Mode Dependent Loss Measurement of Few Mode Fiber Based on Mode Multiplexing Power Control

In this letter, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel measurement method of mode dependent loss (MDL) in few-mode fiber (FMF) based on mode multiplexing power control. The fiber MDL, between mode groups, is computed from output power of FMF under test by controlling the power of each spatial mode of the photonic lantern. With this method, the MDL between LP₀₁ and LP₁₁ modes in about 9.8km 3-mode fiber is successfully measured. The experimental results obtained with our proposed method agree well with those measured by the FMF optical time domain reflectometer (FMF-OTDR) and the conventional cutback method. And it is also demonstrated that the proposed scheme can be scalable to measure long-distance FMFs with a large number of modes, and be independent of photonic lantern mode crosstalk.