1.3 kW monolithic linearly polarized single-mode master oscillator power amplifier and strategies for mitigating mode instabilities

We report on the high-power amplification of a 1064 nm linearly polarized laser in an all-fiber polarizationmaintained master oscillator power amplifier,which can operate at an output power level of 1.3 kW.The beam quality(M^2) was measured to be <1.2 at full power operation.The polarization extinction rate of the fiber amplifier was measured to be above 94% before mode instabilities(MIs) set in,which reduced to about 90% after the onset of MI.The power scaling capability of strategies for suppressing MI is analyzed based on a semianalytical model,the theoretical results of which agree with the experimental results.It shows that mitigating MI by coiling the gain fiber is an effective and practical method in standard double-cladding large mode area fiber,and,by tight coiling of the gain fiber to the radius of 5.5 cm,the MI threshold can be increased to three times higher than that without coiling or loose coiling.Experimental studies have been carried out to verify the idea,which has proved that MI was suppressed successfully in the amplifier by proper coiling.

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.

Fiber transmission demonstrations in vector mode space division multiplexing

Much attention has been focused on the use of scalar modes for space division multiplexing （SDM）. Alternative vector mode bases offer another solution set for SDM, expanding the available trade-offs in system performance and complexity. We present two types of ring core fiber conceived and designed to explore SDM with fibers exhibiting low interactions between supported modes. We review demonstrations of fiber data transmis- sion tbr two separate vector mode bases： one for orbital angular momentum （OAM） modes and one for linearly polarized vector （LPV） modes. The OAM mode demon- strations include short transmissions using commercially available transceivers, as well as kilometer length transmission at extended data rates. The LPV demonstra- tions span kilometer length transmissions at high data rate with coherent detection, as well as a radio over fiber experiment with direct detection of narrowband signals.