Simple nonlinear interferometer-based all-optical thresholder and its applications for optical CDMA

We present an experimental demonstration of an ultrafast all-optical thresholder based on a nonlinear Sagnac interferometer. The proposed design is intended for operation at very small nonlinear phase shifts. Therefore, it requires an in-loop nonlinearity lower than for the classical nonlinear loop...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Optics express 2007-10, Vol.15 (20), p.13114-13122
Main Authors: Kravtsov, Konstantin, Prucnal, Paul R, Bubnov, Mikhail M
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:We present an experimental demonstration of an ultrafast all-optical thresholder based on a nonlinear Sagnac interferometer. The proposed design is intended for operation at very small nonlinear phase shifts. Therefore, it requires an in-loop nonlinearity lower than for the classical nonlinear loop mirror scheme. Only 15 meters of conventional (non-holey) silica-based fiber is used as a nonlinear element. The proposed thresholder is polarization insensitive and is good for multi-wavelength operation, meeting all the requirements for autocorrelation detection in various optical CDMA communication systems. The observed cubic transfer function is superior to the quadratic transfer function of second harmonic generation-based thresholders.
ISSN:1094-4087
1094-4087
DOI:10.1364/oe.15.013114