Nyquist pulse shaping using arrayed waveguide grating routers.

Area of Science:

• Photonics
• Optical Communications
• Integrated Circuits

Background:

• Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) is crucial for high-capacity optical networks.
• Generating Nyquist pulses efficiently is key to maximizing spectral efficiency.
• Existing methods for Nyquist pulse generation can be complex and costly.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and simulate a novel Nyquist-WDM (N-WDM) superchannel transmitter.
• To demonstrate the generation of Nyquist pulses at multiple wavelengths using a single Arrayed Waveguide Grating Router (AWGR).
• To assess the performance and feasibility of this N-WDM transmitter for future optical communication systems.

Main Methods:

• Simulations were performed for a 3-channel, 960-Gbit/s Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) superchannel system.
• An Arrayed Waveguide Grating Router (AWGR) was utilized as the core component for Nyquist pulse generation.
• Inter-channel Interference (ICI) was analyzed with a 10% guard band, and performance penalties due to waveguide loss and phase errors were evaluated.

Main Results:

• A 10% guard band was found to sufficiently reduce inter-channel interference (ICI).
• The proposed N-WDM transmitter design introduced a penalty of less than 0.16-dB for a waveguide loss of 2 dB/cm.
• A penalty of 0.73-dB was observed with a standard deviation of phase error at 10°.

Conclusions:

• The novel AWGR-based N-WDM superchannel transmitter design is effective for generating Nyquist pulses.
• This chip-scale technology offers a compact and integrated solution for high-capacity optical transmitters.
• The approach shows promise for future advancements in photonic integrated circuits for telecommunications.