Antonio Mecozzi

Nonlinear Shannon Limit in Pseudolinear Coherent Systems

In this paper, we develop a general first-order perturbation theory of the propagation of a signal in an optical fiber in the presence of amplification and Kerr nonlinearity, valid for arbitrary pulse shapes. We obtain a general expression of the sampled signal after optical filtering, coherent detection, and optimal sampling. We include intrachannel and as well as interchannel nonlinear effects. We obtain simplified expressions in the case in which the accumulated dispersion is high (equivalent to the far-field limit in paraxial optics). This general theory is applied in detail to the special case of spectral-efficient sinc pulses. This exercise shows that the characteristics of the neighboring wavelength-division multiplexed channels are essential in determining the nonlinear impairments.

The statistics of polarization-dependent loss in optical communication systems

In this letter, we study the statistics of polarization-dependent loss (PDL) in optical systems and evaluate its evolution with system length. We show rigorously that within the range of conceivable parameters in optical links, the distribution of PDL is Maxwellian when it is expressed in decibels. The accumulation of the mean-square PDL with system length stays linear in most systems, but may assume an exponential growth in very long systems with large PDL. The analytical results are compared with numerical simulations and an excellent agreement is observed.

Stokes-space analysis of modal dispersion in fibers with multiple mode transmission

Modal dispersion (MD) in a multimode fiber may be considered as a generalized form of polarization mode dispersion (PMD) in single mode fibers. Using this analogy, we extend the formalism developed for PMD to characterize MD in fibers with multiple spatial modes. We introduce a MD vector defined in a D-dimensional extended Stokes space whose square length is the sum of the square group delays of the generalized principal states. For strong mode coupling, the MD vector undertakes a D-dimensional isotropic random walk, so that the distribution of its length is a chi distribution with D degrees of freedom. We also characterize the largest differential group delay, that is the difference between the delays of the fastest and the slowest principal states, and show that it too is very well approximated by a chi distribution, although in general with a smaller number of degrees of freedom. Finally, we study the spectral properties of MD in terms of the frequency autocorrelation functions of the MD vector, of the square modulus of the MD vector, and of the largest differential group delay. The analytical results are supported by extensive numerical simulations.

A compensator for the effects of high-order polarization mode dispersion in optical fibers

We present a polarization mode dispersion compensator for the rotation of the principal states with frequency. This compensator requires only two control elements more than existing first-order compensators. These are the position of one polarization controller and the setting of a single delay. With the proposed scheme, compensation for first order can be decoupled from the compensation for higher orders and controlled independently. The effect of the compensator on signal transmission is evaluated with extensive numerical simulations.

Mean-square magnitude of all orders of polarization mode dispersion and the relation with the bandwidth of the principal states

Using the retarded plate model, we derive the correlations and the mean-square values of all orders of polarization mode dispersion (PMD) as well as the autocorrelation function of the PMD vector. Our results provide the signal bandwidth below which the first-order approximation of the principal states of polarization is valid. We show that this bandwidth depends only on the mean value of the differential group delay. Our theoretical results are supported by simulations and experiments.

The modulation response of a semiconductor laser amplifier

We present a theoretical analysis of the modulation response of a semiconductor laser amplifier. We find a resonance behavior similar to the well-known relaxation oscillation resonance found in semiconductor lasers, but of a different physical origin. The role of the waveguide (scattering) loss is investigated in detail and is shown to influence the qualitative behavior of the response. In particular, it is found that a certain amount of waveguide loss may be beneficial in some cases. Finally, the role of the microwave propagation of the modulation signals is investigated and different feeding schemes are analyzed. The nonlinear transparent waveguide, i.e., an amplifier saturated to the point where the stimulated emission balances the internal losses, is shown to be analytically solvable and is a convenient vehicle for gaining qualitative understanding of the dynamics of modulated semiconductor optical amplifiers.

Probability density functions of the nonlinear phase noise

Probability density functions are given for nonlinear phase noise in a photonic communication system in which the information is encoded in the optical phase, both unconditioned and conditioned to the detection of a given amount of pulse energy. It is shown that the reach of a transmission system is increased by approximately 41% by ideal postcompensation of the nonlinear phase noise.

Nonlinear propagation in multi-mode fibers in the strong coupling regime

We show that light propagation in a group of degenerate modes of a multi-mode optical fiber in the presence of random mode coupling is described by a multi-component Manakov equation, thereby making multi-mode fibers the first reported physical system that admits true multi-component soliton solutions. The nonlinearity coefficient appearing in the equation is expressed rigorously in terms of the multi-mode fiber parameters.

A time-domain computer simulator of the nonlinear response of semiconductor optical amplifiers

We present a computer simulator of semiconductor optical amplifiers. The nonlinear input-output response of the device is characterized in terms of a complex gain, representing the accumulated gain and wavevector change of the propagating field across the active waveguide. We account for the gain saturation induced by stimulated recombination and by the perturbation of the carrier quasi-equilibrium distribution within the bands. A rigorous elimination of the spatial coordinate allows us to reduce the description of the amplifier dynamics to the solution of a set of ordinary differential equation for the complex gain. If the waveguide internal loss is negligible, the spatial inhomogeneity of the complex gain is implicitly yet exactly taken into account by the reduced model. The accuracy of the reduced model is the same for models based on the direct solution of the set of partial differential equations describing the interaction between the optical field and the active semiconductor waveguide, but the model is computationally much simpler. To preserve the input-output characteristics of the model, we include the amplified spontaneous emission noise in the device description by an equivalent signal applied to the device input and amplified by the saturated gain. At the expense of a minor increase of the program complexity, the waveguide internal loss may also be included. We report on the comparison between the output of the simulator and the results of four-wave mixing experiments in various pump-signal configurations. Good agreement is obtained.

Accumulation of nonlinear interference noise in fiber-optic systems.

Through a series of extensive system simulations we show that all of the previously not understood discrepancies between the Gaussian noise (GN) model and simulations can be attributed to the omission of an important, recently reported, fourth-order noise (FON) term, that accounts for the statistical dependencies within the spectrum of the interfering channel. We examine the importance of the FON term as well as the dependence of NLIN on modulation format with respect to link-length and number of spans. A computationally efficient method for evaluating the FON contribution, as well as the overall NLIN power is provided.