Design of ring-core few-mode multi-core fiber with low crosstalk and low bending loss

Abstract

Aiming at solving the problems of coupling between modes in a core and mode coupling between cores in few-mode multi-core fiber, a fiber with seven cores each with step index is proposed, and each core can support five modes. Each core has a central low refractive index region and a high refractive index ring to ensure that there is a large refractive index difference between modes in the core, so as to reduce the problem of mode coupling. The bending loss of central core and outer core, the crosstalk characteristics between modes and the influence of core parameters on crosstalk performance are simulated and analyzed by the finite element method. The simulation results show that at a wavelength of 1.55 μm and a bending radius of 50 mm, the bending loss of the proposed multi-core fiber is much lower than its attenuation loss, and the crosstalk between the adjacent cores of the five core modes are less than –20 dB/100 km. Therefore, this multi-core fiber can realize independent transmission of the core modes with long-distance under small bending radius.