The Many Paths of Light: Unraveling Multimode Optical Fibers
A special issue of Photonics (ISSN 2304-6732). This special issue belongs to the section "Optical Communication and Network".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 April 2026 | Viewed by 25
Special Issue Editor
Interests: multimode fibers; quantum transmission; nonlinear photonics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The capacity of optical transmission systems based on single-mode fiber (SMF) has grown by about three orders of magnitude in the last twenty years, reaching the so-called nonlinear Shannon limit. Further improvement in the capacity of an optical channel is offered by the increase in the optical bandwidth, the use of advanced modulation formats, the reduction in the fiber nonlinearity, and the adoption of space-division multiplexing (SDM), together with the more common multiplexing techniques of the wavelength (WDM) and of the polarization (PDM).
In SDM, spatially separated optical channels are injected into separate cores of a multicore fiber (MCF), or into different modes of a multimode fiber (MMF); this technique is particularly promising for its potential cost, space, and energy savings. Ultra-wide optical bandwidth is possible by exploiting simultaneously the S, C, and L transmission bands of silica fibers, but it causes challenges for the development of suitable lumped or distributed optical amplifiers. Fibers offering low Kerr nonlinearity, such as hollow-core fibers (HCF), are promising for reducing the impact of the nonlinear Shannon limit and increasing the possible optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR).
The Special Issue, ‘The Many Paths of Light: Unraveling Multimode Optical Fibers’, aims to illustrate the most advanced techniques used to increase the capacity of an optical channel, covering the following topics:
- SDM techniques in multimode and multicore fibers;
- Specialty optical fibers;
- Long-haul multicore transmission systems;
- Nonlinear effects in multimode/multicore fibers;
- Quantum transmission multimode systems.
Dr. Mario Zitelli
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- multimode/multicore fibers
- SDM
- quantum multimode transmission
- optical nonlinearity
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