Coherent WDM transmission using quantum-dash mode-locked laser diodes as multi-wavelength source and local oscillator

Quantum-dash (QD) mode-locked laser diodes (MLLD) lend themselves as chip-scale frequency comb generators for highly scalable wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) links in future data-center, campus-area, or metropolitan networks. Driven by a simple DC current, the devices generate flat broadband frequency combs, containing tens of equidistant optical tones with line spacings of tens of GHz. Here we show that QD-MLLDs can not only be used as multi-wavelength light sources at a WDM transmitter, but also as multi-wavelength local oscillators (LO) for parallel coherent reception. In our experiments, we demonstrate transmission of an aggregate data rate of 4.1 Tbit/s (23x45 GBd PDM-QPSK) over 75 km standard single-mode fiber (SSMF). To the best of our knowledge, this represents the first demonstration of a coherent WDM link that relies on QD-MLLD both at the transmitter and the receiver

Silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) devices and their use in comb-based communication systems

Advanced wavelength-division multiplex-ing (WDM) requires both efficient multi-wavelength light sources to generate optical carriers and highly scalable photonic-electronic interfaces to encode data on these carriers. In this paper, we give an overview on our recent progress regarding silicon-organic hy-brid (SOH) integration and comb-based WDM transmission

Non-volatile microfluidics controlled switch fabricated in fused silica by femtosecond laser inscription

The spreading of fiber to the home technology, driven by the increasing amount of internet traffic over the past decade, requires development of optical power switches (OPSs) for efficient optical network management. Microfluidic Silicon photonics OPSs have recently been proposed as a new class of non-volatile, easily (remotely) reconfigurable switches that could increase the flexibility of a network and help reduce the maintenance costs. As the switching state is controlled by microfluidics, the OPS needs to be powered only at the moment when it needs to be reconfigured

Chip-Scale Frequency Comb Generators for High-Speed Communications and Optical Metrology

Chip-scale frequency comb sources are key elements for a variety of applications, comprising massively parallel optical communications and high-precision optical metrology. In this talk, we give an overview on our recent progress in the area of integrated optical comb generators and of the associated applications. Our experiments cover modulator-based comb sources, injection locking of gain-switched laser diodes, quantum-dash mode-locked lasers, as well as Kerr comb sources based on cavity solitons. We evaluate and compare the performance of these devices as optical sources for massively parallel wavelength division multiplexing at multi-terabit/s data rates, and we report on comb-based approaches for high-precision distance metrology

Multi-Terabit/s Transmission Using Chip-Scale Frequency Comb Sources

Chip-scale frequency comb sources are likely to become key elements of future terabit/s optical transceivers. We investigate and demonstrate the viability of different comb generation schemes for transmission at multiterabit/s data rates