Linear optical sampling

Author

Dorrer, C. ; Kilper, D.C. ; Stuart, H.R. ; Raybon, G. ; Raymer, M.G.

Author_Institution

Lucent Technol. Bell Labs, Holmdel, NJ, USA

Volume

15

Issue

12

fYear

2003

Firstpage

1746

Lastpage

1748

Abstract

We demonstrate the measurement of waveforms and eye diagrams at high bit rates by optical sampling using coherent detection. By simultaneously recording two orthogonal quadratures of the interference between the data stream and a sampling pulse with two balanced detectors, we are able to cancel the phase sensitivity inherent to linear optics. As the device is based on linear optics and square-law low-speed photodetectors, its sensitivity is 1000 times better than nonlinear optical sampling techniques, which makes it attractive for optical signal characterization and monitoring. This new diagnostic tool was used to measure eye diagrams at 10, 40, and 80 Gb/s, and is projected to operate at 160 Gb/s and higher.

Keywords

homodyne detection; light coherence; optical fibre communication; optical signal detection; signal sampling; 10 Gbit/s; 160 Gbit/s; 40 Gbit/s; 60 Gbit/s; balanced detectors; coherent detection; data stream; eye diagrams; high bit rates; linear optical sampling; linear optics; orthogonal quadratures; sampling pulse; square-law low-speed photodetectors; waveforms; Bit rate; Interference; Nonlinear optical devices; Nonlinear optics; Optical devices; Optical pulses; Optical recording; Optical sensors; Phase detection; Sampling methods;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2003.819729

Filename

1253522