Birefringent in-phase supermode operation of a multicore microstructured fiber laser

We report the first observation of birefringent in-phase supermode operation of a phase-locked multicore fiber laser. The in-phase mode operation of our 12-core rectangular-array microstructured fiber laser was confirmed by the near-field distribution, the far-field diffraction pattern, and the optical spectrum. The birefringence of the in-phase mode in propagation constant Deltay was measured as ~ 4 x 10(-6) 1/mum. The break of the polarization degeneracy indicates the possibility of single polarization operation of phase-locked multicore fiber lasers and amplifiers.