All-fiber-based selective mode multiplexer and demultiplexer for weakly-coupled mode-division multiplexed systems

Abstract

We show all-fiber-based selective mode multiplexers and demultiplexers for weakly-coupled mode-division multiplexed systems. We fabricate a set of six-mode multiplexer and demultiplexer based on fiber mode selective couplers, and experimentally evaluate the performance for the six-mode dual-polarization (DP) quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) optical signals. In the mode multiplexer and demultiplexer, the mode couplings between the lower three modes and the higher three modes are suppressed to be less than -20 dB, which enables us to apply partial 6x6 MIMO equalizers even for the six-mode demultiplexing. For the six-mode DP-QPSK signals, the penalty of optical signal-to-noise ratio by replacing the full 12x12MIMO to the partial 6x6 MIMO is suppressed by less than 1 dB. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.