J. Jaques

Study of all-optical XOR using Mach-Zehnder Interferometer and differential scheme

All-optical XOR functionality has been demonstrated experimentally using an integrated SOA-based Mach-Zehnder interferometer (SOA-MZI) at 20 and 40 Gb/s. The performance of the XOR results has been analyzed by solving the rate equation of the SOA numerically. The high-speed operation is limited by the carrier lifetime in the SOA. In order to solve the limitations imposed by carrier lifetime, a differential scheme for XOR operation has been experimentally investigated. This scheme is potentially capable of XOR operation to >100 Gb/s.

All-optical wavelength conversion using a pulse reformatting optical filter

We introduce a general concept for the design of all-optical wavelength converters with pulse reformatting functionality. The novel wavelength converters are based on a single semiconductor optical amplifier followed by an optical filter. A microelectromechanical system-based realization is shown and simultaneous 40 Gb/s wavelength conversion, switching and signal format conversion is demonstrated. The new pulse reformatting optical filter device outperforms current schemes with respect to input-power requirements, input-power dynamic range and signal quality.

Multiwavelength fiber ring laser source based on a delayed interferometer

A multiwavelength fiber laser source is demonstrated with a semiconductor optical amplifier as the gain medium. A delayed interferometer is incorporated in the ring cavity serving as a comb-like multichannel filter. A stable 75-wavelength simultaneous operation spaced at 40 GHz with the extinction ratio of 40 dB is achieved. By tuning the cavity loss, the center wavelength of the generated lasing waveband could be varied by as much as 20 nm.

Reduced Recovery Time Semiconductor Optical Amplifier Using p-Type-Doped Multiple Quantum Wells

The effect of p-type doping of the active region of multiple quantum-well (MQW) semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) has been studied. Spectrogram measurements of the dynamics of the SOAs reveal that using p-doped barriers for the MQWs has significantly reduced both gain and phase recovery times. 1/e phase recovery times as short as 11 ps were demonstrated using this approach

All-optical logic xor gate at 80 gb/s using SOA-MZI-DI

All-optical xor operation has been demonstrated using a semiconductor optical amplifier Mach-Zehnder interferometer (SOA-MZI) and delayed interferometer (DI) at 80 Gb/s. The DI is based on a polarization maintaining loop (PML) mirror. The results show using the PML-DI in series with the SOA-MZI improves the pulse quality of the xor result

Nonblocking all-optical cross connect based on regenerative all-optical wavelength converter in a transparent demonstration over 42 nodes and 16800 km

A red-shift optical filter all-optical wavelength converter compatible to all-optical WDM networks is introduced and demonstrated at 40 and 10 Gb/s. The wavelength converter provides reshaping and can act as a power equalizer. We use the device to overcome wavelength blocking in a looped-fiber network demonstration equivalent to 42 cross-connect switches and a 16800 km transmission distance.

A Programmable 8-bit Optical Correlator Filter for Optical Bit Pattern Recognition

We demonstrate a compact reconfigurable 8-bit optical matching filter fabricated using 4% delta high-index-contrast silica-on-silicon waveguides. This planar lightwave circuit is based on an eighth-order tap-and-delay finite impulse response architecture. Multimode interference-based splitters/combiners along with variable optical attenuators and phase shifters allow us to tune and dynamically reconfigure all the taps and delays (filter coefficients) in the filter using a simple automated algorithm. The filter is designed to recognize 8-bit patterns in 40-Gb/s data streams and we demonstrate its working principle by successfully correlating 8-bit binary phase-shift-keyed patterns.

All-Optical Byte Recognition for 40-Gb/s Phase-Shift-Keyed Transmission Using a Planar-Lightwave-Circuit Passive Correlator

We demonstrate all-optical recognition of a byte pattern embedded in phase-shift-keyed data streaming at 40 Gb/s. We use matched filtering to generate an autocorrelation pulse indicating the pattern matching. Matched filtering is implemented using a reconfigurable silica planar-lightwave-circuit optical delay-line filter. We show excellent discrimination against spurious patterns consistent with the theoretical predictions.

Radiation effects on optical fibers and amplifiers

The effects of gamma radiation on rare-earth doped optical fibers have been investigated over the range of 0.01 to 145 kilorads(Si) per hour to total doses exceeding 100 kilorads(Si). The effects of 3 to 4 MeV protons have also been investigated. The level of radiation induced damage has been found to be strongly dependent on radiation dose rate and fiber composition. The existence of dose rate dependence is explained by the process of simultaneous creation of color center defects and annihilation via thermal annealing. Through the use of a suitable kinetic analysis technique, we have determined appropriate rate constants for this process and have developed an empirical model based on our experimental results. In addition to these results, we present the effects of gamma radiation on the performance of operational high power erbium-ytterbium optical amplifiers.

High-Speed All-Optical Generation of Advanced Modulation Formats Using Photonic-Integrated All-Optical Format Converter

We propose and demonstrate all-optical method for generating advanced modulation formats with high-spectral efficiency. The proposed method is based on all-optical format conversion using photonic-integrated semiconductor optical amplifier-Mach-Zehnder interferometers. It enables application of advanced modulation formats at data rates not directly accessible using electronic means only. We demonstrate generation of single-polarization 86.4-Gb/s binary phase-shift keying and 173-Gb/s quadrature phase-shift keying optical signals.