Direct fiber excitation with a digitally controlled solid state laser source

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates an integrated, digitally controlled solid state laser with an intra-cavity spatial light modulator that can generate and couple fiber modes directly, enabling on-demand mode encoding for fiber communications.

Contribution

It introduces the first single, integrated laser source capable of generating and coupling fiber modes directly, advancing mode division multiplexing technology.

Findings

Successful creation of fiber modes on demand

Direct coupling into a few-mode fiber

Proof-of-principle demonstration of mode encoding

Abstract

Mode division multiplexing has been mooted as a future technology to address the impending data crunch of existing fiber networks. Present demonstrations delineate the light source from the mode creation steps, potentially inhibiting integrated solutions. Here we demonstrate an integrated mode generating source in the form of a digitally controlled solid state laser with an intra-cavity spatial light modulator. In our proof-of-principle experiment we create fiber modes on demand and couple them directly into a few-mode fiber, where after transmission they are decoupled by modal decomposition. This is the first demonstration of a single source for encoding information into the spatial modes of light.