High Capacity Transmission in a Coupled-Core Three-Core Multi-Core Fiber

• Published in: Journal of lightwave technology Vol. 39; no. 3; pp. 757 - 762
• Main Authors: Rademacher, Georg, Luis, Ruben S., Puttnam, Benjamin J., Ryf, Roland, van der Heide, Sjoerd, Eriksson, Tobias A., Fontaine, Nicolas K., Chen, Haoshuo, Essiambre, Rene-Jean, Awaji, Yoshinari, Furukawa, Hideaki, Wada, Naoya
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.02.2021; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Bandwidths; Couplings; Impulse response; Modulation; multi-core fibers; Multiplexing; Optical communication; Optical fibers; Optical imaging; Optical polarization; Optical transmitters; Response time; Space-division multiplexing (SDM)
• ISSN: 0733-8724; 1558-2213
• DOI: 10.1109/JLT.2020.3013966

High-capacity, long-haul transmission over a coupled-core three-core multi-core fiber is investigated in a recirculating loop experiment. We report key system characteristics, such as the optimum launch power as well as the wavelength dependence and distance-evolution of mode-dependent loss and the impulse response time spread. We further performed two high data-rate, long-haul transmission demonstrations with more than 75 nm optical bandwidth in C- and L-bands over distances up to 4800 km. The reported data-rate of 172 Tb/s over 2040 km is the highest demonstrated in any multi-span transmission system employing optical fibers with standard cladding diameter of 125 micro-meter to date. Additionally, transmission of 81 Tb/s over 4800 km distance demonstrates the potential of using coupled-core multi-core fibers in combination with wideband optical signals over long-haul distances.