All-optical format conversion from nonreturn-tozero ON-OFF keying to binary phase-shift keying is demonstrated in a semiconductor optical amplifier-based nonlinear polarization switch. This conversion is realized by cross-phase modulation effect for phase encoding and nonlinear polarization rotation effect for amplitude equalization. In the experiment, error-free operation at 10 Gb/s is achieved with a receiver sensitivity penalty of 1.3 dB after single-ended detection.

The noise in photonic true time delay systems based on broadband optical source and dispersion components is investigated. It is found that the beat noise induced by the optical source begins to dominate and grows far larger than other noise terms quickly, as long as the detected optical power is above some certain value P thr . When the system dispersion is nonzero, the output carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR) will change periodically with the optical bandwidth due to the noise power increment and the dispersion induced radio frequency signal power degradation. The maximum CNR is the peak value of the first period. For a set of specified system conditions, the P thr is calculated to be −21 dBm, and the optimal optical bandwidth is 0:8 nm, at which the maximum CNR is 93:3 dB by considering the noise in a 1 Hz bandwidth. The results are verified experimentally.

Using differential detection, we perform polarization-multiplexing 160-Gb/s optical non-return-to-zero (NRZ) differential quadrature phase shift keying (DQPSK) signal transmission over 100-km standard single mode fiber at a bit error rate (BER) of less than 10 −9. The enabling technology includes clock recovery, fine dispersion compensation, and polarization tracking for de-multiplexing. Furthermore, a hybrid clock recovery scheme is proposed. The scheme is realized with ordinary devices using an optoelectrical modulator to down-convert the clock frequency and a phase-locked loop for filtering, which can provide an indication signal that simultaneously monitors residual dispersion and tracking polarization.

Simultaneous noninverted and inverted dualwavelength conversion is proposed and demonstrated by using a cross-polarization modulation effect in a semiconductor optical amplifier ͑SOA͒. Experiments show that noninverted and inverted conversions lead to power penalties of 1.3 dB and 0.8 dB, respectively, at a bit rate of 10 Gb/ s. Based on this scheme, we have demonstrated, for the first time to our knowledge, an all-optical modulation format conversion from amplitude-shift keying ͑ASK͒ to frequency-shift keying ͑FSK͒. A frequency-shift keying signal with flexible tone spacing and high bit rate can be successfully generated by using this method.

We propose an all-optical wavelength conversion method that can preserve the polarization information of an original signal based on four-wave mixing in a semiconductor optical amplifier. Using this method, we experimentally demonstrate wavelength conversion for a 10-Gb/s polarization shift keying signal with 1.6-dB power penalty at a 10 −9 bit error rate. To our knowledge, it is the first experiment reported on all-optical wavelength conversion for a polarization shift keying format. The converted polarization shift keying signal is successfully transmitted over a 75-km standard single mode fiber with 1.8-dB transmission penalty.

Non-mode-selective (NMS) multiplexers (muxes) are highly desirable for coherent power combining to produce a high-power beam with a shaped profile (wavefront synthesis) from discrete, phase-locked emitters. We propose a design for a multi-plane light conversion (MPLC)-based NMS mux, which requires only a few phase masks for coherently combining hundreds of discrete input beams into an output beam consisting of hundreds of Hermite–Gaussian (HG) modes. The combination of HG modes as a base can further construct a beam with arbitrary wavefront. The low number of phase masks is attributed to the identical zero-crossing structure of the Hadamard-coded input arrays and of the output HG modes, enabling the practicality of such devices. An NMS mux supporting 256 HG modes is designed using only seven phase masks, and achieves an insertion loss of − 1.6    dB , mode-dependent loss of 4.7 dB, and average total mode crosstalk of − 4.4    dB . Additionally, this design, featuring equal power for...

A novel approach using two cascaded intensity modulators and one single dual-parallel modulator to generate an optical frequency comb (OFC) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. One broadband OFC with rectangular envelope can be achieved easily by adjusting the power of the microwave signals and the direct current bias applied to the modulators. The scheme is a relatively simple and low-power consumption solution for OFC generation, where specially tailored waveforms and high-power microwave signals are not used. In the experiment, 20 comb lines within 0.6 dB spectral power variation are obtained at 10 GHz microwave frequency. The experimental results agree well with the theoretical calculation.

A novel architecture of converged radio-over-fiber (RoF) and wavelength division multiplexed passive optical network (WDM-PON) system, namely RoF-WDM-PON, is demonstrated. 20-GHz 1-Gb/s radio frequency (RF) signals and 1-Gb/s baseband (BB) signals are simultaneously generated and transmitted using optical carrier suppression (OCS) modulation techniques. The proposed scheme is compatible with the conventional RoF and PON system. 25-km single-mode fiber (SMF) transmission is successfully achieved.

A method of multi-channel receiving for high bit rate heterodyne direct-detection optical orthogonal frequency-division-multiplexing (OOFDM) system is proposed to reduce the sampling rate demand of analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The sampling rate of ADCs can be reduced to 1/N that of the original signal bandwidth in an N-channel receiving system. Aided by a succeeding digital signal processing (DSP) at the receiver, aliasing free signal can be recovered. A back-to-back experimental result is given for a 4-channel system, based on which, a down conversion process for heterodyne can be reduced. The signal rebuilding algorithm is given and analyzed in its complexity and noise tolerance.

The relation between the phase shift and the mean optical power (MOP) output from a delay-line interferometer (DLI) port applied for phase-shift keying (PSK) signal demodulation is proven of a cosine law irrelevant to signal modulation condition. The variation amplitude of the MOP is proportional to the transition duration of the modulation pulses. This phenomenon is interpreted as the result of the statistical and waveform characteristics of the PSK. The conclusions verified by simulation and experiment are generalized to other modulation formats and then applied to phase detuning monitoring, delay time judgment of DLI, and independence of modulation data assessment.

The fibre-optic microwave photonic link has become one of the basic building blocks for microwave photonics. Increasing the optical power at the receiver is the best way to improve all link performance metrics including gain, noise figure and dynamic range. Even though lasers can produce and photodetectors can receive optical powers on the order of a Watt or more, the power-handling capability of optical fibres is orders-of-magnitude lower. In this paper, we propose and demonstrate the use of few-mode fibres to bridge this power-handling gap, exploiting their unique features of small acousto-optic effective area, large effective areas of optical modes, as well as orthogonality and walk-off among spatial modes. Using specially designed few-mode fibres, we demonstrate order-of-magnitude improvements in link performances for single-channel and multiplexed transmission. This work represents the first step in few-mode microwave photonics. The spatial degrees of freedom can also offer other functionalities such as large, tunable delays based on modal dispersion and wavelength-independent lossless signal combining, which are indispensable in microwave photonics.

We demonstrate a novel 40-Gb/s transmission system over a 10×101-km standard single mode fiber (SSMF) loop. This system features polarization multiplexed quadrature phase shift keying (PolMux-QPSK), lowvoltage modulation of 2-V peak-to-peak signal amplitude, and home-made 90 • optical hybrid with singleended digital coherent detection. Any power amplifers before the modulator and balanced detectors are not used. In the case of low-voltage modulation, coherent detection is much less sensitive to modulator bias offset than delay interferometer-based demodulation.

Despite the promise of an orders-of-magnitude increase in transmission capacity, practical implementation of mode-division multiplexing faces a number of challenges. The most important among them is the complexity of digital signal processing (DSP) for compensating mode crosstalk and modal dispersion. The most promising method proposed so far for reducing this DSP complexity is strong mode coupling. We propose and demonstrate, for the first time, a method of inducing strong mode coupling and reducing group delay spread using uniform long-period gratings (LPGs). Even though the LPGs have a fixed grating period, mode coupling is effective among all mode groups and over a broad wavelength range. Both insertion loss and mode-dependent loss can be significantly reduced by optimizing the index profile of and the number of modes supported by the fiber in which the LPG is applied.