Orbital angular momentum (OAM) beams, characterized by the helical phase wavefront, have received significant interest in various areas of study. There are many methods to generate OAM beams, which can be roughly divided into two types: spatial methods and fiber methods. As a natural shaper of OAM beams, the fibers exhibit unique merits, namely, miniaturization and a low insertion loss. In this paper, we review the recent advances in fiber OAM mode generation systems, in both the interior and exterior of the beams. We introduce the basic concepts of fiber modes and the generation and detection theories of OAM modes. In addition, fiber systems based on different nuclear devices are introduced, including the long-period fiber grating, the mode-selective coupler, microstructural optical fiber, and the photonic lantern. Finally, the key challenges and prospects for fiber OAM mode systems are discussed.

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In this work, an air-core ring fiber is designed with a record high 1322 orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes at 1550 nm while maintaining radially single-mode condition. Moreover, it can support over 1004 OAM modes across all O, E, S, C, and L bands, exploiting to our knowledge the highest number of OAM modes ever supported in the optical fiber within a wide wavelength range. Simulations show that, across the C and L bands, the fiber with 55-µm air-core radius and 0.45-µm ring width can preserve 3.3 × 10 −3 effective refraction index difference between the two highest-order OAM modes HE 340,1 and EH 271,1. This enables efficient mode separation, and thus achieving stable OAM modes transmission. The effective refractive index differences between the even and odd fiber eigenmodes are also analyzed in the elliptical and bent fibers. We note that higher-order OAM modes are more tolerant to the fiber ellipticity and bending. This ring fiber design has the potential to increase the spectral efficiency and the overall capacity in fiber-based communications system. INDEX TERMS Orbital angular momentum, fiber optics, ring fiber, multiplexing.

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