Abstract
Multi-core fibers (MCFs) have sparked a new paradigm in optical communications and open new possibilities and applications in experimental physics and other fields of science, such as biological and medical imaging. In many of these cases, ultra-short pulse propagation is revealed as a key factor that enables us to exploit the full potential of this technology. Unfortunately, the propagation of such pulses in real MCFs has not yet been modelled considering polarization effects or typical random medium perturbations, which usually give rise to both longitudinal and temporal birefringent effects. Using the concept of local modes, we develop here an accurate ultra-short pulse propagation model that rigorously accounts for these phenomena in single-mode MCFs. Based on this theory, we demonstrate analytically and numerically the intermodal dispersion between different LP01 polarized core modes induced by these random perturbations when propagating femtosecond pulses in the linear and nonlinear fiber regimes. The ever-decreasing core-to-core distance significantly enhances the intermodal dispersion induced by these birefringent effects, which can become the major physical impairment in the single-mode regime. To demonstrate the power of our model, we give explicit strategies to reduce the impact of this optical impairment by increasing the MCF perturbations.
Highlights
In order to overcome the Shannon capacity of optical networks based on single-core single-mode fibers (SMFs), there has been an extensive research on space-division multiplexing (SDM) employing single-core multi-mode fibers (MMFs) and multi-core fibers (MCFs)[1,2,3,4]
In order to include these realistic fiber conditions in the mathematical description of the propagation of femtosecond optical pulses through a SM-Multi-core fibers (MCFs), we present here a theoretical model based on the concept of local modes, in which the aforementioned fiber perturbations and polarization effects are incorporated from the beginning in the Maxwell equations
In order to describe theoretically ultra-short pulse propagation in real single-mode multi-core fibers (SM-MCFs) considering these random perturbations, we employ the concept of local modes[35]
Summary
In order to overcome the Shannon capacity of optical networks based on single-core single-mode fibers (SMFs), there has been an extensive research on space-division multiplexing (SDM) employing single-core multi-mode fibers (MMFs) and multi-core fibers (MCFs)[1,2,3,4]. In the femtosecond regime, existing MCF propagation models exclude polarization effects and omit the temporal and longitudinal random perturbations of the fiber[24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32] Since such perturbations modify the birefringence properties of the medium and the propagation constant of the core modes[33,34,35], they should be considered in real deployed MCF systems or in experimental physics studies using this kind of optical waveguides. We first describe the proposed model in general terms, and subsequently discuss the impact of the MCD, indicating different strategies to reduce its effects via the use of fiber perturbations
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