Reconfigurable structured light generation and its coupling to air-core fiber

Recently,structured light beams have attracted substantial attention in many applications,including optical communications,imaging,optical tweezers,and quantum optics.We propose and experimentally demonstrate a reconfigurable structured light beam generator in order to generate diverse structured light beams with adjustable beam types,beam orders,and beam sizes.By controlling the sizes of generated free-space structured light beams,free-space orbital angular momentum(OAM)beams and vector beams are coupled into an air-core fiber.To verify that our structured light generator enables generating structured light with high beam quality,polarization distributions and mode purity of generated OAM beams and vector beams in both free space and air-core fiber are characterized.Such a structured light generator may pave the way for future applications based on higher-order structured light beams.

Finding the superior mode basis for mode-division multiplexing:a comparison of spatial modes in air-core fiber

Diverse spatial mode bases can be exploited in mode-division multiplexing(MDM)to sustain the capacity growth in fiber-optic communications,such as linearly polarized(LP)modes,vector modes,LP orbital angular momentum(LP-OAM)modes,and circularly polarized OAM(CP-OAM)modes.Nevertheless,which kind of mode bases is more appropriate to be utilized in fiber still remains unclear.Here,we aim to find the superior mode basis in MDM fiber-optic communications via a system-level comparison in air-core fiber(ACF).We first investigate the walk-off effect of four spatial mode bases over 1-km ACF,where LP and LP-OAM modes show intrinsic mode walk-off,while it is negligible for vector and CP-OAM modes.We then study the mode coupling effect of degenerate vector and CP-OAM modes over 1-km ACF under fiber perturbations,where degenerate even and odd vector modes suffer severe mode cross talk,while negligible for highorder degenerate CP-OAM modes based on the laws of angular momentum conservation.Moreover,we comprehensively evaluate the system-level performance for data-carrying single-channel and two-channel MDM transmission with different spatial mode bases under various kinds of fiber perturbations(bending,twisting,pressing,winding,and out-of-plane moving).The obtained results indicate that the CP-OAM mode basis shows superiority compared to other mode bases in MDM fiber-optic communications without using multiple-input multiple-output digital signal processing.Our findings may pave the way for robust shortreach MDM optical interconnects for data centers and high-performance computing.

Reduced thermal sensitivity of hybrid air-core photonic band-gap fiber ring resonator

A novel hybrid air-core photonic band-gap fiber(PBF) ring resonator with twin 90° polarization-axis rotated splices is proposed and demonstrated. Frist, we measure the temperature dependent birefringence coefficient of air-core PBF and Panda fiber. Experimental results show that the relative temperature dependent birefringence coefficient of air-core PBF is 1.42×10^(-8)/℃, which is typically ~16 times less than that of Panda fiber. Then, we extract the geometry profile of air-core PBF from scanning electron microscope(SEM) images. Numerical modal is built to distinguish the fast axis and slow axis in the fiber. By precisely setting the length difference in air-core PBF and Panda fiber between two 90° polarization-axis rotated splicing points, the hybrid air-core PBF ring resonator is constructed, and the finesse of the resonator is 8.4. Environmental birefringence variation induced by temperature change can be well compensated, and experimental results show an 18-fold reduction in thermal sensitivity, compared with resonator with twin 0° polarization-axis rotated splices.