Sub-picosecond chirped return-to-zero nonlinear optical pulse propagating in dense dispersion-managed fibre

Abstract

By numerical simulation, we show that the fourth-order dispersion (FOD) makes sub-picosecond optical pulse broaden as second-order dispersion (SOD), makes optical pulse oscillate simultaneously as third-order dispersion (TOD). Based on above two reasons, sub-picosecond optical pulse will be widely broaden and lead to emission of continuum radiation during propagation. Here, resemble to two- and third-order dispersion compensation, fourth-order dispersion compensation is also suggested in a dispersion-managed optical fiber link, which is realized by arranging two kinds of fiber with opposite dispersion sign in each compensation cell. For sake of avoiding excessively broadening, ultra short scale dispersion compensation cell is required in ultra high speed optical communication system. In a full dispersion compensation optical fiber system which path average dispersion is zero about SOD, TOD, and FOD, even suffering from affection of high order nonlinear like self-steep effect and self-frequency shift, 200 fs gauss optical pulse can stable propagate over 1000 km with an optimal initial chirp. When space between neighboring optical pulse is only 2 picoseconds corresponding to 500 Gbit/s transmitting capacity, eye diagram is very clarity after 1000 km. The results demonstrate that ultra short scale dispersion compensation including FOD is need and effective in ultra-high speed optical communication.