Use of highly elliptical core fibers for two-mode fiber devices.

The four complex, almost degenerate, second-order eigenmodes of a two-mode fiber having a circular core are reduced to two nondegenerate, linearly polarized second-order eigenmodes with stable-intensity lobe positions in a highly elliptical core fiber. Existing two-mode-fiber devices can be improved by this stabilization of the second-order modes. Practical sensors employing the two spatial modes as the two arms of an interferometer are described. The two arms of an interferometer of this type can have the same group delays, while the difference in phase delays is large.