Abstract
A micro-optic collimator assembly represents an important platform for the realization of many commonly used fiber optic components and devices including optical isolators, circulators, gain flattening filters, and so on. In this paper, we investigate the incorporation of space division multiplexing (SDM) fibers (particularly, few mode fibers and multicore fibers) in a micro-optic collimator assembly and develop a technology base to provide fully integrated SDM components. A few exemplary SDM fiber isolators (e.g., 3 or 6-moded fiber isolator and a 32-core multicore fiber isolator) are successfully fabricated with low insertion loss and low mode (or core) dependent losses. Improved sharing of the functional optical element and significant device integration is efficiently achieved in these devices as will be required to ultimately realize the anticipated cost reduction benefits of SDM technology.
Highlights
Space division multiplexing (SDM)1–3 utilizing few-mode fibers or multicore fibers (MCFs) supporting multiple spatial channels is currently under intense investigation as an efficient approach to overcome the current capacity limitations of high-speed long-haul transmission systems based on single mode optical fibers
Unlike widely used single-mode fiber systems, the essential components needed to build SDM systems or optical fiber sensor systems based on SDM fibers are still not commercially available and the basic prototype systems used in many experiments to date have been implemented only with the aid of bulky free-space optical components
We review our recent work to incorporate SDM fibers in a micro-optic collimator assembly and investigate the feasibility of demonstrating fully integrated optical isolators for SDM transmission; note that provisional results were reported in Refs. 8 and 9
Summary
Space division multiplexing (SDM) utilizing few-mode fibers or multicore fibers (MCFs) supporting multiple spatial channels is currently under intense investigation as an efficient approach to overcome the current capacity limitations of high-speed long-haul transmission systems based on single mode optical fibers. Unlike widely used single-mode fiber systems, the essential components needed to build SDM systems or optical fiber sensor systems based on SDM fibers are still not commercially available and the basic prototype systems used in many experiments to date have been implemented only with the aid of bulky free-space optical components.. Unlike widely used single-mode fiber systems, the essential components needed to build SDM systems or optical fiber sensor systems based on SDM fibers are still not commercially available and the basic prototype systems used in many experiments to date have been implemented only with the aid of bulky free-space optical components.4–6 These are bulky and expensive and tend to introduce high optical losses. Scitation.org/journal/app attractive means to reduce the cost of building and operating SDM systems
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