Stimulated Raman Scattering and Four-Wave Mixing Effects on Crosstalk of Multicore Fibers

The numerical analysis of inter-core crosstalk in multicore fibers (MCFs) based on a novel theoretical approach that includes stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) and four-wave mixing (FWM) nonlinearities in the presence of random perturbations is presented. The coupled propagation equations can be employed to numerically analyze wavelength-division multiplexed systems with homogenous and heterogeneous cores. Propagation of ten optical channels, 200-GHz spaced, along 10 km of a homogeneous two-core fiber shows that the wavelength dependence of the relative average inter-core crosstalk induced by SRS and FWM is comparable with the one produced by only considering the wavelength dependence of the linear coupling coefficient, thus allowing tuning of the overall effect. Our formalism represents a valuable tool in the design of future multi-channel MCF systems.