Michel E. Marhic

Cross-phase modulation in fiber links with multiple optical amplifiers and dispersion compensators

We have theoretically and experimentally investigated the cross-phase modulation (XPM) effect in optical fiber links with multiple optical amplifiers and dispersion compensators. Our theory suggests that the XPM effect can be modeled as a phase modulator with inputs from the intensity of copropagating waves. The frequency response of the phase modulator corresponding to each copropagating wave depends on fiber dispersion, wavelength separation, and fiber length. The total XPM-induced phase shift is the integral of the phase shift contributions from all frequency components of copropagating waves. In nondispersive fibers, XPM is frequency-independent; in dispersive fibers, XPMs frequency response is approximately inversely proportional to the product of frequency, fiber dispersion, and wavelength separation. In an N-segment amplified link, the frequency response of XPM is increased N-fold, but only in very narrow frequency bands. In most other frequency bands, the amount of increase is limited and almost independent of N. However, in an N-segment amplified link with dispersion compensators, the frequency response of XPM is increased N-fold at all frequencies if the dispersion is compensated for within each fiber segment. Thus, the XPM-induced phase shift is smaller in systems employing lumped dispersion compensation than in systems employing distributed dispersion compensation.

200-nm-bandwidth fiber optical amplifier combining parametric and Raman gain

Theory shows that the gain bandwidth of a one-pump fiber optical parametric amplifier (OPA) using highly nonlinear fiber (HNLF) could be more than 200 nm. Under these circumstances, the OPA gain would overlap the pump-induced Raman gain. We have studied the combined effects of OPA and Raman gain theoretically and experimentally. The experimental results demonstrate a 200-nm bandwidth from a single fiber-optical amplifier and also verify that the influence of the Raman effect is relatively small, as predicted by the theory.

Wavelength exchange in a highly nonlinear dispersion-shifted fiber: theory and experiments

With a suitable arrangement of two pumps and two signals with respect to the zero-dispersion wavelength of a fiber, simultaneous wavelength exchange between two signals can be realized by four-wave mixing in the fiber. We have demonstrated near-complete wavelength exchange between two signals at 1573.4 and 1579.9 nm with two 0.25-W pumps in a 1-km-long highly nonlinear dispersion-shifted fiber. We also have evaluated the bit-error-rate performance of wavelength exchange with a 10-Gb/s signal, and obtained a power penalty of less than 1 dB for the exchanged signal.

Narrow-linewidth idler generation in fiber four-wave mixing and parametric amplification by dithering two pumps in opposition of phase

Wide-bandwidth and high-gain fiber optical parametric amplifiers (OPAs) have been demonstrated recently. Their application as all-optical wavelength converters has been hampered by pump-induced converted-signal spectrum broadening, due to the required pump phase modulation. In this paper, we theoretically investigate and experimentally demonstrate a technique to cancel the converted-signal broadening by using four-wave mixing (FWM) or parametric amplification with two pumps phase-modulated 180/spl deg/ out of phase. The resulting converted-signal quality is comparable to that of the output signal.

Nonlinear crosstalk and two countermeasures in SCM-WDM optical communication systems

We investigate, theoretically and experimentally, crosstalk between wavelengths in subcarrier-multiplexed (SCM) wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) optical communication systems. Crosstalk arises mainly from interactions between subcarriers on one wavelength and the optical carrier of another wavelength. In a dispersive fiber, crosstalk can be attributed to stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) and cross-phase modulation (XPM) combined with group velocity dispersion (GVD). We investigate the phase relationship between SRS-induced and XPM-induced crosstalks. Crosstalks induced by SRS and XPM add in the electrical domain and can interfere constructively or destructively. Experimental results show that the combined crosstalk level can be as high as 40 dBc after 25 km of SMF with two wavelengths and 18 dBm per wavelength of transmitted power. We propose two crosstalk countermeasures. The first countermeasure uses parallel fiber transmission. We show theoretically that both SRS-induced and XPM-induced crosstalks can be cancelled to the first order. We present an experimental demonstration of concept which has achieved 15 dB of crosstalk cancellation over 200 MHz. The second countermeasure uses optical carrier suppression. We show, theoretically and experimentally, that by suppressing the optical carrier, we can significantly reduce crosstalk while maintaining the same link budget and carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR) at the receiver, 20 dB of crosstalk reduction over 2 GHz has been demonstrated experimentally.

Fiber optical parametric amplifiers in optical communication systems

The prospects for using fiber optical parametric amplifiers (OPAs) in optical communication systems are reviewed. Phase-insensitive amplifiers (PIAs) and phase-sensitive amplifiers (PSAs) are considered. Low-penalty amplification at/or near 1 Tb/s has been achieved, for both wavelength- and time-division multiplexed formats. High-quality mid-span spectral inversion has been demonstrated at 0.64 Tb/s, avoiding electronic dispersion compensation. All-optical amplitude regeneration of amplitude-modulated signals has been performed, while PSAs have been used to demonstrate phase regeneration of phase-modulated signals. A PSA with 1.1-dB noise figure has been demonstrated, and preliminary wavelength-division multiplexing experiments have been performed with PSAs. 512 Gb/s have been transmitted over 6,000 km by periodic phase conjugation. Simulations indicate that PIAs could reach data rate x reach products in excess of 14,000 Tb/s × km in realistic wavelength-division multiplexed long-haul networks. Technical challenges remaining to be addressed in order for fiber OPAs to become useful for long-haul communication networks are discussed.

Fiber Optical Parametric Amplifier Performance in a 1-Tb/s DWDM Communication System

We have reduced signal-signal four-wave mixing crosstalk in a fiber optical parametric amplifier (OPA) by using a short nonlinear fiber for the gain medium and a high-power pump. This allowed us to obtain less than 1 dB penalty for amplification of 26 dense wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) channels modulated at 43.7 Gb/s return to zero-differential phase-shift keying, with the OPA placed between transmitter and receiver. We then used the same OPA in several different roles for a long-haul transmission system. We did not insert the OPA within the loop, but investigated this role indirectly by using equivalent results for small numbers of loop recirculations. We found that standard erbium-doped fiber amplifiers currently hold an advantage over this OPA, which becomes negligible for long distances. This paper shows that at this time OPAs can handle amplification of WDM traffic in excess of 1 Tb/s with little degradation. It also indicates that with further improvements, fiber OPAs could be a contender for wideband amplification in future optical communication networks.

High-repetition-rate pulsed-pump fiber OPA for amplification of communication signals

The use of a high-repetition-rate pulsed-pumped fiber optical parametric amplifier (OPA), followed by a narrow optical filter for transparent signal amplification, was proposed. Theory and simulations predict larger gain and gain bandwidth compared to a continuous-wave pump with the same average power. Experimentally, when using a pump with 0.63 W of average power in a 500-m-long highly nonlinear fiber, the gain increased from 19.7 to 29.2 dB, and the bandwidth increased when a CW pump was changed to one that is modulated by a 20-GHz cosine-squared function. Clear eye openings were demonstrated for the amplification of a 10-Gb/s NRZ signal, with a power penalty of 1.5 dB

1-Tb/s DWDM Long-Haul Transmission Employing a Fiber Optical Parametric Amplifier

In this letter, we report the performance of a fiber optical parametric amplifier (OPA) when used as a source or intermediate node amplifier in a dense wavelength-division-multiplexed (DWDM) long-haul transmission testbed with 26 DWDM channels modulated at 43.7-Gb/s return-to-zero differential phase-shift keying. In both scenarios, we demonstrate similar performance to an erbium-doped fiber amplifier. This shows the OPAs compatibility with high-capacity (>1 Tb/s) long-haul communication systems.

Ultrafast and versatile spectroscopy by temporal Fourier transform

One of the most remarkable and useful properties of a spatially converging lens system is its inherent ability to perform the Fourier transform; the same applies for the time-lens system. At the back focal plane of the time-lens, the spectral information can be instantaneously obtained in the time axis. By implementing temporal Fourier transform for spectroscopy applications, this time-lens-based architecture can provide orders of magnitude improvement over the state-of-art spatial-dispersion-based spectroscopy in terms of the frame rate. On the other hand, in addition to the single-lens structure, the multi-lens structures (e.g. telescope or wide-angle scope) will provide very versatile operating conditions. Leveraging the merit of instantaneous response, as well as the flexible lens structure, here we present a 100-MHz frame rate spectroscopy system – the parametric spectro-temporal analyzer (PASTA), which achieves 17 times zoom in/out ratio for different observation ranges.