Characterizing Mode Propagation in PMMA POFs With Intensity Measurements and Phase Retrieval

Plastic optical fibers (POFs) enable effective short-distance communication links. While POFs are mechanically robust and resistant to bends, data rates are much lower than glass fibers owing to modal dispersion and losses. To quantify POF limits, past work has employed deterministic and probabilistic modeling with power flow equations to estimate the frequency response, without accounting for phase variations during propagation. Generally, obtaining phase characteristics needs an array of coherent receivers, which is impractical for POFs. In this letter, we utilize imaging-based phase retrieval to quantify the transfer function of 650 nm POF links of various lengths to obtain data rate limits without any RF measurements. Using an iterative optimization technique, we quantify the precise mode content at the POF output, and estimate its data rate limits. We also show that the data rates obtained using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing modulation is consistent with the predicted data rate limits.