Demonstration of a Photonic Integrated Mode Coupler With MDM and WDM Transmission

Abstract

In this letter, 3.072-Tb/s (six spatial and polarization modes × 4 wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) ×128-Gb/s 16QAM) transmission over 30 km of few-mode fiber (FMF) is demonstrated employing a photonic integrated mode coupler based on silicon-on-insulator (SoI) technology. A 2-D top coupling solution with five small vertical grating couplers is proposed for coupling between an SoI chip and an FMF, guiding LP <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">01</sub> and LP <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">11</sub> modes. Push-pull and center launch configurations for exciting LP <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">11</sub> and LP <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">01</sub> modes, respectively, through mode-profile matching are analyzed and implemented on the SoI chip.