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Rayleigh scattering in few-mode optical fibers

The extremely low loss of silica fibers has enabled the telecommunication revolution, but single-mode fiber-optic communication systems have been driven to their capacity limits. As a means to overcome this capacity crunch, space-division multiplexing (SDM) using few-mode fibers (FMF) has been propo...

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Autores principales: Wang, Zhen, Wu, Hao, Hu, Xiaolong, Zhao, Ningbo, Mo, Qi, Li, Guifang
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5075780/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27775003
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep35844
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author Wang, Zhen
Wu, Hao
Hu, Xiaolong
Zhao, Ningbo
Mo, Qi
Li, Guifang
author_facet Wang, Zhen
Wu, Hao
Hu, Xiaolong
Zhao, Ningbo
Mo, Qi
Li, Guifang
author_sort Wang, Zhen
collection PubMed
description The extremely low loss of silica fibers has enabled the telecommunication revolution, but single-mode fiber-optic communication systems have been driven to their capacity limits. As a means to overcome this capacity crunch, space-division multiplexing (SDM) using few-mode fibers (FMF) has been proposed and demonstrated. In single-mode optical fibers, Rayleigh scattering serves as the dominant mechanism for optical loss. However, to date, the role of Rayleigh scattering in FMFs remains elusive. Here we establish and experimentally validate a general model for Rayleigh scattering in FMFs. Rayleigh backscattering not only sets the intrinsic loss limit for FMFs but also provides the theoretical foundation for few-mode optical time-domain reflectometry, which can be used to probe perturbation-induced mode-coupling dynamics in FMFs. We also show that forward inter-modal Rayleigh scattering ultimately sets a fundamental limit on inter-modal-crosstalk for FMFs. Therefore, this work not only has implications specifically for SDM systems but also broadly for few-mode fiber optics and its applications in amplifiers, lasers, and sensors in which inter-modal crosstalk imposes a fundamental performance limitation.
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spelling pubmed-50757802016-10-28 Rayleigh scattering in few-mode optical fibers Wang, Zhen Wu, Hao Hu, Xiaolong Zhao, Ningbo Mo, Qi Li, Guifang Sci Rep Article The extremely low loss of silica fibers has enabled the telecommunication revolution, but single-mode fiber-optic communication systems have been driven to their capacity limits. As a means to overcome this capacity crunch, space-division multiplexing (SDM) using few-mode fibers (FMF) has been proposed and demonstrated. In single-mode optical fibers, Rayleigh scattering serves as the dominant mechanism for optical loss. However, to date, the role of Rayleigh scattering in FMFs remains elusive. Here we establish and experimentally validate a general model for Rayleigh scattering in FMFs. Rayleigh backscattering not only sets the intrinsic loss limit for FMFs but also provides the theoretical foundation for few-mode optical time-domain reflectometry, which can be used to probe perturbation-induced mode-coupling dynamics in FMFs. We also show that forward inter-modal Rayleigh scattering ultimately sets a fundamental limit on inter-modal-crosstalk for FMFs. Therefore, this work not only has implications specifically for SDM systems but also broadly for few-mode fiber optics and its applications in amplifiers, lasers, and sensors in which inter-modal crosstalk imposes a fundamental performance limitation. Nature Publishing Group 2016-10-24 /pmc/articles/PMC5075780/ /pubmed/27775003 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep35844 Text en Copyright © 2016, The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Wang, Zhen
Wu, Hao
Hu, Xiaolong
Zhao, Ningbo
Mo, Qi
Li, Guifang
Rayleigh scattering in few-mode optical fibers
title Rayleigh scattering in few-mode optical fibers
title_full Rayleigh scattering in few-mode optical fibers
title_fullStr Rayleigh scattering in few-mode optical fibers
title_full_unstemmed Rayleigh scattering in few-mode optical fibers
title_short Rayleigh scattering in few-mode optical fibers
title_sort rayleigh scattering in few-mode optical fibers
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5075780/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27775003
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep35844
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