Superposition of DQPSK over inverse-RZ for 3-bit/symbol modulation-demodulation

We successfully demonstrated overwriting of differential quadrature phase-shift keying (DQPSK) on inverse return-to-zero (RZ) pulses for simple 3-bit/symbol operation at a 10-Gb/s symbol rate (30-Gb/s bit rate). We adopted cross-gain modulation (XGM) in a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) for inverse-RZ generation, which allows both low and high levels of RZ optical signal to have a finite pulse energy in a bit time slot. We verified a wide tolerance of 20% of the bit-slot for time slot alignment between amplitude-shift keying and differential phase-shift keying modulation in the proposed scheme. We also demonstrated wide dynamic range characteristics at the extinction ratio for both 2- and 3-bit/symbol operation, compared to the conventional scheme. The proposed scheme allows a cross-modulation penalty, due to the intensity to phase modulation, of less than 1.5 dB in 2-bit/symbol and less than 5 dB in 3-bit/symbol operation.