Ultra-low jitter, multi-wavelength GHz pulse source with high optical frequency stability based on 200 nm supercontinuum filtering

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To realize large-capacity time-division-multiplexed (TDM: >100 Gbit/s), wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM: >10 channels) all-optical networks, multi-wavelength optical pulse sources with low timing jitter and high optical frequency stability are required. Multi­wavelength pulse generation by filtering supercontinuum (SC) is a promising technique because of its wide continuous spectrum range selectivity (~200 nm), and high optical frequency stability, which is merely determined by that of the passive WDM demultiplexing filter employed. Recently, we generated 200 nm SC for picosecond to femtosecond WDM pulse generation [1]-[2] and frequency conversion [3], and demonstrated the feasibility of SC pulses as optical sources by transmitting <2 ps SC pulses over 40 km [4]. In this paper, we present an ultra-low jitter (<0.3 ps), multi-wavelength channel (>200 channels altogether, 0.8 nm spacing) 6.3 Gbit/s pulse source with the high optical frequency stability of 1.3 GHz/°C by filtering low jitter 200 nm SC with a 16 x 16 arrayed-waveguide grating wavelength demultiplexer.