Abstract

All-optical clock recovery is a key feature for future high speed optical networks. Different methods have being investigated, including self-pulsating laser diodes, optically modulated fiber lasers, fiber parametric oscillators, or Fabry-Perot cavities whose roundtrip propagation time corresponds to the incident bit period. The temporal Talbot effect has been studied as a means for lossless optical pulse repetition rate multiplication and is a process which occurs in a first order dispersive medium whose dispersion Φ (ps²) and the input pulse period T (ps) satisfy the condition on T²=2π\Φ\(m/s)where m and s are integers such that s/m is an irreducible rational number [1], Since the Talbot effect is based on the interference of dispersed pulses, it has an inherent ability to generate a periodic output, even for an intermittent or aperiodic input pulse train (in this case m=1). Recently, we demonstrated all-optical clock recovery for short pulse (low duty cycle RZ) communications using single-mode fiber as a dispersive medium [2], In this paper, we extend these results and demonstrate the use of compact, linearly chirped fiber Bragg gratings (LCFBGs) for recovering a periodic pulse train from a low duty cycle RZ PRBS, which results in a significantly more practical approach.

© 2007 IEEE