Design and Fabrication of a Seven-Mode Mode-Mismatching Photonic Lantern for Mode Purification from Multi-Mode Pump Sources

Pump light is the energy source for Er-doped Fiber Amplifiers (EDFAs) and an essential component for long-distance fiber optic communication systems. We have designed a Mode-Mismatching Photonic Lantern (MMPL) in the 980nm band, to achieve low-loss coupling from a single-channel, multi-mode pump source to a multi-channel, single-mode pump source, providing a multi-channel source for EDFAs. Through experiments, we have demonstrated the feasibility of the design.