Abstract

A reconfigurable coupled-resonator optical waveguide made of a few directly coupled ring resonators is employed to control the delay of data streams modulated at tens of gigabits per second. A delay of 8 bit lengths (1 optical byte) with a small pulse broadening and $1\mathrm{dB}∕\text{bit}$ fractional loss is achieved by using only eight rings. The limiting role of waveguide loss and spurious backreflections is experimentally investigated. The high storage efficiency ($1\text{\hspace{0.17em} bit}$/ring) of the device enables an easy, reliable, hitless, and relatively low-power-consuming management of the delay. A higher storage efficiency is demonstrated to be associated to an unavoidable higher pulse distortion.

© 2008 Optical Society of America

Error-free continuously-tunable delay at 10 Gbit/s in a reconfigurable on-chip delay-line

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