A focal-ratio-degradation resistant multimode fiber link using mode-selective photonic lantern

Aurélien Benoit; Stephanos Yerolatsitis; Kerrianne Harrington; Tim A. Birks; Robert R. Thomson

doi:10.1117/12.2561438

13 December 2020 A focal-ratio-degradation resistant multimode fiber link using mode-selective photonic lantern

Aurélien Benoit, Stephanos Yerolatsitis, Kerrianne Harrington, Tim A. Birks, Robert R. Thomson

Proceedings Volume 11451, Advances in Optical and Mechanical Technologies for Telescopes and Instrumentation IV; 1145120 (2020) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2561438
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2020, Online Only

Abstract

We report a new route to mitigate focal-ratio degradation (FRD) in multimode optical fiber links. Our approach uses a custom multicore fiber (MCF) with dissimilar cores, which is then tapered at both ends to form multimode cores and create mode-selective photonic lantern (PL) transitions. The cores of the MCF are single-moded at 1550 nm and sufficiently spaced such that there is no observable core-to-core cross talk after a 7 m fiber length. The mode-selective PLs at each end of the MCF, in combinations with the low core-to-core cross talk of the MCF at 1550 nm, ensure that the relative amount of power in each spatial mode is preserved throughout the fibre link. As such, a PL-MCF-PL link using this approach has the potential to be resistant to FRD by inhibiting the coupling of light from lower-order to higher-order modes. We show that the full PL-MCF-PL link exhibits lower FRD than a custom multimode fiber that guides the same number of modes. A study of how the FRD behavior of the PL-MCF-PL link varies as a function of wavelength indicates some bandwidth limitations due to the wavelength-dependent properties of the PLs and the cross coupling in the MCF.

Conference Presentation

Citation Download Citation

Aurélien Benoit, Stephanos Yerolatsitis, Kerrianne Harrington, Tim A. Birks, and Robert R. Thomson "A focal-ratio-degradation resistant multimode fiber link using mode-selective photonic lantern", Proc. SPIE 11451, Advances in Optical and Mechanical Technologies for Telescopes and Instrumentation IV, 1145120 (13 December 2020); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2561438

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