High-Speed Multimode Fiber Transmission by Using Mode-Field Matched Center-Launching Technique

We report that the center-launching technique can be improved to selectively excite the fundamental mode of multimode fiber (MMF). This mode-field matched center-launching technique enables us to excite only the fundamental mode in the MMF and, consequently, avoid the inherent limitations imposed by the differential mode delay. We realize this mode-field matched center-launching technique simply by fusion-splicing a single-mode fiber (SMF) pigtailed transmitter to the MMF. The splicing condition is optimized to expand the core of SMF slightly so that it can match the mode field distribution of the fundamental mode of MMF. The results show that, by using this launching technique, we can achieve the transmission characteristics similar to SMF and drastically increase the bandwidth-distance product of MMF. For demonstrations, we have successfully transmitted 10- and 40-Gb/s signals over 12.2 and 3.7 km of MMF, respectively, without using any dispersion compensation techniques. We have also evaluated the robustness of the MMF link implemented by using the proposed launching technique against the mechanical perturbations such as the lateral offset between fiber connectors, fiber bending, and fiber shaking.