Novel optical add-drop multiplexer based on dual racetrack resonators

In this paper, we designed and fabricated a four-channel optical add-drop multiplexer (OADM) based on dual racetrack resonators. The size of the fabricated device is only 2400 μm × 500 μm. The fabricated device can effectively and perfectly realize the signals upload and download. The free spectral range (FSR) of OADM is about 15.2 nm. We take the spectral responses near 1555 nm as an example. When the device acts as an optical drop multiplexer, the minimum insertion loss is 4.481 dB and the maximum extinction ratio is 31.931 dB. The maximum adjacent channels crosstalk is -9.845 dB. When the device acts as an optical add multiplexer, the minimum insertion loss is 0.944 dB and all of the extinction ratios are bigger than 25 dB. The maximum crosstalk is -16.531 dB which indicates the crosstalk can be neglected.     

Polarization-independent rapidly tunable optical add-drop multiplexer utilizing non-polarizing beam splitters in Ti:LiNbO3

A polarization-independent four-port wavelength-tunable optical add drop multiplexer (OADM) that utilizes non-polarizing relaxed beam splitters has been analyzed and demonstrated in Ti:LiNbO₃ at the 1530 nm wavelength regime. The design utilizes an asymmetric interferometer configuration with strain induced index grating for polarization coupling along its arms that are shifted in position relative to each other. Experimental results of the filter response agree with theoretical predictions. Electrooptic tuning over a range of 15.7 nm at a rate of 0.08 nm/V has been measured. A temporal response < 46 ns to a 20 V step change in tuning voltage has been demonstrated. Fiber-to-fiber insertion loss is ~ 6.5 dB.     

Simultaneous demodulation and dispersion compensation of WDM DPSK channels using optical ring resonator

We have introduced and comprehensively analyzed a novel scheme of simultaneous demodulation and dispersion compensation of wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) non-return-to zero (NRZ) differential phase shift keying (DPSK) optical link using an optical ring resonator (ORR) based filter. Using extensive numerical simulation we have demonstrated the transmission of 10.7 Gb/s WDM DPSK channels having 50 GHz and 100 GHz spacing over 400 km of unrepeatered reach at 20 dB optical-signal-to-noise-ratio (OSNR) to achieve a bit error rate (BER) of 10^? 3.     

10 Gb/s optical carrier distributed network with W-band (0.1 THz) short-reach wireless communication system

Millimeter-wave (mm-wave) operated in W-band (75 GHz–0.11 THz) is of particular interests, since this frequency band can carry signals at much higher data rates. We demonstrate a 10 Gb/s optical carrier-distributed network with the wireless communication system. The mm-wave signal at carrier frequency of 0.1 THz is generated by a high speed near-ballistic uni-traveling carrier photodiode (NBUTC-PD) based transmitter (Tx), which is optically excited by optical short pulses. The optical pulse source is produced from a self-developed photonic mm-wave waveform generator (PMWG), which allows spectral line-by-line pulse shaping. Hence these optical pulses have high tolerance to fiber chromatic dispersion. The W-band 10 Gb/s wireless data is transmitted and received via a pair of horn antennas. The received 10 Gb/s data is envelope-detected and then used to drive an optical modulator at the remote antenna unit (RAU) to produce the upstream signal sending back to the central office (CO). 20 km single mode fiber (SMF) error free transmission is achieved. Analysis about the optimum repetition rate of the optical pulse source and the transmission performance of the upstream signal are also performed and discussed.     

Highly nonlinear layered spiral microstructured optical fiber

A layered spiral microstructured optical fiber (LS-MOF) is presented, which offers the possibility of a good control of both the dispersion and the nonlinear properties. The proposed design is analyzed using a finite element method considering silica and air as the materials. Zero dispersion, low confinement loss, and a record value of γ = 70.0 W^?1/km for the LS-MOF nonlinear parameter are simultaneously obtained at 1.55 μm, whereas a higher value γ = 169.4 W^?1/km can be achieved at 1.06 μm. Our results demonstrate the great potential of the LS-MOF for several nonlinear applications, namely for an efficient generation of the supercontinuum.     

Advanced multifunctional optical switch for multimode optical fiber networks

In this work, an advanced multifunctional optical switch based on multimode fibers is proposed. It can work as a 3 × 1 optical multiplexer/combiner, a 2 × 2 optical switch, a variable optical attenuator and a variable optical power splitter. All these functionalities can be developed in the same device without any hardware modification, only by using the proper ports and control electronics.The proposed switch has been developed for being used in the visible and near infrared wavelength range: 450–650 nm for optical fiber automobile applications, 650–850 nm for home broadband applications; and 850–1300 nm for multimode fiber access networks. Up to three different types of twisted nematic liquid crystal cells have been designed and fabricated for fulfilling these different wavelength ranges as part of the proposed device.The multifunctional switch has been implemented and experimentally tested. Crosstalk usually better than ? 15 dB at 532 nm, 660 nm and 850 nm, in any state has been measured. Switching is achieved at voltage levels of 4 Vrms. Fiber to fiber insertion losses when operating as a 2 × 2 optical switch, range from 10 to 15 dB within 200 nm wavelength range; with a non-optimized optics for collimation and coupling.     

Fiber-optic distributed sensor based on phase-sensitive OTDR and wavelet packet transform for multiple disturbances location

A novel location scheme based on the wavelet packet transform (WPT) for the phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometry (OTDR) is proposed. The wavelet packet energy of the backscattered signal at a time interval over the sensing fiber is provided to discriminate the disturbances regions from other regions. It is insensitive to the frequency drift of the laser. The simultaneous measurement of two disturbances at 5 km and 7 km positions is achieved by the location technique based on the WPT over a 9 km monitored length with a 50 m spatial resolution even when a laser with a frequency drift rate of 230 MHz/min is utilized. During 100 times experiments the false alarm rate is only 2% and the maximum location error is 150 m.     

Novel 60 GHz RoF system with optical single sideband mm-wave signal generation and wavelength reuse for uplink connection

In order to improve RF frequency to achieve higher bandwidth and larger capacity, we propose a novel scheme to generate optical single sideband (SSB) millimeter-wave, in which frequency doubling of local radio frequency (RF) is obtained by using one integrated Mach–Zehnder modulator (MZM), and we theoretically investigate the generating principle of SSB. The optical SSB modulation scheme is employed to generate 60 GHz optical mm-wave and the 2.5 Gb/s baseband signal is simultaneously up-converted at the central station (CS) for downlink transmission, and the optical carrier is reused for uplink connection at the base station (BS). The full-duplex 2.5 Gb/s data are successfully transmitted over 40 km standard single-mode fiber (SMF-28) for both uplink connection and downlink connection with less than 2-dB power penalty. Results show the novel 60 GHz RoF system with optical SSB mm-wave signal generation using optical frequency doubling is feasible and we can obtain simple cost-efficient configuration and good performance over long-distance transmission.     

Simulation of 16 × 10 Gb/s WDM system based on optical amplifiers at different transmission distance and dispersion

In this paper, the 16 channel WDM systems at 10 Gb/s have been investigated for the various optical amplifiers and hybrid optical amplifiers and the performance has been compared on the basis of transmission distance and dispersion. The amplifiers EDFA and SOA have been investigated independently and further compared with hybrid optical amplifiers like RAMAN-EDFA and RAMAN-SOA. It is observed that hybrid optical amplifier RAMAN-EDFA provides the highest output power (12.017 and 12.088 dBm) and least bit error rate (10^?40 and 9.08 × 10^?18) at 100 km for dispersion 2 ps/nm/km and 4 ps/nm/km respectively.     

An optical continuous phase FSK modulation scheme with an arbitrary modulation index over long-haul transmission fiber link

This paper presents an optical continuous phase frequency shift keying (CPFSK) modulation scheme with an arbitrary modulation index. The detailed principle on the optical CPFSK generation is derived and analyzed, which includes the special case of the minimum-shift keying (MSK) with a modulation index h = 1/2. The differential detection and the coherent detection of CPFSK are also depicted. The performances of the four kinds of the optical CPFSK modulated system with a 40 Gb/s modulation rate whose modulation index are h = 1/2, h = 2/3, h = 3/4 and h = 1 are simulated via the spectral efficiency and the receiver sensitivity over fiber link respectively. In addition, comparison with the differential phase shift keying (DPSK) is taken. Through the calculation of the spectral efficiency of each modulation formats, CPFSK has higher spectral efficiency than DPSK with the same optical devices. The transmission performances of our CPFSK over the fiber link change better as the modulation index increases under the condition of the first order dispersion of the fiber link is completely compensated. Through simulations, a 1200 km transmission distance can be achieved with a modulation index h = 1.     

Electrical and optical characteristics of a Si-doped (Al)GaInAs digital alloy/AlInAs-distributed Bragg mirrors on InP

We report electrical and optical characteristics of a Si-doped (Al)GaInAs digital alloy/AlInAs Bragg mirror lattice matched to InP grown by molecular beam epitaxy. A 98.2% reflectivity with a 107 nm stop band width centred at 1.54 μ m is obtained. An average voltage drop of 16 mV per period at a current density of 1 KA cm ^− 2is observed for a mean electron concentration of about 5.5  ×  10¹⁸cm ^− 3. The influence of structural and intrinsic properties of the heterostructure on the electrical resistivity and optical reflectivity is analysed.     

A long-reach WDM passive optical network enabling broadcasting service with centralized light source

We propose a long-reach wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) passive optical network (PON) to provide conventional point-to-point (P2P) data and downstream broadcasting service simultaneously by superimposing, for each WDM channel, the differential-phase-shift-keying (DPSK) broadcasting signal with the subcarrier multiplexing (SCM) modulated downstream P2P signal, at the optical line terminal (OLT). In the optical network units (ONUs), by re-modulating part of the downstream signal with a reflective semiconductor optical amplifier (RSOA), we realize color-less ONUs for upstream data transmission. The proposed scheme is numerically verified with a 5 Gb/s downstream P2P signal and broadcasting services, as well as 2.5 Gb/s upstream data through a 60 km bidirectional fiber link. In particular, the influence of the downstream lightwave's optical carrier–subcarrier ratio (OCSR) on the system performance is also investigated.     

Cascaded continuous-wave singly resonant optical parametric oscillator pumped by a single-frequency fiber laser

We present a cascaded continuous-wave singly resonant optical parametric oscillator (SRO) delivering idler output in mid-IR and terahertz frequency range. The SRO was pumped by an ytterbium-doped fiber laser with 27 W linear polarization pump powers, and based on periodically poled MgO:LiNbO₃ crystal (PPMgLN) in two-mirror linear cavity. The PPMgLN is 50 mm long with 29.5 μm period. The idler power output at 3811 nm was obtained 2.6 W. The additional spectral components that have been attributed to cascaded optical parametric processes are described at increasing pump levels. Besides the initial signal component at about 1476.8 nm, further generated wavelengths with frequency shifts about 47 cm^?1, 94 cm^?1 and 104 cm^?1 were observed. It was speculated that the idler waves lie in the terahertz (THz) domain from the observed results.     

Optical millimeter-wave signal generation by frequency quadrupling using one dual-drive Mach–Zehnder modulator to overcome chromatic dispersion

We propose a novel approach to generate quadrupling-frequency optical millimeter-wave using a dual-drive Mach–Zehnder modulator (MZM) in radio-over-fiber system. By properly adjusting the phase difference in the two modulation arms of MZM, the direct current (DC) bias, the modulation index and the gain of base-band signal, the quadrupling-frequency optical millimeter-wave with signal only carried by one second-order sideband is generated. As the signal is transmitted along the fiber, there is no time shift of the codes caused by chromatic dispersion. Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that the eye diagram keeps open and clear even when the quadrupling-frequency optical millimeter-wave are transmitted over 110 km and the power penalty is about 0.45 dB after fiber transmission distance of 60 km. Furthermore, due to another second-order sideband carrying no signals, a full duplex radio-over-fiber link based on wavelength reuse is also built to simplify the base station. The bidirectional 2.5 Gbit/s data is successfully transmitted over 40 km standard single mode fiber with less than 0.6 dB power penalty in the simulation.     

Spectral efficient hybrid wireless optical broadband access network (WOBAN) based on transmission of wireless MIMO OFDM signals over WDM PON

In this paper, a spectral efficient hybrid wireless optical broadband access network (WOBAN) is proposed and demonstrated based on the transmission of wireless multi-input multi-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO OFDM) signals over wavelength division multiplexing passive optical network (WDM PON). By using radio over fiber (ROF) techniques, the optical fiber is well adapted to propagate multiple wireless services having different carrier frequencies. It is a known fact that multiple wireless signals having the same carrier frequency cannot propagate over a single optical fiber at the same time, such as MIMO signals feeding multiple antennas in fiber wireless (FiWi) system. A novel optical single-sideband frequency translation technique is designed and simulated to solve this problem. This technique allows four pairs of wireless MIMO OFDM signals with the same carrier frequency for each pair to be transmitted over a single optical fiber by using one optical source per wavelength. The crosstalk between the different MIMO channels with the same frequency is eliminated, since each channel is upconverted on specified wavelength with enough channel spacing between them. Also the maximum crosstalk level between the different MIMO channels with different frequencies is very low around ?76 dB. The physical layer performance of the proposed WOBAN is analyzed in terms of the bit error rate (BER), error vector magnitude (EVM), and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The proposed WOBAN achieves 7.68 Gb/s data rate for 20 km for the optical back-end and 240 Mb/s for the outdoor wireless front-end.     

A novel OCS millimeter-wave generation scheme with data carried only by one sideband and wavelength reuse for uplink connection

We propose a novel optical carrier suppression (OCS) millimeter-wave generation scheme with data carried only by one sideband using a dual-drive Mach–Zehnder modulator (MZM) in radio-over-fiber system, and the transmission performance is also investigated. As the signal is transmitted along the fiber, there is no time shifting of the codes caused by chromatic dispersion. Simulation results show that the eye diagram keeps open and clear even when the optical millimeter-waves are transmitted over 110 km and the power penalty is about 1.9 dB after fiber transmission distance of 60 km. Furthermore, due to the +1 order sideband carrying no data, a full duplex radio-over-fiber link based on wavelength reuse is also built to simplify the base station. The bidirectional 2.5 Gbit/s data is successfully transmitted over a 40 km standard single mode fiber with less than 0.8 dB power penalty in the simulation. Both theoretical analysis and simulation results show that our scheme is feasible and we can obtain a simple cost-efficient configuration and good performance over long-distance transmission.     

Theoretical ultraslow bright and dark optical solitons in cascade-type GaAs/AlGaAs multiple quantum wells

We show the formation of ultraslow bright and dark optical solitons in a cascade-type three-level system of GaAs/AlGaAs multiple quantum wells (MQWs) structure based on the biexciton coherence in the transient optical response, and study analytically and numerically with Maxwell–Schrödinger equations. The calculated velocity of bright and dark optical solitons are V_g = 2.7 × 10⁴ ms^? 1 and V_g = 8.91 × 10⁴ ms^? 1, respectively. Such investigation of ultraslow optical solitons in MQWs may provide practical applications such as high-fidelity optical delay lines and optical buffers in semiconductor quantum wells structure, because of its flexible design.     

A filterless optical millimeter-wave generation based on frequency octupling

A novel method of a filterless optical millimeter-wave (MMW) signal generation with frequency octupling using four nested Mach–Zehnder modulators (MZMs) is proposed for Radio-over-fiber systems. By symmetrically biasing the MZMs and using two RF driving signals with 90 deg phase delay, a cost-effective, high-quality and filterless optical millimeter-wave at 80 GHz with an optical harmonic distortion suppression ratio exceeding 40 dB is obtained. The proposed system is insensitive to the MZM bias drift, which demonstrates a relatively higher stability. So it is a viable solution for the future ultra-high frequency MMW applications.     

Inexpensive,efficient optical fiber end-face mirror

The rapid fabrication of inexpensive, efficient optical fiber end-face mirrors by dipping the fiber into a small-volume drop of a molten, low-melting-point metal alloy is described. The technique uses a small (a couple hundred micrometers thick, about 1 mm wide) drop of molten metal to achieve reliable, repeatable adhesion of the metal to the fiber that is not possible with larger volumes. The resulting mirrors have an average reflectance of 65–75% for wavelengths in the telecommunications range of 1300–1600 nm. The efficient and robust nature of the resulting mirrors is demonstrated with a novel end-of-fiber mirrored long-period fiber grating.     

Performance analysis of a swept-source optical coherence tomography system with a quadrature interferometer and optical amplification

A performance analysis of signal to noise ratio for an optical coherence tomography system with quadrature detection and a semiconductor optical amplifier in the sample arm is discussed. The results are compared and discussed in relation to a conventional OCT system (without optical amplification). An increase of the signal to noise ratio up to 14 dB at a depth of 0.5 mm is obtained compared to the system without the optical amplifier. Overall, an improvement was demonstrated for signal coming from deeper regions within the samples. Arterial plaque from a myocardial infarction-prone Watanabe heritable hyperlipidemic (WHHLMI) rabbit is visualized and characterized using this system. Improvement of signal to noise ratio increases the penetration depth possible for OCT images, from 1 mm to 2 mm within the vessel wall of an artery. Preliminary results show that vulnerable plaque with fibrous cap, macrophage accumulations and calcification in the arterial tissue are measurable with this OCT system.