Hybrid RZ to CSRZ format conversion

A hybrid scheme for return-to-zero (RZ) to carrier-suppressed RZ (CSRZ) format conversion is proposed and experimentally demonstrated at 40 Gbit/s. A self-pulsing gain-coupled two-section distributed feedback (GC-TSDFB) laser was used for alloptical CSRZ clock pulse generation. A receiver with a low-bandwidth electrical amplifier was used for data recovery and data coding. The converted CSRZ signal had a root-mean-squared timing jitter of 0.6 ps and an extinction ratio of 15 dB.