Bismuth Nonlinear Optical Fiber for Photonic Ultrawideband Radio-Signal Processing

The feasibility of using a bismuth-oxide-based nonlinear optical fiber (Bi-NLF) for the implementation of ultrawideband (UWB) radio-signal-processing schemes is experimentally investigated. The use of two different types of nonlinear signal processors for the generation of UWB pulses is demonstrated. One processor uses cross-phase modulation for monocycle pulse generation, whereas the other uses nonlinear polarization rotation for doublet pulse generation. It is experimentally shown that UWB monocycle and doublet pulses can be successfully generated using the Bi-NLF-based nonlinear signal processors. Moreover, the system performance for the generation of UWB pulses is evaluated by performing a transmission experiment over a 20-km-long nonzero dispersion-shifted fiber (NZ-DSF) link. Error-free and penalty-free UWB doublet signal transmission is achieved.