Spectral phase conjugation via temporal imaging

Onur Kuzucu,Alexander L Gaeta,Yoshitomo Okawachi,Reza Salem,Amy C Turner-Foster,Michal Lipson,Mark A Foster

doi:10.1364/oe.17.020605

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate wavelength-preserving spectral phase conjugation for compensating chromatic dispersion and self-phase modulation in optical fibers. Our implementation is based on a temporal imaging scheme that uses time lenses realized by broadband four-wave mixing in silicon waveguides. By constructing a temporal analog of a 4-f imaging system, we compensate for pulse distortions arising from second- and third-order dispersion and self-phase modulation in optical fibers.

Highlights

Practical limitations to high-speed communications in long-haul optical fibers arise from various linear and nonlinear distortions due to propagation through the medium
We note that the maximum group-velocity dispersion (GVD) and third-order dispersion (TOD) broadening that can be compensated by our system is determined by the time-lens aperture
We demonstrate a temporal imaging system based on broadband four-wave mixing (FWM) in silicon waveguides to implement midpoint spectral phase conjugation for dispersion and nonlinearity compensation in optical fibers

Summary

Introduction

Practical limitations to high-speed communications in long-haul optical fibers arise from various linear and nonlinear distortions due to propagation through the medium. SPC offers the potential to compensate for all orders of dispersion and some of the nonlinear effects in optical fibers such as self-phase modulation (SPM) and self steepening (SS), whereas TPC can compensate only for even-orders of dispersion, SPM, and intra-pulse Raman scattering (IRS) [4]. Among these nonlinear effects, SPM typically induces the shortest effective length for practical pulse and fiber parameters [4], which makes SPM compensation more critical than SS or IRS compensation. Dispersion compensation by SPC has been demonstrated with spectral and temporal holography [16,17,18,19], three-wave mixing in χ (2)

Methods

Results

Conclusion