Error-free OTDM demultiplexer using the supercontinuum spectrum-slicing induced clock signal

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate an 80-Gb/s optical time-division multiplexing (OTDM) demultiplexing system based on the cross-phase modulation (XPM) effect in high-nonlinearity fibers. The message carried by OTDM signal is loaded onto the probe signal by sampling the OTDM packet with a 10-GHz stable and controllable clock pulse train. The clock signal with ~ 11 ps pulse width is achieved by employing supercontinuum spectrum-slicing technique, which is distinct from that based on mode-locked lasers. The demultiplexed signal is obtained by filtering out the XPM-induced spectral sidebands of the probe signal. The OTDM demultiplexer based on this novel technique shows excellent performances and contributes to a bit error rate of as low as 10 −9.