Abstract:Space-division multiplexing (SDM), whereby multiple spatial channels in multimode 1 and multicore 2 optical fibres are used to increase the total transmission capacity per fibre, is being investigated to avert a data capacity crunch 3,4 and reduce the cost per transmitted bit. With the number of channels employed in SDM transmission experiments continuing to rise, there is a requirement for integrated SDM components that are scalable. Here, we demonstrate a cladding-pumped SDM erbium-doped fibre amplifier (EDFA) that consists of six uncoupled multimode erbium-doped cores. Each core supports three spatial modes, which enables the EDFA to amplify a total of 18 spatial channels (six cores × three modes) simultaneously with a single pump diode and a complexity similar to a singlemode EDFA. The amplifier delivers >20 dBm total output power per core and <7 dB noise figure over the C-band. This cladding-pumped EDFA enables combined space-division and wavelength-division multiplexed transmission over multiple multimode fibre spans.The bandwidth demands for optical networks are growing exponentially and will soon exceed the maximum achievable capacity of a single-mode fibre (SMF) due to fibre nonlinearities 4 , resulting in a 'capacity crunch' 3 in the near future. The simplest way to avert the 'capacity crunch' is to use multiple SMF transmission systems in parallel. However, this most basic form of SDM requires duplication of all the optical amplifiers, reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexers and transponders for each additional fibre, and is subject to linear scaling of cost and complexity. Alternatively, SDM that uses the spatial

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