Ultra-low-crosstalk multicore fiber-integrated pump-signal combiner for a core-pumped EDFA.

Fiber-integrated, submersible-qualified, core-pumped, multicore EDFAs are indispensable for space-division-multiplexing envisioned for the next generation of submarine communication lines. Here we demonstrate a fully packaged, 63-dB counter-propagating crosstalk, and 70-dB-return-loss four-core pump-signal-combiner. This enables core-pumping of a four-core EDFA.

Ultra-dense, 1152-core, broadband multicore fiber link deployed in a metro network.

We have designed, developed, and deployed the world's first ultra-dense space division-multiplexing multicore fiber link in a conduit of a metro network. In a 10-mm-diameter fiber optic-cable, 288 4-core multicore fibers are arranged in 24 200-µm spiderweb collapsible ribbons. The multicore fibers are fusion-spliced to 576 fanout devices which provide conventional single-core interfaces at patch panels at both ends of the link.

Chiral fiber gratings.

Chiral gratings with double helix symmetry were produced by twisting glass optical fiber with a noncircular core cross section as it passed through a miniature oven. We observed polarization-selective transmission in chiral fibers with pitches of tens of micrometers. Two modes of optical interaction were differentiated.