Using an optical equalizer to transmit a 43-Gb/s signal with an 8-GHz bandwidth modulator

We demonstrate that a simple optical equalizer permits the generation of 42.7-Gb/s non-return-to-zero (NRZ) digital data from an 8-GHz-bandwidth LiNbO3 modulator. The sensitivity at 10sup-9 bit-error-ratio is only 1.2 dB poorer than using a 36-GHz-bandwidth modulator. Since the equalizer can act on all channels simultaneously and be used in a set-and-forget mode, we can potentially dramatically reduce the cost of 40-Gb/s transmitters.