Fabrication approach for aligned, n-core, multi-core fibers

Multi-core fibers are a highly interesting approach to expanding the data capacity of optical fiber cables and for exploring novel non-linear optical effects in fibers. However, to achieve this it is necessary to fabricate suitable n-cored active and passive fibers that offer optical performance comparable to standard single-core fibers. Here, we report a novel fabrication approach that allows multiple n-cored fiber configurations, with aligned cores, to be realized from a single fiber preform.