Graded-index plastic optical fiber for error-free PAM-4 transmission without forward error correction

Abstract

We have proposed a low-noise graded-index plastic optical fiber (GI POF) with the microscopic heterogeneous strictures in the fiber core material. The microscopic heterogeneities in the low-noise GI POF provide strong mode coupling and stabilize data transmission through the reduction in interferometric noise in a multimode fiber link. Here, we present our latest work in which error-free data transmission employing four-level pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM-4) at a data rate of 53 Gb/s has been achieved using the low-noise GI POF without the use of forward error correction techniques in short-reach links. We also present the detailed analysis of the distinctive microscopic heterogeneities in the low-noise GI POF that achieves error-free PAM-4 transmission.