Probability Distribution of Intercore Crosstalk in Weakly Coupled MCFs With Multiple Interferers

The statistical behavior of the intercore crosstalk (ICXT) power in weakly coupled multicore fibers (MCFs) with multiple interfering cores is experimentally assessed. The histograms with multiple interfering cores are compared with the probability density function (pdf) of the quadratic form corresponding to the ICXT power considering different correlation coefficients between the in-phase and quadrature Gaussian ICXT field components of the orthogonal polarizations. A very good fitting between experimental histograms and the numerical pdf of the quadratic form occurs when the ICXT field components are modeled as uncorrelated random processes. These results demonstrate that the ICXT power can, with a very low error, be described by a chi-square distribution with 4 degrees of freedom not only with a single interfering core but also with multiple interfering cores. This means that the ICXT contributions induced by different cores of the MCF are uncorrelated.