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Abstract

An optical waveguide having a plurality of cores disposed in a common cladding provides an optical fiber with both a wide bandwidth, by minimizing modal dispersion, and a large aperture to enhance light-carrying capacity. Each of the cores is sized to support only the lowest order mode, HE.sub.11, and the intercore spacing is selected to achieve a required bandwidth. At the same time, the multiple cores provide a large aperture allowing a relatively large amount of light energy emitted from a noncoherent light source to be coupled into the optical fiber. An array factor A.sub.f is given which provides design criteria for the intercore spacing by providing an accurate calculation of the pulse spreading with a large number of cores beginning with a simple twin core fiber.

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First Claim