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Multimode Nonlinear Fiber Optics: Massively Parallel Numerical Solver, Tutorial

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JOURNAL OF LATEX CLASS FILES, VOL. 14, NO. 8, AUGUST 2015 1

Multimode Nonlinear Fiber Optics: Massively Parallel Numerical

Solver, Tutorial and Outlook
Logan G. Wright1 , Zachary M. Ziegler1 , Pavel M. Lushnikov2 , Zimu Zhu1 , M. Amin Eftekhar3 ,
Demetrios N. Christodoulides3 , and Frank W. Wise1
1 School
of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA
2 Departmentof Mathematics and Statistics, University of New Mexico, Alberquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA
2 CREOL, College of Optics and Photonics, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida 32816, USA

Building on the scientific understanding and technological infrastructure of single-mode fibers, multimode fibers are being
explored as a means of adding new degrees of freedom to optical technologies such as telecommunications, fiber lasers, imaging, and
measurement. Here, starting from a baseline of single-mode nonlinear fiber optics, we introduce the growing topic of multimode
nonlinear fiber optics. We demonstrate a new numerical solution method for the system of equations that describes nonlinear
multimode propagation, the generalized multimode nonlinear Schrödinger equation. This numerical solver is freely available,
implemented in MATLAB® and includes a number of multimode fiber analysis tools. It features a significant parallel computing
speed-up on modern graphical processing units, translating to orders-of-magnitude speed-up over the split-step Fourier method.
We demonstrate its use with several examples in graded- and step-index multimode fibers. Finally, we discuss several key open
directions and questions, whose answers could have significant scientific and technological impact.

Index Terms—Nonlinear optics, optical fibers, multimode waveguides, ultrafast optics

I. I NTRODUCTION sources need to match or exceed the performance of the current

standard solid-state femtosecond lasers such as the Ti:sapphire
T HE modern interconnected world has been constructed
around a network of single-mode optical fiber. Nowadays,
this foundation is beginning to crack [1]–[3]. A so-called ”ca-
laser and do so at significantly lower cost. Today, fiber sources
still mostly lag behind in peak power, or lack the necessary
wavelength coverage. Consequently, despite the availability of
pacity crunch” is anticipated, whereby the single-mode fiber
reliable, low-cost instruments, many users cannot adopt the
systems of today will be unable to meet increasing demand -
fiber platform. In this respect, multimode waveguides offer
except through the expensive undertaking of adding more and
altogether new routes in generating new colors, and to scaling
more fibers. A promising solution to this potential bandwidth
the peak power of these sources.
crisis is spatial division multiplexing in multimode fibers [4]–
Looking to the future, multimode waveguides can provide
[8]. While standard single-mode optical fibers support just the
a new dimension in optical wave propagation, which can lead
lowest-order LP01 mode, multimode optical fibers, having a
to qualitatively-new physical behaviors, and qualitatively-new
larger core, can support a multitude of transverse eigenmodes,
kinds of applications compared to those supported by single-
each with different spatial shapes and propagation constants
mode devices. For example, multimode fibers may serve as
(Fig 1). Inside multimode fibers, these modes can interact
compact (even sub-mm) endoscopes, through which a laser
through the influence of optical nonlinearity, disorder and laser
beam can be focused, and even scanned [9]–[12]. Such a capa-
gain. Although these interactions make multimode fibers much
bility could one day enable minimally-invasive in vivo biopsy,
more complex than their single-mode counterparts, they also
and biological studies deep inside scattering tissue. In addition,
offer a world of new physics and potential applications that
nonlinear optical devices based on multimode waveguides can
extends far beyond communications.
exploit multimode and spatiotemporal processes to generate
Optical fibers are the basis of several other important
new colors or shape complex electromagnetic fields(e.g., [13]–
technologies, for which multimode fibers provide a roadmap
[46]).
for improvement. Today, high average power (>100 W) fiber
On the other hand, the complexity of multimode fiber optics
lasers are a fast-growing industry. Since multimode fiber
presents major challenges. With many modes, all of which
architectures spread guided light over a much larger area, they
can be coupled in principle, the physics can be conceptually-
support the highest power levels and so are already widely
difficult. As will be described, numerical calculations can be
used in these products. Femtosecond-pulse fiber lasers, which
extremely helpful in isolating the roles of different physical
have historically only used single-mode components, are now
processes, but are frequently limited by computational cost.
emerging as commercial products. These devices have promise
Experiments generally require diagnostics of the spatial, tem-
for enabling mainstream applications of ultrafast pulses, such
poral, and spectral content of a field, and all of the degrees
as clinical applications of nonlinear optical microscopy and
of freedom may be coupled. On the other hand, multimode
precision materials processing. For widespread adoption, these
fibers provide a rich environment for the investigation of wave
Manuscript received December 1, 2012; revised August 26, 2015. Corre- phenomena, where nonlinearity, dissipation, and disorder can
sponding author: L.G. Wright (email: lgw32@cornell.edu). be controllably included. While recent efforts provide some
JOURNAL OF LATEX CLASS FILES, VOL. 14, NO. 8, AUGUST 2015 2

Single-core Multimode Fibers Other Multimode Fibers

(a) (b) (e)
LP01 LP11a LP11b LP02 LP21a LP21b

|Fp(x,y)|2
Multicore

|E(x,y)|2
y

core cladding Photonic

(c) (d) 0 0
Graded-index n Crystal
-10

(1/mm)

(1/mm)
Step-index
r -20 -5

0
Step-index n -30 Graded-index Hollow-core
-40 -10
r 0 5 10 15 20 25
Mode (#)

Fig. 1. Modes in multimode fiber. Many studies consider fibers that support up to hundreds of modes. The linear-polarized (LP) modes are Fp (x, y) =
êc Fp (x, y), where c = x or y for each linear polarization. Although the LP modes are usually referred to by a pair of radial and azimuthal indices (LP01,
LP11a, LP11b...), for compactness and generality throughout the rest of the text, we mainly use one index to refer to the modes, numbered starting from the
fundamental mode (largest propagation constant, β = 2πneff /λ). As a result of the many supported modes, multimode beams can appear quite complex, since
6
they are superpositions of the spatial eigenmodes of the fiber. (a) shows an intensity profile |E(x, y)|2 = | ap Fp (x, y)|2 that is a random superposition of
P
p
the first 6 modes of a fiber whose intensity profiles |Fp (x, y)|2 are shown in (b). (c) shows the respective index profiles of graded-and step-index multimode
fibers for comparison, and (d) the corresponding propagation constants of the first 25 modes for each fiber type (with identical radius and index contrast).
Step-index fibers support many more modes, all of which are close to one another in propagation constant and effective index, while graded-index fibers
support discrete mode groups: modes in the same group have near-identical propagation constants, while different groups are separated by large propagation
constant mismatch. (e) shows various other types of multimode fibers. More detail and information is provided in section III.B.

vindication that the complexity of multimode fibers can be
understood and exploited, the science of multimode nonlinear
fiber optics itself is still in its infancy.
II. O UTLINE AND P URPOSE
Our goal in this article is to provide readers the background,
perspective and necessary tools for exploring multimode non-
linear optical pulse propagation. Nonlinear optics in single-
mode fiber is treated exhaustively in Ref. [47], and basic
aspects of multimode waveguides can be readily found in
the literature (see for example Ref. [48]). To analyze the
nonlinear behavior of multimode structures, we first intro-
duce the most common theoretical model used for this task,
the generalized multimode nonlinear Schrödinger equations
(GMMNLSE, Section III). One reason we have chosen this
approach is that it allows a modular dissection of all processes
involved in multimode fibers [49], [50]. Many limitations of
this model can be reduced by adding terms that correspond to
new processes, which in turn can be examined in relation to
other individual effects. Hence in interpreting experiments or
simulations, we can build from the “bottom-up”.
We have employed the GMMNLSE to model several ex-
periments in our laboratory over the past few years. Due to
its computational cost, it has generally necessary to restrict
the calculations to a small subset of the actual modes of a
fiber, and/or smaller time windows or propagation lengths than
desired. This motivated the development of faster codes for
multimode propagation. Here we introduce a new, massively-
parallel numerical solver for the GMMNLSE. This solver is
implemented for efficiency and easy editing in the MATLAB®
computing platform, and is freely available [51]. By leveraging
graphical processing units (GPUs), the solver can be used for
rapid modeling of multimode fiber propagation on personal
computers. We demonstrate this numerical tool with several
simple and concrete examples. Building on the basic concepts
described by the GMMNLSE, we then describe several im-
portant effects in multimode waveguides that go beyond the
GMMNLSE model as presented, such as linear mode-coupling
(including disorder), and gain and loss. Finally, we highlight
some important open questions for the physics and probable
applications of multimode nonlinear fiber optics.
III. T HE GENERALIZED MULTIMODE NONLINEAR
S CHR ÖDINGER EQUATIONS (GMMNLSE)
The GMMNLSE was first derived by Poletti and Horak
[52]. The later, simplified version [49] will be considered
here, mainly for the sake of reducing the complexity of
this description. While this equation has turned out to be
remarkably useful, it does have many limitations that will be
discussed later in the article. The GMMNLSE are a system of
coupled NLSE-type equations for the electric field temporal
JOURNAL OF LATEX CLASS FILES, VOL. 14, NO. 8, AUGUST 2015 3

envelope for spatial mode p, Ap (z, t):

(p)
(p) (p) β2 2
∂z Ap (z, t) = ∂z Ap (z, t) = iδβ0 Ap − δβ1 ∂t Ap − i ∂ Ap
2 t
Nd (p) N
(p) (p)
X βm m n 2 ωo X K
iδβ0 Ap − δβ1 ∂t Ap + im+1 ∂ Ap +i Splmn Al Am A∗n (3)
m=2
m! t c
l,m,n
N
n 2 ωo i X One perspective on Eqn. 3 is worth mentioning for intuition
+i (1 + ∂t ) K
[(1 − fR )Splmn Al Am A∗n and a complementary view of dynamics. If we undo the de-
c ωo
l,m,n composition into modes and apply the paraxial approximation,
Z t
Eqn. 3 can be written as:
R
+ fR Splmn Al dτ hR (τ )Am (z, t − τ )A∗n (z, t − τ )] (1)
−∞
i β2
We admit that this is not what would normally be referred ∂z E(x, y, z, t) = ∇2 E − i ∂t2 E
2ke (ωo ) T 2
to as a simple equation. But what we have here is not the ke (ωo ) n 2 ωo
solo performance of one mode, but instead the orchestra of a +i ((n(x, y)/no )2 − 1)E + i |E|2 E (4)
2 c
multitude of modes. This analogy is apt in that it underlines the This is the 3D NLSE for the evolution of the electric field
necessity of understanding first the concepts of single-mode envelope E(z, x, y, t) along z in the presence of a transversely-
propagation, the single notes and rhythms, on which we have inhomogeneous refractive index n(x, y). This version of the
to build the chords, the counterpoint, the interacting layers equation makes it clear that what we have is just 3D wave
of complexity within a multimode symphony. In subsequent propagation (the LHS plus the first two terms on the RHS
sections we will examine each term in Eqn. 1, attempting to comprise a 3D wave equation), with perturbations from the
isolate the component concepts of multimode wave propaga- refractive index inhomogeneity and a local nonlinear index
tion, which are each expressed simply there. shift. Spatial modes originate as eigensolutions to the equation
Briefly, terms 1 through 3 on the right-hand side (RHS) of including only the first and third terms (diffraction and inho-
Eqn. 1 are the result of approximating the dispersion operator mogeneous refractive index). This equation looks very similar
in the mode p by a Taylor series expansion about ωo , then to the Gross-Piteaevskii equation that is a well-used model for
transforming the terms into the time domain. The first two the time evolution of a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate [53].
terms are expressed relative to the lowest-order longitudinal It can naturally incorporate many types of effects that would
(p) (p)
phase evolution (δβ0 ) and group velocity (δβ1 ) of first be difficult to express in Eqn. 1. In situations where many
mode (usually the fundamental). The third term represents guided modes must be considered, this equation will offer
higher-order dispersion effects (group velocity dispersion, computational advantages over the MMNLSE or GMMNLSE.
third-order dispersion, etc.) up to order Nd . hR is the Raman When it is adequate to consider a small number of guided
response of the fiber medium, fR ≈ 0.18 (in fused silica) modes, or when the paraxial approximation is violated, it
is the Raman contribution to the Kerr effect, and n2 is is faster to solve the coupled NLSEs. We usually find that
R K
the nonlinear index of refraction. Splmn and Splmn are the the modal decomposition translates to higher accuracy, and to
nonlinear coupling coefficients for the Raman and Kerr effect conceptually-clearer interpretation of observed dynamics. This
respectively [49]. In keeping with our goal of simplicity, is particularly true in practice, because the limited memory
we can significantly simplify the tensors by assuming that size of consumer-grade GPUs restricts the maximum variable
the modes excited are in a single linear polarization, and size used to describe the propagated field. In most situations
neglecting spontaneous processes which may cause coupling with a small number of modes, the modal basis is much more
into these modes. In this case, we have: memory efficient (the number of data points needed to fully
describe the field is smaller).
The following sections introduce various processes and
R
Splmn K
= Splmn = effects that occur in a multimode fiber along with the parallel
R algorithm for solving the appropriate equations. The treatment
dxdy[Fp Fl Fm Fn ]
R R R R (2) is intentionally tutorial, and we emphasize that many of
[ dxdyFp2 dxdyFl2 dxdyFm 2 dxdyFn2 ]1/2 the presented results are well-known from prior work. We
hope that this will clarify the roles of different processes for
where given our last assumption, it is sufficient to express readers new to this area, and that introductory descriptions of
each mode in terms of a real, scalar function Fp (x, y). the simplest processes will facilitate understanding of more-
In many situations of interest, further simplifications can complex nonlinear phenomena considered later. We also hope
be made. Self-steepening can be neglected by taking (1 + that consideration of the simplest cases first will set the stage
i
ωo ∂t ) → 1, and stimulated Raman scattering can be ignored for description of the parallel algorithm.
by letting fR → 0. We can also ignore the higher-order
dispersion, considering only the group velocity dispersion. In A. Linear propagation in multimode fibers
this case, we have equations which account for many recently- Figure 2 shows the main features of linear propagation in
observed interesting phenomena, the MMNLSE: multimode fiber. These behaviors can be described by the first
JOURNAL OF LATEX CLASS FILES, VOL. 14, NO. 8, AUGUST 2015
3 terms in the GMMNLSE. For simplicity we let Nd = 2, so
the equations are just
(p)
(p) (p) β2 2
∂z Ap (z, t) = iδβ0 Ap − δβ1 ∂t Ap − i ∂ Ap
2 t
(5)
The eigenmodes of the multimode fiber are a set of or-
thonormal electromagnetic field patterns (Figure 1). Each
mode has a different propagation constant, which determines
the phase velocity of the electromagnetic field in that mode.
There can be families of quasi-degenerate modes, such as
LP11a and LP11b, which have very nearly the same prop-
agation constant. In considering how modes interact, it can be
useful to refer to the “effective index”, neff , that an individual
mode experiences. In most fibers, the difference between the
maximum and minimum refractive indices is small, and as a
result the eigenmodes of the of the fiber are polarized along
axes (x,y) orthogonal to the fiber axis (z). In this case, it is
typical to write the modes of the fiber as “linearly polarized”
LP modes, which can be treated as quasi-scalar fields with one
of two polarizations.
As is done for single-mode propagation, the effects of
chromatic dispersion are incorporated by approximating the
frequency dependence of the propagation constant in each
eigenmode by a Taylor series, which can then be expressed in
the time domain. The pulse propagation is then examined in
the reference frame of the fundamental mode (usually; another
frame can be chosen if convenient), and we factor out the
propagation constant - the global longitudinal phase shift - of
that mode as well. Since we can only choose one reference,
most of the equations in the MMNLSE have two additional
terms to describe the difference in propagation constant and
group velocity of each mode.
1) Propagation constant mismatch
The first term in Eq. 5 represents the propagation constant
mismatch, and is responsible for multimode interference or
mode beating. As an example of the first term’s effects, we
consider multimode interference in parabolic-index fiber. In a
parabolic fiber, such as is depicted in Figure 1, the propagation
constants of the modes are equally spaced, with modes occu-
pying “mode groups” whose populations grow with decreasing
(p)
propagation constant. As a result, δβ0 = nP , where P is the
propagation constant mismatch between the mode groups, and
n is an integer 0,1,2,3... equal to the difference in the mode
group between the two modes.
Over short distances, the second and third terms of Eqn. 5
can be ignored. For the approximations made earlier, we can
write the full electric field envelope as a composition over the
modes:
N
X Fp (x, y)
E(x, y, z, t) = R Ap (z, t) (6)
p
[ dxdyFp2 ]1/2
Given that we are considering only the first term in 5, it is
easy to solve for the Ap (z, t) to find:
4
Fig. 2. Linear propagation effects in multimode fiber. The figure shows 3
LP0N modes, LP01 (mode 1), LP02 (2) and LP03 (3) from a parabolic
GRIN fiber. The pulse in each mode broadens according due to group velocity
dispersion (Eqn. 9) and the pulses in each mode move away from the pulse in
(p)
the fundamental LP01 mode in time by δtp (L) = δβ1 L. When the pulses
are overlapped, we see periodic spatial evolution of the entire multimode field,
whose periodic beating depends on the first term in Eqn. 5.
N
F (x, y)
R p
X
E(x, y, z, t) = Apo ei2πnp P z (7)
p
[ dxdyFp2 ]1/2
The field undergoes a periodic evolution along z. The exact
details of the periodic evolution (including the period) depend
on the modes involved. In step-index or other types of fibers,
(p)
this lowest-order evolution is more complex since δβ0 is
not uniform. It is still generically referred to as multimode
interference. An example of this rapid linear evolution, over
some millimeters of fiber after a multimode excitation of 3
LP0N (radially-symmetric modes) is shown in Figure 2. We
will see this lowest-order effect has a very important role when
nonlinearity is considered.
2) Modal dispersion
The second term in Eqn. 5 describes modal dispersion, or
modal walk-off. Each mode has a slightly different group
velocity, and so a pulse which is launched into multiple modes
will break up into sub-pulses whose separation grows linearly
with the fiber length. If we just consider the modal dispersion
term, and we assume we have some pulses in each mode with
a temporal envelope S(t), then the field looks like:
N
F (x, y)
R p (p)
X
E(x, y, z, t) = S(t − δβ1 z) (8)
[ dxdyFp2 ]1/2
p
We therefore see the electric field envelope break up
into pulses separated from the lowest-order mode pulse
(p)
by δtp (z) = δβ1 z, whose spatiotemporal shapes are
(p)
Fp (x, y)S(t − δβ1 z).
3) Chromatic dispersion
The third term in Eqn. 5 describes chromatic dispersion. In
any particular single mode of the fiber, the effects of chromatic
dispersion are the same as in propagation in a single-mode
fiber: typically, short pulses broaden as they propagate. If a
JOURNAL OF LATEX CLASS FILES, VOL. 14, NO. 8, AUGUST 2015
transform-limited Gaussian pulse of duration To is launched
into mode p, the pulse duration T broadens as [47], [54]:
q much more interesting when nonlinearity is considered [41]).
(p)
T (z) = To 1 + (z|β2 |/To2 )2 (9)
In many situations that have been studied so far, the
chromatic dispersion of all relevant modes is similar (i.e.,
(p)
β2 of all modes is about the same value). However, in
some cases the waveguide dispersion of particular modes (such
as the highest-order modes in solid, single-core multimode
fibers) can be very strong. In single-mode fibers, waveguide
dispersion requires a trade-off with the effective area. As a
result, dispersion engineering can make reaching high peak
powers a challenge. In multimode fibers, this trade-off is
eliminated, and the unusual dispersion of higher-order modes
can lead to interesting and useful effects [15]–[17], [55].
B. Types of multimode fibers
There are many types of multimode fiber. As we go on
to consider nonlinear processes, it will be useful to examine
how each might play out in different kinds of multimode
waveguides. Scientifically, each kind of multimode waveguide
provides different opportunities for nonlinear effects. For
applications, each offers unique properties and advantages.
First, we examine the two basic kinds of solid single-core
fibers, graded-index and step-index, then multicore fibers, and
then finally in more cursory detail the many other kinds
of multimode waveguides to which the GMMNLSE can be
applied.
1) Graded-index
In a graded-index (GRIN) fiber, the refractive index
smoothly changes through the core, reaching a maximum at
the center (Fig. 1(c)). Usually the profile is optimized to be
close to a parabola. As shown in Fig. 1(d), in a GRIN fiber
the modes cluster into nearly degenerate groups. Modes that
belong to the same group have minimal modal dispersion
between one another. As a result, the modal dispersion in
graded-index fibers is the minimum possible with a single-
core design. The magnitude of the modal walk-off parameters
within a given mode group in GRIN fiber can be about 10-
100 times smaller than those in step-index fibers of similar
specifications (radius, index contrast, etc.), and the sign can
even be controlled by slightly modifying the design from a
perfect parabola [56]. In practice, this means that one can
observe strong nonlinear intermodal interactions with very
short (∼100 fs) pulses. As seen above, the regularity of the
mode spacing means there is a strong periodic component to
the longitudinal evolution of the field. This has been the source
of several interesting observations, such as resonant radiation
from oscillating multimode solitons [25], and the geometric
parametric instability [38], [39], [57]–[59]. While intragroup
modal dispersions are very low, the effective index spacing
between adjacent mode groups in GRIN fiber is actually quite
large - larger, in fact, than the spacing between adjacent
modes in a similar step-index fiber. Linear mode coupling
(such as from disorder in the fiber, see Section F1) decreases
rapidly with the difference in propagation constants, so the
5
fundamental mode of a graded-index fiber is the most stable
mode of any multimode fiber (although the situation becomes
2) Step-index
In a step-index fiber (Fig. 1(c)), there is not quite as much
regularity in the mode structure as in GRIN fiber, and the
modal dispersion is usually much stronger. The first feature has
proven useful, for example, in exciting high-order modes in
these fibers (primarily the LP0N family). The radial symmetry
and the large difference in propagation constant from nearby
modes mean that these modes are weakly affected by disorder
and can propagate over long distances [60]. Compared to
GRIN fibers, there are fewer degeneracies. A step index
fiber supports more modes than a GRIN fiber with similar
specifications. For example, the GRIN and step-index fibers
shown in Fig. 1(d) have equal core radius and index contrast,
but support 170 and 330 spatial modes, respectively. The
effective area of modes in step-index fiber tend to be larger
than in GRIN fiber. Nevertheless, unlike in GRIN fiber the
effective area of high-order LP0N modes actually decreases
with mode order.
The strong modal dispersion in step-index fibers poses a
challenge for observing interactions between short pulses in
different modes, especially with anomalous dispersion in any
of the modes. To date, multimode dynamics in step-index
fibers have been primarily limited to broadband intermodal
four-wave mixing processes (e.g., [13], [22], [27], [42], [43],
[61]). However, using longer pulses and particularly in the
normal dispersion regime, we expect that step-index fibers
should support a wider range of behaviors that involve other
processes. An example is considered in Section E3.
3) Multicore fibers
Multicore fibers are multimode fibers formed by an array
of separate single-core fibers (the cores may be single-mode,
multimode, graded-index, or step-index, etc.). An example
with 7 cores is depicted in Fig. 1e. In the context of nonlinear
multimode dynamics, multicore fibers are another class of fiber
that is under-explored. When the cores are strongly coupled
(i.e., a few diameters apart), the modes of a multicore fiber
are the so-called “supermodes”. These can be interpreted as
hybridizations of the individual modes of the separate cores.
The supermodes have qualitatively different dispersive prop-
erties than the modes of the individual cores. The properties
of multicore fibers can be engineered much more easily than
single-core multimode fibers. The modal dispersion can be
similar to GRIN fibers, and waveguide dispersion can be
strong even for the lowest-order modes. The effective area
of the supermodes can be large, and the overlap between the
different supermodes can be adjusted. When the cores are
relatively weakly or moderately coupled, an N-core multicore
fiber is sensitive to disorder, since the supermodes of the
fiber are very nearly degenerate [62], [63]. Finally, multicore
waveguides are attractive for their potential ease of integration
with multiple single-mode fibers.
4) Other multimode waveguides
Adding spatial modes is a technique that can be applied
to virtually any optical guided-wave system to achieve new
and/or better behaviors. For example, solid-core and hollow-
JOURNAL OF LATEX CLASS FILES, VOL. 14, NO. 8, AUGUST 2015
core photonic crystal fibers (Fig. 1e) can guide multiple modes.
In hollow-core photonic crystal fiber, interactions between
spatial modes have been used for phase-matching many unique
processes [23], [64] however to date only fibers with a small
number of modes have been considered. Waveguides written
into planar or bulk media (fused silica, or SiN, for example)
[65], [66] may also support a few or many spatial modes. Many
microresonators (and “macro” resonators like Herriot cells
[67], [68]) support multiple spatial modes, and the opportuni-
ties afford by multimode processes have just recently begun to
be explored in these systems [69]–[73]. Last, multimode “rod
fibers” fabricated with very large claddings, or with very large
dimensions offer an opportunity for studying highly multimode
dynamics. By making the waveguide inflexible, these rods
would sacrifice some practical benefits of fiber. However, for
multimode operation this inflexibility may be very important
for realizing environmental stability.
C. Nonlinear propagation in multimode fibers
Nonlinearity underlies many surprises, opportunities, and
problems in multimode propagation. Fundamentally, nonlin-
earity introduces coupling between the different modes, and
is incorporated in the last term(s) of the GMMNLSE and
MMNLSE.
1) Self phase modulation
K of ∆β near 0, so as to affect the bandwidth, or range of
Self-phase modulation (SPM) corresponds to Spppp and
2 K
terms of the form i|Ap | Ap . The fact that Spppp is distinct
for each mode can lead to some interesting outcomes. Modes
K
have different effective areas (Aeff = 1/Spppp ). The effective
area can be very large, so for applications such as high-power
lasers, this means that higher power can be guided before
nonlinear distortions become an issue. The differential rate of
nonlinear phase accumulation can also be important for inter-
modal processes, since it leads to a decorrelation of the modal
phases. An example is the observation of irreversibility without
dissipation that occurs in Kerr beam cleanup, where unequal
self-phase modulation arrests the periodic backconversion of
energy through four-wave mixing [35].
2) Cross phase modulation
K K
Terms with Spnpn or Sppnn , where n 6= p, are of the form
2
i|An | Ap . These are cross-phase modulations (XPM). The
role of these terms in the formation of multimode solitons
is examined in the example in Section E2. XPM can lead to
asymmetric spectral broadening when two pulses are traveling
at different speeds. SPM and XPM are pure phase modula-
tions, and cannot cause energy exchange between modes.
3) Four wave mixing
All other nonlinear coupling terms can be described as
“four-wave mixing” (FWM), which we will define as “terms
that can cause transfer of energy”. Examining the nonlinear
terms in the GMMNLSE, we see that all terms are technically
“four-wave mixing” in that they involve a mixture of four,
possibly different, waves. But within our definition, four-wave
mixing terms are ones that can take on complex values. We can
understand FWM as the scattering between four waves due to
the nonlinear index modulations created by their interference.
Significant energy exchange in a FWM process occurs only
6
when energy and momentum are conserved (the latter usually
being referred to as phase matching, and expressed in terms
of the phase velocity of the interacting waves). In MMF, each
of the four interacting modes can have a different frequency
and be in a different spatial mode, so the conditions for FWM
processes (except third-harmonic generation) are that:
ω1 + ω2 − ω3 − ω4 = 0;
∆β = β3 (ω3 ) + β4 (ω4 ) − β1 (ω1 ) − β2 (ω2 ) + ∆βN L = 0;
(10)
Here, the final term in ∆β is a nonlinear contribution to the
propagation constant. In most cases, this has a small influence
on broadband multimode processes
Practically, the phase-matching requirements show that
there are many degrees of freedom for controlling a FWM
process in a highly-multimode fiber. We may be interested
in controlling the generated frequency, the generated mode,
the bandwidth of the four-wave mixing process, or some
features of the generated photon’s correlations/entanglement.
By adjusting the spatial mode, and frequency of two or three
of the waves involved, and/or by engineering the dispersion
of the modes involved by design of the fiber, one has a
significant degree of control over the modes or frequencies of
the remaining waves. One can also control the rate of change
frequencies, generated by the FWM process.
4) Self-steepening
The self-steepening terms are proportional to − nc2 ∂t . As
in single-mode fiber, self-steepening in a multimode settings
is expected to lead to the formation of an increasingly steep
trailing edge (i.e., the side of the pulse where the t-variable in
the GMMNLSE is highest) and the corresponding broadening
of the blue side of the spectrum. The self-steepening terms
may also be responsible for intermode energy transfer, since
∂t Al Am A∗n may be complex. To date, self-steepening has
not been responsible for any major features of propagation
in multimode fiber. However, it regularly has a noticeable
effect and it is often worth repeating simulations with and
without this term to examine how it affects the results. In
single-mode fiber, one would estimate self-steepening to be
important when the fiber considered is comparable to the shock
distance, ≈ 0.39zN L ω0 T0 , where zN L = Aeff /(n2 ω0 P0 ) is the
nonlinear length, and where P0 is the peak power, and T0 is
the pulse duration. This will usually be a good guideline in
multimode fiber too. However, like many such characteristic
lengths, it is only a loose guideline for how the solution to the
GMMNLSE behaves.
5) Raman scattering
Raman scattering is a dissipative process where a phonon
from the fiber medium interacts with the electric field, causing
a spectral redshift that is either continuous (in the case of
solitons and multimode solitons [24], [74]) or discrete (more
typical in the normal dispersion regime [19], [41], but also
observed for group-velocity matched modes with anomalous
dispersion [55], [71]). Raman scattering underlies multimode
spectral incoherent solitons [75]. It can cause energy transfer
JOURNAL OF LATEX CLASS FILES, VOL. 14, NO. 8, AUGUST 2015
between modes, which occurs for example in Raman beam
cleanup [76]. Within the GMMNLSE, stimulated Raman scat-
tering is modeled using a phenomenological medium response
function, hR .
D. Parallel algorithm for solving the GMMNLSE
The GMMNLSE can be solved using the same numerical
schemes used to solve the NLSE and GNLSE. Aspects and
implementation of the numerical solution to the GMMNLSE
have been considered by Poletti and Horak [52], and later
Khakimov et al. [77]. The most-common approach is based
on a split-step (SS) algorithm, where the nonlinear terms are
integrated in the time-domain and the linear dispersive terms
are evaluated as multiplications in the spectral domain. For the
GMMNLSE, this approach works well enough, but the non-
linear step quickly becomes the limit as the number of modes
increases. For each mode p, propagating one step requires
calculating three nested sums, each over all modes. The overall
computational complexity associated with this is therefore
O(P 4 ) for P modes, so the computational complexity grows
extremely quickly for more than a few modes. For typical
resolutions, we find that this usually means the GMMNLSE is
the most efficient model when the number of modes is smaller
than about 10-30, beyond which the full-field techniques such
as the (3+1)-D GNLSE or the unidirectional pulse propagation
equation [29], [78] become increasingly advantageous.
Here, we solve the GMMNLSE using a Massively Parallel
Algorithm (MPA) [79]–[81]. This is still subject to the poor
scaling of the nonlinear term, but uses a parallel method to
speed up the calculations. In a typical split-step solution to
the GMMNLSE, the equation is separated into the linear and
nonlinear terms, and integrated across each small step size in
z over which these effects are assumed to be approximately
independent. The same is done over the next step in z, in
essence “beam propagation” along z. In order to leverage
the increasingly parallel capabilities of modern computers,
however, the MPA considers many subsequent small steps,
which are computed in parallel and then iterates the until the
error is below a given tolerance. For each step, the linear
term is solved exactly, while the nonlinear term is numerically
integrated, much like with the split-step method. As long
as the number of iterations is smaller than the extent of
parallelization, which can always be the case, this algorithm
can be faster than a more traditional serial split-step algorithm.
Before continuing to explain the MPA, it is worth pointing
out that the MPA provides a means of parallelizing many
similar equations/numerical schemes, including the (3+1)-D
GNLSE, and the methods recently developed by Lægsgaard
[82], [83] and Conforti et al. [84]. These latter schemes are
not discussed in more detail here due to their recency. Briefly,
the the former approach appears to provide a significant benefit
for highly-multimode simulations, both in terms of accuracy
and speed, and the latter should provide very large speed-ups,
albeit with good accuracy only for quite restricted conditions.
Of course, the GMMNLSE reduces for one mode to the
GNLSE. Since for one mode propagation is not limited by
a short beat length, the MPA is less useful.
7
The numerical codes released in conjunction with this article
include an implementation of the MPA for the GMMNLSE
as described in earlier sections [51], as well as the split-step
implemented with and without GPU functionality, and multiple
tools for multimode fiber calculations, such as a mode solver
from the MATLAB® file exchange [85]. In a future work,
we hope to incorporate a broader set of codes, which will be
discussed later in this article.
Here we provide an overview of the MPA. A more sys-
tematic description of the MPA GMMNLSE algorithm is
included as part of the documentation for the numerical
code package [51], as well as within the commenting of
the code itself. Starting with the GMMNLSE, we group the
dispersion term (including mode-beating, modal and chromatic
(p) (p) ∂
dispersions) into the linear operator D(t) = iδβ0 −δβ1 ∂t +
(p)
P
i n≥2 n!
βn ∂ n
i ∂t


and using the notation F [D(t)Ap (t, z)] =
Dω Ap (z, ω), where F represents the Fourier Transform, MPA
defines the change-of-variables
Ap (z, ω) = ψp (z, ω)exp[Dω (z − z0 )] (11)
Here ψp (ω, z) would be independent of z for purely lin-
ear propagation. Adding nonlinearity makes ψp (ω, z) a slow
function of z since the nonlinearity is weak. Applying the
change of variables, transforming to the Fourier domain, and
integrating converts the GMMNLSE, Eqn. 1, into
ψp (z, ω) = ψp (z0 , ω) +
n 2 ω0

ω
Z z X 
i 1+ F (1
c ω0 z0
l,m,n
K
− fR )Splmn Al (z 0 , t)Am (z 0 , t)A∗n (z 0 , t) (12)
Z t
0
R
+ fR Splmn Al (z , t) hR (τ )Am (z 0 , t
−∞

0
− τ )A∗n (z 0 , t − τ )dτ e−Dω (z −z0 ) dz 0
It should be noted that this is still an exact form of the
GMMNLSE, no discretization has been applied yet. From
this form, however, one can see that the solution could be
computed efficiently in parallel if the space along z were
broken up into a number of discrete steps and at each point
z 0 the integrand was computed in parallel. This is beneficial
because by a large margin the most computationally expensive
calculation is the O(P 4 ) sum, which exists in the integrand.
Because of the nonlinear nature of the integrand, in general
such a parallelization can not be done; however, by inspecting
the length scales of the problem we can formulate a solution.
We begin by defining two step sizes along z. A large
step size, L is broken up into M small steps ∆z in order
to compute the integrand in parallel. The two longitudinal
step sizes, the small step size ∆z and the longer step size
L = M ∆z, are determined by the two important length scales
in the problem, the nonlinear length, zN L , and the intermode
(p)
beat lengths, zIM = 1/δβo . The nonlinear length depends
on the intensity, but is often no less than 50-100 µm and
frequently is orders of magnitude larger. While we typically
estimate zN L = Aeff /(n2 ω0 P0 ) as in single-mode fiber, it
JOURNAL OF LATEX CLASS FILES, VOL. 14, NO. 8, AUGUST 2015
should be noted that, due to mode interference (e.g., the inset
in Fig. 2), the length scale for nonlinear effects in MMF
often differs significantly from the single-mode estimate. The
beat lengths between the modes depends on the fiber itself,
however, and can be as small as a few µm. Given these
two lengths, therefore, we can choose the large step size L
such that L  zN L and the small step size ∆z such that
∆z  zIM . Of course, these must be related by M ∆z = L
(i.e. M small steps fit into one large step). The z grid can then
be denoted as the set of equally spaced points z0 , z1 , ..., zM ,
where zM = z0 + L.
Each parallel step is computed as follows. Over a distance
of L, ψp (z, ω), which represents the result of nonlinear phase
accumulation, is almost constant. To a first approximation,
(n=1)
therefore, MPA sets ψp (zj , ω) = ψp (z0 , ω), where n is
the iteration number, for j = 1...M , which also establishes
An=1
p (zj , ω) through Eqn. 11. Next each integrand is calcu-
lated in parallel, and then summed to get a more accurate
approximation of ψp (zj , ω). This process is then repeated in
an iterative fashion. Each iteration, the algorithm recalculates
(n)
ψp (zj , ω) by computing each integrand in parallel and then
(n)
summing over z 0 using the by trapezoid rule. ψp (zj , ω) is
(n)
converted to Ap (zj , ω) through Eqn. 11, and then the process
(n)
repeats, each time giving Ap (zj , ω) with a higher and higher
accuracy. Once the accuracy reaches a given threshold, the
(n )
process is considered converged and Ap tot (zM , ω) is taken
as the final value at the end of the large step. This finishes
one step from z0 to z0 + L, after which the next large step L
(n )
can be taken using Ap tot (zM , ω) as the new Ap (z0 , ω). The
relative error from such iterations ∼ (L/znl )n+1 as found in
Refs. [80], [81].
1
In practice, even if L ≈ 10 zN L this method converges to
a high degree of accuracy in ntot = 2 − 3 iterations at most.
Therefore, it is typically the case for simulations in MM fiber
that the MPA provides a significant parallel speedup. It should
be noted that such a speedup depends not only on ntot being
much smaller than M , but also heavily on the effectiveness
of the implementation of parallelization. If M = 10 but
computing the integrand for 10 points “in parallel” computes
each at 1/10th the speed that it would take to compute a single
integrand in serial, this algorithm will not be effective and
in fact it will be slower than a split-step method due to the
added overhead. As a result, a high degree of parallelization
is important, which motivates our use of GPUs.
Figure 3 shows the time comparison between the different
algorithms, all implemented in MATLAB, for a simulation of
10 modes of a graded-index fiber, under conditions for which
the ratio znl /∆z ≈ 200, which is typical of our usage. For
the MPA, we vary the M parameter. For our system (a high-
end PC, with the top modern commercial GPU), simply using
the GPU creates a significant speed-up. This is not surprising
given the numerous summations required. Above this, MPA
provides another speed-up, approaching an additional order-
of-magnitude. As M increases, M ∆z approaches znl and
increasingly higher values of ntot are required for convergence
over each large step. Hence, the value of M for which
maximum speed-up occurs depends on the ratio of znl to the
8
MPA acceleration vs M
(Note different axes)
120 6000
MPA GPU
SS GPU
100 MPA CPU 5000
SS CPU
time on GPU (s)
time on CPU (s)
80 4000
60 3000
40 2000
20 1000
0 0
5 10 15 20 25 30
M
Fig. 3. Time comparison for simulations with the GMMNLSE solved using
split-step method (SS) and the MPA with the same numerical accuracy. For
each case, we consider varying parallelism in the MPA (parameter M ). A
significant speed-up is also observed from utilizing GPU functionality within
MATLAB.
required small step size ∆z, as well the overhead of the MPA
relative to the split-step. The code used to generate Figure
3 is included with the numerical code package. We verified
the accuracy of the MPA code by comparison to analytic
expressions, such as from Ref. [47], to older codes in our
group for MM and single-mode propagation, and to predictions
of the 3D NLSE, Eqn. 4.
E. Examples calculated with the GMMNLSE
In the numerical code package available online, we have in-
cluded three examples that walk through representative studies
of pulse propagation with the GMMNLSE. We summarize the
findings of these studies here, but their main purposes are to
illustrate 1) the use of the various codes (including calculation
of the modes [85], dispersion and coupling tensors), 2) the use
of the modularity of the GMMNLSE to understand complex
nonlinear pulse propagation, 3) to emphasize the equation’s
limits, and where to be cautious about its accuracy, and 4)
to provide some some guidelines for avoiding and identifying
numerical artifacts.
1) Example 1: linear propagation in a multimode fiber
In this example, a short pulse is launched into all the modes
of the fiber, with very small peak power. The results are similar
to those shown in Fig. 2.
2) Example 2: Multimode soliton formation
In this example, we consider propagation in a GRIN fiber
modeled after standard telecommunication-grade GRIN mul-
timode fiber, and look at the formation and propagation of
multimode solitons [20], [24], [25], [74], [86]–[92]. Fig. 4
illustrates the basic concepts underlying multimode solitons.
In contrast to the linear propagation shown in Fig. 2, with
nonlinearity we may observe a multimode pulse that does not
broaden in time, nor break apart into multiple pulses in each
constitutent mode family. Anomalous chromatic dispersion is
balanced by self-phase and cross-phase modulations.
Since the modes have different group velocities, we expect
that cross-phase modulations cause asymmetric spectral broad-
ening of pulses in different modes. This process can shift the
JOURNAL OF LATEX CLASS FILES, VOL. 14, NO. 8, AUGUST 2015 9

All terms, bandpass filtered

(a) 8 (b)
0.07 nJ
15

Intensity (a.u.)
0.08 nJ

Intensity (kW)
6
0.2 nJ
10 0.23 nJ
4
0.38 nJ
5 0.28 nJ
2
1.41 nJ
2.05 nJ
0
35.6 36 1600 1700 1800
Time (ps) Wavelength (nm)
SPM and XPM only
8 (d)
10 (c) 0.75 nJ

Intensity (a.u.)
0.75 nJ

Intensity (kW)
Fig. 4. Soliton propagation in multimode fiber. The figure shows 3 LP0N 8 6
0.75 nJ
modes, LP01 (mode 1), LP02 (2) and LP03 (3) from a parabolic GRIN 6 0.75 nJ
fiber. Multiple spatial modes lock together in a single pulse, which evolves 4
0.75 nJ
over short distances due to the different modal propagation constants. The 4
0.75 nJ
formation of MM solitons is considered in Example 2. 2
2 0.75 nJ
0.75 nJ
3.4 3.6 3.8 4 4.2 1500155016001650
average frequency of the pulse in each mode, and therefore Time (ps) Wavelength (nm)
cause pulses in the different modes to have a common group
velocity, where the changes in chromatic dispersion compen- All terms, 1 ps launch pulse
2
sate the mismatch in modal dispersion. Intuitively, this process 2 (e) (f) 8 (g)
0.75 nJ

Intensity (kW)
1.5

Intensity (a.u.)
0.75 nJ
Intensity (kW)
can be thought of as a mutual trapping of each pulse by the 1.5 1
6
0.68 nJ
others and itself. 0.5
0.62 nJ
1 4
Hence, as illustrations of use of the codes for numerical 3
Time (ps)
4
0.78 nJ
investigations, in this example we roughly aim to answer the 0.76 nJ
0.5 2
0.79 nJ
questions “What is the role of the initial pulse duration on the 0.85 nJ
excitation of highly multimode solitons?”, and “Is cross-phase
0 10 20 1550 1600
modulation the only important process for the formation of the
Time (ps) Wavelength (nm)
multimode soliton?”
We consider the first 6 modes of the fiber, plus 2 ad-
ditional LP0N modes. In our first simulation, we launch
6 nJ, equally distributed among those modes, and monitor Fig. 5. Examination of multimode soliton formation and propagation. (a-
propagation through 15 m. With a 50-fs initial pulse duration, b) show the propagated field after 15 m and bandpass spectral filtering to
isolate the Raman-shifted soliton. The pulse is initially 50 fs long, with 6
a pristine multimode soliton emerges and experiences a soliton nJ equally distributed into the 8 modes considered. (c-d) show the result of
self-frequency shift. Similar to experimental work [24], [74], propagation for the same initial condition, but with only the Kerr SPM and
we filter out the shifted soliton in order to examine it in XPM terms included. (e-g) show the same simulation as (a-b), except with a
1 ps duration initial pulse. The inset, f, shows a zoom-in of e to emphasize
isolation (Fig. 5a-b). With Raman and four-wave-mixing terms a forming multimode soliton. The energy values plotted in b, d, and g refer
included, we see that energy shifts from higher-order to low- to the total energy within the respective spatial mode plotted (starting with
order modes, also in agreement with experimental findings in mode 1, the fundamental mode, at the bottom).
this kind of fiber. As expected due to XPM, the spectrum in
each mode shifts slightly to help equalize the group velocity
across the modes. When we neglect self-steepening and Ra- multimode soliton,” and “qualitatively yes, but quantitatively
man, and include only the Kerr SPM and XPM terms, a MM no.”
soliton also forms for the same initial condition (Fig. 5c-d), 3) Example 3: Generation of 1300-nm pulse through self-
which illustrates that XPM alone is sufficient for MM solitons phase modulation
to form. With all terms included, a 1-ps initial pulse breaks up For biomedical nonlinear optical microscopy, excitation at
into multiple pulses, and at 15 m propagation no clear MM 1300-nm is highly desired [93]. Considering absorption and
soliton has formed (Fig. 5e-f). However, at around 3 ps in Fig. scattering together, this window corresponds to an attenuation
5e, we see evidence of a MM soliton comprising a subset of minimum in typical tissue. Since well-developed fiber lasers
the launched modes (see inset Fig. 5f). If the reader cares to emit around 1030 nm, 1550 nm, or 1900 nm, nonlinear
extend the propagation to well beyond 15 m, they will observe frequency conversion has been explored to reach 1300 nm.
formation of several MM solitons, each with a unique (and One simple approach has been to apply self-phase modulation
perhaps surprising) composition. In summary, we can answer to transform-limited pulses in short fibers [94], [95]. If the
our earlier questions as “a shorter pulse can produce a more- propagation is dominated by SPM, we expect well-defined
JOURNAL OF LATEX CLASS FILES, VOL. 14, NO. 8, AUGUST 2015 10

spectral sidelobes. Since the outermost sidelobes correspond

to inflections in the phase of the pulse, when filtered by a
bandpass filter, they are nearly transform-limited pulses [94], GRIN fiber
[95]. In order for this filtered sidelobe to have a high pulse (a) (b)
energy, we’d like to be able launch a very high energy pulse,
and in a reasonable length of fiber (several centimeters at least)
accumulate the spectral broadening. In this example, we are
concerned with the question “Can spectral broadening of a
pulse launched into the fundamental mode of a graded-index
or step-index fiber provide a Gaussian pulse at 1300 nm?”
Figure 6 shows the results of this investigation. Briefly, we
find that there is strong energy transfer due to the high peak Step-index fiber
powers. In GRIN fiber, energy is relatively stable within the
(c) (d)
fundamental mode, while in the step-index fiber (which we
design to have a similar fundamental mode area), significant
energy is transferred into the LP02 mode (i.e, mode 6 in Fig.
6). Both these observations can be understood simply in terms
of the effects of self-focusing (although the peak power here
is below the critical power for collapse, non-catastrophic self-
focusing nonetheless occurs). We see that energy transfer in
the GRIN fiber occurs primarily on the trailing edge of the
pulse, while in the step-index fiber, substantial energy is also After 1300-nm bandpass filtering
transferred at the peak. In both cases, however, an energetic (e) (f)
pulse can be obtained at 1300-nm. The pulses are slightly
chirped. Given the very high peak power here, readers should
question if such results could be obtained experimentally
without damaging the fiber. Nonetheless (and in part because
of this question), the problem is a good example of exploration
using the GMMNLSE. Within the context of these important
uncertainties, we can answer our earlier question with “yes”.

F. Other effects that can be treated within the GMMNLSE

1) Linear mode coupling including disorder
Any small deviation from the ideal waveguide (for which the
modes used in the MMNLSE were calculated) can be modeled
as causing coupling between the ideal guided modes of the
unperturbed fiber, i.e. perturbative coupled mode theory. The
GMMNLSE can then be supplemented byPan additional term
N fundamental mode are obtained.
on the right hand side [63], [96], C = i n Qnp An , where
the coupling coefficients are given by:
Qnp (z)
= R
ko dxdy[n2 (x, y, z) − n2p (x, y, z)]Fn (x, y)Fp∗ (x, y)
2neff
R R
[ dxdyFn2 dxdyFp2 ]1/2
(13)
In this equation, np (x, y, z) is the perturbed index profile
and n(x, y, z) is the ideal profile. If we consider just the longi-
tudinal component of this, taking [n2 (x, y, z) − n2p (x, y, z)] =
(x, y)f (z), then the Fourier transform f˜(k) of the longitudi-
nal component tells what longitudinal momentum the medium
perturbations are providing to coupling processes. In other
words, f˜(k) has a large component at some k = δβ, then two
spatial modes whose propagation constant separation is δβ
will be phase matched through the perturbation for efficient
coupling. For example, in the case of a long-period Bragg
grating, a non-zero virtual momentum corresponding to the
Fig. 6. Generation of ∼ MW pulses at 1300-nm by self-phase modulation in
the fundamental mode of GRIN and step-index multimode fibers. (a-b) show
the result of propagation after 3.6 cm for a 600-nJ, 200 fs pulse launched
into the fundamental mode of a GRIN fiber. (c-d) show the same for 2.8
cm step-index fiber. For clarity, in (a-d), we are only showing modes which
have more than 1% of the total energy. (e-f) show the result after bandpass
filtering the above fields at 1300-nm. Nearly-transform-limited pulses in the
grating period can allow coupling between modes whose beat
lengths are near that period.
In the case of disorder, f (z) is reasonably assumed to be
a Gaussian stochastic function. This disorder would typically
not have any particular periodicity, so f˜(k) is large only near
k = 0 and therefore we expect that only modes with similar
propagation constants are coupled together by disorder. In
single-core fibers these are the quasi-degenerate mode groups.
The disorder is also usually described by its correlation length,
which refers to the distance through which index perturbations,
or equivalently linearly propagating fields in the coupled
modes, become uncorrelated. Most estimates for this length
in typical glass fibers are in the 10-100 m range [47].
When the correlation length is shorter than the fiber length,
or the length scale over which other physical processes oc-
cur (e.g. modal dispersion, four-wave mixing), the effect of
disorder qualitatively changes the pulse propagation physics.
JOURNAL OF LATEX CLASS FILES, VOL. 14, NO. 8, AUGUST 2015
In the case of modal dispersion, disordered coupling leads to
a diffusive modal pulse broadening as the energy undergoes
a random walk between different modes. In other words,
instead of temporally broadening linearly with fiber length,
p
√ 1 L as in Eqn. 8, pulses broaden instead in proportion
as δβ
to L. The averaging, or wash-out, caused by disordered
mode coupling can also reduce the cross-phase modulation
and reduce or eliminate the four-wave mixing terms in 3
[63], [92], [96]–[99]. If the modes considered all occupy a
single quasi-degenerate mode group and relevant length scales
(the dispersion, nonlinear lengths) all exceed the correlation
length, then the modes are in the so-called strong coupling
limit of disorder. In this case, Eqn. 3 reduces to a multimode
Manakov equation [97], for which exact soliton solutions
exist. If multiple degenerate mode groups are present, a set
of coupled Manakov equations [92] is obtained. On one
hand, this elimination/reduction of four-wave mixing can be
detrimental, such as for parametric amplification [99]. On
the other hand, for multimode fiber communications, strong
disordered mode coupling leads a remarkable outcome: Due
to nonlinear crosstalk averaging, for a given total power, the
signal-to-noise ratio for a set of N randomly coupled modes is
actually lower than for N uncoupled single-mode fibers [98].
For more details on modeling disorder within the MMNLSE
framework, we refer readers to Refs. [63], [99], to Ref. [100]
for analytic expressions of disorder-induced mode-coupling
coefficients for typical fiber manufacturing errors, and to Ref.
[98] for propagation with the multimode Manakov and coupled
Manakov equations.
2) Saturating gain
In multimode fibers with gain, the different modes not only
receive gain, but necessarily compete for available inverted
population since they overlap with the same gain medium.
To lowest order, gain can be added into the GMMNLSE by
an additional term gp Ap , where gp is the small signal gain
for the electric field in mode p. In most fiber amplifiers,
however, saturation will be important. For ultrashort pulses,
a common model for this is to let theR gain depend on the
time-integrated power, g(I) = go /[1 + dtI(x, y, z, t)/Isat ].
Incorporation of the full gain saturation will be described
in a future publication. A first approximation to the satu-
ration (which is often adequate) is to expand the saturat-
ing gain in a Taylor series, multiply on each side by a
spatial eigenmode and integrate over space (i.e., perform a
change of basis from the Cartesian coordinates to the spa-
tial eigenmodes). This process yields the additional terms:
N R∞
R
Al −∞ dτ Am (z, τ )A∗n (z, τ )/Isat .
P
gp Ap − Splmn
l,m,n
G. Important future directions
If you were overwhelmed by the GMMNLSE, we hope that
the tutorial above, and walking through the included examples,
has helped to convert this bewilderment into an appreciation
of the beautiful orchestral arrangements of multimode non-
linear optics. At this stage, however, we have to warn you
of yet a second wave of whelming as we briefly describe
important open directions. These directions include several
11
that are relevant to relatively near-term applications in fiber
lasers, telecommunications, and imaging, but there are also
compelling directions for basic research. This echoes what has
happened with the study of single-mode fiber, where applied
science and engineering has supported, and also benefited
from, research that uses single-mode fiber as an experimental
test-bed for basic physics.
1) Integrating disorder and nonlinearity
For applications, understanding the role of disorder in the
context of both linear and nonlinear multimode propagation
will be critical. Disorder is not only inevitable in long fibers,
but as mentioned above, strong linear mode coupling can have
an almost fantastic benefit for telecommunications. That said,
how and if this will actually be achieved is still unknown. The
answer will need to consider not only the interaction between
linear and nonlinear coupling effects, but also the practicalities
and economics of a transition to multimode transmission [6].
For now, experimental demonstrations of multimode fibers
with strong linear mode coupling (especially verifying the
impact on nonlinearity) are severely lacking. Several works
that consider the complex intermediate coupling regime have
interesting findings already [41], [96], [99], [101]. Meanwhile,
several powerful techniques are being used to characterize
coupling within multimode fibers [102]–[109]. In coming
years, these theoretical and experimental developments will
need to come together.
2) Gain, amplifiers, and lasers
Very recently, several works have shown the potential
for multimode propagation in fiber amplifiers and lasers to
generate unprecedented high power, and even spatially- or
spatiotemporally-engineered light [31], [32], [110]. Before
this, multimode fibers were considered as a means of imple-
menting a fiber-format saturable absorber (e.g., [111]–[114]).
The possibility for strong interactions between longitudinal
modes of many different transverse eigenmode families means
that mode-locked lasers with multimode fiber can display a
stunning range of behaviors, including potentially orders-of-
magnitude higher peak power than those based on single-
mode, large-mode-area fibers. While these features are com-
pelling, practical deployment of multimode fiber ultrafast
oscillators is sure to be limited in the short term by com-
plications of disorder, and from peak- and average-power
related damage to the fiber medium. Multimode fiber ampli-
fiers present a more near-term possibility to obtain spatially-
engineered, high-power laser sources. The potential impact
of just being able to harness the ultra-large mode area of
modes in multimode fiber is significant [115]–[117]. Further
improvements will probably require an increasing attention
to intermodal effects (as Example 3 suggests, for example).
However, multimode fiber amplifiers like this already yield
practical instruments with very compelling performance. They
are likely to lead the way to a new generation of multimode
fiber laser technologies.
A related direction concerns amplifiers for multimode fiber
transmission systems. Nonlinear optical technologies may be
particularly interesting here, as the unique capabilities of engi-
neering the parametric gain suggest a route to ultrabroadband
parametric amplifiers [45]. If this can be accomplished, it
JOURNAL OF LATEX CLASS FILES, VOL. 14, NO. 8, AUGUST 2015
could mean multimode fibers expand not only the spatial
channel density of telecom lines, but also the number of
spectral channels. Given that each spectral channel would
represent N more total channels (for each spatial degree of
freedom), the impact of this technology could be substantial.
3) Wave turbulence and other fundamental nonlinear dy-
namics
The notion of turbulence in nonlinear optical wave prop-
agation has produced many interesting results in the realm
of quasi-1D systems and 2D systems [118]–[122]. Pulse
propagation in multimode waveguides can include a number
of compelling ingredients beyond dispersion and nonlinearity,
namely vortex formation in multiple different dimensional
arrangements, different kinds of disorder [123], [124], and
dissipation. For this reason, we expect the study of optical
wave turbulence in multimode fibers to find new phenomena,
and to deepen the connection to fluid systems. Much like
single-mode fibers have provided an unrivaled platform for
studying nonlinear waves in one dimension, multimode fibers
may provide a platform of equal utility for studying nonlinear
dynamics in higher dimensions, and with controllable com-
plexity. Just as single-mode fiber studies were enabled by
the availability of cheap, high-quality fibers and measurement
tools, scientific studies in multimode fiber will increasingly
benefit from coming improvements in multimode fiber mea-
surement tools, theoretical techniques, and other multimode
technologies developed for applications like fiber lasers and
telecommunications. It is difficult to estimate the long term
impact of such fundamental science technologically. However,
if single mode waveguides provide a historical template,
then there is good reason to be excited about uncovering
new physics, and reaching deeper understanding of important
concepts within nonlinear multimode waveguides.
4) Optical signal processing and other nonlinear optical
information technologies
As we move nearer to spatial division multiplexing, another
area where multimode fibers may make a difference is in
signal processing [33], [34], [125]–[127]. Since intermodal
interactions can be controlled with many more degrees of
freedom than single mode fiber, and because spatial divi-
sion multiplexing will require greater signal processing than
single-mode transmission, inline signal processing, signal rout-
ing, etc. in multimode fibers could be important and see
widespread use. More speculative applications of multimode
fiber for computing are possible [41], [128]. Quantum optics
and information processing may also benefit from multimode
waveguides [129]–[131], including possibly high-dimensional
entanglement with lower losses than most integrated platforms.
5) Multimode nonlinear optics beyond fused silica fibers
While we have exclusively considered multimode optical
fibers here, there are many other platforms where we ex-
pect multimode nonlinear dynamics to occur, and where
the treatment using the GMMNLSE will be valid. Recently,
multimode effects are being explored in microresonators in
the context of frequency combs [66], [69]–[73]. Multimode
degrees of freedom allow qualitatively new kinds of solitons,
which may allow for combs at different wavelength regimes,
integrated dual comb functionality, compatibility with spatial-
12
division multiplexing, with higher conversion efficiency, and
so on. Bulk waveguides, or large stiff “rod” fibers may make
multimode fibers much more environmentally stable, and will
allow highly multimode propagation with very large mode
areas. While these devices will naturally sacrifice important
practical features of fiber, such as flexibility or efficient heat
dissipation, these downsides can be managed. If multimode
fiber lasers and amplifiers relying on inflexible waveguides
provide exceptional performance rivalling solid-state regenera-
tive amplifiers, etc., the loss of these features will not diminish
their attractiveness for applications compared to contempo-
rary solutions. Finally, while multimode effects in hollow
waveguides have been considered already [23], [64], [132],
expanding these studies to highly multimode propagation may
yield interesting results and practical benefits, such as ultrahigh
power capacity, and increased flexibility of phase-matching the
numerous unique effects possible in guided-wave gas-based
nonlinear optics.
Finally, there is much interest in generating supercontinuum
in the infrared, using fibers comprised of chalcogenide glasses,
for example. Generation of broad IR continua in few-mode
fibers has been analyzed [21], [36], [133], but experimental
work has mostly focused on fundamental mode behavior [135]
(a notable exception is Ref. [134]). Recent developments in
GRIN multimode chalcogenide fibers [136], [137] may allow
future continuum sources with higher power and more conve-
nient pumping wavelengths. The numerous four-wave mixing
processes in multimode fiber may allow broad supercontinuum
generation to be seeded in the normal dispersion regime
(typically below 4.5 µm in chalcogenide fibers). Since laser
sources above 4.5 µm are rare and underdeveloped, this would
be worthwhile.
6) Engineering excitation, spatiotemporal and mode-
resolved measurements
To date, most studies of nonlinear optics in multimode
fibers have utilized relatively simple techniques to excite the
fibers, and to make measurements. When interpreted correctly,
simple measurements can be useful, especially for initial
explorations. However, for studying specific phenomena and
certainly for developing practical instruments, more sophisti-
cated techniques are needed. More powerful techniques, such
as spatial-light modulators, can not only allow better control
of the field, but can also allow fascinating exploratory studies
[31], [138]. Given the huge parameter space of a multimode
fiber, we expect these kind of studies to produce surprising
results. As multimode optics develops for telecommunications,
the need for reliable spatial mode-resolved and spatiotemporal
pulse measurement tools is increasing. Work along these
lines has made impressive demonstrations [43], [102]–[109].
If these techniques can be made accessible and widespread,
they will significantly enhance scientific and technological
developments in multimode waveguides and beyond.
IV. C ONCLUSION
While in the beginning fiber optics emerged in the mul-
timode domain, the development of low-loss single-mode
fibers eventually underpinned the scientific and technological
JOURNAL OF LATEX CLASS FILES, VOL. 14, NO. 8, AUGUST 2015
advances that have entirely transformed the internet (and
the world). In the past few years, technological motivations
have reinvigorated the study of multimode fibers. For non-
linear optics, this motivation led to theoretical developments,
including notably the GMMNLSE, which we employ here
as a tool to understand, both conceptually and numerically,
multimode nonlinear wave propagation. The main features
of multimode nonlinear wave propagation emerge from the
different kinds of dispersion and the many different possible
nonlinear interactions among modes. Linear mode coupling
(often from disorder) and laser gain will likely increase in
importance in the future.
Just as the introduction of more and different instruments
creates rich possibilities for composers, multiple modes add
new spatial and temporal degrees of freedom to nonlinear
optical wave propagation. As a result, qualitatively new optical
capabilities and phenomena are being discovered. Applica-
tions include high-bandwidth telecommunications, imaging,
and high-power laser sources. For the most part, these appli-
cations still require major developments before they become
practical, but rapid progress is being made on a number of
fronts. Fundamental scientific studies in multimode fibers may
connect deeply to other topics throughout science, and may
play the first notes of entirely new ideas ultimately paving the
way for entirely new technologies.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by Office of Naval Research grant
N00014-13-1-0649 and National Sciences Foundation grant
ECCS-1609129. The work of P.L. was partially supported by
the National Science Foundation DMS-1412140. LGW thanks
Walter Fu for helpful discussions. The codes described in this
article are available for download online [51]. These codes
include a freely-available mode solver from the MATLAB®
file exchange [85].
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[122] A. Picozzi, S. Pitois, and G. Millot, “Spectral Incoherent Solitons: Pavel M. Lushnikov received the M.S. degree from Moscow Institute of
A Localized Soliton Behavior in the Frequency Domain,” Physical Physics and Technology, Moscow, Russia in 1994, and the Ph.D. degree from
Review Letters, vol. 101, no. 9, p. 093901, Aug. 2008. Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, Moscow, Russia in 1997. He was the
[123] A. Mafi, “Transverse Anderson localization of light: a tutorial,” postdoctoral research at Landau Institute in 1998-1999 and at the Theoretical
Advances in Optics and Photonics, vol. 7, no. 3, p. 459, Sep. 2015. Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1999-2003. In 2004-2006
[124] ——, “A brief overview of the interplay between nonlinearity and he was Kenna Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, University of
transverse Anderson localization,”, arXiv:1703.04011, Mar. 2017. Notre Dame. He has been at the Faculty in the department of Mathematics and
[125] T. Hellwig, M. Schnack, T. Walbaum, S. Dobner, and C. Fallnich, Statistics at University of New Mexico since 2006 as the Associate Professor
“Experimental realization of transverse mode conversion using (2006-2012) and the Full Professor since 2012 until now. He is also currently
optically induced transient long-period gratings,” Optics Express, the visiting member of Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics and Visiting
no. 22, p. 24951, Aug. 2013. Scholar at the Theoretical Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory.
[126] M. Schnack, T. Hellwig, M. Brinkmann, and C. Fallnich, “Ultrafast
two-color all-optical transverse mode conversion in a graded-index
fiber,” Optics Letters, no. 20, p. 4675, Oct. 2015.
[127] M. Schnack, T. Hellwig, and C. Fallnich, “Ultrafast, all-optical control
of modal phases in a few-mode fiber for all-optical switching,” Optics
Letters, vol. 41, no. 23, p. 5588, Dec. 2016.
[128] V. Mishra, S. P. Singh, R. Haldar, P. Mondal, and S. K. Varshney,
“Intermodal nonlinear effects mediated optical event horizon in
short-length multimode fiber,” Physical Review A, vol. 96, no. 1, p. Zimu Zhu received his B.S. degree in Engineering Science specializing in
013807, Jul. 2017. Physics from the University of Toronto, Canada, in 2013. He is currently
[129] H. Pourbeyram and A. Mafi, “Photon pair generation in multimode completing his Ph.D. degree at Cornell University, in Ithaca, NY. His research
optical fibers via intermodal phase matching,” Physical Review A, interests include the dynamics of nonlinear pulse propagation in multimode
vol. 94, no. 2, p. 023815, Aug 2016. fibers.
[130] H. Defienne, M. Barbieri, I. A. Walmsley, B. J. Smith, and S. Gigan,
“Two-photon quantum walk in a multimode fiber,” Science Advances,
vol. 2, no. 1, Jan. 2016.
[131] D. Cruz-Delgado, J. Monroy-Ruz, A. M. Barragan, E. Ortiz-Ricardo,
H. Cruz-Ramirez, R. Ramirez-Alarcon, K. Garay-Palmett, and A. B.
U’Ren, “Configurable spatiotemporal properties in a photon-pair
source based on spontaneous four-wave mixing with multiple
transverse modes,” Optics Letters, vol. 39, no. 12, p. 3583, Jun 2014.
[132] F. Tani, J. C. Travers, and P. Russell, “Nonlinear intermodal interactions M. Amin Eftekhar received the B.S. degree from Shiraz University of
in gas-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fibre,” in CLEO: 2013. Technology, Shiraz, Iran, and the M.S. degree from the University of Tehran,
Washington, D.C.: OSA, p. CTu2E.4. Tehran, Iran. He is currently working toward his Ph.D. degree in Optics and
[133] A. B. Khalifa, A. B. Salem, and R. Cherif, “Mid-infrared Photonicsat the College of Optics and Photonics, University of Central Florida.
supercontinuum generation in multimode As 2 Se 3 chalcogenide His research interests include nonlinear optics and fiber optics.
photonic crystal fiber,” Applied Optics, vol. 56, no. 15, p. 4319, May
2017.
[134] F. Théberge, N. Thiré, J.-F. Daigle, P. Mathieu, B. E. Schmidt,
Y. Messaddeq, R. Vallée, and F. Légaré, “Multioctave infrared
supercontinuum generation in large-core As 2S 3 fibers,” Optics
Letters, vol. 39, no. 22, p. 6474, Nov 2014.
[135] C. R. Petersen, U. Møller, I. Kubat, B. Zhou, S. Dupont, J. Ramsay,
T. Benson, S. Sujecki, N. Abdel-Moneim, Z. Tang, D. Furniss,
A. Seddon, and O. Bang, “Mid-infrared supercontinuum covering
the 1.4 - 13.3µm molecular fingerprint region using ultra-high NA Demetrios N. Christodoulides received the Ph.D. degree from The Johns
chalcogenide step-index fibre,” Nature Photonics, vol. 8, no. 11, pp. Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA, in 1986. He is the Cobb Family
830–834, 2014. Endowed Chair and Pegasus Professor of Optics at the College of Optics and
[136] S. Shabahang, N. S. Nye, C. Markos, D. N. Christodoulides, and A. F. Photonics, University of Central Florida. He subsequently joined Bellcore as
Abouraddy, “Reconfigurable opto-thermal graded-index waveguiding a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Murray Hill. Between 1988 and 2002, he was with
in bulk chalcogenide glasses,” Optics Letters, no. 10, p. 1919, May. the Faculty of the Department of Electrical Engineering, Lehigh University.
2017 His research interests include linear and nonlinear optical beam interactions,
[137] B. Siwicki, A. Filipkowski, R. Kasztelanic, M. Klimczak, and synthetic optical materials, optical solitons, and quantum electronics. His
R. Buczyński, “Nanostructured graded-index core chalcogenide fiber research initiated new innovation within the field, including the discovery of
with all-normal dispersion: design and nonlinear simulations,” Optics optical discrete solitons, Bragg and vector solitons in fibers, nonlinear surface
Express, vol. 25, no. 11, p. 12984, May. 2017 waves, and the discovery of self-accelerating optical (Airy) beams. He has
[138] O. Tzang, A. M. Caravaca-Aguirre, K. Wagner, and R. Piestun, authored and coauthored more than 300 papers. He is a Fellow of the Optical
“Wave-front shaping in nonlinear multimode fibers,”, arXiv:17015260, Society of America and the American Physical Society. In 2011, he received
Jan 2017. the R.W. Wood Prize of OSA.

Logan G. Wright received the B.S. degree in Engineering Physics from

Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada, in 2012. He is currently working
toward the Ph.D. degree in applied physics at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
His research interests include complex nonlinear optics and lasers.
Frank W. Wise received the B.S. degree from Princeton University, Princeton,
NJ, the M.S. degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and the Ph.D.
degree from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. Since receiving the Ph.D. degree
in 1988, he has been on the Faculty in the School of Engineering and Applied
Physics at Cornell University.

Zachary M. Ziegler received the B.S. degree in Engineering Physics from

Cornell University, Ithaca, NY in 2017. He is currently a research scientist at
FeatureX in Boston, MA.

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