Optical phase erasure and its application to format conversion through cascaded second-order processes in periodically poled lithium niobate.
We describe a new optical phase erasure characteristic of periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) by using cascaded second-harmonic generation and difference-frequency generation with the signal set at the quasi-phase-matching wavelength. A simple analytical expression is derived clearly explaining the operation principle. It is interesting that the optical phase erasure feature enables an all-optical format conversion from carrier-suppressed return to zero (CSRZ) to return to zero (RZ). We experimentally and theoretically demonstrate a PPLN-based 40 Gbits/s all-optical CSRZ-to-RZ format conversion. Moreover, tunable and multicasting CSRZ-to-RZ format conversions are also verified in the experiment.
Wang
Jian
J
Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, College of Optelectronic Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China.
Sun
Junqiang
J
Zhang
Xinliang
X
Huang
Dexiu
D
Fejer
M M
MM