Investigation of Spatial Mode Conversion in Flexible Optical Switch Using LCOS-Based Spatial Light Modulator

For a heterogeneous SDM network that includes different types of SDM fibers, we have proposed a flexible optical switch using an LCOS-based spatial light modulator (LCOS-SLM) for heterogeneous SDM fiber networks. Previously, the principle of core-selective switching or inter-core switching has been experimentally demonstrated. In this paper, we investigate the mode conversion for connecting among single-mode/few-mode fibers by the proposed flexible optical switch. In the experiment, we confirm that four linear polarization (LP) modes (LP01, LP11, LP21, and LP02) can be converted from fundamental mode (LP01) by measuring the intensity profile with the InGaAs camera.