Low-crosstalk orbital angular momentum fiber coupler design

A fiber coupler for low-crosstalk orbital angular momentum mode beam splitter is proposed with the structure of two separate and parallel microfibers. By properly setting the center-to-center distance between microfibers, the crosstalk is less than -20 dB, which means that the purity of the needed OAM mode in output port is higher than 99%. For a fixed overlapping length, high coupling efficiency (> 97%) is achieved in 1545-1560 nm. The operating wavelength is tuned to the whole C-band by using the thermosensitive liquid. So the designed coupler can achieve the tunable coupling ratio over the whole C-band, which is a prospective component for the further OAM fiber system. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America