All-optical regenerative NRZ-OOK-to-RZ-BPSK format conversion using silicon waveguides

Area of Science:

• Photonics and Optical Communications
• Integrated Photonics
• Nonlinear Optics

Background:

• Signal distortion in optical communication systems is a significant challenge.
• Regenerative format conversion is crucial for maintaining signal integrity.
• Existing methods for signal conversion can be complex and costly.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and verify a novel integrated photonic device for signal format conversion.
• To convert distorted non-return-to-zero on-off-keying (NRZ-OOK) signals to high-quality return-to-zero binary-phase-shift-keying (RZ-BPSK) signals.
• To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed scheme through simulation.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing a silicon chip-based interferometer with a coupled ring resonator.
• Injecting an amplified NRZ-OOK signal and a locally generated return-to-zero (RZ) pulse train at a different wavelength.
• Leveraging linear and nonlinear effects in silicon waveguides for cross-modulation.

Main Results:

• Successful simulation of the conversion process at 10 Gbits/s.
• Demonstration of RZ pulse train transformation into a clean RZ-BPSK signal.
• Achieved high-quality regenerative format conversion from NRZ-OOK to RZ-BPSK.

Conclusions:

• The proposed integrated photonic device offers an effective solution for NRZ-OOK to RZ-BPSK signal conversion.
• The scheme shows promise for improving signal quality in optical communication systems.
• This technology can be beneficial for future high-speed optical networks.