Interferometric noise suppression for WDM applications using a dispersion-imbalanced loop mirror

Summary form only given. One of the most important research topics in WDM or OTDM/WDM systems is the suppression of interferometric noise, which is induced by the beating between a main signal with an interfering signal with closely aligned wavelengths, generating a beat signal at a frequency within the detector bandwidth. The dispersion-imbalanced loop mirror (DILM) has shown promising results in optical switching applications. Recently, the suppression of interferometric noise at a single wavelength (1550 nm) has been demonstrated using the DILM. However, the application of the loop in WDM and OTDM/WDM systems, which operate over a wide wavelength range, is of particular interest. In the experiment, we demonstrate for the first time that the loop´s nonlinear switching effect can be used to suppress interferometric noise over a wavelength range of 28 nm.