Carl Lundström

Detailed characterization of a fiber-optic parametric amplifier in phase-sensitive and phase-insensitive operation

We experimentally demonstrate a single-pumped, non-degenerate phase-sensitive parametric amplifier with a precise control of phase and amplitude of the in-going waves and investigate in detail its gain, attenuation and saturation properties in comparison with operation in phase insensitive amplifier (PIA) mode. We experimentally observe the variation of the gain and attenuation as a function of the relative phase, pump power and the signal-idler power ratio. The phase sensitive gain spectrum is studied over a 24 nm symmetrical bandwidth and we achieve a maximum phase sensitive amplification (PSA) gain of 33 dB. A departure from the theoretical maximum attenuation as the gain increases is observed and explained.

Noise performance of optical fiber transmission links that use non-degenerate cascaded phase-sensitive amplifiers

Based on semi-classical theory, the noise performance of a multi-span fiber optical transmission system employing a cascaded phase-insensitive amplifier (PIA) and phase-sensitive amplifiers (PSAs) is investigated. Compared with the pure-PIA and pure-PSA based in-line amplification schemes, the copier + PSA scheme is found to improve the system NF by up to 6 and 3 dB, respectively, in an optimized long-haul fiber link. In addition, this cascaded configuration will significantly relax the requirement for accurate phase- and wavelength-locking which is rigorously needed in the pure-PSA configuration. This scheme is also modulation-format independent. As a proof of concept, the NF of a fiber parametric amplifier based copier + PSA cascade with inter-stage attenuation representing the fiber link is measured, which shows a 1.8-dB total NF improvement over the conventional EDFA cascade.

Spatial Equalization of Zero-Dispersion Wavelength Profiles in Nonlinear Fibers

Longitudinal zero-dispersion wavelength (ZDW) fluctuations in long waveguides impose a fundamental limit on the achievable parametric mixer bandwidth. We demonstrate for the first time that the precisely measured ZDW profile can be taken advantage of by applying spatially controlled tension along the fiber length for fluctuation reduction and synthesis of a wide mixer response. The technique was experimentally validated by measuring local dispersion and tension maps and synthesizing a 145-nm-wide fiber parametric amplifier.

Modeling and measurement of the noise figure of a cascaded non-degenerate phase-sensitive parametric amplifier.

Semi-classical noise characteristics are derived for the cascade of a non-degenerate phase-insensitive (PI) and a phase-sensitive (PS) fiber optical parametric amplifier (FOPA). The analysis is proved to be consistent with the quantum theory under the large-photon number assumption. Based on this, we show that the noise figure (NF) of the PS-FOPA at the second stage can be obtained via relative-intensity-noise (RIN) subtraction method after averaging the signal and idler NFs. Negative signal and idler NFs are measured, and <2 dB NF at >16 dB PS gain is estimated when considering the combined signal and idler input, which is believed to be the lowest measured NF of a non-degenerate PS amplifier to this date. The limitation of the RIN subtraction method attributed to pump transferred noise and Raman phonon induced noise is also discussed.

Fiber Optic Parametric Amplifier With 10-dB Net Gain Without Pump Dithering

We present a stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS)-suppressed fiber optic parametric amplifier/wavelength converter constructed from four highly nonlinear fiber pieces with applied strain gradients and separated by isolators. The effective total SBS threshold increase is about 11 dB, and a net parametric gain of 10 dB is obtained without any pump dithering.

Format Conversion of Optical Multilevel Signals Using FWM-Based Optical Phase Erasure

An optical format conversion scheme of multilevel phase-shift keying (M-ary PSK) signals using the four-wave mixing based optical phase erasure is discussed in this paper. The conversion from differential quadrature phase-shift keying (DQPSK) to differential phase shift keying at 10 and 160 Gbaud, and the conversion from differential eight-ary phase-shift keying to DQPSK at 40 Gbaud have been experimentally demonstrated. The proposed scheme could be used as a phase erasure, in which a redundant tributary of the M-ary PSK signal is removed, or as an “updater” where the unwanted phase pattern is replaced with the new pattern.

Phase and amplitude characteristics of a phase-sensitive amplifier operating in gain saturation

We investigate a non-degenerate phase-sensitive amplifier (PSA) operating in gain saturation experimentally and numerically using the three-wave model. The phase-dependent gain and phase-to-phase transfer functions are obtained for different levels of saturation with good agreement between experimental and numerical data when higher-order FWM is small. Moreover, we identify an operating point where the PSA is found to be able to significantly reduce both phase- and amplitude noise simultaneously.

Phase-Sensitive Amplified Transmission Links for Improved Sensitivity and Nonlinearity Tolerance

In this paper, we investigate the properties of transmission links amplified by phase-sensitive amplifiers (PSAs). Using an analytic description, we explain the principles enabling improved sensitivity compared to conventional links amplified by phase-insensitive amplifiers (PIAs) and mitigation of nonlinear transmission distortions. We demonstrate these features using numerical simulations, and in particular, we show the possibility of efficiently mitigating both self-phase modulation (SPM)-induced distortions and nonlinear phase noise (NLPN) if the link dispersion map is optimized. The properties of the noise on signal and idler are important and to enable NLPN mitigation, the noise must be correlated at the link input. We investigate the role of the dispersion map in detail and show that in a link with standard single mode fiber (SSMF) the optimum dispersion map for efficient nonlinearity mitigation corresponds to precompensation of an amount equal to the effective loss length. Furthermore, we experimentally demonstrate both improved sensitivity and mitigation of nonlinearities in a 105 km PSA-amplified link transmitting 10 GBd 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM) data. We measure a combined effect allowing for more than 12 dB larger span loss in a PSA-amplified link compared to a conventional PIA-amplified link to reach the same bit error ratio (BER) of 1×10-3.

Noise performance of a frequency nondegenerate phase-sensitive amplifier with unequalized inputs

For the first time to our knowledge, the noise performance of a frequency nondegenerate phase-sensitive amplifier (PSA) with unequalized input powers has been experimentally characterized, based on a fiber-based parametric copier-PSA scheme. Two different noise-figure (NF) definitions-separate and combined NFs-are provided and compared. The results show that the separate NF of the weaker input wave is lower than that of the stronger wave due to the correlated-light nature. When considering the combined NF, the optimal noise performance (0 dB NF) is obtained only when the input powers are equal. Experiments agree well with the theoretical predictions.

All-optical phase regeneration of 40Gbit/s DPSK signals in a black-box phase sensitive amplifier

We present a black-box four wave mixing based bit-rate-flexible phase sensitive amplifier and use it in the first demonstration of 40 Gbit/s DPSK phase regeneration.