Adaptive mode control in few mode fibers and its applications

With the development of mode-division-multiplexing (MDM), few mode fibers (FMFs) have found a wide range of applications in optical sensing and communications. However, how to precisely control the mode composition of optical signals in FMFs remains a difficult challenge. In this paper, we present an adaptive mode control method that can selectively excite the linearly polarized (LP) mode within the FMF. The method is based on using optical pulses reflected by a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) for wavefront optimization. Two potential applications are discussed. First, we theoretically demonstrate the feasibility of large scale multiplexing of absorption based fiber optical sensors. Second, we discuss the possibility of using mode dependent loss to reconstruct the spatial distributions of absorptive chemicals diffused within a FMF.