All-Optical Temporal and Spatial Shaping in an Inline Two-Mode Fiber Interferometer

Fiber-based pulse shaping is a topic of current research for any application scenario requiring robust, alignment-free all-fiber systems. However, the spatial domain, which could enable a spatial degree of freedom in fiber sensing applications like lab-on-a-tip scenarios, has not been accessed yet [1]. Here, we demonstrate with a numerical study that few-mode fibers can offer spatial as well as temporal pulse shaping capabilities by exploiting intermodal cross-phase modulation (intermodal XPM) and use its analytical description to derive a simplified numerical model in order to significantly reduce calculation times for such a device from hours to seconds [2].