Patent ID: 8111957

Claim:
A spun optical fiber comprising a fiber core and a fiber cladding, wherein: the core and cladding define a refractive index distribution of core diameter and core delta that enables propagation of a fundamental LP 01 propagation mode and secondary LP 11 propagation modes; the core diameter and core delta of the spun optical fiber are such that (i) polarization of the fundamental LP 01 propagation mode is a hybrid electric polarization HE 11 , (ii) the respective polarizations of the secondary LP 11 propagation modes comprise transverse electric and hybrid electric modes, (iii) the transverse electric modes of the secondary LP 11 propagation modes comprise azimuthal TE 01 or radial TM 01 polarizations, and (iv) the hybrid electric mode of the secondary LP 11 propagation modes comprises a hybrid polarization HE 21 ; and the spun optical fiber is characterized by a spin rate that is sufficient to cause coupling among the azimuthal TE 01 , radial TM 01 , and hybrid HE 21 polarizations of the secondary propagation modes to yield a hybrid-azimuthal polarization state (HAP) and a hybrid-radial polarization state (HRP) orthogonal to the HAP.