Direct measurement of pulse distortion near the zero-dispersion wavelength in an optical fiber by frequency-resolved optical gating

The technique of frequency-resolved optical gating is used to characterize the intensity and the phase of picosecond pulses after propagation through 700 m of fiber at close to the zero-dispersion wavelength. Using the frequency-resolved optical gating technique, we directly measure the severe temporal distortion resulting from the interplay between self-phase modulation and higher-order dispersion in this regime. The measured intensity and phase of the pulses after propagation are found to be in good agreement with the predictions of numerical simulations with the nonlinear Schr?dinger equation.     

High-power femtosecond-pulse reshaping near the zero-dispersion wavelength of an optical fiber

Nonlinear propagation of high-power femtosecond pulses close to the zero-dispersion wavelength of a singlemode optical fiber is studied experimentally and numerically. The roles of four-photon mixing, stimulated Raman scattering, and self-steepening in this process are represented through different extensions of the nonlinear Schr?dinger equation.     

Low-power continuous-wave four-wave mixing in silicon coupled-resonator optical waveguides

We demonstrate four-wave mixing in silicon-on-insulator coupled-resonator optical waveguides consisting of 35 and 65 microring resonators, using a cw pump with coupled power below 20 mW and observed parametric conversion across more than 10 THz. The conversion efficiency is enhanced by +16 dB relative to a silicon straight waveguide of equivalent length, due to the slowing factor of the coupled-resonator structure.     

Reduced threshold of a stimulated four-wave mixing process in an optical fiber

The possibility for all-optical control of the effective parametric Stokes gain was demonstrated in an optical fiber. For the first time the threshold reduction induced by the interference of two different four-wave mixing processes which share a common Stokes wave was used as a control mechanism.     

Phase-matched four-wave mixing of guided and leaky modes in an optical fiber

Dispersion analysis of guided and leaky modes in an optical fiber shows that these two classes of modes can be coupled to each other through phase-matched four-wave mixing. This process can contribute to the generation of broad and flat supercontinua in highly nonlinear fibers, opening, at the same time, an additional channel of loss through radiation energy transfer from guided to leaky modes.     

Simultaneous measurements of non-linear coefficient, zero-dispersion wavelength and chromatic dispersion in dispersion-shifted fibers by four-wave mixing

We report on a new simple technique for the simultaneous measurement of non-linear coefficient, zero-dispersion wavelength, and chromatic dispersion in dispersion-shifted fibers based on partially degenerated four-wave mixing. Both zero-dispersion wavelength and chromatic dispersion of the dispersion-shifted fibers can be measured with high accuracy. The experiment results of two dispersion-shifted fibers will be presented and the technique for obtaining accurate chromatic dispersion and zero-dispersion wavelength will also be discussed.     

Terahertz-wave generation by surface-emitted four-wave mixing in optical fiber

We propose a novel terahertz-wave source through the four-wave mixing effect in a conventional single-mode optical fiber pumped by a dual-wavelength laser whose difference frequency lies in the terahertz range. Surface-emitted geometry is employed to decrease absorption loss. A detailed derivation of the terahertz-wave power expression is presented using the coupled-wave theory. This is a promising way for realizing a reasonable narrow-band terahertz-wave source.     

High speed optical path routing by using four-wave mixing and a wavelength router with fiber gratings and optical circulators

A novel all-optical-path-routing technique is described, which employs four-wave mixing in a dispersion-shifted fiber and a wavelength router with fiber gratings and optical circulators. The signal wavelength is converted to a specified channel by four-wave mixing, and is finally selected with the wavelength router. It offers good potential for enabling the number of output ports of a wavelength router to be extended as it provides a very sharp spectral edge and a low insertion loss.     

QPSK wavelength multicasting based on four-wave mixing in semiconductor optical amplifier

We experimentally demonstrate one-to-five quadrature phase-shift keying（QPSK） wavelength multicasting based on four-wave mixing in bulk semiconductor optical amplifier. The input 25 Gb/s nonreturn-to-zero QPSK signal is successfully multicast to five new wavelengths with all information preserved. All the multicast channels are with a power penalty less than 1.1 d B at a bit error rate（BER） of 10-3. A characterization of the conversion efficiency in terms of pump and signal powers using the BER as figure of merit is also presented, the results indicate that the pump and signal powers should be optimized to eliminate the introduced deleterious nonlinear components.     

Bandwidth scaling and spectral flatness enhancement of optical frequency combs from phase-modulated continuous-wave lasers using cascaded four-wave mixing

We introduce a new cascaded four-wave mixing technique that scales up the bandwidth of frequency combs generated by phase modulation of a continuous-wave (CW) laser while simultaneously enhancing the spectral flatness. As a result, we demonstrate a 10?GHz frequency comb with over 100?lines in a 10?dB bandwidth in which a record 75?lines are within a flatness of 1?dB. The cascaded four-wave mixing process increases the bandwidth of the initial comb generated by the modulation of a CW laser by a factor of five. The broadband comb has approximately quadratic spectral phase, which is compensated upon propagation in single-mode fiber, resulting in a 10?GHz train of 940?fs pulses.     

Field-trial evaluation of the Q-factor penalty introduced by fiber four-wave mixing wavelength converters

The performance of tunable all-optical wavelength converters based on four-wave mixing in optical fibers is experimentally tested in a field-trial network. Two converters were built with two different fibers. The first one was made with a small variation in the zero-dispersion wavelength (ZDW) dispersion shifted fiber and the second one with a highly nonlinear fiber that presents great ZDW variations. In order to compare the tuning ranges obtained in both cases we present an experimental spectral analysis. Numerical simulations that consider the influence of both the dispersion slope and the long-scale ZDW variations of the fiber complement the experiments. The tuning bandwidth was larger in the highly nonlinear fiber case. For a set of different optical signal-to-noise ratios, the measurements of the Q-factor of the signal and those of the converted wave are our main results. These results show that the penalty imposed by the converters is different for each converted wavelength. The maximum penalty obtained for the Q-factor was ∼6 dB, but it was ?3 dB for most cases. In all experiments we used a technique based on a dynamic polarization controller in order to avoid power fluctuations in the converted wave caused by polarization induced variations in the signal.     

Near-degenerate cascaded four-wave mixing in an optical parametric amplifier

Efficient generation of new spectral components owing to second-order cascading in a seeded broadband beta -barium borate typeI phase-matching parametric amplifier is demonstrated. One can vary the number and magnitude of these components by changing amplification bandwidth (wavelength) and phase-matching conditions. The phenomenon is treated theoretically by use of a formalism developed previously for the case of cascaded self-diffraction.     

Broadband wavelength converter based on four-wave mixing in a highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber

We demonstrate a 10 Gbit/s nonreturn-to-zero wavelength converter based on four-wave mixing in a 20 m highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber. The tunable wavelength conversion bandwidth (3 dB) is about 100 nm. The conversion efficiency is -16 dB when the pump power is 22.5 dBm. Phase modulation was not used to suppress the stimulated Brillouin scattering; thus the linewidth of the converted wavelength remained very narrow. The eye diagrams show that there is no additional noise during wavelength conversion. The measured power penalty at a 10(-9) bit-error-rate level is about 0.7 dB.     

Relative intensity noise induced by four-wave mixing in the case of two-wave transmission in an optical fiber

Four-wave mixing (FWM) is a significant nonlinear effect in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) fiber-optic systems. For two-wave transmission, it is easily found that the FWM noise power decreases with frequency spacing and increases with signal power. However, the variation of relative intensity noise (RIN) with frequency spacing and signal power is only 2 dB at most. The intensity fluctuations induced by the energy exchange between the FWM generated new waves and the original ones are trivial and the influence of FWM on RIN can be neglected. It is also found that the increase of RIN with signal power is mainly attributed to stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) rather than FWM.     

Degenerate four-wave mixing based all-optical wavelength conversion in a semiconductor optical amplifier and highly-nonlinear photonic crystal fiber parametric loop mirror

The idler is separated from the co-propagating pump in a degenerate four-wave mixing (DFWM) with a symmetrical parametric loop mirror (PALM), which is composed of two identical SOAs and a 70 m highly-nonlinear photonic crystal fiber (HN-PCF). The signal and pump are coupled into the symmetrical PALM from different ports, respectively. After the DFWM based wavelength conversion (WC) in the clockwise and anticlockwise, the idler exits from the signal port, while the pump outputs from its input port. Therefore, the pump is effectively suppressed in the idler channel without a high-speed tunable filter. Contrast to a traditional PALM, the DFWM based conversion efficiency is increased greatly, and the functions of the amplification and the WC are integrated in the smart SOA and HN-PCF PALM.     

Multi-component optical azimuthons of four-wave mixing

We report the multi-component optical azimuthons of four-wave mixing(FWM) composed of several modulated vortex beams, the so-called azimuthons, in V-type three-level and two-level atomic systems. We analyze the formation mechanisms of the FWM azimuthons theoretically and experimentally. In addition, we illustrate the interactions between the co-propagating azimuthon components. Finally, we also compare the stabilities of azimuthons in V-type three-level and two-level atomic systems.     

Performance analysis for an all-optical wavelength converter using four-wave mixing (FWM) in a single mode fiber

An analytical approach is presented to determine the performance of a tunable wavelength converter based on four wave mixing (FWM) in a single mode fiber (SMF) with two pump lasers. The analysis is carried out for an intensity modulated (IM) signal taking into considerations the effects of spectral broadening due to FWM and laser phase noise. The results evaluated at a bit rate of 10 Gb/s show that the signal power is substantially higher at lower values of wavelength separation. For example, for input powers of 10 mW each, wavelength separation of 4 nm between the pump-2 and the input signal, the output converted power is found to be –10 dBm corresponding to wavelength separation of 2 nm between pump-1 and converter signal. The corresponding crosstalk power is found to be –25 dBm at a channel separation of 3 times bit rate.     

320 Gbit/s wavelength conversion using four-wave mixing in quantum-dot semiconductor optical amplifiers

In this study, we demonstrate error-free all-optical wavelength conversion of ultrahigh-speed intensity modulated signals by means of four-wave mixing in a quantum-dot semiconductor optical amplifier. Error-free performance at a bit rate of 320 Gbit/s is measured for the extracted 40 Gbit/s tributaries with a 3.4 dB average power penalty to the original signal.