Propagation characteristics of double-mode fibers

We study propagation characteristics of double-mode fibers by measuring group delay differences of time-resolved discrete pulses of the LP(01) and LP(11) modes as a function of wavelength in the 1.06- to 1.6-μm region. The technique has been used to make the first measurements of zero intermodal dispersion in the zero material dispersion region of graded-index double-mode fiberguides that can have larger diameters than standard single-mode fibers. The results can also be used to deduce information about the fiber's refractive-index profile, such as δ, the normalized peak refractive index difference.