Applications of highly nonlinear dispersion tailored lead silicate fibres for high speed optical communications

Recent advances in optical fibre technology, most notably in the area of micro structured optical fibres (MOFs), offer a host of new opportunities within future high speed communication systems. Herein we review how our recent progress on the implementation of lead silicate fibre designs, allowing both flexible dispersion control and a high effective nonlinearity, can be integrated into various all-optical signal processing devices for high speed optical communication systems. Highly nonlinear lead silicate fibres have already proven to be well suited for achieving efficient four-wave mixing (FWM) due to their high effective nonlinear coefficient, low dispersion profile and short length.