Ultra-High-Speed Optical Data Signals: 160-G PAP-CSRZ and 320-G CSRZ

Recently an all-optical method was proposed to obtain phase-coherent ultra-high-speed signals by using a fiber-based Kerr shutter. This approach is very attractive in performing phase modulation of the ultra-short pulses. We have demonstrated the generation of 320-Gb/s CSRZ signal, which is the highest data rate of a phase-coded signal reported so far. This scheme also enables us to study other new formats at ultra-high speeds beyond 40Gb/s. As one example, we investigated the nonlinear propagation features of a pair-wise alternating phase (PAP)-CSRZ format and compare it with conventional CSRZ signal at 160 Gb/s. In this talk we first discuss the operation principle of a fiber Kerr shutter, which primarily consists of a piece of highly nonlinear fiber (HNLF).