Dispersion-engineered multicore fibers for distributed radiofrequency signal processing.

We report a trench-assisted heterogeneous multicore fiber optimized in terms of higher-order dispersion and crosstalk for radiofrequency true time delay operation. The analysis of the influence of the core refractive index profile on the dispersion slope and effective index reveals a tradeoff between the behavior of the crosstalk against fiber curvatures and the linearity of the propagation group delay. We investigate the optimization of the multicore fiber in the framework of this tradeoff and present a design that features a group delay relative error below 5% for an optical wavelength range up to 100 nm and a crosstalk level below -80 dB for bending radii larger than 103 mm. The performance of the true time delay line is validated in the context of microwave signal filtering and optical beamforming for phased array antennas. This work opens the way towards the development of compact fiber-integrated solutions that enable the implementation of a variety of distributed signal processing functionalities that will be key in future fiber-wireless communications networks and systems.