Multi-parameter distributed fiber sensing with higher-order optical and acoustic modes.

We propose a novel multi-parameter sensing technique based on a Brillouin optical time domain reflectometry in the elliptical-core few-mode fiber, using higher-order optical and acoustic modes. Multiple Brillouin peaks are observed for the backscattering of both the LP01 mode and LP11 mode. We characterize the temperature and strain coefficients for various optical-acoustic mode pairs. By selecting the proper combination of modes pairs, the performance of multi-parameter sensing can be optimized. Distributed sensing of temperature and strain is demonstrated over a 0.5-km elliptical-core few-mode fiber, with the discriminative uncertainty of 0.28°C and 5.81 µÎµ for temperature and strain, respectively.

Experimental demonstration of adaptive VFF-RLS-FDE for long-distance mode-division multiplexed transmission.

We experimentally demonstrate adaptive variable-forgetting-factor (VFF) recursive-least-square frequency-domain equalization (RLS-FDE) for mode-division multiplexing. The VFF-RLS-FDE algorithm improves convergence speed as transmission distance increases. For MDM transmission over a 1,000-km few-mode fiber, the convergence speed was increased by 18.7 times in comparison with LMS-FDE. In the meantime, the convergence error performance of VFF-RLS is also much superior to LMS while fixed-forgetting-factor RLS has a 0.2 dB penalty compared with LMS. The proposed VFF-RLS algorithm achieves better performances than conventional RLS in terms of convergence speed and convergence error.

Mode crosstalk matrix measurement of a 1 km elliptical core few-mode optical fiber.

The spatial modes of a 1 km elliptical core few-mode optical fiber (6 spatial modes) are analyzed by using liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulators to measure the fiber's mode crosstalk matrix in Hermite-Gaussian, Laguerre-Gaussian, and linearly polarized spatial mode bases. It is shown that the fiber's spatial modes can be described by Hermite-Gaussian modes, which can propagate 1 km over the optical fiber with <-20 dB (1%) average mode crosstalk even when the fiber has multiple 1 cm diameter bends. The use of elliptical core few-mode optical fibers for space division multiplexing in data centers is discussed.

Advanced Spatial-Division Multiplexed Measurement Systems Propositions-From Telecommunication to Sensing Applications: A Review.

The concepts of spatial-division multiplexing (SDM) technology were first proposed in the telecommunications industry as an indispensable solution to reduce the cost-per-bit of optical fiber transmission. Recently, such spatial channels and modes have been applied in optical sensing applications where the returned echo is analyzed for the collection of essential environmental information. The key advantages of implementing SDM techniques in optical measurement systems include the multi-parameter discriminative capability and accuracy improvement. In this paper, to help readers without a telecommunication background better understand how the SDM-based sensing systems can be incorporated, the crucial components of SDM techniques, such as laser beam shaping, mode generation and conversion, multimode or multicore elements using special fibers and multiplexers are introduced, along with the recent developments in SDM amplifiers, opto-electronic sources and detection units of sensing systems. The examples of SDM-based sensing systems not only include Brillouin optical time-domain reflectometry or Brillouin optical time-domain analysis (BOTDR/BOTDA) using few-mode fibers (FMF) and the multicore fiber (MCF) based integrated fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors, but also involve the widely used components with their whole information used in the full multimode constructions, such as the whispering gallery modes for fiber profiling and chemical species measurements, the screw/twisted modes for examining water quality, as well as the optical beam shaping to improve cantilever deflection measurements. Besides, the various applications of SDM sensors, the cost efficiency issue, as well as how these complex mode multiplexing techniques might improve the standard fiber-optic sensor approaches using single-mode fibers (SMF) and photonic crystal fibers (PCF) have also been summarized. Finally, we conclude with a prospective outlook for the opportunities and challenges of SDM technologies in optical sensing industry.

Single-end simultaneous temperature and strain sensing techniques based on Brillouin optical time domain reflectometry in few-mode fibers.

Recently there is a growing interest in developing few-mode fiber (FMF) based distributed sensors, which can attain higher spatial resolution and sensitivity compared with the conventional single-mode approaches. However, current techniques require two lightwaves injected into both ends of FMF, resulting in their complicated setup and high cost, which causes a big issue for geotechnical and petroleum applications. In this paper, we present a single-end FMF-based distributed sensing system that allows simultaneous temperature and strain measurement by Brillouin optical time-domain reflectometry (BOTDR) and heterodyne detection. Theoretical analysis and experimental assessment of multi-parameter discriminative measurement techniques applied to distributed FMF sensors are presented. Experimental results confirm that FM-BOTDR has similar performance with two-end methods such as FM-BOTDA, but with simpler setup and lower cost. The temperature-induced expansion strain (TIES) in response to different modes is discussed as well. Furthermore, we optimized the FMF design by exploiting modal profile and doping concentration, which indicates up to fivefold enhancement in measurement accuracy. This novel distributed FM-sensing system endows with good sensitivity characteristics and can prevent catastrophic failure in many applications.

SDM transmission of real-time 10GbE traffic using commercial SFP + transceivers over 0.5km elliptical-core few-mode fiber.

We experimentally demonstrate the first few-mode space division multiplexed (SDM) transmission of real-time 10Gb/s Ethernet (10GbE) traffic using commercial small form-factor pluggable SFP + transceivers without coherent detection or multiple input multiple output digital signal processing (MIMO-DSP) over 0.5km elliptical-core few-mode-fiber, achieving <-26dB crosstalk between LP(11e) and LP(11o) modes at 1.3µm.

Ion-exchanged glass binary phase plates for mode-division multiplexing.

Significant efforts are being made to increase optical network capacity in response to ever-growing data traffic. One promising candidate is mode-division multiplexing (MDM) in few-mode fibers. A fundamental element for MDM is a modal transformer. Modal transformation can be implemented in a free-space basis by using multiregion phase plates. In this work, we show that efficient monolithic binary phase plates can be fabricated by ion exchange in glass and used for MDM tasks. We present an optical characterization method of such plates, which is based on a combination of the inverse Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin (IWKB) method and Mach-Zehnder interferometric techniques. The IWKB method allows us to design and characterize the phase plates in an easy and fast way, whereas interferometry gives us a precise measurement of the phase step. Far-field optical intensities are measured, and a high-quality mode transformation is confirmed.

Mode-division multiplexed transmission with inline few-mode fiber amplifier.

We demonstrate mode-division multiplexed WDM transmission over 50-km of few-mode fiber using the fiber's LP01 and two degenerate LP11 modes. A few-mode EDFA is used to boost the power of the output signal before a few-mode coherent receiver. A 6×6 time-domain MIMO equalizer is used to recover the transmitted data. We also experimentally characterize the 50-km few-mode fiber and the few-mode EDFA.

Multimode fiber amplifier with tunable modal gain using a reconfigurable multimode pump.

We propose a method for controlling modal gain in a multimode Erbium-doped fiber amplifier (MM-EDFA) by tuning the mode content of a multimode pump. By adjusting the powers and orientation of input pump modes, modal dependent gain can be tuned over a large dynamic range. Performance impacts due to excitation of undesired pump modes, mode coupling and macro-bending loss within the erbium-doped fiber are also investigated. The MM-EDFA may potentially be a key element for long haul mode-division multiplexed transmission.

1.92 Tb/s coherent DWDM-OFDMA-PON with no high-speed ONU-side electronics over 100 km SSMF and 1:64 passive split.

Record 1.92-Tb/s (40λ × 48 Gb/s/λ) coherent DWDM-OFDMA-PON without high-speed ONU-side ADCs/DACs/DSP/RF clock sources is demonstrated over 100 km straight SSMF with a 1:64 passive split. Novel optical-domain OFDMA sub-band selection, coherent detection, and simple RF components are exploited. As the first experimental verification of a next-generation optical platform capable of delivering 1 Gb/s to 1000(+) users over 100 km, the new architecture is promising for future optical access/metro systems.

Coherent detection in optical fiber systems.

The drive for higher performance in optical fiber systems has renewed interest in coherent detection. We review detection methods, including noncoherent, differentially coherent, and coherent detection, as well as a hybrid method. We compare modulation methods encoding information in various degrees of freedom (DOF). Polarization-multiplexed quadrature-amplitude modulation maximizes spectral efficiency and power efficiency, by utilizing all four available DOF, the two field quadratures in the two polarizations. Dual-polarization homodyne or heterodyne downconversion are linear processes that can fully recover the received signal field in these four DOF. When downconverted signals are sampled at the Nyquist rate, compensation of transmission impairments can be performed using digital signal processing (DSP). Linear impairments, including chromatic dispersion and polarization-mode dispersion, can be compensated quasi-exactly using finite impulse response filters. Some nonlinear impairments, such as intra-channel four-wave mixing and nonlinear phase noise, can be compensated partially. Carrier phase recovery can be performed using feedforward methods, even when phase-locked loops may fail due to delay constraints. DSP-based compensation enables a receiver to adapt to time-varying impairments, and facilitates use of advanced forward-error-correction codes. We discuss both single- and multi-carrier system implementations. For a given modulation format, using coherent detection, they offer fundamentally the same spectral efficiency and power efficiency, but may differ in practice, because of different impairments and implementation details. With anticipated advances in analog-to-digital converters and integrated circuit technology, DSP-based coherent receivers at bit rates up to 100 Gbit/s should become practical within the next few years.

Detecting Lateral Motion using Light's Orbital Angular Momentum.

Interrogating an object with a light beam and analyzing the scattered light can reveal kinematic information about the object, which is vital for applications ranging from autonomous vehicles to gesture recognition and virtual reality. We show that by analyzing the change in the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of a tilted light beam eclipsed by a moving object, lateral motion of the object can be detected in an arbitrary direction using a single light beam and without object image reconstruction. We observe OAM spectral asymmetry that corresponds to the lateral motion direction along an arbitrary axis perpendicular to the plane containing the light beam and OAM measurement axes. These findings extend OAM-based remote sensing to detection of non-rotational qualities of objects and may also have extensions to other electromagnetic wave regimes, including radio and sound.