Simple Multi-channel Optical Equalizer Mitigating Intersymbol Interference for 40-Gb/s Non-return-to-zero Signals

We present a simple, silica waveguide optical equalizer that significantly mitigates intersymbol interference (ISI) impairments for many wavelength-division multiplexed channels simultaneously. We study the mitigation of ISI arising from band-limited transmitters, narrowband optical filtering, chromatic dispersion, and polarization-mode dispersion (PMD). We demonstrate significant multi-channel improvements at 40 Gb/s with a single, set-and-forget device.