Frequency comb generation by four-wave mixing and the role of fiber dispersion

Author

Sefler, George A. ; Kitayama, Ken-ichi

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., California Univ., Berkeley, CA, USA

Volume

16

Issue

9

fYear

1998

fDate

9/1/1998 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1596

Lastpage

1605

Abstract

A fiber-optic frequency comb generator utilizes four-wave mixing (FWM) to expand a modulated continuous wave (CW) lightwave into a comb of discrete, equispaced frequencies. The sign and magnitude of the fiber dispersion are shown to control comb expansion by affecting the interference among different four-wave mixing interactions at particular comb frequencies. Positive dispersion initiates comb expansion while zero and negative dispersions suppress expansion. Dispersion mapping engineers fiber links for maximum comb bandwidths. By managing dispersion in a 35 km link of dispersion-shifted fiber, a frequency comb spanning 1.1 THz is experimentally demonstrated. Promising applications include pulse train synthesis affording low-chirp, arbitrarily profiled, short pulses

Keywords

chirp modulation; high-speed optical techniques; multiwave mixing; optical fibre communication; optical fibre dispersion; optical fibre theory; telecommunication network management; 35 km; comb expansion; discrete equispaced frequencies; dispersion mapping; dispersion-shifted fiber link; fiber dispersion; fiber-optic frequency comb generator; four-wave mixing; four-wave mixing interactions; frequency comb generation; low-chirp arbitrarily profiled short pulses; managing dispersion; maximum comb bandwidths; modulated CW lightwave; positive dispersion; pulse train synthesis; Bandwidth; Fiber nonlinear optics; Four-wave mixing; Frequency; Nonlinear optics; Optical feedback; Optical fiber dispersion; Optical fiber polarization; Optical mixing; Optical pulses;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/50.712242

Filename

712242