The Effect of Core Separation Distance on Pulse Propagation in 6-Core Microstructure Optical Fiber

Optical fibers, in addition to being excellent for data transmission, can also be useful as an active component within photonic devices. When pulses propagate through a single core within a microstructure optical fiber (MOF), a variety of nonlinear effects via the Optical Kerr Effect may occur which result in pulse reshaping, spectral broadening, and Four Wave Mixing. In addition to nonlinear effects in a single core, core-to-core coupling may happen. The extent to which such nonlinear effects occur depends on the core separation distance in MOF. We report on pulse propagation in two types of 6-core MOF with core separation distances of 7 m and 10 m, respectively. We observe phase-matched Four Wave Mixing in the presence of core-to-core coupling in 5 meter long multi-core MOFs. Understanding pulse propagation in both the linear and nonlinear regimes is of interest for space-division multiplexing, entangled photon pair generation, and quantum communication.