Heterodyne detection of wavelength-swept super-dense WDM signal employing spectrum shaping

A spectrum shaping technique is proposed for a previously proposed wavelength-swept wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) transmitter to allow it to be employed for heterodyne detection in the receiver side. With this technique, image rejection for all channels is performed on the transmitting side using a single optical periodic filter, therefore image-induced crosstalk can be suppressed. Furthermore, the selective heterodyne detection of a multi-channel 1.0 Gbit/s/ch super-dense WDM is demonstrated using a 12.5 GHz MZI filter as the spectrum shaping filter.