tic s ] 4 M ay 2 01 5 Fiber propagation of vector modes

Here we employ both dynamic and geometric phase control of light to produce radially modulated vector-vortex modes, the natural modes of optical fibers. We then measure these modes using a vector modal decomposition set-up as well as a tomography measurement, the latter providing a degree of the non-separability of the vector states, akin to an entanglement measure for quantum states. We demonstrate the versatility of the approach by creating the natural modes of a step-index fiber, which are known to exhibit strong mode coupling, and measure the modal cross-talk and non-separability decay during propagation. Our approach will be useful in mode division multiplexing schemes for transport of classical and quantum states. © 2015 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: (050.4865) Optical vortices, (260.5430) Polarization, (060.2310) Fiber optics References and links 1. G. Li, N. Bai, N. Zhao, and C. Xia, Adv. Opt. Photon. 6, 413 (2014). 2. J. Wang, J.-Y. Yang, I. M. Fazal, N. Ahmed, Y. Yan, H. Huang, Y. Ren, Y. Yue, S. Dolinar, M. Tur et al., Nat. Photonics 6, 488 (2012). 3. G. Milione, M. P. J. Lavery, H. Huang, Y. Ren, G. Xie, T. A. Nguyen, E. Karimi, L. Marrucci, D. A. Nolan, R. R. Alfano, and A. E. Willner, Opt. Lett. 40, 1980 (2015). 4. S. Ramachandran and P. Kristensen, Nanophotonics 2, 455 (2013). 5. D. Richardson, J. Fini, and L. Nelson, Nat. Photonics 7, 354 (2013). 6. A. Willner, H. Huang, Y. Yan, Y. Ren, N. Ahmed, G. Xie, C. Bao, L. Li, Y. Cao, Z. Zhao et al., Adv. Opt. Photon. 7, 66 (2015). 7. A. Trichili, T. Mhlanga, Y. Ismail, F. S. Roux, M. McLaren, M. Zghal, and A. Forbes, Opt. Express 22, 17553 (2014). 8. N. Ahmed, M. P. Lavery, H. Huang, G. Xie, Y. Ren, Y. Yan, and A. E. Willner, in Optical Communication (ECOC), 2014 European Conference on (IEEE, 2014), pp. 1–3. 9. R. Ryf, S. Randel, A. H. Gnauck, C. Bolle, A. Sierra, S. Mumtaz, M. Esmaeelpour, E. C. Burrows, R.-J. Essiambre, P. J. Winzer et al., J .Lightwave Technol. 30, 521 (2012). 10. A. H. Ibrahim, F. S. Roux, M. McLaren, T. Konrad, and A. Forbes, Phys. Rev. A 88, 012312 (2013). 11. M. Shemirani, W. Mao, R. Panicker, and J. Kahn, J. Lightwave Technol. 27, 1248 (2009). 12. N. Bozinovic, Y. Yue, Y. Ren, M. Tur, P. Kristensen, H. Huang, A. E. Willner, and S. Ramachandran, Science 340, 1545 (2013). 13. C. Brunet, P. Vaity, Y. Messaddeq, S. LaRochelle, and L. A. Rusch, Opt. Express 22, 26117 (2014). 14. S. Ramachandran, P. Kristensen, and M. F. Yan, Opt. Lett. 34, 2525 (2009). 15. P. Gregg, M. Mirhosseini, A. Rubano, L. Marrucci, E. Karimi, R. Boyd, and S. Ramachandran, Opt. Lett. 40, 1729 (2015). 16. C. Souza, J. Huguenin, P. Milman, and A. Khoury, Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 160401 (2007). 17. Q. Zhan, Adv. Opt. Photon. 1, 1 (2009). 18. A. Dudley, Y. Li, T. Mhlanga, M. Escuti, and A. Forbes, Opt. Lett. 38, 3429 (2013). 19. M. McLaren, T. Konrad, and A. Forbes, arXiv preprint arXiv:1502.02153 (2015). 20. D. Flamm, C. Schulze, D. Naidoo, S. Schröter, A. Forbes, and M. Duparré, J. Lightwave Technol. 31, 1023 (2013). 21. A. W. Snyder and J. Love, Optical waveguide theory, vol. 190 (Springer Science & Business Media, 1983). 22. V. Arrizón, U. Ruiz, R. Carrada, and L. A. González, JOSA A 24, 3500 (2007). 23. L. Marrucci, C. Manzo, and D. Paparo, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 163905 (2006). 24. Y. Li, J. Kim, and M. J. Escuti, Appl. optics 51, 8236 (2012). 25. B. Jack, J. Leach, H. Ritsch, S. Barnett, and M. Padgett, New J. of Phys. 811, 103024 (2009). 26. W. K. Wootters, Quantum Inf. Comput. 1, 27 (2001). 27. D. Flamm, O. A. Schmidt, C. Schulze, J. Borchardt, T. Kaiser, S. Schröter, and M. Duparré, Opt. Lett. 35, 3429 (2010).