 0.66 MHz.

A holey cladding dielectric waveguide with square cross section is designed, simulated, fabricated and characterized. The TOPAS waveguide is designed to be single mode across the broad frequency range of 180 GHz to 360 GHz as shown by finite-difference time domain simulation and to robustly support simultaneous TE and TM mode propagation. The square fiber geometry is realized by pulling through a heat distribution made square by appropriate furnace design. The transmitted mode profile is imaged using a vector network analyzer with a pinhole at the receiver module. Good agreement between the measured mode distribution and the calculated mode distribution is demonstrated.

A theory of photodarkening-induced quasi-static degradation in fiber amplifiers is presented. As the doped core of a fiber photodarkens and continues to absorb more power converting it to heat, the intensity grating created by higher order mode interference with the fundamental mode moves toward the input end. This creates a persistent absorption grating that remains phase-shifted from the modal interference pattern. This leads to power transfer from the fundamental mode to a higher order mode with a very small frequency offset that occurs on a time scale of minutes to hours. This process is modeled in large mode area step index and photonic crystal fibers and is found to produce reasonable threshold values.

The mode property and light propagation in a tapered silicon-on-insulator (SOI) nanowire with angled sidewalls is analyzed. Mode hybridization is observed and mode conversion between the TM fundamental mode and higher-order TE modes happens when light propagates in a waveguide taper which is used very often in the design of photonic integrated devices. This mode conversion ratio is possible to be very high (even close to 100%) when the taper is long enough to be adiabatic, which might be useful for some applications of multimode photonics. When the mode conversion is undesired to avoid any excess loss as well as crosstalk for photonic integrated circuits, one can depress the mode conversion by compensating the vertical asymmetry in the way of reducing the sidewall angle or introducing an optimal refractive index for the upper-cladding. It is also possible to eliminate the undesired mode conversion almost and improve the desired mode conversion greatly by introducing an abrupt junction connecting two sections with different widths to jump over the mode hybridization region.

A novel mode multiplexer and demultiplexer (MMUX/DEMMUX) based on 2-D photonic crystal (PC) at 1550 nm is proposed. The PC-based mode MMUX/DEMMUX including mode conversion function with a single-mode and multi-mode waveguides can be realized by quasi phase-matching TE(0) & TE(1) modes of two waveguides. 2DFinite-Difference-Time-Domain and beam propagation methods are used for simulation. The results show that PC-based mode MMUX/DEMMUX has the potential for high-capacity MDM optical communication systems with a low insertion loss (

We experimentally demonstrate mode conversion by exploiting optical reflection of tilted few-mode fiber Bragg grating (FM-FBG). Mode conversions from LP(01) mode to higher symmetric and asymmetric modes are achieved, and more than 99.5% conversion efficiency from LP(01) to LP(11) mode is obtained using a 1.6°-tilted FM-FBG. Influences of the weakly tilted FM-FBG parameters on the property of mode conversion is analyzed and discussed. A simultaneous mode conversion and demultiplexing scheme for 4-mode × 3-wavelength multiplexing transmission is proposed and the modal crosstalk is analyzed based on the transmission spectra of the tilted FM-FBGs. The proposed approach shows potential applications in mode and wavelength division multiplexing communication systems.

We propose all-fiber mode multiplexer composed of two consecutive LP11 mode selective couplers that allows for the multiplexing of LP01 mode and two-fold degenerate LP11 modes. We demonstrate WDM transmission of 32 wavelength channels with 100 GHz spacing, each carrying 3 modes of 120 Gb/s polarization division multiplexed quadrature phase shifted keying (PDM-QPSK) signal, over 560 km of few-mode fiber (FMF). Long distance transmission is achieved by 6 x 6 multiple-input multiple-output digital signal processing and modal differential group delay compensated link of FMF. The all-fiber mode multiplexer has considerable potential to be used in mode- and wavelength-division multiplexed transmission. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America

We propose a scheme for on-chip all optical mode conversion based on forward stimulated Brillouin scattering in a hybrid phononic-photonic waveguide. To describe the mode conversion the theoretical model of the FSBS is established by taking into account the radiation pressure and the electrostriction force simultaneously. The numerical simulation is carried out for the mode conversion from the fundamental mode E11x to the higher-order mode E21x. The results indicate that the mode conversion efficiency is affected by the waveguide length and the input pump light power, and the highest efficiency can reach upto 88% by considering the influence of optical and acoustic absorption losses in the hybrid waveguide. Additionally, the conversion bandwidth with approximate 12.5 THz can be achieved in 1550nm communication band. This mode converter on-chip is a promising device in the integrated optical systems, which can effectively increase the capacity of silicon data busses for on-chip optical interconnections.

Variable optical attenuation (VOA) for three-mode fiber is experimentally presented, utilizing an amplitude spatial light modulator (SLM), achieving up to −28dB uniform attenuation for all modes. Using the ability to spatially vary the attenuation distribution with the SLM, we also achieve up to 10dB differential attenuation between the fiber’s two supported mode group (LP01 and LP11). The spatially selective attenuation serves as the basis of a dynamic mode-group equalizer (DME), potentially gain-balancing mode dependent optical amplification. We extend the experimental three mode DME functionality with a performance analysis of a fiber supporting 6 spatial modes in four mode groups. The spatial modes’ distribution and overlap limit the available dynamic range and performance of the DME in the higher mode count case.

A narrow bandwidth (2GHz) π-phase-shift flattop fiber Bragg grating (FBG) is proposed to achieve Brillouin optical time-domain analysis (BOTDA) for perfluorinated graded-index polymer optical fibers (GI-POFs) for the first time to best of our knowledge. Using the technique of BOTDA, we explore the evolution of mode coupling in perfluorinated GI-POFs by analyzing the Brillouin frequency shift (BFS) variation along the whole fiber, and compare them with that of silica graded index multimode fibers (GI-MMFs). The characteristics of mode coupling of GI-POFs and GI-MMFs were also investigated in terms of the speckle patterns at the output face of the two fibers. The results show that compared with silica GI-MMFs, GI-POFs exhibit more efficient mode coupling and the excellent ablility of mode scrambling regardless of alignment conditions.

We experimentally demonstrate 2 × 2 and 3 × 3 fused fiber couplers made from dual mode fiber. A unique mode dependent power transfer characteristics as a function of pulling length is obtained that support various optical functionalities. Exploiting this we demonstrate several devices of interest for mode division multiplexed data transmission including LP11 mode filter, LP11 mode tap coupler, and 50:50 power splitter for both LP01 and LP11 modes.

A general model is proposed to describe thermal-induced mode distortion in the step-index fiber (SIF) high power lasers. Two normalized parameters in the model are able to determine the mode characteristic in the heated SIFs completely. Shrinking of the mode fields and excitation of the high-order modes by the thermal-optic effect are investigated. A simplified power amplification model is used to describe the output power redistribution under various guiding modes. The results suggest that fiber with large mode area is more sensitive on the thermally induced mode distortion and hence is disadvantaged in keeping the beam quality in high power operation. The model is further applied to improve the power scaling analysis of Yb-doped fiber lasers. Here the thermal effect is considered to couple with the optical damage and the stimulated Raman scattering dynamically, whereas direct constraint from the thermal lens is relaxed. The resulting maximal output power is from 67kW to 97kW, depending on power fraction of the fundamental mode.

Photonic crystal bandgap fibers employing distributed mode filtering design provide near diffraction-limited light outputs, a critical property of fiber-based high-power lasers. Microstructure of the fibers is tailored to achieve single-mode operation at specific wavelength by resonant mode coupling of higher-order modes. We analyze the modal regimes of the fibers having a mode field diameter of 60 µm by the cross-correlated (C(2)) imaging method in different wavelength ranges and evaluate the sensitivity of the modal content to various input-coupling conditions. As a result, we experimentally identify regimes of resonant coupling between higher-order core modes and cladding band. We demonstrate a passive fiber design in which the higher-order modal content inside the single-mode guiding regime is suppressed by at least 20 dB even for significantly misaligned input-coupling configurations.

Comb generation in different mode families via a stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) process is studied using a silica toroid microcavity. The broad gain bandwidth of SRS in silica allows us to excite longitudinal modes at long wavelengths belonging to mode families that are either the same as or different from the pump mode. We found through experiment and numerical analysis, that an SRS comb in a different mode family with a high quality factor (Q) is excited when we pump in a low-Q mode. No transverse mode interaction occurs when we excite in a high-Q mode resulting the generation of a single comb family. We studied the condition of the transverse mode interaction while varying the mode overlap and Q of the Raman mode. Our experimental results are in good agreement with the analysis and this enables us to control the generation of one- and two-mode combs.

We investigate the concept of principal modes and its application for mode division multiplexing in multimode fibers. We start by generalizing the formalism of the principal modes as to include mode dependent loss and show that principal modes overcome modal dispersion induced by modal coupling in mode division multiplexing operation, even for multi-mode-fibers guiding a large number of modes, if the product of modulation bandwidth, fiber length and differential group delay is equal or less than one in each transmission channel. If this condition is not sustained, modal dispersion and crosstalk at the receiver limit the transmission performance, setting very high constraints towards modal coupling.

The design of an all-solid, soft glass-based, large mode area Bragg fiber for effective single mode operation with mode effective area exceeding 1100 µm2 across the wavelength range of 2 - 4 µm is reported. The design adopts a new strategy to induce large differential loss between the fundamental and higher order modes for effective single-mode operation within few tens of centimetres length of an otherwise multimode fiber. In addition to having the potential for the targeted application in high power laser delivery systems; complemented by a zero dispersion wavelength at 2.04 µm and rapidly developing mid-IR optical sources, the proposed fiber should also be attractive for generation of high power, single mode and less divergent supercontinuum light over this mid-IR window.

We describe a coherent optical MIMO transmission experiment that employs a digital coherent receiver with a mode convergence unit, which converges higher-order mode light into the fundamental mode while maintaining the phase and amplitude information of the higher-order mode. The coherent optical MIMO transmission of two 10 Gbit/s BPSK signals over 20 km of graded-index multi-mode fiber was successfully achieved by using this mode convergence unit. We also show numerically that multi channel signals for a coherent optical MIMO transmission can be recovered by employing sufficient mode diversity, even if mode conversion occurs in the transmission fiber.

A simple technique for transverse mode selection in a large-mode-area (multimode) fiber laser is described. The technique exploits the different spectral responses of feedback elements based on a fiber Bragg grating and a volume Bragg grating to achieve wavelength-dependent mode filtering. This approach has been applied to a cladding-pumped thulium-doped fiber laser with a multimode core to achieve a single-spatial-mode output beam with a beam propagation factor (M2) of 1.05 at 1923 nm. Without mode selection the free-running fiber laser has a multimode output beam with an M2 parameter of 3.3. Selective excitation of higher order modes is also possible via the technique and preliminary results for laser oscillation on the LP11 mode are also discussed along with the prospects for scaling to higher power levels.

We investigate numerically the optical field in the region immediately behind the input facets of dielectric step-index single-mode slab and fiber waveguides. Visualization of the intensity distributions gives insight into the formation of the fundamental mode and of radiation modes. For a more quantitative characterization we determine the amount of optical power and mode purity of the field in core vicinity as a function of propagation distance. The investigation assists in designing and optimizing waveguides being employed as modal filters, e.g. for astronomical interferometers.

The mode index and mode field of a triple-core waveguide are simulated by the compact supercell method and the FEM method. The coupling property of LP(11) mode is analyzed, for the first time to our knowledge, which is similar to that of LP(01) mode except the different coupling length. Both LP(01) and LP(11) modes can be separated based on their different coupling lengths in the waveguide. When both modes are put into the central port, they will come out on different ports by optimizing the coupler length, and the mode extinction ratio can approach 30dB.

We investigate stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) threshold in single mode and multimode fibers in an all fiber network. The pump is a single mode fiber pigtail attached to a diode. We find the theory and experiment agree for both single mode and multimode GRIN fibers. We modify the bulk SBS threshold equation for use with fibers by properly accounting for mode sizes and modal dispersion.

A novel mode analysis method and differential mode delay (DMD) measurement technique for a multimode optical fiber based on optical frequency domain reflectometry has been proposed for the first time. We have used a conventional OFDR with a tunable external cavity laser and a Michelson interferometer. A few-mode optical multimode fiber was prepared to test our proposed measurement technique. We have also compared the OFDR measurement results with those obtained using a traditional time-domain measurement method.

We present a rigorous analysis methodology of fundamental to higher order mode converters in step index few mode optical fibers. We demonstrate experimental conversion from a fundamental LP01 mode to the higher order LP11 mode utilizing a multiple mechanical bend mode converter. We perform a quantitative analysis of the measured light intensity, and demonstrate a modal decomposition algorithm to characterize the modal content excited in the fiber. Theoretical modelling of the current mode converter is then performed and compared with experimental findings.

We have designed a bend insensitive single mode optical fiber with a low-index trench using spot-size definitions and their optimization technique. The bending loss at a 5 mm of bending radius was negligible, while single mode properties were intact.

We report an all-fiber mode division multiplexer formed with cascaded mode selective couplers with significantly broadened bandwidth potentially spanning S, C and L band. This was achieved by matching the effective refractive indices over a wide wavelength range for the few mode fiber and the single mode fiber used in the coupler. The multiplexer provides high coupling efficiency (>55% for the worst case) for the 4 spatial modes over the entire wavelength range of 1515-1590 nm. The all-fiber construction provides mechanical stability. Experimental results for the coupling efficiency and the mode extinction ratio for each spatial mode are presented along with the far field radiation patterns. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America

We demonstrate adaptive-spatial mode control (ASMC) in few-moded double-clad large mode area (LMA) fiber amplifiers by using an all-fiber-based photonic lantern. Three single-mode fiber inputs are used to adaptively inject the appropriate superposition of input modes in a multimode gain fiber to achieve the desired mode at the output. By actively adjusting the relative phase of the single-mode inputs, near-unity coherent combination resulting in a single fundamental mode at the output is achieved.

Higher-order mode fiber amplifiers have demonstrated effective areas as large as 6000 μm2, allowing for high pulse energy and peak power amplification. Long-period gratings are used to convert the fundamental mode to the higher-order mode at the entrance to the amplifier, and reconvert back to the fundamental at the exit, to achieve a diffraction limited beam. However, long period gratings are susceptible to nonlinearity at high peak power. In this work, we propose and demonstrate axicons for linear bulk-optic mode conversion at the output of higher order mode amplifiers. We achieve an M2 of less than 1.25 for 80% mode conversion efficiency. Experiments with pulsed amplifiers confirm that the mode conversion is free from nonlinearity. Furthermore, chirp pulse amplifier experiments confirm that HOM amplifiers plus axicon mode convertors provide energy scalability in femtosecond pulses, compared to smaller effective area, fundamental mode fiber amplifiers. We also propose and demonstrate a route towards fiber integration of the axicon mode convertor by fabricating axicons directly on the tip of the fiber amplifier end-cap.

A novel approach to adaptively control the beam profile in a few-mode fiber is experimentally demonstrated. We stress the fiber through an electric-controlled polarization controller, whose driven voltage depends on the current and target modal content difference obtained with the real-time mode decomposition. We have achieved selective excitations of LP01 and LP11 modes, as well as significant improvement of the beam quality factor, which may play crucial roles for high-power fiber lasers, fiber based telecommunication systems and other fundamental researches and applications.

We report a design of low-loss THz Bragg fibers with a core size on the order of wavelength that operates near the cutoff frequency of its TE01 mode. We also propose a broadband Y-type mode converter based on branched rectangular metallic waveguides to facilitate coupling between the TE01 mode of the Bragg fiber and the TEM mode in free space with 60% efficiency. Our fiber holds strong promise to facilitate beam-wave interaction in gyrotron for high-efficiency THz generation.

Fused-type mode-selective fiber couplers exciting the LP(11) mode are fabricated by well-defined fiber cladding reduction, pretapering and fusion. At a wavelength of 905 nm 80 % of the injected power in the single-mode fiber was transmitted in the few-mode fiber selectively exciting the LP(11) mode. The coupling behavior was experimentally investigated for the case of strong as well as weak fusion. Numerical simulations based on the super-mode coupling approach were used to estimate fabrication parameters and to discuss the modal evolution in arbitrarily fused couplers. The influence of changes in the coupler geometry on the super-modes and their modal weighting are analyzed by calculations of the effective refractive index and by modal decomposition.

Fiber Bragg gratings (FBG) in multimode optical fibers provide a means for cost-effictive devices resulting in simplified and robust optic sensor systems. Parasitic mode effects in optical components of the entire measurement system strongly influence the measured multi-resonance reflection spectrum. Using a mode transfer matrix formalism we can describe these complex mode coupling effects in multimode optical systems in more detail. We demonstrate the accordance of the theory by two experiments. With this formalism it is possible to understand and optimize mode effects in multimode fiber optic systems.

The first realization of a wavelength-selective switch (WSS) with direct integration of few mode fibers (FMF) is fully described. The free-space optics FMF-WSS dynamically steers spectral information-bearing beams containing three spatial modes from an input port to one of nine output ports using a phase spatial light modulator. Sources of mode dependent losses (MDL) are identified, analytically analyzed and experimentally confirmed on account of different modal sensitivities to fiber coupling in imperfect imaging and at spectral channel edges due to mode clipping. These performance impacting effects can be reduced by adhering to provided design guidelines, which scale in support of higher spatial mode counts. The effect on data transmission of cascaded passband filtering and MDL build-up is experimentally investigated in detail.

We describe the nondestructive measurement of mode coupling along a few-mode fiber using a synchronous multi-channel optical time-domain reflectometer (OTDR). By installing a few-mode fiber (FMF) coupler made with a phase mask method, we excite the LP01 mode in an FMF under the test as an input mode, and then we detect backward Rayleigh scattered LP11a or LP11b modes, which were generated as a result of the mode coupling through the coupler. The mode coupling distribution between the LP01 and LP11a,b modes along the test FMF was successfully measured with a 10-m spatial resolution by obtaining the ratio between the backscattered LP01 mode and LP11a or LP11b. The value of the mode coupling obtained with the present method agreed well with that obtained with the conventional transmission method.

A PLC-based LP11 mode rotator is proposed. The proposed mode rotator is composed of a waveguide with a trench that provides asymmetry of the waveguide. Numerical simulations show that converting LP11a (LP11b) mode to LP11b (LP11a) mode can be achieved with high conversion efficiency (more than 90%) and little polarization dependence over a wide wavelength range from 1450 nm to 1650 nm. In addition, we fabricate the proposed LP11 mode rotator using silica-based PLC. It is confirmed that the fabricated mode rotator can convert LP11a mode to LP11b mode over a wide wavelength range. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America

We analyze the transmission of a Single mode - Multimode - Multimode (SMm) fiber structure with the aim of exciting a single radial mode in the second multimode fiber. We show that by appropriate choice of the length of the central multimode fiber one can obtain > 90% of the total core power in a chosen mode. We also discuss methods of removing undesirable cladding and radiation modes and estimate tolerances for practical applications. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America

Mode division multiplexed optical transmission enabled by all-fiber mode multiplexer is investigated. The proposed all-fiber mode multiplexer is composed of consecutive mode selective couplers. It multiplexes or demultiplexes LP01, LP11, LP21, and LP02 modes simultaneously. We demonstrate successful transmission of three spatial modes with 120 Gb/s PDM-QPSK signals over 15 km of four mode fiber by using 6x6 MIMO digital signal processing. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America

The distinct disperion properties of higher-order modes in optical fibers permit the nonlinear generation of radiation deeper into the ultraviolet than is possible with the fundamental mode. This is exploited using adiabatic, broadband mode convertors to couple light efficiently from an input fundamental mode and also to return the generated light to an output fundamental mode over a broad spectral range. For example, we generate visible and UV supercontinuum light in the LP(02) mode of a photonic crystal fiber from sub-ns pulses with a wavelength of 532 nm.

We report for the first time on the limitations in the operational power range of few-mode fiber based transmission systems, employing 28Gbaud quadrature phase shift keying transponders, over 1,600km. It is demonstrated that if an additional mode is used on a preexisting few-mode transmission link, and allowed to optimize its performance, it will have a significant impact on the pre-existing mode. In particular, we show that for low mode coupling strengths (weak coupling regime), the newly added variable power mode does not considerably impact the fixed power existing mode, with performance penalties less than 2dB (in Q-factor). On the other hand, as mode coupling strength is increased (strong coupling regime), the individual launch power optimization significantly degrades the system performance, with penalties up to ∼6dB. Our results further suggest that mutual power optimization, of both fixed power and variable power modes, reduces power allocation related penalties to less than 3dB, for any given coupling strength, for both high and low differential mode delays. © 2013 Optical Society of America.

We have experimentally studied fundamental mode propagation in few meters long, adiabatically tapered step-index fibers with high numerical aperture, core diameter up to 117 μm (V = 38) and tapering ratio up to 18. The single fundamental mode propagation was confirmed by several techniques that reveal no signature of higher-order mode excitation. It can be, therefore, concluded that adiabatic tapering is a powerful method for selective excitation of the fundamental mode in highly multimode large-mode-area fibers. Annular near field distortion observed for large output core diameters was attributed to built-in stress due to thermal expansion mismatch between core and cladding materials. The mechanical stress could be avoided by an appropriate technique of fiber preform fabrication and drawing, which would prevent the mode field deformation and lead to reliable diffraction-limited fundamental mode guiding for very large core diameters.

We demonstrate scaling of the effective area of higher-order mode, Er-doped fiber amplifiers. Two Er-doped higher-order mode fibers, one with 3800 μm(2) A(eff) in the LP(0,11) mode, and one with 6000 μm(2) effective area in the LP(0,14) mode, are demonstrated. Output beam profiles show clean higher order modes, and S(2) imaging measurements show low extraneous higher order mode content. CW and pulsed amplifier experiments are reported. Nanosecond pulses are amplified to 0.5 mJ pulse energy with 0.5 MW peak power.

We propose a method for controlling modal gain in a multimode Erbium-doped fiber amplifier (MM-EDFA) by tuning the mode content of a multimode pump. By adjusting the powers and orientation of input pump modes, modal dependent gain can be tuned over a large dynamic range. Performance impacts due to excitation of undesired pump modes, mode coupling and macro-bending loss within the erbium-doped fiber are also investigated. The MM-EDFA may potentially be a key element for long haul mode-division multiplexed transmission.

A new class of optical fiber is presented that departs from the circular-core symmetry common to conventional fibers. By using a high-aspect-ratio (~30:1) rectangular core, the mode area can be significantly expanded well beyond 10,000 μm2. Moreover, by also specifying a very small refractive-index step at the narrow core edges, the core becomes "semi-guiding," i.e. it guides in the narrow dimension and is effectively un-guiding in the wide mm-scale dimension. The mode dependence of the resulting Fresnel leakage loss in the wide dimension strongly favors the fundamental mode, promoting single-mode operation. Since the modal loss ratios are independent of mode area, this core structure offers nearly unlimited scalability. The implications of using such a fiber in fiber laser and amplifier systems are also discussed.

We have numerically demonstrated an efficient mode multiplexer which can tailor the input field patterns by using a phase controller and a mode coupler formed by four single-mode fibers (SMFs). By connecting the mode multiplexer to a multimode fiber (MMF), two orthogonal higher-order modes of the MMF can be simultaneously excited to form two communication channels. The simulated results show that very low modal interference between the two excited modes can be achieved by using the proposed mode multiplexer. We have also discussed the effect of the distance and size of the SMFs in the mode coupler on the performance of the proposed mode multiplexer.

We present the first experimental comparison of effective single mode operation bandwidth in sub-wavelength optical wires (SOWs) and conventional single-mode fibers (SMFs). The full transmission spectrum, half-turn bend loss and mode field diameter were measured and compared for a variety of SMFs of different cut-off wavelength and a SOW. The SOW was shown to offer an enormously broadband single-mode operation bandwidth with a larger mode field area than the SMFs. Applications of SOWs include fiber lasers, sensors, photolithography and optical coherence tomography amongst others.

We model the transverse mode interaction in a large-mode-area fiber amplifier by solving the Fresnel wave equation including local gain saturation. In order to calculate the electric field distribution we apply a finite difference beam propagation method, which is followed by the derivation of the modal powers and modal polarization states. A polarization dependent mode amplification is found that is in good agreement with recent experimental results.

The impact of Higher-Order Mode content on beam quality in large mode area fibers supporting several guided modes is carefully investigated. It is shown that even excellent beam quality (M2 < 1.1) in LMA fibers does not guarantee low HOM content, and that the presence of HOMs can lead to significant uncontrollable changes in beam quality, peak intensity, and pointing uncertainty that depend on the uncontrollable relative phase of the modes in the fiber.

Using two different modal methods, the multipole method and the more recent fast Fourier factorization method, we exhibit and explain a core mode transition induced by avoided crossing between a core localized leaky mode and an high-index cylinder leaky mode in anti-resonant reflecting optical waveguide microstructured optical fibers (ARROW MOFs). Due to its wavelength selectivity and to the leaky nature of the involved modes, this transition doesn't seem to have already been described in detail and analyzed as done in this work in spite of several already published studies on core mode dispersion properties. The main properties of this transition are also described. We also revisite the already mentionned cut-off phenomena limiting the transmission band in ARROW MOFs in terms of mode coupling between the core mode and one or several high- index cylinder modes.