All-optical TDM demultiplexing systems with significant timing jitter tolerance through incorporation of square pulse generating fiber Bragg gratings

Abstract

As OTDM data rates increase, and the pulses used get correspondingly shorter, the synchronization requirements placed on the locally generated pulses used to control the switch operation can become a limiting practical issue. The key to reducing time jitter tolerance in such devices is to establish a rectangular temporal switching window [1]. This reduces the absolute accuracy for temporal bit alignment and provides optimal resilience to timing jitter-induced errors.

In this paper we report the use of superstructured fiber Bragg gratings (SSFBGs) to convert the output of an actively mode-locked, 2.5ps fiber laser, a reliable source of short pulses of a well-defined soliton shape, to 20ps square pulses [2]. These pulses are then used to control the operation of two sorts of nonlinear switch. High quality, ~15-20ps rectangular switching windows are obtained, providing ±7ps, 15ps timing jitter tolerance, in switches based on both the Kerr effect in dispersion shifted fiber (nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM)), and on four-wave mixing in a semiconductor amplifier (SOA). This approach is particularly attractive for use with SOA based switching devices for which there is no ready way of shaping the switching window other than through direct control of the pulse shape.

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Identifiers

ORCID for P. Petropoulos: orcid.org/0000-0002-1576-8034

ORCID for D.J. Richardson: orcid.org/0000-0002-7751-1058

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