title: Design and fabrication of ultra-low crosstalk and low-loss multi-core fiber.
abstract: We designed and fabricated a multi-core fiber (MCF) in which seven identical trench-assisted pure-silica cores were arranged hexagonally. To design MCF, the relation among the crosstalk, fiber parameters, and fiber bend was derived using a new approximation model based on the coupled-mode theory with the equivalent index model. The mean values of the statistical distributions of the crosstalk were observed to be extremely low and estimated to be less than -30 dB even after 10,000-km propagation because of the trench-assisted cores and utilization of the fiber bend. The attenuation of each core was very low for MCFs (0.175-0.181 dB/km at 1550 nm) because of the pure-silica cores. Both the crosstalk and attenuation values are the lowest achieved in MCFs.
authors.affiliation: Optical Communications R&D Laboratories, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd., 1 Taya-cho, Sakae-ku, Yokohama, 244-8588 Japan. t-hayashi@sei.co.jp
authors.forename: Tetsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hayashi
authors.forename: Toshiki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Taru
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Shimakawa
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sasaki
authors.forename: Eisuke
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sasaoka