Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Optical Engineering
Abstract
Spatial domain multiplexing/space division multiplexing (SDM) can increase the bandwidth of existing and futuristic optical fibers by an order of magnitude or more. In the SDM technique, we launch multiple singlemode pigtail laser sources of the same wavelength into a carrier multimode fiber at different angles. The launching angles decide the output of the carrier fiber by allocating separate spatial locations for each channel. Each channel follows a helical trajectory while traversing the length of the carrier fiber, thereby allowing spatial reuse of optical frequencies. We launch light from five different single-mode pigtail laser sources (of same wavelength) at different angles (with respect to the axis of the carrier fiber) into the carrier fiber. Owing to helical propagation, five distinct concentric donut-shaped rings with negligible crosstalk at the output end of the fiber were obtained. These SDM channels also exhibit orbital angular momentum (OAM), thereby adding an extradegree of photon freedom. We present the experimental data of five spatially multiplexed channels and compare them with simulated results to show that this technique can potentially improve the data capacity of optical fibers by an order of magnitude: A factor of five using SDM and another factor of two using OAM. © 2016 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).
DOI
10.1117/1.OE.55.6.066124
Publication Date
7-28-2016
Recommended Citation
Murshid, S., Alanzi, S., Hridoy, A., Lovell, G. L., Parhar, G., Chakravarty, A., & Chowdhury, B. (2016). Combining spatial domain multiplexing and orbital angular momentum of photon-based multiplexing to increase the bandwidth of optical fiber communication systems. Optical Engineering, 55(6)