Achieving 1 Gbps Over Step-Index Plastic Optical Fiber Using Spatial Mode Air-Gap Filter

This letter presents a technique to mitigate the effect of modal dispersion of a standard, 1 mm step-index plastic optical fiber (SI-POF). The modal dispersion is mitigated by reducing the effective numerical aperture of the fiber link. The technique employs a simple spatial mode filter constructed from a polycarbonate capillary tube. We experimentally demonstrated an error-free 1 Gb/s non-return-to-zero transmission over 30 m of SI-POF.