Simultaneous Sorting of Wavelengths and Spatial Modes using Multi-Plane Light Conversion

Abstract

We propose a wavelength-mode sorter realized by multi-plane light conversion (MPLC). For the first time, to our best knowledge, wavelengths and spatial modes can be sorted simultaneously. We first demonstrate pure wavelength sorting by a series of phase masks, which could find applications in high-power wavelength beam combining (WBC) or coarse wavelength-division multiplexing (CWDM), for example. We then present a design of a 4-wavelength, 3-mode sorter using only 5 phase masks. Insertion loss (IL) and mode dependent loss (MDL) as low as 1.27 dB and 2.45 dB can be achieved, respectively.