Terahertz-wave Nyquist wavelength division multiplexing communication utilizing integrated-optic spectrum synthesizer

Abstract

We report on Nyquist wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) communication in the terahertz (THz)-band utilizing an integrated-optic spectrum synthesizer. The synthesizer is composed of two arrayed-waveguide gratings, and an array of phase shifters and variable optical attenuators, and it can individually control amplitude and phases of up to 64 optical discrete frequency components with 40 GHz spacing. Three optical frequency combs are produced by combining the synthesizer with a mode-locked laser diode. The produced combs are used to generate a THz-wave Nyquist WDM signal with photo-mixing. We demonstrate 2 x 40 Gbit/s Nyquist WDM communication in the 300 GHz band.