Dragana Vukovic

Phase regeneration of DPSK signals in a silicon waveguide with reverse-biased p-i-n junction

Phase regeneration of differential phase-shift keying (DPSK) signals is demonstrated using a silicon waveguide as nonlinear medium for the first time. A p-i-n junction across the waveguide enables decreasing the nonlinear losses introduced by free-carrier absorption (FCA), thus allowing phase-sensitive extinction ratios as high as 20 dB to be reached under continuous-wave (CW) pumping operation. Furthermore the regeneration properties are investigated under dynamic operation for a 10-Gb/s DPSK signal degraded by phase noise, showing receiver sensitivity improvements above 14 dB. Different phase noise frequencies and amplitudes are examined, resulting in an improvement of the performance of the regenerated signal in all the considered cases.

Switching characteristics of an InP photonic crystal nanocavity: Experiment and theory

The dynamical properties of an InP photonic crystal nanocavity are experimentally investigated using pump-probe techniques and compared to simulations based on coupled-mode theory. Excellent agreement between experimental results and simulations is obtained when employing a rate equation model containing three time constants, that we interpret as the effects of fast carrier diffusion from an initially localized carrier distribution and the slower effects of surface recombination and bulk recombination. The variation of the time constants with parameters characterizing the nanocavity structure is investigated. The model is further extended to evaluate the importance of the fast and slow carrier relaxation processes in relation to patterning effects in the device, as exemplified by the case of all-optical wavelength conversion.

Wavelength Conversion of a 9.35-Gb/s RZ OOK Signal in an InP Photonic Crystal Nanocavity

Wavelength conversion of a 10-Gb/s (9.35 Gb/s net rate) return-to-zero ON-OFF keying signal is demonstrated using a simple InP photonic crystal H0 nanocavity with Lorentzian line shape. The shifting of the resonance induced by the generation of free-carriers enables the pump intensity modulation to be transferred to a continuous-wave probe with a sufficiently high quality so that the converted signal can be detected with a conventional telecommunication receiver. A clear eye diagram is observed for the converted signal showing a pre-forward error correction bit-error-ratio down to 10-3.

Polarization-insensitive wavelength conversion of 40 Gb/s NRZ-DPSK signals in a silicon polarization diversity circuit

Polarization insensitive wavelength conversion of a 40 Gb/s non-return-to-zero (NRZ) differential phase-shift keying (DPSK) data signal is demonstrated using four-wave mixing (FWM) in a silicon nanowire circuit. Polarization independence is achieved using a diversity circuit based on polarization rotators and splitters, which is fabricated by a simple process on the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform. Error-free performance is achieved with only 0.5 dB of power penalty compared to the wavelength conversion of a signal with well optimized input polarization. Additionally, data transmission over 161 km standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) is demonstrated at 40 Gb/s using optical phase conjugation (OPC) in the proposed circuit.

Multichannel nonlinear distortion compensation using optical phase conjugation in a silicon nanowire

We experimentally demonstrate compensation of nonlinear distortion caused by the Kerr effect in a 3 × 32-Gbaud quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) transmission system. We use optical phase conjugation (OPC) produced by four-wave mixing (FWM) in a 7-mm long silicon nanowire. A clear improvement in Q-factor is shown after 800-km transmission with high span input power when comparing the system with and without the optical phase conjugation module. The influence of OSNR degradation introduced by the silicon nanowire is analysed by comparing transmission systems of three different lengths. This is the first demonstration of nonlinear compensation using a silicon nanowire.

Nonlinear switching dynamics in a photonic-crystal nanocavity

We report the experimental observation of nonlinear switching dynamics in an InP photonic crystal nanocavity. Usually, the regime of relatively small cavity perturbations is explored, where the signal transmitted through the cavity follows the temporal variation of the cavity resonance. When the cavity is perturbed by strong pulses, we observe several nonlinear effects, i.e., saturation of the switching contrast, broadening of the switching window, and even initial reduction of the transmission. The effects are analyzed by comparison with nonlinear coupled mode theory and explained in terms of large dynamical variations of the cavity resonance in combination with nonlinear losses. The results provide insight into the nonlinear optical processes that govern the dynamics of nanocavities and are important for applications in optical signal processing, where one wants to optimize the switching contrast.

Wavelength Conversion of DP-QPSK Signals in a Silicon Polarization Diversity Circuit

Multichannel wavelength conversion is experimentally demonstrated for high-speed 128 Gb/s dual-polarization quadrature phase-shift keying signals using four-wave mixing in a polarization diversity circuit with silicon nanowires as nonlinear elements. The wavelength conversion performance is investigated for both single- and three-channel input signals, showing quality factors well >9.8 dB (corresponding to bit-error-ratios better than 10-3) and with a negligible power penalty compared with the back-to-back case.

Experimental demonstration of phase sensitive parametric processes in a nano-engineered silicon waveguide

We demonstrate experimentally phase-sensitive processes in nano-engineered silicon waveguides for the first time. Furthermore, we highlight paths towards the optimization of the phase-sensitive extinction ratio under the impact of two-photon and free-carrier absorption.

All-Optical Signal Processing using Silicon Devices

This paper presents an overview of recent work on the use of silicon waveguides for processing optical data signals. We will describe ultra-fast, ultra-broadband, polarisation-insensitive and phase-sensitive applications including processing of spectrally-efficient data formats and optical phase regeneration.

Parametric Optical Signal Processing in Silicon Waveguides with Reverse-Biased p-i-n Junctions

The use of silicon-on-insulator waveguides with free carriers removal using a reverse-biased p-i-n junction for parametric optical signal processing is reviewed. High efficiency wavelength conversion and phase-sensitive regeneration are reported.