A study on the wavelength conversion and all-optical 3R regeneration using cross-absorption modulation in a bulk electroabsorption modulator

A 40-Gb/s 3R regenerator with a two-ring injection mode-locked fiber laser as the clock recovery and an electroabsorption modulator (EAM) as the reshaping optical decision gate is proposed and demonstrated. The cross-absorption modulation effect in a bulk EAM was also numerically modeled. Using this model, both the shape and the extinction ratio of the optical decision gate are optimized. The model is also employed to investigate the tolerance of the timing jitter, the chromatic dispersion, and the polarization mode dispersion of an all-optical 3R regenerator based on a bulk EAM decision gate. The operation margin of the 3R regenerator is presented. The theoretical results agree well with the experimental results